Getting a scary email from a law firm is no joke, especially when it claims you’ve violated copyright. According to 404Media, Ernie Smith, who runs the Tedium website, got one such email from a supposed law firm named Commonwealth Legal. They demanded that he be linked to a website called “tech4gods” or face consequences, and this is not the only example of fake AI lawyers hunting for backlinks. They tried the same trick on us too!
A while ago, we got the same kind of threat as Ernie Smith. Even though we use a copyright-free image for this instance, they claimed it was an “unauthorized usage.”
However, after we figured out what was happening for real, the case closed immediately, like Tedium’s.
AI-generated law firms hunt for backlinks
Let’s go back to the Commonwealth Legal that treatens Tedium. They are not real. Their “lawyers” are actually fake, generated by artificial intelligence. The whole thing is a scam to manipulate website rankings using what’s called backlinking.
So, what’s backlinking? It’s a sneaky trick where someone tries to get other websites to link to theirs. This makes their site look more popular to search engines like Google. And in this case, it seems like someone’s using fake legal threats to force people to do it.
When Ernie Smith received a suspicious copyright notice from Commonwealth Legal, he dug deeper and discovered the lawyers were AI-generated. Their AI-like expressions and fake addresses gave them away. Here is the notice:
Tech4Gods.com, the supposed beneficiary of these scams, denies any involvement. The guy who runs it, Daniel Barczak, says he’s innocent. He insists that a photo Ernie supposedly stole was actually from a free-to-use website. He’s just as much a victim of this scam as anyone else.
The scary part? This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Other people on the internet have reported similar scams. It’s like a never-ending game of trickery, with scammers always finding new ways to cheat the system.
Facebook is a heaven for click farms and has its own kind of AI Jesus
But here’s the thing: we can’t let them win. We need to stay vigilant and call out these scams when we see them. By working together to expose these fake lawyers and their sneaky tactics, we can make the internet a safer and more honest place for everyone.
Featured image credit: Eray Eliaçık/Bing
