Pinterest, the fastest-growing new social networking website and virtual scrapbooking site, is heaven for those of us who love scouring the internet for design inspiration. Whenever I see a product I like or an image that inspires me I no longer have to save it to the bottomless pit of my hard drive. I can just "pin" it. I am able to collect cool ideas, tag products I covet (or may actually buy), and gather images that together constitute my own dynamic aesthetic. But is Pinterest being sabotaged by spammers and scammers?
I was an early adopter on Pinterest and use it every day. It is clean, simple, practical, and wonderfully fun. Not only can I scrapbook my own pins, I can also peruse others' pins, "following" people who inspire me. What is so great about Pinterest is that when someone clicks on a pin they are directed to the site where the image was found. Clicking through pins, I've discovered new design bloggers, Etsy stores and retailers I may not have otherwise discovered.
But I have always suspected Pinterest is just too good to be true. It seemed too pure, too honest and too devoid of spam and suffocating attacks from e-commerce marketing. So it is with little surprise that lately I have found myself clicking on an image only to be directed to an unrelated cheap-o site for an unrelated product. There also seem to be far more product promotion pins than before. What is going on?
According to the tech journalists who track these things, Pinterest has indeed become the latest target for spammers who are profiting off the site's obvious potential as an e-commerce and marketing platform. What makes Pinterest such a fruitful target for marketers is its genuine "trust factor"; the idea that real people are sharing their real opinions, tastes and experiences. If Pinterest loses this trust from its users, its fundamental appeal could be compromised.
According to this excellent article in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, fake accounts are being formatted to automatically generate clicks, "crowd out other content and drive links to advertised products." And these fake-looking Pinterest accounts are automatically re-pinning items over and over again until they appear on the site's "Popular" tab.
Tech blog The Daily Dot uncovered a Pinterest spammer who created multiple fake accounts with posts linking to Amazon.com; if users click through the post to buy, the spammer gets a referral fee from Amazon. This self-described "Pinterest spammer" told the Daily Dot that he makes $1,000 a day from the affiliate links.
In response, Pinterest has been scrambling to address spamming and manipulative practices on its site. The Popularity policy has already been altered to restrict promoted items. Let's hope Pinterest fights a good fight so we can continue to enjoy this ingenious website!
Have you noticed a change in Pinterest? What kinds of scams have you encountered?
(Image: The Daily Dot)
5 Online Services to Save Yourself a Trip to IKEA
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sprout Side Table
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
There seem to be more and more spams on Pinterest. Something to do with Sarah whose acne has cleared up. This same comment on hundreds of different unrelated pins. So frustrating!!! I knew this would happen, I'm so sad Pinterest can't stay the way it was at first.
I've found tons of "people" following me, when I check to see if I should follow them, all of their posts are bogus. Another trend is people setting up a board for every pin...don't know what that's about, or if it's connected.
It was revealed that that amazon spammer was a hoax.
I've been on pinterest since last fall and have noticed a huge increase in spam within the last few weeks. For example, I was searching "Easter dessert," and the picture of the same few desserts would come up, but the text would be something like "I enjoyed this cake. I also enjoy this new pinterest-sponsored weight loss product [link]...." Super annoying.
@summilux35, Ana White has an actual blog. There may be a spammer using her name, but her blog is amazing. People are pinning furniture designs straight from her website. I've pinned two or three. http://ana-white.com/
I don't understand the outrage over this. Did people actually think that somebody set this website up just out of the goodness of their heart? Nothing is free on the internet; if you haven't paid for something, then YOU (or access to you) are the product.
After a recent jump in the number of people following my Pinterest account, I figured out that many of them can't possibly be real (I was hoping it was just new people who didn't know the system of pinning yet).
The fake accounts usually just have one pin (or none) for each board, and their Profiles are weird ... two different accounts started following me today, and both of their profiles said, "Follow me if you like Jennifer Lopez." I had suspected some accounts of being spam, but now I know for sure.
It's too bad ... hope they figure out a way to identify and delete these spammers.
I've had trouble pinning from Apartment Therapy, is it just me or is there an AT policy? (I've posted this question before but nobody has responded)
That's too bad, but I doubt it will be incredibly detrimental to pinterest, people just love pinterest too much! Hopefully they can find a way to block these things out. The spam that I've encountered was a weird pin that, when clicked, automatically repinned itself on my page! Fortunately there was a way to delete it. Now I don't click on anything that seems strange or inconsistent with the content generally posted by people I follow.
I usually only follow people who I know, but when I search for stuff I get frustrated with adorable stuff that is tagged "doctor who! awesome weightloss strategy with 3 easy steps!" with a bit.ly address underneath. no thanks.
My first rule of thumb is that it has to have a caption relevant to the image. Then I'll check out the full pin and open the pinned website to see the pin is from its original source.
@StationeryFiend: I've had problems pinning from certain websites too: AT, D*S, even my website. I've tried a different browser and it's normally okay.
Pinterest is a wonderful idea, and and hopefully the people who have created it and maintain it will be able to knock out those who ruin the experience for those. However, to do so, Pinterest needs resources for programmers. That being said, I hope that enough people support Pinterest's sponsors, rather than accidentally supporting those leeches that are trying to use Pinterest for their own gain. They also need a flag system to alert them to spam more quickly, and that flag should be given to users with long-term standing and enough "real" activities to distinguish them from fakes.
I have been followed by dozens of "suspect" pinners in the past weeks, and that alone - the presence of negative factors - has discouraged me from using Pinterest as much as I used to, and in the manner I used to. I NEVER visit the "Everyone" page any more, making do with my trusted contacts and names I know. If only there were a "block" option - if we all just blocked the spammers when they followed us, their wings would be severely clipped in the long run.
I'm sick of all the fake followers that have started up over the past 2 weeks. I'm pretty picky about who I follow so what they pin doesn't effect me but it's really obnoxious to not know how many 'real' people are following my boards.
I spotted a spammer last night using a bit.ly link on some product. But when you click the link it redirected to some Walmart gift card site. I would suggest people click the "Report Pin" link at the right when this happens. However I would also suggest to Pinterest to add a "Report Person" link , because all of this person's pins were spam and it was too time consuming to go to each one and report it.
Every new fad site will have to deal with spammers. I know, because I'm on a number of internet marketing websites and they always are discussing ways to make money off of the next big site. If Pinterest wants to stay successful it will have to keep on top of things.
When I joined, I would browse the category pages, but very quickly, once I began finding sites that I enjoyed, I started sticking to just my "follow" list. Regardless of spam, the quality is lower. I haven't noticed the spam pins as much, but I have noticed a ton of people following all of my boards in recent weeks, and they seem suspicious. No pins, following 2,000 people, 80 boards with one pin each... Ignoring them works for me.
I've been a member for a while now and I notice a lot of pins with descriptions that have nothing to do with the photo. Say a photo of a car then "how to get your child to eat right". umm What? I don't click on those. I've noticed this a lot lately. Very frustrating.
@samara ... sure enough, I went and looked and I have a follower with 116 boards, 1 pin each. What the heck is that all about?
Good to hear that Pinterest is doing something about the e-commerse spammers. I love Pinterest because it isn't as product-focused as some online pin board sites like Fancy. I like that most people pin what inspires or interests them but do not exclusively promote their 'own' blog or whatever they're trying to sell. If Pinterest ever sways more heavily in the e-commerce direction, I will definitely lose interest in using this site.
I have pintrest linked to my email and received a spam from a Nanette Suder saying I was mentioned in a pin on her board "I like". Well nothing there is from me and no mention of me was there, it's all an add for some crappy fake handbag place. Definitely spam. I just report these at the site for help , they really do listen there.
I just saw one today. I got a typical email that someone repinned one of my pins and mentioned me on another pin. When I clicked to look at their board, it was just advertisement for weight loss drugs or info. I hope Pinterest finds a way to let you report spam like that.
@sadiemalion and @cheyhorn, I had that same thing, for the first time today. I got an email saying that someone mentioned me on a pin. I didn't click on it, but I did go to pinterest and search for that person's name and saw that "she" has 2 boards with a few pins on each of them, and the caption of every pin says the same thing about a weight loss product.
That seems to be the spamming model. Bad news bears.
I too was an early adopter of pinterest and have been spammed recently on my boards. Really suss on people that have 351 boards all with 1 pin each. Who has 351 interests anyway!!
I recently complained to Pinterest as one person who started following my boards had a really obscene comment in their profile. I've asked if we can delete followers as i do not want obscenity associated to me in anyway. Reply was they are looking into spamming issues but priority at the moment is log in issues.
I hope they fix it as i love using it.
@cheyhorn: you can click on the 'Report Pin' button on the sidebar, and it will give you a list of options as to why you're reporting it-Spam is one of them. You can also send Pinterest an email with a link to the person's board(s): I did this when I came across a user that had a board filled with pornographic photos.
I'm surprised AT is commenting on this, when you yourselves don't have adequate spam-prevention measures.
I've also been noticing spam on instagram, but spam is so easy to pick (on Pinterest) I don't know how people fall for it.
Some new people on Pinterest take time to realize how it works, and open lots of new boards. The spammers are really annoying, but if somebody had really good links to stuff at amazon, I wouldn't mind; they'd be getting paid to be my personal shopper.
Of course, Pinterest probably wants, or deserves, referral money. Are all those fashions really personal pins, or ads?
Still a useful site, esp. if they address the spammers.
One thing that really frustrates and confuses me about pinterest users posting affiliate links disguised by bit.ly or rstyle.me is: if I post an affiliate link on my blog, I am required to disclose that it's an affiliate link. It just doesn't seem ethical to me for these users (many of whom I'm sure are real users and not bots) to post their affiliate links and to not only not disclose that they're making money from them - but to try pretty hard to actually hide the fact that they're affiliate links. Maybe there's some subtle legal difference that I'm just not understanding. But this always leaves a bad taste in my mouth and really seems like it could become a legal issue down the road, so I just remove affiliate links and re-link the items to the original page when I re-pin.
I have also been spammed by being "mentioned" by a Cody Olsin on her board "Impressions" - I visit the board and can find nothing there but pictures of women in bikinis and weight loss come-ons. I find it offensive and annoying and can't find anyway to avoid this kind of spamming. Pinterest you need to give people more options... to report or to block or to opt out of being mentioned.... It really stinks the way it is now
Oh dear. I loved Pinterest for about two weeks and then I found out that my original pins were being turned into spam. I got sucked into "wow, 90 people I don't even know like what I created and some thought I was so cool, they decided to follow me too!- I'm sharing such fun with the world!" Really? I was kind of dumb here and am now safely grounded back in reality.
I looked up my 5 original pins (they weren't marketing anything- just a silly pastime to share) and found about 20 of them. The URLs had all been changed to spam- yes, all the bit.ly, pinterestguccibag, links etc. (and whatever the heck media-cache6 is....). Nothing linked back to my original website, so it looked like I was spamming everyone. And these 1 item boards people are talking about... all of these fake url pins were from accounts with these boards-- many of the boards with my pin on them copied the unique name of my original board or used a name that was completely unrelated to the pin. It seems like these are some automated "spambot" accounts- not real accounts with real people.
The thing that stinks is that may make my account look like that too. Silly me. I'm not a super user- my biggest board has only about 30 pins. I've looked at all my pins to see if I accidentally repinned something that was spam, but they all seem legit. It looks like it was someone (or something) that decided to follow me or repin my pin that started all of this. I have no control over that and don't think it was something I "fell for."
It's been about a half of month now and Pinterest hasn't responded to me at all. I've reported the pins I could find with the fake URLs, but they're all still there. I haven't touched my Pinterest account and will delete it by the end of the month if Pinterest doesn't address it or respond to me. *sigh* Pinterest users beware--especially if you pin anything original. Good luck! It looked too fun to be true, and I really should have known better. Lesson learned!
I worried about these scams early on but hadn't seen any firsthand until yesterday when someone mentioned me in a pin...that promoted a new diet. I like the openness of Pinterest, but suspect they will need to build in privacy controls or reporting features at some point.