Types of Blog Fraud

Readers looking for PC tips are requested to skip this post. Having found that That Damn PC has become a victim of blog fraud, it is my duty to alert the community.

Blogging is increasingly being seen as a sustainable model of income. Where money is involved in large sums, there is also fraud. Problogging is perhaps at too early a stage to discuss at length about blog fraud, but there is undoubtedly an upward trend in these cases.

A blog with too many advertisements, IMHO, is not a fraudulent blog. It is simply a bad idea, and sometimes not altogether bad either.

Here are three common types I have come across:

Fake Blogs: The Internet provides a mask for users, allowing them to lurk anonymously. This is true in the case of blogs as well, though less frequently. While bloggers using a fake name is not necessarily fraudulent, nor is it unlawful by default, there are instances where fake bloggers abuse their anonymity to defame or hurt or cheat organizations or people or readers.

Sell-out Blogs: Affiliate blogging means selling products through blogs, which is good because the sale often comes through a feature overview and a review, and the reader can make a decision based on that. But unlike salesmen who believe in the product they sell, sell-outs have a pride in selling even trash. Sell-out bloggers excessively do affiliate blogging, providing positive reviews to every product they come across.

Pseudo Blogs: While sell-out bloggers take pains in creating original content, however untrue that may be, pseudo bloggers have tons of content all of which is dutifully lifted from elsewhere. The shrewder psuedo blogs post content taken from other not-so-popular blogs so that readers don’t easily recognize the content. Some take a step further and make disclaimers that they mostly pump feeds from various blogs across the Internet. However, no acknowledgements nor links to the original source are ever made, unless by accident.

You can help curb blog fraud. When you suspect a blog as fraudulent, raise an alert in any open forum. The best remedy is to inform the original source if possible.