E-Dribble

It took some folks longer to notice than others, but it has recently become newsworthy that traditional news sites and scam news sites have become completely indistinguishable from each other. To make it more confusing for the uninitiated or stupid, the sites considered to be “real” news sites are linking to and advertising for the scam news sites.

Let me just be clear before I help the previously mentioned uninitiated and stupid users of the internet. If you find what I say to be anything other than common sense, you should reevaluate your presence on the internet. That being said, these sites wouldn’t be as successful as they are without a plentiful supply of retards, so we can rest assured that some will find this after their failed attempt at becoming a millionaire with nothing but a computer connection, sloth and greed.

Here is the fake news site in question. Are you not the type of person to watch much tv news? Well, it just so happens that the asshats used the identical page for the bogus Bakersfield Gazette, in case you prefer your fake news to be from a fake newspaper. I’m providing this under the assumption that if you’re reading this, you’re at least aware that these sitea are not legitimate news sites. If you didn’t know previously, please let me say this; do not buy anything that is linked to from the sites. They are not real news sites. All set? Good.

Ok, if you read the Wired article that I linked to at the top of the post, you’re aware that they are appalled…. simply APPALLED that sites they consider to be legitimate news sites are indiscriminately advertising for scam MLM sites. The purpose of their article is to protect you by making you aware of the risk involved in being able to distinguish between the two types of sites. My initiative is slightly different. I’m going to poke some fun at the demographic at risk by showing you all how incompetently the facade is put together.

Go ahead and visit the site. I’ll wait.

Ok, providing you didn’t already order your advertising kit, you’re sure to have noticed at least some of what I’m about to point out.

1) The homepage: Did you visit it? In fact, did you try to visit any page inside the news5alert.com website? If so, you would have noticed that there are no other pages belonging to the news5alert.com website. The whole site consists of the spam page. All links point to their affiliate page at the MLM site.

2) The fodder: Let’s take a look around the article. What else is in the news? Well, we have a tag cloud consisting of nothing but references to the recession and MLM references. It seems that there’s nothing else happening in news5alert’s neck of the woods. As well, their region is without weather. The one thing that could have lent some credibility to the page was left blank. The related video belongs to Bloomberg and is over four months old. If you give it more than the most cursory of glances, you’ll see that there is actually no legitimate looking content on the site. From the header to to footer, it’s blatant advertising.

3) The article: Let’s look at the article itself. If you’ve read it at all, then I don’t really need to point anything out, do I? It’s the most ridiculously written supposed news article that you will ever find. Instead of an article relating to local economy, it’s a tutorial. How many tutorials have you found on news sites that you’ve visited? If you have found more than zero, here’s a protip for you: you’re not visiting news sites.

4) Comments: When was the last time you didn’t see a derogatory comment posted at the tail of news article?

5) The footer: Finally, some truth in advertising!

….. individuals purchasing the program may make little or NO MONEY AT ALL.

I’m being completely honest when I say that if you were the type of person that could believe that this were a news site, then you are an idiot. I wouldn’t expect you to see all of the flaws in the site, but I would expect you to see enough to realize that it’s a scam site. I could continue for hours, dissecting the poorly assembled attempt at duplicating a local news site, but it’s quite pointless. My intention was to merely to poke fun at Wired and anyone that might think that their warning was necessary. Besides, I have the free time to do so, now that I have become a millionaire.

Send me $5 and a SASE to find out how you can too.