How can they do this?

I'm stumped.

I'd post an image of this, but since I don't have 15 posts I can't post a URL so I'll just describe it. If you go to wwwdotbrinkeddotcom, there's a banner ad at the very top along with two 300x250px box ads on the right. In the ad rotation are image ads that say something to the extent of 'I lost 25lbs of stomach fat by obeying this 1 rule'.

Here's one of the sites you're taken to when you click on these ads:

h**p://monicasdietblogdotcom

The site is made to look like a personal blog from an actual person named 'Monica Conrad'. It's a brilliant idea and very convincing, complete with before and after pictures, a fake journal where she seems to be dropping pounds like magic, Oprah and Dr. Oz on the right, and a comment section with users saying things like 'This is amazing! I wish I knew about this 5 years ago.' and 'hey this is a pretty cool story and its worth a try i ordered both and i should be getting them in 5-7 days ill let u know how it works ...'.

But wait a second, what's this?

h**p://jennysdietblogdotcom

Apparently, 'Monica' has a twin sister named 'Jenny' who also has her own diet blog with the exact same pictures and content.

But it doesn't stop for Acai Berry and Colon Cleanse; I'm sure plenty of you have seen 'Cheddas bling blog' (wwwdotcheddasblingblogdotcom), which I've seen about 4 variations of including a mechanic and a single mom explaining how they got a free grant from the government to start a $5,000 a month business on Google.

How can people do this? I'm sure this is making a ton of money for the affiliate, but anyone who has been involved in internet marketing for a little while could easily spot these sites as fake. Isn't something like this considered HIGHLY ILLEGAL!?

that is a nice little setup the person has going...

with good promotion i'm sure he/she is pulling in some good loot.

anyone know the legality of just ripping this page and creating your own site that is a mirror of this one (except the affiliate links of course)

nam6641 said:

that is a nice little setup the person has going...

with good promotion i'm sure he/she is pulling in some good loot.

anyone know the legality of just ripping this page and creating your own site that is a mirror of this one (except the affiliate links of course)

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Who's gonna sue you? The guy who created it is deliberately using false information to drive a sale not to mention deceptive advertising and probably a lot more that we don't know about. He's not gonna draw attention to himself.

The worse you risk is a cease-and-desist letter, which is usually what designers send people who rip off their websites.

Why would it be considered "highly illegal"?

AMs themselves promote this kind of advertisement, landing page / blog reviews and such.

The thing I would be most worried about is not this guy coming after you, but the authorities.

These type of sites are all over the place. I see ads on YouTube, imeem, and other high profile sites. Don't you think the government would be investigating this type of thing?

Not only are they faking personal blogs for these weight loss products and posting fake comments, but on that cheddas bling blog for instance they're posting fake pictures of income. Compare these two sites:

wwwdotcheddasblingblogdotcom

wwwdotbradsmoneydotcom

r00t said:

Why would it be considered "highly illegal"?

AMs themselves promote this kind of advertisement, landing page / blog reviews and such.

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The blogs are obviously fake but they're being portrayed as real content by real people. It's tolerated, but still illegal. Whoever created them wouldn't go to court saying "the defendant ripped off my illegal site".

I have yet to find an AM who officially encourages fake reviews.

That's why I don't think you have to worry about the guy who made them coming after you through the legal system.

beeker, have you considered the idea that perhaps you're not cut out to be a blackhat?

Never said I wanted to make a site like this, I'm wondering what happens to someone when they do this.

beeker said:

I'm sure this is making a ton of money for the affiliate, but anyone who has been involved in internet marketing for a little while could easily spot these sites as fake.

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Which is why they are marketing to "regular" people...not Internet Marketers.

beeker said:

Never said I wanted to make a site like this, I'm wondering what happens to someone when they do this.

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They make money

beeker said:

Never said I wanted to make a site like this, I'm wondering what happens to someone when they do this.

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Seriously? Little or nothing in the way of bad things. Like 55 said, they make money. YAY!

These type sites are generally short-lived and aren't designed to necessarily rank well in the SEs. They are landing pages that have traffic driven to them through means other than from organic SE results. Even if they do happen to rank in the SERPs, what's the big deal? Are you scared of the SEs and their TOS?

I have to agree with the previous posters who say the site owners aren't coming after you, your AM isn't going to be too upset, the advertisers will be OK with it, as long as you're driving good traffic that converts and, the government has much better things to do than look for people who may or may not be violating some copyright law that was violated by the person whose site was copied.

Are authorities going after those TAROT practicer gypsies ? They sell dreams too, c'mon you cannot be serious, are you ?

thomas said:

Are authorities going after those TAROT practicer gypsies ? They sell dreams too, c'mon you cannot be serious, are you ?

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Sure they're going after them, damn lot are all a bunch of hustlers. Don't think they'll be busted for intellectual property theft though .

They might not care if its just a smallish operation as long as you weren't directly interfering with their business, e.g. flagging their ads or posting on their territory. They are probably more concerned about getting as much spam out, no? If they think you're interfering they could attack you without legal methods like ddos you. And id think the government has higher priorities than misleading diet product businesses drug dealers, child exploitation and trafficking, credit card phishing, terrorism.

Be careful. They do hit hard. Deceptive advertising is risky business.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/01/weightloss.shtm
notice how in many of the press releases it says The Marketers were fined.

The Xenadrine product had an extremely high rate of exposure and publicity though. On TV and everywhere. Their advertising probably reached 97% of Americans. A single man operation would likely stay under the government radar?

wow, that's one of the better fake diet blogs I've come across.. looks a little too slick I think, for an amateur.. Not quite the right format for a blog though.. took me a few seconds to notice, people not used to blogs might not catch on at all.

springer98 said:

Seriously? Little or nothing in the way of bad things. Like 55 said, they make money. YAY!

These type sites are generally short-lived and aren't designed to necessarily rank well in the SEs. They are landing pages that have traffic driven to them through means other than from organic SE results. Even if they do happen to rank in the SERPs, what's the big deal? Are you scared of the SEs and their TOS?

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Who said anything about ranking organically in the search engines? Of course someone like this isn't going to waste months on end just trying to get a site to rank, let alone for highly competitive keywords like 'weight loss', which could take a year plus.

springer98 said:

I have to agree with the previous posters who say the site owners aren't coming after you, your AM isn't going to be too upset, the advertisers will be OK with it, as long as you're driving good traffic that converts and, the government has much better things to do than look for people who may or may not be violating some copyright law that was violated by the person whose site was copied.

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Forgive me, but as far as I understand, the government has special departments, i.e. the FTC, who spend their time going after people like this. While there are people going after the 'drug dealers, child exploitation and trafficking, credit card phishing, terrorism', that's a completely separate department from the FTC.

You've asked questions and gotten answers, yet you still want to debate? It seems as though your mind is made up and you're just looking for an argument.

As I said previously, perhaps you're just not cut out to be a blackhat.

Fkers do the same thing on my damn tele, usually 1-3 am. So you shouldn't be toooo worried.

Sanitarium said:

Fkers do the same thing on my damn tele, usually 1-3 am. So you shouldn't be toooo worried.

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I second that, there's plenty of those commercials over TV which are run by the same principle.

Also there's a lot of " call now and find out your future " things over TV. I guess it all depends on which countries you're living etc.