Turbulence in the Pinoy blogosphere
Posted by 
September 16, 2009 •
My daily routine first thing in the morning is to read updates via netvibes and moderate comments (and reply to them if need be) before leaving for the office. It just so happens that I was reading up on my daily Rails (ruby on rails routine) when I stumbled into a blackmailing message on my comments.
Crab mentality FTW! [someone pointed out that me stating “It’s from a fellow pinoy” helped muddle the already murky situation, I assure everyone that there was no harm nor blame intended. It’s just that every blog that had the very same comment posted on them were Pinoy-owned blogs. Turns out, most if not everyone at the receiving end of the message is using Topblogs to track their blogs. >_> -1 for me for missing the painfully obvious.]
Update 4:
What started out as blackmail attempt to oust Ian Edson ended up blowing more embers than the culprit probably expected. Here’s the run down of the story so far.
Someone posted this around every pinoy-ran blog he could find (presumable targeting those tracked by topblogs) with the obvious intent of kicking Youtubemegavideo and Ian out of Adsense’s graces. Word of the attack reached Ian a few hours afterwards. Ian Edson posted his comment to clear out his name but the damage has clearly been done.
Actual screenshot of the comment in question:
We know for a fact that the culprit used two IPs: 209.107.217.19 and 209.107.204.13. While many have dismissed these as useless info, NilsC from the Adsense forums turned up some pretty useful information:
Some crap here – use it to build on.
Name : AliTTleBoY [ IP : 209.107.204.13 ]
Email used to sign up Msn: bboy_ddee hotmail.com209.107.204.13 – The IP address was detected at 2009-09-14 04:59:53 (UTC) as source of Hacking activities / Script Kiddie due to its suspicious behavior while accessing a honeypot (Module: r57Shell).
————————–
Email: [email protected]
Date Caught: 8/17/2009
IP Address: 209.107.217.19
Host Information: 209.107.217.19
————————Both IP’s belong here:
whois 209.107.217.19
BandCon BANDCON (NET-209-107-192-0-1)
209.107.192.0 – 209.107.223.255
RouteSense Corp ROUTESENSE-209-107-217-0-24 (NET-209-107-217-0-1)
209.107.217.0 – 209.107.217.255# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-09-17 20:00
BandCon
Tyler Hall
151 Kalmus Dr
Suite M2
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
US
+1.8882538353
As more and more people investigated the source of the comments, several of them including Ian himself pointed blame towards keybol. Investigator (a fellow caviteno.. dami pala bloggers from cavite) gave his statement to prove keybol’s innocence and soon afterwards, keybol himself (tama po ba?) also posted a comment to help clear his name from the issue.
What in the world is going on?
Same question that was going around in my head. Although as it stands, what’s clear is that the incident has sparked quite a few embers amongst our fellow pinoy bloggers which begs the questions. Who did this? Why did he do it? Etc, etc.
To the real culprit behind this. I hope your happy with the problems you’ve been causing everyone. I hope that you realize that the next time you pull something like this again, everyone will be hounding your heels.
Update 3:
Change accusatory seeming (I assure you it’s not) title to it’s current role now. (I didn’t realize it will help shift the blame towards keybol >_> sorry about that)
Let’s help Edson find this bastard and put him where he belongs.
Update 2:
Activity of Edson’s troublemaker [taken out since it’s treading on a different issue, not this]
Update:
Seems that my initial hunch was right. Ian Edson of Youtubemegavideo has confirmed that the poster who commented around on everyone’s blog about a possible clickbomb is NOT him but rather someone who’s out to ruin his name (see how Edzone is NOT Edson?) and therefore his livelihood from the big G.
The initial discussion is still on going here at the support forum for Adsense.
Respondents and reactions so far:
- Jehzeel Laurente
- Azrael for helping spread the word
- edgarluvitug
- Jon Limjap
- Pastilan
- Manang and her blogpost
- ark
- ianemv
- Investigator (a blogger from cavite)
- Keybol
- Ron
Oh.. this is scary. You can report this to Google para kahit may mag click bomb, safe ka. 😀
Thanks sir jehz.. nagfile na ako ng report bago ako ng post 😀 Kaso as usual 48 hours pa yung reply nila.
You can report this to Google. Para pag may mag click bomb, safe ka. 🙂
I was a victim too.. did a google search on the exact message and found your blog
What should we do???
Pano ba magreport??
Gusto ko maban yang BITCCCH na yan sa adsense
send email to: [email protected]. Kaso un nga, 2 to 4 days ang reply since it’s manual. It’s the best bet for a response from the adsense team though.
Meron din sa blog ko, eto ang page Bleach Episode 237. Ni-report ko na rin sa adsense. Nakakahiya lang kasi kapwa Pilipino pa ang ginawan nya ng ganun.
Why does it have to be a matter of being “Filipino”? Ibig sabihin ba kung sa iba niya ginawa okay lang?
Ang tingin ko dito isang demented individual lang ito and his actions do not represent Filipinos at all, in fact he represents the opposite of this.
Has anyone told Aileen Apollo about this?
Umm.. the mention of the word “Filipino” was used in context for both sides (victim and agressor).. It wasn’t used in anyway to degrade everyone but to simply point out a relationship between this blog and the other one.
yay. i mean sa dami dami pa ng blog baket sa mga blog pa natin, para kasing ang baba ng tingin nya sa atin, di ba nya alam na pwede natin sya isumbong at nakuha pa nyang takutin tayo. ^_^
i think sya talaga un, using the IP given sa screenshot, 209.107.204.13, search nyo sa Google. 🙂 Hindi lang tayo ang victim.
Hey, ako rin sa tatlong blogs ko nakarecieve rin ako ng comment na ganyan kanina madaling araw, irereport ko na rin ito sa Google. I will also post about it in my blogs. Akala ko ako lang yung may ganito na comments.
But I think hindi siguro yung may-ari ng http://youtubemegavideo.blogspot.com/ ang gumawa nito, baka someone na may galit sa kanya. Kasi kung sya ang gumawa parang napaka noob naman nya sa mga ganitong bagay kung ganun. Sa tingin ko ang motibo nito ay revenge.
At east medyo at ease mind ko ngayon na di lng pala sa akin directed yung comment na yun. Whew!
Yep, I agree na pedeng maging 3rd party but being na di natin alam ang precendents on what to do, it’s best to ask for help and more info from everyone.. hence the post.
Eto pala yung links ng mga post ko na may comments na ganito.
Whitney houston Interview with Oprah Part 2
Biggest Loser
Raymond Clark
Ako po yung owner ng site na namention. Di po ako gumawa non, at di ko alam kung sino. My hinch, keybol.org, siya lang may alam ng penname ko na edzone.
Only one Pinoy blogger knows my pen-name, my URL and the best bloggers URL, KEYBOL! I’ll be waiting for his explanation on this!
It just makes me sad that I am accused of doing things that I am not aware of. To the fellow bloggers out there, some of you (like Jehzlau), knows my email add, you should have notified me first directly about this incident, not directly reporting it to Adsense / Google.
I’m the VICTIM, not the culprit. 🙁
The report that I have submitted is possibility of a clickbombing on my site/account. I haven’t filed a report about a possible violation of Google’s TOS kasi as with Pastilian, I was hoping that it was due to a 3rd party.
Lemme edit the post with the information we’ve garnered so far.
Kindly disregard my first two comments, accusing Keybol of posting the spam scheme. Honestly, I just shocked and deeply saddened. This is a bad day for me. I am accused of posting spam messages across Top Pinoy Blog sites. Nagulat ako nung nalaman kong nakareport na ko sa Adsense Team, di ko man lang alam ung issue. I am the victim of some jealous, sadly Pinoy din (kasi alam nya pen-name ko), who’s trying to destroy someone’s life. I am sad kasi kung alam lang sana nya kung bakit ako nagbblog. I have two kids, and expecting another one this October 2009. The money I earn is just enough to cover my wife’s hospital expenses. I don’t know what I’ll do if my Adsense account do get banned. Hayyy… Email nyo naman ako.. [email protected]
Yung IP na ibinigay 209.107.204.13 hindi natin pwede asahan yan kasi pwede naman gumamit ng proxy yung gumawa nito.
Dapat Ian Edison isipin mo kung sino talaga ang pwedeng gumawa sa iyo nito, para ma trace natin. Nabasa ko na rin yung sa Adsense forum, kawawa ka nga victim ka dito…
Basta ang alam ko isa lang ang may alam ng alias ko na ‘edzone’, fellow Pinoy blogger din. Ang di ko maisip, bakit nya gagawin yun. Nagulat nga ko last week, may nakita akong video sa youtube, tutorial teaching users to click my ads, tapos may link papuntang site ko.
Akala siguro ng may gawa nito di sya matuntun, pag sure na ako kung sino sya (ngayon may clue na ako kung sino sya eh, sinisiguro ko lng) makakatikim talaga sya. Five letters lng yung domain nya, kung binabasa nya ito sana malaman nya na sya ang ibig kong sabihin. Shit sya
hindi pala five letters yung domain nya, six letters, starts with letter K
Hehe I think I already mentioned my prime suspect at my early comment. He’s the only guy who knows my alias ‘edzone’. Very stupid of him to use it.
Mukha ngang either someone is out to stop your google earnings out of revenge, or a competition wants to have your site stopped (kung wala ka nga namang earnings, bakit mo pa itutuloy?).
Well, thanks for the explanation. I just blogged about it in my kusina where the spammer left the message.
Nakatanggap din ako kanina madaling araw.. kinabahan nga ako eh.
Inggit lang pala ang tao’ng gumagawa nito kay mr. edson. Sana makarma siya.
I learned this extortion comment from Ark who happen to received one.
And this afternoon I was also reading some post from Jehzlau who had his stalker. Grabe naman yan, just be fair enough.
My blog is not really that huge but I’m trying my best to work it out.
Wala namang laglagan!
Sorry ieanemv if you were dragged to this mess. I was also very shocked when I searched for the first line of the spam comments in Google and found out na maraming may ganon. Ang suspicious, puro pinoy blog sites lang ang nilalagyan nya.
Isa lang talaga ang may alam ng alias ko na EDZONE, yung owner ng keybol.org. Kasi magkaYM kami non, link exchange daw.
Eto ang YM message ko sa keybol.org owner, di nagrereply at inistealth pa ko:
“pare tigilan mo na yung paninira sa site ko. natrace ka na namin. alam na ng lahat ng pinoy bloggers na di ako yung nagpapakalat ng spam comments. please, manganganak misis ko sa October, you won’t gain anything by sabotaging me. Obvious ka naman kasi ikaw lang may alam ng alias ko na ‘edzone’, tapos nagiwan ka pa ng comment sa wow-legs, pinay-chicken-heart, etc. e ikaw lang ang nagmention sa kin about those sites. sayang pre, don’t put your name to shame. marami ng galit na pinoy bloggers at alam na nila yung tunay na gumagawa non.”
Based on the only IP address I have found so far it’s a script kiddie on the prowl:
The IP address was detected at 2009-09-14 04:59:53 (UTC) as source of Hacking activities / Script Kiddie due to its suspicious behavior while accessing a honeypot (Module: r57Shell).
and from another source:
Name : AliTTleBoY [ IP : 209.107.204.13 ]
Email used to sign up Msn: bboy_ddee hotmail.com
More investigations are coming from me soon.. at abangan natin kung mababan nga ang account ni ian edson o hindi, ito ay isang malaking development sa Adsense policies, kung gaano sila kahigpit.
Kay ian edson, good luck pre, salamat at may masususbaybayan kaming parang telenobela sa adsense.
“The chronicles of a cliff-hanger adsense account”
Tandaan.. wag magaacuse kung walang solid evidence.
Isa rin ako sa napadalhan nito. I am the owner of exilez.com, nagpost din ako sa Google help forum knowing na si “ieamagpantay” pala ang owner ng blog. Sinubukan ko nring padalahan yung Google about this pero until now wala pang response. Sana masolve ito…!
Ian edson, ikaw ba to? http://www.zimbio.com/member/ieamagpantay
Seems like you are duping keybol’s content, I too received a message, the same spam message. That was a noob move so I dont believe its you.
But dont assume na si keybol nga may gawa, eh dinudupe mo nga yung content nya for bad SEO rankings. Tinignan ko kung kelan mo sinimulan matagal na, (browse through the articles with date.)
Good luck nalang po kasi naban yung account ko after pay out ng current month, so watch out kung pay out is sa Sept 26, mga Sept 30 or 1st week of Oct. bye bye na adsense mo, kaya lasapin mo na. Walang puso ang adsense haha, basta click fraud click fraud walang puso ang adsense LOL. Tamad lang sila magcheck ng accounts at sites pero once na makita nila, BOOM SHAKALAKA.
Also, I had my adsense account banned with the same scheme, pinagtulungan naman ako nung mga Pakistani bloggers, nagreport sila ng false reports. Good thing I have ano0ther account to use..
Also, dati may nireport akong site na puro porn, aba tumagal yung adsense sa site! natanggal lang before payout.
Mga idol ko sa SEO si keybol, bubble20snark, yung may ari ng site na to, si macuha, monacome, at jehzlau. Ikaw spammer sa mga video sites like dailymotion at metacafe.. Tsamba sa SEO
Disclaimer: hindi ako si keybol. Kung si keybol nga ang may gawa ng mga spam comments, edi sorry nalang..
Lasapin mo na yung earning mo this month kasi after this, you wont see a centavo coming from adsense. Wawa.
Subaybayan natin ang matindin issue na ito.. remember, I am THE investigatuurrrr.
Sorry if inde lumalabas ung comments mo.. kinakain ng akismet. 🙁 I had to sort it out of 1k++ spam comments >_>
Ulitin ko lang para fair kay keybol, ikaw ba to?:
http://www.zimbio.com/member/ieamagpantay
IEAMAGPANTAY = Ian Edson Amagpantay
Amagpantay ba surname mo?
Let me guess, investigator, di kaya ikaw yung nagpapakalat ng spam comments?
To answer your question, yes, aking zimbio account yan. inadd ko yung keybol.org kasi I already had a hinch na he’s doing the same thing to my account.
nyak! hindi ako.. kakilala ko si keybol. close kami. ok pre taga cavite ako, may site akong matino, pero alam ko hindi si keybol ang may gawa nyan. napakaunethical nun lalo yung pang ddupe ng articles for bad SEO rankings.
So you are unethical. and I am not. And keybol is not. Of course hindi ako nagkakalat nung spam napaka noob non no. kapwa Pilipino titrahin sa pwet?
Isa nga ako sa nakatanggap nun spam message na supposed to be you and I do not believe its you.
So I did an investigation which I am expert in.
Isa lang masasabi ko. Walang puso and adsense, saging lang ang may puso, SAGING LANG!
Eto ian edson, para maliwanagan ka, hindi saging ang adsense: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BffCNt_3r2o
take note, akala ko hindi ikaw yung sa zimbio na nangddupe, ikaw pala.
Okay. I admit, I’m wrong with blaming Keybol for all the Dupes of my sites and for the spam message. I’m sorry I did dupe his site on zimbio. I’m just human and I really believe his doing the negative actions to my site. His the only guy online who knows all the URLs of my sites, and the only person who knows my alias / pen-name of “Edzone”.
Keybol and I were close before. I even referred him to open up an Infolinks account and helped him do some SEO and site improvements. But after days of knowing him, bad things started to happen to my site. And now this Spam Comments.
Still, I believe that there is no justifiable reason to do such extortion comments against me.
This issue has greatly affected me and my family lately. I just feel that I have said enough. This will be my last post, and my final effort to save my Adsense account. To all, sorry for this mess. I’m sorry keybol for what happened between us. Investigator, sorry if I hurt your friend. If I do get my adsense account banned, well, God allowed it to happen so I’ll accept my fate.
Ian Edson,
Adsense is kinda dumb and investigates poorly, so whatever happens, just cross your fingers.
I just did not like accusing keybol for such doings. I know that person and I think keybol will not do it. Pero kung cya nga, ewan ko nalang kung ano nakain nun, but judging from keybol’s character, its imposible.
may anak na pinapalaki yun, at sa tingin ko pamilyado ka rin kaya good luck.
So I hope everything is clear now, remember, don’t accuse anyone without hard evidence. i also emailed adsense-support not for reporting your site, but just to protect mine.
WE BELIEVE YOU that you did not do those spams, tanga lang gagawa nun.
We still thank you kasi magandang case study tong situation mo, on how far adsense investigates, we will watch out.
See yah!
I’m sorry me ganitong nangyari Ian, buti ng message ka sakin s ym. Di ako ang gumawa nun. Mismong ako lumayo na sa blogging sa google trends and other seo stuffs, marumi na kasi. I blog on games because I am a gamer since childhood.
Now I also make games,i have done 5 flash games in fact. I have contacted EG24 and other big game sites to create a reputation in gaming. my site is categorized in topblogs as videogame blog. lumalayo na ko sa seo blogging because of personal reasons. I got hijacked, plagiarized and all stuffs. So I decided to evolve, learn flash, actionscripts and make games, post the link on game sites to get visitors. check my feedjit where my visitors are from.
I posted this to clear my name. I also have a daughter and a house financed. I’ll help you Ian just tell me what to do.
PS baka mamisquote pa ko, kya doble ingat ako. ‘Im sorry’ meaning I am saddened or I feel sorry what happened even though i have nothing to do it with it. sana nagets nyo
wala akong kinalaman dito. ako nga pinakahuli sa nakaalam sa pangyayaring to. sabit pala ko. baka naman ma misquote pa ko dito, un duplicating content s zimbio, dami n actually ngplagiarize skin and inautoblog ang feeds ng mga post ko. i have my own experiences of the evil side of blogging, nauso rin ang walkthroughs sa mga pinoy blogs. but hinayaan ko na lang since di nman totally hijacking na, naopen lng siguro ang discovery ko about keyword walkthroughs.
final word, wag naman sana akong paghinalaan. sana meron ding mga posts about “Help Keybol to clean his name”
ermm.. sorry if yung naging title ng blog post e tumulong na magshift ng blame towards you >_> No harm intended kasi ang point lang sana talaga ng post was to help raise awareness na something’s up.. will post an update and a better and much more clearer title after posting this comment.
Ayan. Updated with the current story so far.
Got the same comment. Reported to AdSense.
ok thanks
Sorry Keybol for dragging you into the mess. BTW, I already emailed Zimbio to remove your blog from their site. I’m sorry if I did become so childish in blaming you immediately.
To the rest of the Pinoy blogs who received the extortion comments, my only request is that when you report to Adsense, please inform them that you have already made contact with the site owner and verified that I am not the own who did the spamming. Mga pinoy naman tayo lahat, tulong-tulong na lang. As revealed by a Top Adsense Forum user, the culprit is from the US.
Thanks! Sorry uli Keybol!
Keybol himself became a victim of plagiarism in his walkthroughs. So nung nabasa ko na he is being dragged into this, naisip ko, “Ano ito, gumaganti ba siya?”
When I received the extortion comment with the link, I did not approve/publish it and did not report it to adsense. I don’t want to jump any conclusions.
Keybol sent me an email clearing up his name and I believe him. Of course, I also know that Edson would not do this foolish extortion comment thing.
Ian and anyone else who are following this thread. An AdSense Pro left a comment on AdSense forum in this thread:
sylv3rblade – nice site you have, to bad I can’t read and understand it all.
Nils
not sure why I can’t get the links in the right location.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?hl=en&tid=6d0c8f1015fee159
Hi NilsC, I have linked to the thread in the adsense forum. Thanks for escalating the issue.
..but I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do…
Is this a good sign or a bad sign? I hope they don’t do anything drastic against my account. I’m keeping my fingers crossed as we as fast approaching the September payout.
Thank you for all the help NilsC.
“..but I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do…”
akala ko sasabihin nung Adsense PRO “I can ask someone here to look into it, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time.. BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME!”
Good luck Ian! sinusubaybayan namin ang case mo.
Napadpad lang ako sa site na to after reading the adsense forums.
Poor Ian, nakakagago yung mga ganung tao, wala kang kamalay malay tinititira ka na pala.
Tip ko lang kay Ian, yung url mo bayoleysyon sa TOS, “youtube” is a G product, and baka madale ka jan, read the policies of adsense, ako sinapuso ko yun eh. pero mukang matagal na site mo kaya ok na siguro. Tinagalog ko para hindi maintindihan ng Adsense investigators kung basahin to.
Natawa naman ako dun sa “but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time” binlog ko pa naman yun haha.
Anyway, the verdict is released.
MY SITE IS BANNED FOR ADSENSE.
But I still keep my Adsense Account. I know some of you are happy now. Thanks anyway.
Ok, guys I’ll tell my side to this story. And my questions ako na baka makatulong kung sino talaga ang gumawa nun. I’m giving my opinions here as a SEO Specialist and I do investigate this kind of things.
@Ian – ok lng yan, site lng pala na-banned hindi account.
Ok questions
1. Sino yung mga competitors niyo? Dapat kilala niyo sa pangalan hindi sa site.
2. Anung keywords kayo nagkakatalo? I experienced my site being banned from big G, dahil merong inggetero, siguro hirap siya lagpasan ako sa rankings.
3. Did you follow his/her footprints? Para ma-trace niyo kung anu ginagawa niya. Either BH or other things.
4. (eto hindi na question toh) May ugali ang pilipino na gumaya kapag nakita niya kumikita yung isa. Like in my case, kilala ko kung sino yung mga gumaya sa mga keywords namin nila Jhez, Marghil at iba pa. Ok, lng yun wag ka lang gagawa ng dirty tactics. Play the game fair.
5. Be cool, Madali kang tatanda niyan eh. LOL
Guys, be vigilant kayo ata baka umulit yang mokong na yan. (pwede siyang mag-panggap na biktima, pwede rin siyang mag-panggap na usisero)
Our Baby Girl Born from Blogging http://edzoneonline.blogspot.com/2009/10/eian-gabrielle-dalde-magpantay-october.html