# WARNING: School project linking scam. "The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kids"



## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

*WARNING: School project linking scam. "The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kids"*

(I'm not sure this is the correct forum to to post this to, feel free to move it to the appropriate forum as needed.)

I've seen it before, but lately an email has been circulating and is being sent to various bee related websites (honey producers, beekeeping associations), asking you to post a link to a students beekeeping related web project. The link is on a commercial site and the page does have beekeeping information on it. However, the information is stolen from another source and there are hundreds of links to products on the commercial site. In short it's an attempt to boost rankings with the search engines by building links to their site. 

The most recent version of the letter I've received from one of our local association in the state is as followed (URL mangled so adding it here doesn't give them another link)
_Hello and greetings from Delaware and Ms. Ward's classroom!

I hope you don't mind me contacting you like this. I'm currently working with my class to revamp my classroom website with new sections and information for students, parents, educators, etc. (in desperate need of an update). One of my 
students, Anna, came across your page, (insert your website here) while searching for resources for our "Outdoor Activities" section and found some great information there that we will most likely be adding to my site.

As part of the project, the kids are required to find and share a resource with the people that we have borrowed information from for "using their stuff," as 
one student put it (haha). This is something that Anna thought would go well on your website (I thought beekeeping was such a cool and unique idea!):

__"The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kids"
www__fragrancex__com/Fragrance-Information/beekeeping-adults-kids.html
 
My hope is that if you find it useful at all that you might consider posting this along with the other links on your site. When I get to show the kids that someone actually posted their link, I think it acts as a mini-motivator and keeps them engaged in the project (which is obviously awesome).

Anyway, if you are able to post it just shoot me an email and let me know so I can show her and her group and thanks ahead of time for playing a small role in this 

I hope to hear from you soon!

Ms. Deborah Ward (and Anna)_​

This of course is fraudulent and an attempt to get you to help market their online store. The real source of this information (so far as I can tell) is http://www.ssibeekeepers.com/the-guide-to-beekeeping-for-adults-and-kids 
which is a valid beekeeping association website and isn't full of hidden links to online stores.

So please check your association, your state association and your own websites for the bad link. Googling "The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kids" shows a lot of hits, most of which are for the fraudulent site.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

*Re: WARNING: School project linking scam. "The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kid*

Yeah, and at the bottom of the mentioned page are links to Men's Cologne and Discount Perfume!


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

*Re: WARNING: School project linking scam. "The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kid*

I got another one recently that was a bit more slick. It was for a community center (and there was a website setup for the center...but no location...not even what state).

I think the "students" wanted me to link to some kind of information (I'm sure it was a product of some kind)....the killer? The teacher was going to buy the kids a special pizza lunch party if they were successful in getting their link on my website.

deknow


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

*Re: WARNING: School project linking scam. "The Guide to Beekeeping for Adults and Kid*

Just look the html page. It's worse than the 2 links, not to mention the improper markup.

Another article send out in the same pretense is "The Bee's Knees: A Personalized Resource Guide on Beekeeping" www_redenvelope_com/blog/resource-guide-on-beekeeping (I think it's a bit older but is still linked by many beekeeping websites). I don't know the original source for this one, but I guarantee they copied it from somewhere.

It's amazing the number of associations and other websites that fell for it (pollinator.com, various university extentions, etc.)


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