Broken link suggestion spam, a new twist on link exchange spam

Posted on 2010-01-15 by Joe Wein

Since Google ranks sites primarily by how many other pages and sites link to them, unethical people have been trying to boost their site rankings by tricking others into creating links to them.

Link exchange spam, i.e. unsolicited offers to reciprocally create links to each other’s sites, has been around for many years. Recently I came across a new twist, broken link suggestion spam. You’ll receive a personal looking email like the following that tells you about a broken link on a page on one of your sites, with a suggestion for a replacement link target (boldface added by me):

Hi Joe!
Sorry to bother you, my name is Kate Austen, I’m a teaching assistant for a sociology class. I’ve been doing some research online for an upcoming lesson on the urban legends, myths, and hoaxes, and your page was very helpful. Thanks so much!

I noticed that on your page (http://www.joewein.de/hoax.htm) you have a broken link http://www.urbanlegends.com/index.html (an old page about urban legends)… May I offer a thought on a possible replacement? http://www.costumesupercenter.com/csc_inc/html/static/btarticles/urbanlegendsandmyths.html It has some great information about several urban legends and myths. I found it to be a great resource during my research, and it would be a great fix to your broken link. I’ve added it to my bookmarks, along with your site 🙂

Just thought I’d let you know 🙂

Take Care,
Kate
kate@professor-research.org

I plugged some phrases from the above email into Google and it found the following similar email (boldface also added by me, please compare the two):

Crystal Sawyer
crystal@studentresearchers.org

Hi!
Sorry to bother you, my name is Crystal Sawyer, I’m an education major from upstate New York. I’ve been doing some research online for a class project and your pages were very helpful. Thanks so much 🙂

I noticed that on your page (http://www.apfn.org/apfn/mmm.htm) you have a broken link http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/decmain.html (an old page about science projects)… May I offer a thought on a possible replacement? http://legalmetro.com/library/historic-us-documents-the-charters-of-freedom.html It has some great information about teaching children how to do experimental science projects. I found it to be a great resource during my research, and it would be a great fix to your broken link. I’ve added it to my bookmarks, along with your site 🙂

Just thought I’d let you know 🙂

Take Care,
Crystal
crystal@studentresearchers.org

The number of identical phrases is far to high to be a coincidence. Looking at the sender domains professor-research.org and studentresearchers.org, the registrant on both is hidden behind the anonymization service domainsbyproxy.com.

I would say chances are good that both “Kate” and “Crystal” are the same person and that this person works for a company offering paid search engine optimization (SEO) services to boost their customers’ website rankings. They add some editorial contents to the customer website and then deceptively ask owners of sites with a high Page rank (PR) to replace broken links with links to these new pages by posing as students and researchers with no obvious commercial interest in the link target site.

30 thoughts on “Broken link suggestion spam, a new twist on link exchange spam”

John on 2010-01-16 at 03:19 said:

You can add “Abby Reed” to your list. I just got the same email informing me of a broken link and suggesting a link to some fake diploma site as a replacement.
Randall on 2010-01-19 at 07:49 said:

Another one: ‘Meagan Brown’ ( meagan@professor-research.org ).

This person suggested a replacement link for a website section that hasn’t existed in months. This suggests they’re working from search engines or archived webpages, and not from actual sites.
Randall J. Scalise on 2010-01-19 at 08:43 said:

Just got one from

Dr. Beth Noble
beth@professor-research.org
John Langhorn on 2010-01-28 at 04:40 said:

I was trying to visit this site today studentresearch.org but their webiste is not there, gone with fordinng access on the root index page.

So i did a Yahoo seach! NOT a G*oo*le search
and found your post.

F**k G*oo*le they are probably the ones who send this SPAM.

I got this in my email box just hours ago.
————————————————–
Broken Link‏
From: gloria@studentresearchers.org
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: January 27, 2010 2:47:37 PM
To: list@nudistlinklist.com

Hello, I just wanted to let you know that on this page: http://www.nudistlinklist.com/world.html you have a link to: http://www.armage.demon.co.uk/nuff/ (Naturism in the UK) which seems to now be gone. I’m currently working on a paper on Nudists and the Naturist lifestyle and I found this page had a lot of helpful incite: http://www.datehookup.com/content-nudists-and-naturists.htm … As I was browsing the thought occurred to me that you may also find it a helpful addition. Your other resources have proven quite useful to me as well, thank you for putting them together. Cheers, Gloria Mitchell
————————————-

Makes you wonder.

They never asked for a link exchange here?

Odd never the less.
Joe Wein on 2010-01-28 at 08:56 said:

Hello John,

they did ask for you to link to their (presumed) customer’s site, they just didn’t promise you a link in return, so yes, technically it’s not a link exchange spam.

Not sure why you’re so emotional about Yahoo vs. Google. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion I guess 😉 I use Google because it works well. Way back, I used to use Altavista for all my searches, but switched to Google when that came along and yielded better results.

I don’t hate Yahoo and still do use some of their services. I’ve used their email offering much more than their searches. I probably would be using their services more if they hadn’t crippled their free email by disabling POP access, unlike Gmail which still offers it.
John on 2010-01-28 at 12:40 said:

Hey Joe

I too was an altavista user till G* came along. It also was for the relevance of the search.

Today however, not the case. Yahoo is yielding far more effective returns for a search rather than G*.

Emotional! Perhaps.

Time that someone else in the world of searches steps up to the plate. Why? because lets face it, G* or whoever you use is priming the first page with at least 60% or better of paid advertising or linking to something they are making a buck off.

They are enough monopolies in this business already, why succumb to another.

Good luck to all in your search

Be Happy, be nude.
interesting, Y 4 u, G* 4 me on 2010-03-03 at 17:52 said:

‘Y! is yielding far more effective returns for a search rather than G*’
hmm, i kbnow sombody who often has yahoo selected a ff searchplugin. i may need to find info, so i’ll search, but the yahoo results are unspectacular, i’ll then pulldown to switch searchplugin to google, and “bingo” a few god resultsamong the 1dt 10.
leading to hypothesis: we search for diffferent class of info. and/or we have adapted our searchphrases to our favored search provider.
interesting, Y 4 u, G* 4 me on 2010-03-03 at 17:55 said:

i hoped to find exact seo-crap clones by searching the seo-spam’s spellcheck-error excerpt: “page had a lot of helpful incite”,

but this comment page is the only find (yeah, by google search)
hmmm
David on 2010-10-06 at 02:08 said:

Had many go to http://www.youdate.net.
Bojan on 2012-06-15 at 03:40 said:

Here is another one:

Madeline Johnson
SlipAndFallLawyers.org
bing on 2014-01-19 at 05:39 said:

Here is another one
lindsey@outbanding.com
James on 2015-06-21 at 15:11 said:

I got one of these on a WP blog / Inbox I manage. It’s weird though because it’s actually helpful in that the links are actually broken, but the link they suggest of course isn’t relevant to our site. It’s written to a template, and I don’t believe they’re telling the truth, but still it’s not totally a robot. I feel bad trashing it as spam, although I don’t want to reply in case it does subscribe us to more junk mail.

Interesting strategy for spammers to give something back…
Veronica on 2015-11-24 at 01:03 said:

The email we just received isn’t near as intricate, but I believe it’s the same thing. From Alexa Carmichael (alexa.carmichael@edu-email.org):

Hi!
I came across a few links on your website that seem to be broken. I wrote them down, could you tell me who I should forward them to?
Thanks! 🙂
—
Alexa
Antrhony on 2015-12-01 at 14:52 said:

Received same message as Veronica from “Erica Winters” (erica.winters@edu-email.org)
Fuquin on 2015-12-02 at 13:55 said:

I just got one today from Sharon Campbell ….

“Hi!
I came across a few links on your website that seem to be broken. I wrote them down, could you tell me who I should forward them to?
Thanks! 🙂
Sharon”

I thought it was odd because I have a broken link checker plugin on my WP blog!
Alberto on 2015-12-08 at 23:03 said:

Thanks all for the reports!

I got the one from “Erica Winters” a few days ago, and today a “follow-up” email without having replied to the first. Those seo-spammers seem quite dedicated!

——————————-
Hi!

I just wanted to follow up on my last email. Who should I talk to about some broken links I found on the site?
Thanks 🙂

On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 6:26 PM, Erica Winters wrote:

Hi!

I came across a few links on your website that seem to be broken. I wrote them down, could you tell me who I should forward them to?

Thanks! 🙂
—
Erica
—
Erica
——————————-
superkuh on 2016-01-06 at 00:34 said:

Thanks for the informative post. I too received odd looking emails reporting “Malfunctioning links on your site?” They followed the basic template laid out here but with the email amber.marshall@edu-email.org
Rachel on 2016-01-20 at 03:52 said:

Got this one today:

Hi!

I just wanted to follow up on my last email. Who should I talk to about some broken links I found on the site?

Thanks 🙂

Jennifer

On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 9:07 PM, Jennifer Chase wrote:
Hi!

I was on your website earlier today, and I found some links that seem to be broken… can you tell me who I should send them to?

Thanks 🙂

Jennifer
Andy Lang on 2016-03-11 at 02:59 said:

“Amber” is still at it as of March 9. Googled the email address and found this page. The vague language “your page … your web page” made me suspicious.

Andy

> From: Amber Marshall
> Date: March 10, 2016 at 12:07:59 PM EST
> To: ***
> Subject: Your page doesn’t seem to work properly.
>
> Hi,
>
> I was recently looking for something on your web page and I noticed that some links I wanted to access were broken.
> I thought it would be nice to inform you about it. I saved those links so I could maybe send them to you.
> Who would be the right person to pass them on?
>
> Thank you and have a great day!
>
> Amber
Lisa Lee on 2016-04-12 at 18:12 said:

We just got one, too:

Hi,

I was wondering if you have received my previous message as I didn’t
get any response from you. As I said in my previous email, I wanted to
inform you about the links on your website that weren’t working. I
still keep them on my computer, so just let me know who I should
contact to send them over.

Thanks a lot!

from amber.marshall@edu-email.org
jules on 2016-10-14 at 20:59 said:

Got one from kelly.oneal@edu-collaboration.org
Fred Fnith on 2016-11-12 at 05:22 said:

Add another one to the list:

Victoria Jones – vjones@quitsmokingcentral.org
LBSH1980 on 2017-01-09 at 22:20 said:

And another…

Betsy Richmond

Hi,

I got 404 errors from some of the links that you have on your site, and I wanted to let you know so that you can fix them. Are you the person who manages the links, or should I email someone else?

Thanks,
Betsy
Susan Blum on 2017-01-19 at 23:57 said:

I got them from “Betsy Richmond” too:

Good morning,

I didn’t hear back from you when I was looking for the appropriate person managing your site to help fix those non-working resources.

Do you happen to know who that might be?

Thanks.

Earlier message:

Hi,

I got 404 errors from some of the links that you have on your site, and I wanted to let you know so that you can fix them. Are you the person who manages the links, or should I email someone else?

Thanks,
Thomas Padron-McCarthy on 2017-01-30 at 18:05 said:

Ah, so that’s what it’s about. I wondered.

I have a standard reply:

> Thanks for the report. I am impressed by your diligence in surfing
> the web to find and report broken links, for example in web pages
> for old and obsolete university courses. I would never have expected
> such unselfishness, and I have put your valuable suggestion as an
> item on the appropriate TODO list.
Sigrid Lueber on 2017-02-07 at 21:14 said:

You can add Jennifer Moyer to the list. She sent me two emails about broken links:

Good morning!
I just wanted to follow-up on my previous message regarding the broken links I found on your site.
I still have a list of those links. Would you like me to send it to you? Or maybe you could direct me to the person responsible for the website?
Thank you for your help!

On Tue, Jan 17, 2017 at 10:20 PM, Jennifer Moyer wrote:
Good morning,
Are you the person who maintains the resource page? I was examining
your website and clicked on some resource links that didn’t work.
Let me know who I should send these to.
Thanks,
Jennifer
Donna Jane Weinson on 2017-02-10 at 03:28 said:

And here’s Jennifer Drake! She wrote me twice b/c I didn’t respond. Testy!

——— Original Message ———
Subject: Re: Problems With Your Website
From: “Jennifer Drake”
Date: 2/9/17 5:06 am
To: donna@xxxxxx

Good morning,

Hope you’re doing great.
I’d like to follow up on my previous e-mail since I still have a list of broken links from your website saved on my laptop.
Are you the correct person to send this list to? Or would it be possible for you to direct me to the person responsible for your website?

Thank you!

On Sat, Feb 4, 2017 at 12:04 AM, Jennifer Drake wrote:
Good morning Donna,

I was looking through some resources you provided on your informative page. It is strange that I found some non-functioning links that were returning 404 errors.
Should I send the list of them to you or is there another person taking care of the website’s content?

Keep up the good job.
Have a wonderful weekend!

—
Jennifer

—
Jennifer
Mark C on 2017-02-10 at 09:38 said:

Another Name to add to the list:

lynda.thomas@student-email.org

Good morning,

Hope you’re doing great.
I’d like to follow up on my previous e-mail since I still have a list
of broken links from your website saved on my laptop.
Are you the correct person to send it to? Or would it be possible for
you to direct me to the person responsible for your website?

Thank you!
Kate C. on 2017-02-20 at 23:07 said:

Count another attempt from Lynda Thomas:

Original Question
Feb 14, 2017 via Email

Some Resources Seem To Be Broken
Hey,

I’m on your website now, I found it educational. Oddly, some links seem to be broken. Do you want me to send you their URLs?
Or maybe you know who would be the person to address this issue to? In any case, you are doing good work.

Have a great day!

—
Lynda

Questioner Information:

Name: Lynda Thomas
Contact: lynda.thomas@student-email.org
mike novack on 2017-02-23 at 02:03 said:

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 9:15 AM, Lynda Thomas wrote:
Good morning,

I wanted to send a quick follow-up after my previous message. Are you the correct person to contact regarding the broken links I found on your website?

Thank you!

On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 6:12 PM, Lynda Thomas wrote:
Hey,

I’m on your website now, I found it educational. Oddly, some links seem to be broken. Do you want me to send you their URLs?
Or maybe you know who would be the person to address this issue to? In any case, you are doing good work.

Have a great day!

—
Lynda