The se's need to ban these types

[ihelpyou]

http://www.pinonsale.com/

http://www.pinonsale-webdirectory.com/

http://www.pinonsale-webdirectory.com/banner_listing_directory.html

Note they make it look like Google is in their banner link directory (as a paid advertiser) and what's with the bright green text that says "Google Link Directory" ... ???

They also own these two little gems:
http://www.onestop-directory.com/
http://www.prepaidtelecomhq.com/

Why are these types of SPAM websites allowed to exist to hurt ALL other websites who are not knowledgeable to know better? Why can't the se's take a stand and get rid of the crap?

Totally amazing. Not only are these crap, but they claim you get listed for "free"..... erm, but only if you link back to them. :green: Quite a contradiction isn't it? LOL It's free, but it's not really free. lol

And they are too stupid to realize that reciprocal link directories are a thing of the past...... a past we will never see again.

[JohnC]

They are also using the "Verisign Secured" Logo with no link to the validation page. Probably a fake validation. That is even worse in my opinion.

[WebSavvy]

Good spot on that one, John. I didn't even catch that.

[Connie]

I agree Doug. Hopefully the SEs will get better at spotting this kind of crap.

[Hbird64]

Looks a lot like:

http://www.phonecardtotal.com/
http://www.callingcards1000.com/
http://www.prepaidcatalog.com/
http://www.phonecardmania.com/
http://www.tigerphonecard.com/

All affiliates of http://e.usprepaid.com/

If you want I can find more :D

Hugo

[WebSavvy]

If you pull at the loose strands long enough and the entire farm will unravel like a cheap rug.

[Comeran]

You would think that Google and other large SE's would have a team that just removes spam like this from the listings.

You see sites like this all the time and they keep doing it because they get away with it for so long that they make money.

I would bet that if they got shut down in the first month of business then the profit margin would be so low it wouldn't be worth the work and they would just quit.

Sad to see people like this getting so many peoples hard earned money, and so many un-educated webmasters being scammed each day.

On the other hand if you started a business online or in shop you should do your homework and learn without trying to pay scammers to get you quick and cheap results.

Comeran-

[Blue]

Google could easily put together a program that teaches webmasters the right way to do things, take the money from it an support the "spam patrol team" while making a tidy profit.

Webmasters that are new and might end up spending money on spammers could be gaining the benefit of whitehat methods, whilst helping to support an anti-spam program.

[ihelpyou]

The Google blogs are starting to do that,.. teach website owners. The biggest issue with that is that they can't possibly teach everyone what might be spam and what is not spam as that would tip the true spammers who don't want to learn best practices. Matt Cutt's blog is already teaching people who want to learn, but I doubt it could ever be enough as the spammers out there still get clients who don't know any better. I actually think the easier thing to do is to get rid of the spammers. In other words, cut the head off the snake. :)

[Comeran]

The problem is that some spammers get results.

Also spammers have almost no morals. I had a person call me so pissed that I didn't know how to deal with them. We are a small firm of only 4 people so I know EVERY project and they were mad about their sites SEO problems that we didn't do.

It turned out that a spammer had used 2 sites that WE did for examples of SEO work that THEY had done. After paying $4500 for 2 of their sites the company made 20 gateway pages for each site and then had the cell number that they had disconnected with no other way to reach them!!! They went to my 2 sites and got our names from the bottom of the sites and called us.

I felt so bad for the people I spent 3 hours on the phone helping them and telling them what they needed, but didn't have anything else that I could do for them. I told them they should just call the police and tell them everything, and give them the phone number that they had since it was fraud. I never heard anything about it after that.

Spammers hurt everyone, and a link to Matt's blog or Googles policies when people look up rankings, seo, etc. It would help a lot of these innocent people.

Comeran-

[WebSavvy]

The FBI also has an Online Fraud Dept. now too. If anyone's been ripped off by a hosting company, an SEO, Web Designer, Programmer, etc., all they have to do is file a complaint with the Cyber Crimes Unit and the FBI will investigate it.

[Comeran]

That is interesting!

I need to look into that.

It is upsetting that someone out there is using MY sites results as examples to people to rip them off.

Comeran-