A recent article on Mashable stated that Pinterest, which is still technically in beta, “…now beats YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January, according to a Shareaholic study.” It was inevitable that with such popularity spammers would also discover the power of the pin.
Now we have Spim. Spam that’s pinned to Pinterest.
Earlier today I came across this pin:
Notice it says, “Get a FREE Victoria Secret Gift Card from Pinterest!” Well, I’m a bit of a skeptic. I was suspicious. Why would Pinterest give away a VS gift card? It’s not like they need the traffic. I clicked on it against my better judgement. It took me to this:
(Sorry. I had to put some clothes on that woman. It was just too much naked for this site.)
Notice that it took me to a Tumblr URL. If it was legit why didn’t it take me to Pinterest’s blog or to Victoria Secret’s website? I don’t think either one of them are posting stuff on Tumblr. The other tell was the counter. It kept counting down rapidly, but every time I refreshed the page the counter went back up to 400-something. And what’s with the Facebook icon at the top, and the Like counter which just happens to list my friends’ names on it?
You’re directed to click on the Pin It button. Then after you do that it says you have to “Click Here” to complete one more step. I didn’t pin it or click it. My guess is it takes you to another site where you’re required to complete additional steps to qualify, like sign up for marketing lists and buy memberships. I came across a similar pin earlier today that said re-pin to win a Free i-Pad that did just that.
Shady, shady, shady. Can’t you just feel the ick oozing out of your computer screen?
(Remind me to run virus check after I finish this.)
There’s one other form of spam I found on Pinterest recently. Pins that link to sites hocking scams. The one I came across showed a before and after weight loss photo. Underneath it said something like, “Blogger’s inspiring weight loss story.” When I clicked on it the link didn’t take me to a blog, but to a website selling a “miracle diet supplement” that would help you lose weight almost instantly. Many people re-pinned the site, likely because they didn’t click the link first to see if it was legitimate.
There are some legitimate Pin-to-win contests out there. How do you know they’re legit? How can you avoid getting taken by Spim?
1. Well, like anything else, if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not true.
2. If the pin doesn’t link to a legitimate site owned by the entity claiming to offer a giveaway, don’t click.
3. If you do click, and it feels shady GET OUT OF THERE!
4. Click through to verify the legitimacy before re-pinning. If it seems too shady to click, then for heaven’s sake don’t re-pin it!
5. Make sure your computer is protected against mal-ware.
If you do come across Spim report it by clicking the Report Pin button on the right of the pin.
As always, Happy Pinning!
This sucks. I’ve noticed the spam, too. So now I have to be suspicious every time I want to consider following someone’s pins. It’s too bad. Thanks for pointing this out for those who haven’t been made aware.
I agree that ‘too good to be true” is, usually, too to be true.
I use Apple Mail on the MacBook Pro I use. It flags stuff like this before you click on it. It tells you if the address you’ve clicked on doesn’t go to the expected URL… (Mozilla Thunderbird does this, too; at least on Mac) I read the Miami Herald almost every day. When you click on a link in their daily email roundup, it takes you to a page with an URL that isn’t miamiherald.com and the apps consider this to be malware… LOL
If I just have to go to a site, I use the iPad. Most malware is written for the operating system that has 85% of the market – Windows. I don’t know of any malware on the iPad. Similarly with the iPhone or iPod Touch, (they all, more or less, use the same version or iOS).
A friend of mine who uses an Android phone just had his entire email list hijacked and the malware in his phone used to send out annoying spam to all of us.
What?!?! Spam on Pinterest… that’s terrible! Seriously is nothing scared anymore!
Ugh! Ridiculous. I knew it was only a matter of time. Also have you noticed the overflow of random pins? Like ones of teenagers standing in front of the mirror. Apparently NOTHING is sacred anymore.
It is a dark a world we live in when even Pinterest isn’t safe anymore. Ha!
Wow, I wasn’t aware of this at all (I love Pinterest, but I go for stretches without using it to avoid getting SUCKED IN, so I haven’t been pinning in a while). This post is really helpful info – thanks for taking the time to write it!
Oh, Pinterst! You can never just spend 10 minutes! I get sucked in too.
I don’t know if I am using it wrong but I just can’t seem to get into Pinterest. I’ve heard a lot recently how it’s being filled with spam though and that is horrible for those that actually enjoy it.
This is good information. I have just started to dabble in Pinterest and now I have a MUCH better idea of what to watch out for.
Noo!! I have really enjoyed Pinterest and haven’t encountered any spam yet but I am glad that you have made this information available to us. I am always scared off fairly easily when something looks too good to be true. I had just hoped that we could have avoided this kind of thing on there. Sigh….now it is making my new computer choice even harder. I currently have a Mac that is about to die and for monetary purposes am looking at a PC again. But I hate having to worry about the spam.
I found your blog through the blogger comment club. Thanks for letting me visit!
It would be nice to have one site that wasn’t over-run with spam.
reporting it will do nothing. I’ve been reporting a porn board for weeks and nothing ever gets done about that either. the board has an arty photo of me and my daughter on that i cant get off…. they just ignore me.
It’s unfortunate to hear that they aren’t responding to you.
I’m very disappointed the direction of Pinterest lately. It’s quickly turning into one big commercial. I’m all for PR everywhere else, but can’t we just have one simple social media site that is not about making money. It was my happy place to go to and not think. Sigh.
Oh, I know. It was so nice to go to Pinterest and not see all that other nonsense.