Nah what am I doing wrong?? This man is making money by spamming! Hit the jump for the story.
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Shotta Dru on Google+
A 24-year-old man who calls himself “Steve†makes more than $1,000 per day pinning Amazon product links on Pinterest, one of 2012′s hottest social networks.
Taking advantage of the startup’s fast growth and optimal user demographics — consisting mostly of brand-savvy women with an annual household income of more than $100,000 and a love of shopping — spammers are making huge amounts of money just by pinning items to Pinterest and directing consumers to make purchases on Amazon.
The Daily Dot published an interview with Pinterest spammer Steve after exposing an underground community of spammers targeting the hot site.
On Amazon, he uses various accounts including the name “final-fantas07.†At one time, thousands of his spambots are sharing posts on Pinterest. He showcases products to the Pinterest community, appealing especially to women, who repin posts and buy items linked to Steve’s Amazon accounts.
“Pinterest is by FAR the easiest social network to spam right now,†Steve told The Daily Dot. “Quite possibly the easiest ever to spam. It requires almost no work to get started and no money to invest. You just have to know how the system works and how you can fix it to your advantage.â€
He’s made up to $1,900 a day since he started spamming Feb. 20. The above image was Pinned with a link to Steve’s Amazon account, through which fake user “Nancy Nelon†only pins items from Amazon.com. The Pinterest account is also linked to a Twitter feed that bears no activity and a different first name.
“I fully expect next week’s earnings to be $2,000 to $2,500 a day. There are no guarantees in this business and it could all come crashing down soon,†he said. “Not a matter of if, but when will it happen.â€
Out of Steve’s collection of fake accounts, he says, Pinterest has only deleted one.
Pinterest acknowledges it is working on minimizing the spam users see. In a statement sent to Mashable on behalf of the company, the company said:
As a growing service, Pinterest is not immune to challenges faced by sites across the web, including spam. However, it is a tremendous priority for us to quickly address them. Our engineers are actively working to manage issues as they arise and are revisiting the nature of public feeds on the site to make it harder for fake or harmful content to get into them.