More Link Scamming
Link Scam 2
Following on from my warning about link scammers three days ago, I received similar scam emails today, but from a different company, using a different scamming technique.
About Reciprocal Links
The emails in question use the subject line, “About Reciprocal Links” and the writer suggests that I have submitted a link request and they have reciprocated the link, but they can’t find where the link is on their site. They go on to ask that I send them the page URL once I have added their link to my site, or they will remove my link from their site.
The problem is, that I didn’t ask for a reciprocal link and they haven’t added my link to their link page. I’m sure that the majority of webmasters wouldn’t be caught out on this, but I personally received a total of 12 emails for two of my sites and each one was from a different website requesting a link. The company concerned would appear to have dozens of sites, so if you think that I received twelve emails from them, and they are using spam software to send the emails out to a list of say, 10,000 email addresses, they only have to fool 0.05% of webmasters into linking back, to pick up hundreds of free one-way links!
Always Check Link Offers Carefully
If someone makes a reciprocal or three way link offer to you, always ensure that they have linked to you from the site, prior to you placing a link on your resources pages. Don’t make exceptions. If a webmaster is genuine in wishing to link to you, they will be happy to link to your site first, prior to you adding your link to their site.
I know my articles in the past week or so have been having a go at the spammers and scammers, but they really get on my woobies! I’ll get of my soap box now and promise that the next time that I hit the blog, I won’t be moaning about the scum that give SEO a bad name.
Have a great weekend!
