Yakezie.com - Topic: Scholarship Spam?

PK @ DQYDJ on Scholarship Spam?

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:04:42 +0000

I told you earlier it was probably just automated votes. Even with IP checking you could just bounce it through proxies anyway - captcha checking would be the best because then you'd have to at least have a person clicking through.

Shannyn @FrugalBeautiful.com on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:40:37 +0000

Thanks Jeff- ya I'm going to focus on making some money other ways on the blog :)

Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:24:56 +0000

Dont be angry, just stop wasting time with it. Having your blood boil over this isnt worth it - there's plenty of other scholarships or ways to make money that wont make you angry :)

Shannyn @FrugalBeautiful.com on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:24:24 +0000

I realize it's plausible since I cleared my cache and was able to vote again. I reached out to another finalist who was involved last year (was a runner up) and he said that some people openly admitted to running codes and doing stuff like this, and yet the site does nothing about it? I would have to say they're in on it.

So...angry..not sure who I am mad at more, them or me.

Sustainable PF on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:54:46 +0000

Unless they plan to discount votes based on IP, what I wrote is 100% plausible. I did it ...

I was in the running for best Canadian blog from a major newspaper here and there was a similar issue - cookie based controls.

Shannyn @FrugalBeautiful.com on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:34:32 +0000

I emailed them stating that and they insist they check IP and what you did "isn't possible." I call shenannigans and I think this is a big fat fraud. I'm so angry and I feel so stupid- I'm wondering if I should pull my blog out of the running.

One person with NINE RSS subscribers got over 322 votes in under 24 hours.

Another with an Alexa Rank of 2 million+ (granted he has a big twitter following of 3k) has 2,024 votes in under 24 hrs.

I feel like such an idiot, but I spent time before I entered researching the scholarship- last year the most votes any finalist received was around 1,000 (feasible) and the blogs all looked like normal blogs... UGH. I'm so angry.

Sustainable PF on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:54:41 +0000

My guess, cheating.

The contest is not counting votes via IP.

I cleared my cookies and temp internet files from my browser and I am able to vote every time I do this. I didn't, but this is how many votes could be garnered.

vote, clear cookies/temp files, refresh, vote - lather rinse repeat

Dana on Scholarship Spam?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:06:16 +0000

Could they have a large social media presence - tons of friends on Twitter or Facebook? I think that could account for a large number of votes in a short period of time...

Shannyn @FrugalBeautiful.com on Scholarship Spam?

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:18:00 +0000

Hi again!

So, I entered an essay for a scholarship and was chosen as a finalist- yay! Problem is- the finalists were announced at about 5-6pm CST and it is currently 10:12 CST and some people already have 700+ votes... do you think this is spam-tastic or somehow a legit scholarship?

Here's the link: http://www.collegescholarships.....holarship/

I'm not sure what to do, it seems like they've handed out genuine scholarships in the past but I'm a bit confused at how "normal" bloggers could generate that many votes in well under 5 hrs...and if they did do it, HOW did they do it? (ha).

Thanks for your feedback!