Phishing?

[randy_byers]

Okay, here's an e-mail I got yesterday that I don't really grok:

Hi,

We are interested in producing editorial content for your site.

We would be happy to pay an administration fee of $90 for your time spent reviewing and publishing our content referencing our client, one of the largest entertainment and gaming operators in the UK & worldwide. The content will be professionally written in line with your site’s tone and voice.

Payment can be made by PayPal.

I appreciate your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Carson Bland
Marketing Assistant

I assume the point of this is to get me to visit the URL they give in order to download malware on my computer or something. Very strange.

Comments

[drplokta]

They want you to publish on your website material (with links) that they write, in order to boost their Google rankings. The offer of payment is probably genuine.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've had requests to review films that the PR people thought were like films I had reviewed on my site, but being offered money for content I don't write myself is a new one on me. How much money is a higher Google ranking worth to these companies?

[drplokta]

A really good Google rank can be worth millions of dollars, for the right search terms.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

They are link farmers. They want you to host spam content on your site to boost the page rank of theirs.

http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/reporting-abuse/

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. Do you think it's worth forwarding this message to Google?

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

Not to you personally. But hammering spammers is kind of satisfying.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Its astroturfing - trying to make it look like there's genuine fan support for some entertainment product of theirs. As Mike says the money is prob genuine but do you really want to be involved? I have had similar offers (even more bizarre and less connected to my own content) for my law blawg.

EDIT : or even more likely, yeh, link farming. I wouldn't bother reporting - Google's algorithm catches up..

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

No, I would certainly never participate in something like this. Or at least it would take a lot more than ninety bucks!

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah -- i'd probably do several rather dodgy things for seven million dollars, but for ninety... no way. I wouldn't want my friends to think I'm that chintzy.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly!