Spammers have found a new way to promote their wares - via DMCA requests sent to Google.
In response to rights-holder demands, Google now processes some 23 DMCA take-down requests per second, most of which are done via an automated process. As part of the system, Google also publishes all complaints on the Chilling Effects website, with removed search results linking to the relevant complaint.
With a guaranteed web page being generated for each complaint on Chilling Effect (complete with URL links to the original, authorized content) and also a link on Google's search engine, spammers have apparently found a new way to promote their stuff - from appendage enlargement pills to counterfeit products.
A search on Chilling Effect shows thousands of such bogus complaints, often requesting the removal of a random website or Blogger page, and then filling the "original URL" section with links that the spammer wants to promote.
It's the spammer equivalent of "no such thing as bad publicity"!
While Google most likely does not process these requests and simply ignore them, the spammers may be hoping that users unaware of what these bogus complaints are may end up clicking through on the links. Or more likely, someone has managed to write a script to auto-fill the DMCA submission form and are selling it to spammers as a way to quickly generate links to their spam sites.
Useless links that will go un-visited, but links nonetheless!
Home
