Don't Let Scammers Hijack Your Site

In a previous post, I talked about getting rid of MFA sites. I just dislike the thought of a visitor to ProductCritic wanting to read digital camera reviews and clicking on an ad they think they want more information about only to reach a "made for adsense" site that just leeches clicks from ProductCritic visitors who are looking for genuinely helpful information.

But, blocking MFA sites isn't enough. In the niche that ProductCritic sits in, many of the adsense ads shown are from sites selling cameras and camera supplies. Unfortunately, there are quite a few instances of these camera stores running scams of various sorts. Some of these scams (and how to avoid them) are described very well by Photo.net and Bob Atkins.

I don't like the idea of some scam store using ProductCritic as a vehicle for scamming innocent visitors to our site. So, while it takes some extra effort, I pay attention to the ads that are being displayed on ProductCritic and, in addition to looking for MFA sites, when I see an ad for a store, I look it up on ResellerRatings. If it has a bad score and has a lot of negative comments, I add that site to our Adsense "Competitive Ad Filter" list so that the scam store's ad never shows up on ProductCritic again.

I hate the thought of these scammers hijacking the visitors of ProductCritic and someone potentially getting ripped off because of a visit to ProductCritic. This blog states it correctly...it's about reputation and brand. It takes extra effort to be this diligent but it's the right thing to do.