Duping Social Media with Phony Clicks
Duping social media has hit its peak! Maybe, not yet. Turns out, duping social media is a highly profitable scam. It isn’t enough that online consumers are getting duped into buying the more inferior product or service after reading the litany of bogus reviews put out by those touting their own product.
It all started with Al Capone, the Chicago mobster who controlled nearly every business by charging a fee to the proprietor in return for holding off his own henchmen from beating him to a pulp and ravaging his store front. A good example of this concept was widely reported by ABCNEWS. So what’s the moral of such stories? Any company (or group) can get a great rating or look good if you’re willing to pay up!
The storyline for duping social media is simple; if you don’t participate in the (duping) system, then you could come across looking less certain, less credible to the potential client who relies on such indicators like the number of followers, shares, or likes. It’s comparable to the professional athlete that feels the need to cheat a little by getting “juiced” up to keep level with the playing field he’s competing against.
Sincere social media users are taken for a ride in nearly every area presumed to be trustworthy and transparent. That last facebook site you thought was legit because of the high “Like” count may well not be as it seems. Those Google+ Shares you trusted may not be so valid after all. The impressive number of twitter followers may well have suckered you into joining a fake mob of believers. And the newest CD getting a never-ending increase in presumed re-tweets might just be the perfect scam at getting you to buy that piece of crap before you actually hear a single lyric or note.
Shopper’s Briefer has posted plenty of blogs addressing the scams web users unwittingly fall victim to. Cracking down on bogus reviews falsely degrading one product or service in favor of the one they are promoting have been a focus of the U.S. Justice Department in recent years. But duping social media is just starting to come to light. And what you’ll find under the spotlight can be disturbing.
Duping social media has become a highly profitable scam. But the results are not so directly related to the victim. In fact, the victims are not even aware they’ve been scammed. It’s kind of a hidden effect, the results of which are not easily defined.
For just about a half cent per click, a twitter site can appear to have a huge following. A tech site can seem to have the wind at its back with facebook users seemingly flocking to like a site with no real substance at all. If you’re an employer, you could find yourself wasting a lot of time on LinkedIn reviewing candidates who seem to be more employable than they actually are.
There are companies specializing in duping social media users. Since likes, follows, and various other indicators have become so important at measuring the value of one site, product, or individual over the other, many site managers get duped into buying these indicators. They simply place an order for a number of clicks, and they come flooding in. Before you know it, an unaware user thinks you’re taking the internet by storm and there must be a reason for this sudden popularity.
What is really sad is that the hawk that developed this scheme at duping social media is running off with your money in return for a product (Likes, Follows, Shares, ect.) that, over the long run, ends up actually degrading your social site. The “duped” is out the money, and your site loses ground, maybe even possibly being removed for violating your user agreement. And all those “Likes” you paid for? Well, since they came from fraudulent accounts, you lose those too!
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