Sys-Con caught operating a massive splog

Duncan Riley — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:33:59 +0000

Sys-Con Media, the company behind a range of tech publications and events has been caught running a massive splog.

The site, Ulitzer launched March 27 and was pitched by the company as being designed to replace Wikipedia with “three dimensional live content offerings and dynamic topic structure.” What they don’t mention is that the “1 million original stories contributed by more than 6,000 authors” consist nearly entirely of content scraped in full from other sites without permission.

Aral Balkan exposed the scam when he saw his name appear on the site via a Google News alert. After going public about the issue, Sys-Con then defamed Balkan on the site, calling him a Turkish Fag and a homosexual son of a bitch. The Next Web has more details and screenshots here.

Besides possibly making the most absurd claims I’ve ever read about a new product (read here), there’s something else familiar about this site besides the stolen content that others haven’t picked up on yet: the design.

Compare and contrast: ZDNet vs Ulitzer

Tracking Gustav: Storm Scammers Hit the Net

JR — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:00:30 +0000

Gustav may still be going strong, but scammers are already making their move to take advantage of families suffering from the storm.

Louisiana’s attorney general office is monitoring more than a hundred domain names registered in the past day related to the storm, most containing words such as “charity” and “relief.” While some may be legit, many are feared to be fake fronts for crooks to steal kind-hearted people’s credit card and bank account information, then use it for their own selfish purposes. Some are even looking ahead with names related to Hanna, the next storm about to hit the U.S. coast. Several of the domains are results of squatters looking to churn out some cash from the storms and are already up for sale on eBay or Sedo.

Phishers have also started sending out e-mails to families along the Gulf Coast that ask for their bank information to “confirm” it in the storm’s wake. These same sorts of attacks all popped up in the days surrounding Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

If you’re interested in contacting a legit charity working to help families displaced by Hurricane Gustav, check out the list below. You can also find everything from live cameras and storm tracking tools to Web services devoted to helping find loved ones at our Online Storm Resource Center.

Legitimate Gustav Charities:

UPDATE*** For the latest storm stream, see Hurricane Ike Live.

The Inquisitr » scam

Sys-Con caught operating a massive splog

Tracking Gustav: Storm Scammers Hit the Net

Legitimate Gustav Charities: