While the bill isn’t quite completed and the details remain vague, many Web outlets have been in an uproar – fearing the expansion of governmental control of the internet. Unlike most other bloggers and internet news reporters, I’m actually quite comfortable with the president having emergency power over the internet. Sure, such power could be abused and there’s always the “slippery slope” argument, but people need to realize the president already has similar power in other areas of our life and that power is there for a reason.

Before I go one, let me assure you that I am generally for a smaller government that has less power and control. My feelings are that the government should exist soley to protect us and to keep things running smoothly while interfering as little as possible. With that said, I don’t mind the president having the ability to turn off parts of the internet if it’s deemed an emergency and a security risk.

Blasphemy! I’m sure many of you are screaming right now. But before you grab your pitchforks, imagine if the country really was under a “cyber” attack. If there were some computers on the internet that were trying to disrupt the rest of the Web, shouldn’t the government have the ability to do something about it? What if we were at war and some of the networks vital to communication were compromised? Shouldn’t somebody step in and cut off the infected areas?

Now, I know a big concern is that the government might abuse the power to control the internet. I think many fear something along the lines of China’s internet restrictions may eventually creep into United States’ policies, but that fear is pretty absurd in my opinion. I’d like to think U.S. citizens would never stand for a government that oppressed free speech or difference of opinions on the internet. If we ever get a president so bold as to think he or she can control the internet for any reason other than real safety concerns, I’m going to guess there’d be more than a few unhappy voters that’ll make sure such actions don’t last long.

Let me end by reminding people that similar action has been taken in the past with air travel. After the 9/11 attacks, Bush halted air travel. I’m guessing most people agree that was the appropriate action to take. So how is shutting down parts of the internet any different?

Astroturfing is basically the process of getting some people together to advocate whatever you are pushing (such as a product, a message, or a candidate for office). While the concept is not new and has been used before the internet came along, the simple fact is that creating fake reviews, testimonials, and word of mouth online is cheaper and easier than it has ever been before. Take for example Reverb Communications, a company that appears to be heavily into the astroturfing game.

In their own sales pitch, Reverb Communications outlines their tactics of creating positive reviews in house. Mobile Crunch goes into further detail by examining specific clients of Reverb Communications with example reviews posted in the iTunes App Store.

While Reverb Communications seems to focus on iTunes Apps, astroturfing has likely influenced all major user review sites. And that right there is the problem. How big is that influence on a particular site? Two of the sites I use frequently for online purchases are Amazon and Newegg and both have a user review system that I use to help me in find the right product. For instance, last year when I built a new computer, I purchased most of the parts from Newegg. I had the general specs in mind, but used online reviews to help me determine which specific part or brand to go with. What if most of the positive reviews for a particular product were artificial? At that point, it’s basically a crapshoot whether or not I picked a good product or not.

And that is why astroturfing is 100% unethical in my book. When I watch television and see an advertisement with a professional athelete saying how much they love a particular energy drink, I know it’s an advertisement and can filter the “review” of the product with that in mind. However, when legitimate online reviews are mixed with paid reviews, fake testimonials, and other such nonsense, the consumer is left without a major tool in deciding what’s best for them. Sure it may be legal, but that doesn’t mean we should all stand for it.

You may not think fake profiles on the Web are a big deal, but recent news shows otherwise with a Craiglist fake profiler being sued and the case where faking MySpace information may become a federal crime. As long as there’s money in creating fake profiles online, there will be seedy people there to do it.

If you never knew about the many ways people use fake profiles to exploit people, hopefully, you’ve learned a little about the motivations behind the scammers as well as ways to detect and avoid them in the future. Whether you plan on buying something from an unknown web user or merely interact with them socially, the big thing to come away with here is that you should now be more aware of the potential uses of fake profiles so that you can more comfortably navigate the Web.

Now, if you are one of these scammers, perhaps you’ve learned a little about how you really are hurting people. Whether it’s the advertiser you’re immorally and oftentimes illegally pushing, or the people you’re tricking with your fake profiles, you should be taking a deep breath and looking at how you’re exploiting others to earn your money rather than contributing something valuable. If you never care to take pride in your work and only care about money regardless of how you get it, then nothing I say will ever change your mind. But maybe… just maybe, a few of you out there that may take the first step into rethinking your online strategies… you never know.

Like MySpace and Match.com, Craigslist is targeted for fake profiles because it’s a potential advertising resource. Many Craigslist users aren’t necessarily net savvy, which makes them perfect victims for fake profile scams. With Craigslist, a scammer can easily create a fake profile, post a fake ad, and make a decent amount of cash in a very short amount of time with very little risk.

The first step for these scammers is to find an affiliate offer they think they can trick Craigslist users into signing up for. There are many types of affialite programs that work perfectly for this scam – anything from dating websites to pet training. For this example, we are going to use a dog training program as it’s a common blueprint many of these scammers follow.

So how does one profit from combining a dog training program with Craigslist? Simple, post an ad on Craigslist saying you have a newborn puppy that’s looking for a good home. Make sure to have a catching headline and let everyone know that the puppy is free as long as it’s going to a good home. Now, like I explained in the fake profiles for dating websites post, create an email address with an autoresponder on it. Have the autoresponse say something along the lines of “thanks for the interest in the puppy. I’ve had so many great responses that it’s taking awhile to go through them all. In the meantime, it’d be great if you could check out insert dog training url here. It’s a great dog training program that I’ve been using and would love it if the new owners continued the training with the puppy.”

And just like that, you’ve got your scam setup on autopilot. You’ll get a bunch of people emailing you who are interested in the puppy. You’re autoresponse will trick many of them into following your affiliate link to the dog training program that you’ll get paid for whenever any of them sign up. Sure, not all of them will sign up, but even if only a few of them do, you’ll have made a decent amount of money for very little work – especially since it’s all on auto pilot once it’s setup. There’s no dog, no real email address, and definitely no real Craigslist profile.

Another thing about this scenario is that scammers can keep doing it for different locations until they’ve been reported or until they run out of areas to trick. Even then, all they have to do is create a new fake profile, new fake ad, and new fake email address and they can start all over again with a new affiliate offer.

One reason this scam works so well is that many people are using all their net awareness on looking out for people selling them products that are faulty or don’t even exist so they lower their guard when they see something is free with no real strings attached. If you see somebody giving away a cute little puppy for free, you may just overlook that suspicious email response you get asking you to check out a puppy related product. And even if you are smart enough to sniff out the scam, there’s going to be at least a few people who aren’t so lucky.

For those scammers out there that use this tactic, you already know what you’re doing is wrong, but apparently you don’t care. Sure, you may not be directly stealing people’s money by selling them a product you don’t own, but in essence, you’re doing the very same thing. You’re involved in false advertising while breaking many of Craigslist’s rules. And while I’m no lawyer, I’m guessing that it’s incredibly illegal. Sure, you can hope that the court system stays in the dark ages with these kind of scams, but eventually it’ll catch up to you.

If you use Craigslist and run across one of these scams, the first thing you should do is notify the advertiser (the owners of the product or offer that you’re being tricked into signing up for). The advertiser usually has nothing to do with the scam and will be very upset to find out one of their affiliates are using such seedy tactics – especially when they could be potentially held liable. When you contact the advertiser and complain, you may just get that advertiser to break their relationship with the scammer. What this will do is force the scammer to sign up to be an affiliate for a new advertiser with a new product to sell – thus making them have to re-setup their whole scam. Sure, it’s only a temporary solution, but it hurts the scammer more than just going straight to Craigslist because that scammer can createa new Craigslist profile in seconds.

Like social networking sites, dating websites have become big lead sources for internet marketers (aka, spammers and scammers) to attack. With online dating websites they are able to focus directly on a particularly lucrative niche – singles looking for dates. Having such a valuable and focused niche has drawn all sorts of seedy Web individuals to exploit these types of websites and users by creating fake profiles in an attempt to lure unsuspecting singles seeking net-goers.

So what can an internet marketer do with a fake online dating profile? Well, one of the biggest scams is to create a profile that is designed to attract as many emails as possible from users looking to meet people online. Once they get these emails, the marketer can then use a variety of techniques to profit from the unsuspecting victims. For instance, say I am an affiliate for a competing dating website. Perhaps I’m an affiliate of Match.com and I create a fake profile on Yahoo Personals where I claim to be a hot twenty something girl looking for a good time. Whenever somebody emails me, I could email them back saying I don’t really use Yahoo all that much anymore and that I prefer using Match because of it’s security, or special features, or any number of other BS reasons. I’d then send a link to the interested party with a link to sign up at Match with my affiliate id in there so that I’d get paid if that person decides to sign up.

Pretty dang simple and you’d be suprised how many people would actually fall for this. Most people have no clue there are people out there creating fake dating profiles purely to trick people into following some affiliate link. If you were on one of these sites and saw somebody that just seemed perfect for you but when you emailed them they said they’d prefer talking with you at another site, wouldn’t you go ahead and sign right up? I think you would.

Also, keep in mind the affiliate links they are pushing may not be to other dating sites. They could be to photo sites, adult/pornography sites, and any other number of websites and services that may be used in conjunction with an online dating lead. Also, these people may even be automatting the process so that they are autocreating profiles and autoresponding to requests so that it’s all just a “set it and forget it” system.

Think this problem isn’t really all that widespread? Think again. Most of these internet marketers care about one thing – money. They love the internet because they can hide behind their computers and pretend like they aren’t hurting anybody. Just check out this forum thread of people discussing this very topic (be warned that some of the content on that website is NSFW).

To those out there employing this scam – try to realize it’s just that… a scam. You are committing fraud and not only is it unethical, it is likely illegal. You are sending terrible leads to whatever advertiser/service you are an affiliate of, you are scamming individuals out of money, and you are hurting the services you are creating fake profiles on. You’re likely not going to care about anything I say because to you, money is everything. It beats pride, self respect, and the notion that stepping on others to make a buck is horrible. Just because you can hide behind your computer screen doesn’t mean you’re not stealing from people and helping ruin various online businesses.

For people out there looking at dating websites as a way to meet people, don’t be too discouraged by this post. Sure, there’s some BS out there that may frustrate you, but overall dating websites are still a great resource for singles. Just try to use some common sense when using these services. If a person who seems way out of your league contacts you, you may want to put your guard up. If they try to convince you they use another website or have naked photos of themself somewhere else, realize you’ve just be targetted for a scam and notify the dating website immediately so that they can disable the offending account.

As a final note, let me say that I’ve actually used dating websites quite a bit and have met some incredible people – not to mention my current girlfriend who is just amazing.