Spammer etiquette, report them or not?

Community
1

I have just completed the usual routine of removing a spam garbage post with a url on it for a UK company. My guess is that the UK company, which seems fine and upstanding, has paid for an SEO ‘guru’ to punt their site up the rankings.

Now this got me thinking, should I now email that UK company and inform them that the SEO company they are using is spamming forums with their link - thus sullying their good name?
OR
Leave it and go on my merry way?

Would you as a paying company WANT to know or live in blissful ignorance and amaze when your ranking improves?

2

I’d want it reporting personally, since if it were a well managed forum it would get removed and if it weren’t the odds are the post itself would look spam-like in which case that’s just as bad. So the answer is if I had hired them; I’d like to be informed of their ‘dodgy tactics’ if they were trying to promote things on my behalf.

3

I think it would be a good idea to report it - after all it is in the companies interest as they could start to get more problems from this sort of spam.

4

Absolutely let them know. The amount of times I’ve seen companies sucked in by snake oil seo salesmen, despite trivial investigation of them showing obvious warning signs. Every opportunity to give seo chancers a boot up the **** should be pounced on with relish :smiley:

5

I’m with them ^^

As an ignorant (for want of a better term) business owner forking out cash I’d like to know that I was wasting my money.

As a community manager that is sick of SEO spammers, I’d like more visibility of this kind of thing.

6

Agree with the others. Anything you can do to thwart spammers, why not? It might even be worth asking the company who the ‘SEO person’ was, and shame them online. Or is that going too far? :smiley:

7

Couldn’t find a reputation enchancing button on the forum software, but this post rocks :lol:

A lot of movie sites get hit with spammers by the bucket load which really does nothing for the company advertising. As a little social test I put up a movie site, dummied up some forums, got a few people posting rubbish for a week, we then left it for 3 months. The forum went from 5 members to 15,000, the increase down to spammers solely. Even though the forum was inactive they were still happily spamming it :goof:

Unfort now someone wants to resurrect it as a real sitee :stuck_out_tongue:

8

Will it is okey to report those spammers if they are really a spammer. Because sometime they thought that they are just spamming but honestly not. So be fair… :slight_smile:

9

I’ve reported a few spammers lately and the companies have emailed back in gratitude. :slight_smile:

10

I would do it if only to ask them if they really hired a SEO company or if it is their own inhouse “expert” who was messing up in “my” forum :slight_smile:

Because maybe they didn’t hire anyone… maybe is someone that belogns to the company… who knows?

11

I was surprised to receive this response in one case: “Thank you. We have sacked the person concerned.” :smiley: