An American Lion

One thing I really, really hate is how blogging can be faked or turned into some kind of phony enterprise. I hate how people can just assume an identity and start blogging and call it their own. I’m sorry, sir, but this takes guts. It takes hard work. It takes a webmaster, yes, and it also takes a family support system. You have to be tougher than everyone else. You have to login and make sure no one is spamming your blog at least once a day, if not less.

When I read about the rise of the “fakeosphere,” that’s when I knew it was time for me to come clean. For, you see, I have a confession to make. My name really is Norman Rogers and I really am a blogging professional, and I really am 65 years old and I do know what I’m talking about. I’m also a signatory of the “Mommy Blogger pledge,” and that means I cannot just sell you crap and pretend to be something I’m not. I take my Mommy Blogger status very seriously. So seriously, in fact, I refuse to answer questions about it.

What is the fakeosphere? Is it something that a lazy, incompetent media have concocted out of thin air about something that happened six months ago? Or is it worse than that?

Starting in September, visitors to many newspaper Web sites in the Northeast were confronted by an unexpected pop-up ad.  A Web site named WebAnswersPro.com interrupted their surfing, displaying what seemed to be an open debate about a get-rich-quick product named the Google Wealth Connection. The entry began with a question from an apparently curious user about the service’s claims that participants were earning up to $4,800 a month. An apparently spirited conversation followed, with some posters questioning the service while others shared their personal success stories. One attractive poster even claimed the site helped her pay for college.

“You’ve convinced me! I just ordered my Google Wealth Connection kit. I will report back with the results later,” concluded user marie09.

WebAnswersPro.com, which displays comments like a typical blog, mimics question-and-answer services like Yahoo Answers. Its creators went to great lengths to make it appear like any other Web discussion service — there’s even an advertisement for Dish Network alongside.  That ad, however, is not linked to anything.  In fact there is only one active link on the site, and there’s only one question answered on the service. All roads lead to the Google Wealth Connection.

While individual posts on WebAnswersPro appear to be from random Internet users, repeat visits to the site suggest the conversation is manufactured: After one month, marie09 has failed to report her success or failure to the group. In fact, the conversations remain identical, except for one element: the time and date stamps had been updated to make it appear as if the discussion is only 24 hours old.

So THAT’S how you do it. Pardon me while I unsign my Mommy Blogger pledge and start up my own wealth connection kit.

Kidding! Don’t hold it against me. Anyone stupid enough to fall for such a scheme deserves to be fleeced. Let me bring you in on a little secret—anything that isn’t a tangible item like a book or a DVD and is a promise of “getting rich quick” is a scam. Anything that causes you to release a credit card number or a payment or causes you to give someone free access to your bank account—that’s a scam. Anything that purports to make your penis hard or your butt smaller or your gut disappear—that’s a scam.

Don’t hate the fleecers—hate the people who allowed the advertising to appear on their sites. Hate the salemen and saleswomen who sold their souls for a few extra ad dollars to allow these scammers to flourish. It all begins and ends with the sales people. If they had used basic common sense, and had even the blandest of ethics in mind, these ads would not have appeared. Allowing ads to appear on reputable websites will always fleece a few thousand fools out of their cash. Me, personally, I say—good for you scammers. Bring that teachable moment for the pathetic losers who think they can “get rich quick.”