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Search Engine Scams

Keep your eyes and ears wide open

By Emma Kae - 5th August 2002 - Back to News

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The Internet is a fantastic tool for life. It allows you to communicate with loved ones far and wide – easily, quickly and inexpensively. It allows you to advertise your business and gain sales, or conduct your Christmas shopping from home in your pjyamas at 3am.  It’s a great research and educational device. The Internet can supply you with music that you have never heard before, visuals you have never seen and so much more.

Unfortunately, the Internet is also a breeding ground for scammers and cheats, just waiting for a user with a naïve, romantic view of the world wide web to come along so that they can take your money and run.

One of the latest scams attracts webmasters that may be looking to increase the chance of their website being found in as many search engines as possible. This company offers to submit your website to 500,000 search engines. "Wow!" you think "That’s great coverage." But before you reach for your credit card, there is something you should know. Upon investigating this company, we found that only 393 search engines were covered.

Many of the directories or search engines are also very specific, eg. "123India", "Acts Christian Search", "Josh's Sanctum" just to point out a few. Most Australian websites would never be found in such engines. Other engines were obscene, or related to pornography, and most businesses would rather their names did not appear here.

So, while the Internet can be a great tool, be cautious - keep your eyes and ears wide open.

For advice on submitting your website to search engines, we recommend you contact Gippsland’s Website Specialists, Messenger Media & IT.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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