Caution: I got an ad link in my fan mail, which was fake

1. 81

   Laura Schneiderposted 11 years ago

   Be careful, I just got the following ad in my fanmail. I almost approved the  fanmail, too, until I checked the URL and found it led to a commerce site. I suspect I'm not the only one in HubPages to receive such fanmail, either, so be vigilant. Here's exactly what it said:
   
   _____________________________________________________________________
   Easymedianetworkk
   
   Hi friend, Excited to make friendship with you and want to share something special with you - http://tinyurl.com/7ms4vqg
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
   The use of "tinyurl" made me a little suspicious, so I followed it before approving the fan mail. Sure enough, it was fake fan mail: the URL leads to a company website selling search engine optimization and related services.
   
   Moderators NOTE: This company went so far as to create a legit site on HubPages for itself: http://easymedianetworkk.hubpages.com/
   
   So far, it has written 8 Hub Pages and has followers and everything--except it's a company pushing it's own products. :-(

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   1. 70

      galleryofgraceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The articles I read  from Easymedianetwork were very well written and were not spam. They made the mistake of sending you an email you did not want.
      Almost all hubbers provide details on their business and interests in their bio at the top of the page.
      From this you should learn not to accept fan mail from this hubber in the future.
      Some may interpret the fan mail as spam but it;s up to you to accept or not.
      There's nothing suspicious about a shortened url. I use them all the time for my books  and affiliate links etc. If you just hold the mouse on the url you can see where it's going to go and  if you don't like it -don't click it.
      Just my 2 cents worth. lol

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2. 90

   mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years ago

   Best you 'break' the links you have posted here as otherwise you have just given them a valuable backlink twice. I never approve any fan mail that includes deliberate links, that kind of fan mail simply isn't genuine and is therefore meaningless.

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   1. 81

      Laura Schneiderposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Omigosh, you're right about breaking the links! Thanks!

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3. 70

   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   I would flag that person. He is using spam in HP email and staff needs to check  him out.

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   1. 81

      Laura Schneiderposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My thoughts exactly, but I wanted to get a reality check (thank you) before I flagged someone (or in this case, some company) needlessly.

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