Fake News Scam Sites Advertising On Real News Sites

Posted by kdawson on Friday June 26, 2009 @05:25AM from the maze-of-twisty-passages dept.

Virtual_Raider writes "Wired is running a story about a new twist in the never-ending quest to prove P. T. Barnum's adage. Old: Scammers are creating fake news sites that look almost like the real thing. New: They are advertising on real news sites, making it difficult for unwary readers to catch on they are being duped with fake coverage of get-rich-quick scams. Among those running the scam 'news' ads are the Huffington Post and Salon. From the article: 'The story has art, it has a sidebar, there's weather, supposed reader comments — even ads. Steadman is described as "a mother from San Francisco" — at least, when I read the article. Thanks to cutting-edge reporting techniques perfected by News 5, she will automatically move to the geolocation of your internet IP address when you read it. Look, she lives right in your neighborhood!'" Forbes also wrote about the scam news sites a couple of weeks back.

1 of 128 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:What news sites is it showing up on? by Anonymous Coward · 2009-06-26 06:03 · Score: -1, Flamebait

The summary could at least tell us what news sites it is showing up on. Huffington Post and Salon are almost as reliable as The Onion.
I smell another "Conservative" idiot who can't distinguish between news and editorial, and is thus enraged by "Liberal" news and gratified by "Fair and Balanced" news.