top-site.net spam

tthurgo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-14-2003, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Could you please check our updated translations of XXX into eight languages, if you don't mind, at:
http://top-site.net/update.htm?d=XXX&v=1230&e=i&p=t

Do they look OK? If so, there's no need to reply. Simply paste the following code onto your web pages. This will make your web site readable by the 90% of the world who can't read English (for only $5 a month).

<script src="http://top-site.net/t.js"></script>

Thanks,

John

P.S. Could you please update your TopSites listing too by Tuesday, October 28, if it's not too much trouble, at:
http://top-site.net/update.htm?d=XXX&v=1230&e=i
And don't miss our reports on your website's popularity and your server's uptime.

To unsubscribe: http://top-site.net/cancel.htm?d=XXX&v=1230&e=i

I think they spidered my website and took the email addy from it.

I think that when I hit the link, that will just confirm my email address with them.

mglynne · #2 (**permalink**) 10-16-2003, 11:33 PM

I checked the translations that were presented - they looked pretty good for French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. (I don't know whether the idiom is ok - maybe its like instruction manuals from foreign parts!) However the Japanese, Chinese and Korean only showed as questionmarks!.

For reference, my site is http://www.marishka.ca

Is Top sites really a hoax? ... I don't think so!

Time alone will tell - I know that my site can now be read in other languages, but now I have to put meta tags in foreign languages.

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the number of tags that can be read??

projectphp · #3 (**permalink**) 10-20-2003, 10:40 PM

I previously Googled "John Kennedy" topsites (he is know just "john". Makes him harder to find) and got this review of topsites that pretty much points to it as a scam: http://www.dynamoo.com/diary/topsites_topsitez_us.htm. http://www.marishka.ca is a big section about just this very topic!!!

Topsite is a scam, and Uses AltaVista's ([b]FREE{/b]) Babelfish service, and then charges $5 for the priviledge!!!! Scammers, spammers, ignore them!!!

Also, http://www.marishka.ca is one of the worst sites I have ever seen.

If you use that as a recomendation, you are NUTZ!!!!

mglynne · #4 (**permalink**) 10-20-2003, 11:17 PM

Thanks for the education! Fortunately, the site was unable to access my credit card, so no harm done.

your assessment of my site was somewhat harsh - obviously your not a fan of numerology!.

Till · #5 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 06:54 PM

Yeah, relax kids!

We are here to bash the spamers and not each other.

I got his top-sites.net domain suspended last week and now he is bothering me with top--sites.net (notice the double dash?).

And directnic.com, which he registered the domain through, is being not very helpful, they don't want to suspend the services.

Which puts them in the same category he is in.

projectphp · #6 (**permalink**) 10-27-2003, 05:29 PM

Sorry mglynne. A million appologies. It was more just the fact the site had 100% broken links, and heaps of broken images. You might wanna have a look at that.

Also, I have seen posts elsewhere where the spammer posts a reply and pretends to be a person who says "I have tried it and it works great...", I mistakenly assummed (based on your site) that your post was of a similiar nature.

Kudos to you mglynne for taking my extremely harsh comments in stride, and again, apologise for making them!! BTW, your site is still pretty broken!!!!

mglynne · #7 (**permalink**) 10-28-2003, 09:27 PM

projectphp - no apolgies needed - I will search and try to fix my broken links - as a relative novice in the html game, they seem to break very easily! Thanks for the info.

janthony · #8 (**permalink**) 10-30-2003, 07:04 PM

Just wanted to say a quick thank you for your warnings about top--sites.net

I'm a part-time webmaster and received an e-mail from "John Kennedy" today with his wonderful offer :-(

Luckily your discussion thread came up on google as I was checking it out.

Thanks again guys for sharing your advice!

Regards,

James

dcorking · #9 (**permalink**) 11-01-2003, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tthurgo
I think they spidered my website and took the email addy from it.

In my case, it looks like they got the info from whois.

I have a parked domain, so it would not be visible to spiders. The email address they spammed about it was the owner in whois, not the address listed on the site.

AFAIR whois servers should have bulk query protections against large scale harvesting. Obviously "John Kennedy" knows one that doesn't.

Till · #10 (**permalink**) 11-02-2003, 06:16 AM

Afaik, none does.

I don't think email information should be mandatory and visible. I am currently setting up spam filters at work, to filter email addresses from the whois to only let through email from the registrars and to plain deny the rest.

Cafe441 · #11 (**permalink**) 11-02-2003, 04:28 PM

According to www.dynamoo.com they are getting the web information from dmoz.org. This seems pretty accurate as I just appeared on dmoz.org and all of the sudden... SPAM! dmoz.org is FREE and legit. Go to http://www.dynamoo.com/diary/topsites_topsitez_us.htm to read more about the scam defined in this thread. BTW, mglynne if you are a beginner and want to make a killer site then try using a PHP solution like PostNuke or PHPNuke. They have both worked great for me and I am sure that projectphp will agree.

Regards,
Cafe 441 (yeah, its a PHP site!).