AI-Powered Fake Copyright Trolling Threat Letters Really Just An SEO Scam
from the ai-powered-[adjective]-[top-topic-on-Techdirt]-threat-letters-really-just-[top-topic-on-Techdirt] dept
This headline is like a version of Mad Libs for Techdirt titles.
We’ve been covering the problem of copyright trolls for many years. And lately, we’ve been covering the scammy uses of generative AI tools. And we’ve absolutely covered quite a few SEO scam stories, where people try to use some scam or another to influence search results.
But here’s a story that has all three.
It starts with a Fediverse thread from Ernie Smith from the website Tedium (which is worth following, by the way). He received a DMCA email, claiming that an image on Tedium violated someone’s copyright:
But, as Ernie quickly noted, the image is actually from Unsplash, a stock photography website where images are freely usable under the site’s license. There are some other oddities in the threat letter as well. First, just the fact that it comes from a “trademark attorney” seems weird, given that it’s a copyright issue. But, even more strange is that they don’t ask for the image to be removed or even for payment. Rather, all they want is for a link to some random site?
Ernie looked at the webpage for the supposed “law firm,” “Commonwealth Legal Services,” which looks not just stupidly generic:
But the part showing its lawyers looks very obviously created using artificial intelligence.
Ernie also looked up the address of the supposed law firm, and it looks, well, pretty different from the image on their website.
So, it quickly becomes clear that this is just an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings through deceptive means. It’s just an SEO scam. It is trying to trick bloggers into adding links to random websites through threats of copyright infringement claims.
Such fake claims come in all the time. We used to get them semi-regularly, though it’s been a while since the last time I saw one.
Four years ago, we actually saw something similar, where SEO scammers used surreptitious Wikipedia changes to claim copyright on Wikimedia Commons images, and to demand links to spam websites. But this one is a bit different, in that it’s now added in fake AI lawyers to the mix.
Jason Koebler at 404 Media confirmed that the “lawyers” on the Commonwealth page are AI-generated. He also confirmed that Commonwealth’s supposed phone numbers are disconnected and not in service. On top of that, he actually spoke to the operator of the website that the bogus threat letter demanded a link back to, who insisted that he wasn’t behind this, even as it appears he has experimented with spammy SEO techniques in the past.
Barczak told me that he had been previously buying backlinks to his website for SEO, but said he wasn’t aware of who was doing this or why. “I have no idea; it certainly has nothing to do with me,” he said. “However, recently, someone has been building spammy links against my site that I have been dealing with.”
“I have mastered on-page SEO, but unfortunately, I buy links due to a lack of time,” he added. “In the past, I had a bad link builder. I wonder if it’s him going mad at me for letting him go … It’s hard to say the web is massive, and everyone can link whenever they want.” Link building is an SEO strategy devised to get outside websites to link to your website.
He added that “bad links may damage [the site’s] profile in Google’s eyes.” In this case, however, the “lawyers” were threatening a well-established tech blogger, and a link from Tedium would likely be treated as a positive in the search algorithm’s eyes.
Meanwhile, Kevin Purdy at Ars Technica pointed out that Commonwealth’s website was only registered on March 1st of this year.
Stories like these are among the reasons we find copyright trolling so insidious and problematic. Copyright remains the one legal tool that most people have to threaten site owners to get content removed from websites. Copyright threats (both real and imagined) have become so common that just about everyone understands the threats associated with them.
Add to that the eye-popping amounts that most people have heard regarding copyright-related court awards and settlements. When most unsophisticated people receive a threat, they pay attention. So, the scam is just shifting slightly here, by using the broken copyright system as a wedge to try to get something else entirely: spammy SEO backlinks.
And, when combined with AI-generated fake lawyers, it gives it at least a semblance of legitimacy for unsophisticated recipients. This story is only making news because Ernie knew enough to know this was all bullshit, and then was able to do the initial investigation and then post online about it.
Filed Under: ai, copyright, copyright trolling, generative ai, search engine optimization, seo, seo scam, spam
Comments on “AI-Powered Fake Copyright Trolling Threat Letters Really Just An SEO Scam”
Seems to me that the best answer to these scams is directly confronting the accuser before going to trial and saying
“If you think I stole something from you, why don’t you call the police?”
Re: Confronting the Accuser???
It’s a scam.
Re: Re:
yes, and…
anything additional you can get from the scammer can contribute to tracking them down and holding them accountable for their fraud. Not to mention the opportunity to annoy the hell out of a scammer.
And, of course, if you’re not sure it really is a scammer, it’s a good way to expose them as such.
Re: Re: Re:
Considering what happened this week…
Copyright law beats down relentlessly and cruelly on the whole wide world, like the midday sun. But when someone who is willing to stand up for their innocence and the innocence of others comes between copyright and the world of artists, it casts a shadow that can shade us from the consequences of violating the law ourselves. All the anger, all that heat is directed at the individual as the law seeks a scapegoat, not realizing that said scapegoat is standing between the law and innocent people. From where we stand, the arrest and conviction of these individuals blocks out the law by their sacrifice.
So, by standing up to copyright, we can and should cause a Total Eclipse of the Law, just as the Moon’s shadow “stood up” to the Sun. Both can result in amazing and mind-blowing things.
Re: Re: Re:2
Dammit, I wish I had the brain power to write the proper-ass parody lyrics that this sentence deserves. 😆
Re: Re: Re:3
There should be someone who knows how to write a good parody song- the concept of thieves paying a sacrificial price for open and unfettered access to information for everyone else in the world to enjoy what they “stole” is worth singing about
In the article, Koebler interviewed someone who said it’s likely they were AI-generated using GAN. That’s a bit different from independently confirming, but after researching GAN I can see what they mean.
There may be more tentacles on this beast
cw-office.com’s IP address is in a /20 operated by “Hawk Host, Inc”, which has for some odd reason NOT set up a matching DNS PTR record for it. (Best practice for decades is that if there’s a DNS A record for cw-office.com, which there is, that points to 198.252.102.197, then the PTR record for that IP address should point back to cw-office.com. See “FCrDNS” in Wikipedia.) The PTR record currently in place points to 198.252.102.197-static.reverse.arandomserver.com, which is the same base pattern as 3610 other records out of a total of 4096 in that /20. This doesn’t inspire confidence in the competence or diligence of the hosting provider. Neither do the other sketchy domains/hostnames in that block.
Not disputing that these portraits are fake, but it’s hardly “obvious” to me.
Could some kindly point me to a resource or two where I can learn how to spot this kind of fakery?
Re:
Well, in this case, there are multiple copies of the same faces, with slight differences.
i can’t think of anything particular off the top of my head (although i’ve seen a few articles and videos), but a search for “identify AI-generated images” would probably be a start.
Re:
i as well.
not enough blacks or native indians for ai
Copyright, now so scammy SEO assholes use it.
Maybe now we can get Congress to act.
falls out of his chair laughing
I almost made it long enough to hit post without laughing.
You people think it’s funny!
But here’s a prime example of AI taking jobs from poor, honest, hardworking, SEO scammers like Jhon Smith!
This is pretty funny.
Love the hustle!!
This is “You can’t blame us for abusing copyright enforcement, the bot made us do it” taken to embarrassingly blatant levels. And they were plenty embarrassing and blatant before!
When has copyright trolling not been an SEO scam?
Re:
Says the troll that doesn’t realize what SEO even stands for.
Re: Re:
Bayside Advisory still doesn’t know you exist, bro.
You can stop the white knight act.
Must have. I’m sure I’ve seen ‘Liam Clark’ and ‘Ruby Hall’ on TV or in a movie before.