Fake Pagerank Reciprocal Links Email Scam - Be Aware, Don't get Ripped Off!

This is a public information hub to warn of an email scam that's becoming increasingly popular, we now receive 3-5 of these emails per month, and judging by the long lines of links on their sites, many people fall for it, including SEO companies who should know better.

The email is as below:

----- Original Message -----

From: "Axx Gxx" <axx.grxx333@googlemail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 11:35 PM

Subject: Link exchange request between your site xxx-xxxxxx.com and my site

Hi,

My name is Axx Gxxx, Web Marketing Consultant. Ive greatly enjoyed looking through your site xxx-xxxxxxx.com and I was wondering if you'd be interested in exchanging links with my website, which has a related subject. I can offer you a home page link back from I can offer you a home page link back from my related websites all in google cache and backlinks which are:

wxxxxxxxxxxxxx(dot)net PR6

uxxxxxxxx(dot)com

If you are interested, please send me the following details of your site:

TITLE:

URL:

I'll add your link as soon as possible, in the next 24 hours. As soon as it's ready, I'll send you a confirmation email along with the information (TITLE and URL) regarding my site to be placed at yours.

I hope you have a nice day and thank you for your time.

Kindest regards,

Axx Gxxxxxxx

Old sayings have become sayings for a reason, and the saying:

"If something seems too good to be true.. ..it probably is.."

Definitely applies in this case.

One of our favourite SEO tools (SEO for Firefox) took about one second to raise the alarm.

Does this look like the backlink profile of a PR 6 site to you? If you answer yes, you probably haven't looked at very many genuine ones before.

Interestingly several "SEO companies" have obviously just jumped at the offer without digging deeper, along with lots of other companies who should probably also know better.

So what's going on?

Pagerank Can Be Easily Faked!

You may or may not know that if you have control of a domain and website it is very easy to fake Google Toolbar Pagerank readings. We are not going to explain how to do it publicly because it's too common knowledge already, just be aware that it can be done, very easily and very quickly.

But this is basic right? After all if someone approached you on the street, offering you a deal that's clearly too good to be true, would you go for it, or be suspicious?

Well just apply a bit of common sense, if the links to the site don't seem sufficient quality or quantity, that should attract more attention. Then ask yourself:

WHY would someone with a PR6 site be emailing random strangers to ask to swap links? 

There could be a genuine reason, like the guy in the street with the real Gold watch at the ridiculous price could be genuine..  but all things considered, it's probably a scam. 

This was the reply:

We know exactly how you faked the pagerank 6.

you xxxx xx xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxx xxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx and then you fooled all those gullible people down the l/h side of the site with your fake pagerank

nice try but no cigar ;) 

They didn't respond or push the issue yet, but it's obviously working for them because their link list is still growing. 

So be wary of strangers bearing easy high PR links, there's an old saying in SEO that the value of a link is directly proportional to the difficulty of getting it. In other words, if it was super easy to get, its likely worth nothing at all.

All those people are going to be disappointed with the results of that link exchange, except for the scammer who has now got many good links back from real sites.

Do your research, don't get scammed.