Hello Ellen,

 

I have received a number of these spam messages over the past few weeks and I had hoped they would eventually taper off. However, it doesn’t appear that is the case. So I’ll take the direct approach.

 

I’m a member of the CCIE Advisory Council. Which means I am obligated to report any and all attempts to infringe upon the integrity of the exam. As you have seen fit to continue to email me to link to your site to promote your test dumps I think you should be aware that I will be reporting you to the CCIE team.

 

Good luck in your future endeavors after they shut you down for violating their exam terms and conditions. And do not email me again.

That’s an actual email that I sent TODAY to someone (who probably isn’t really named Ellen) that has been spamming me to link to their CCIE dump site. The spam is all the same. They really enjoy reading a random page on my site, usually some index page picked up by a crawler. They want me to insure a link to their site which is a brain dump site for CCIE materials, judging by the URL I refuse to click on. They say that if I am not interested that I should just ignore it, which I have been doing for the past two months. And that brings us to today.

Setting the Record Straight

Obviously, the company above is just spamming any and all people with reputable blogs to help build link credibility. It’s not a new scam but one that is pervasive in the industry. It’s one of the reasons why I try to be careful about which links I include in my posts. And I never accept money or sponsorship to link to something. Where appropriate I include information about disclosures and such.

What makes this especially hilarious is that I’m a pretty public member of the CCIE Advisory Council. I’ve been a part of it for almost three years at this point. You would think someone would have a little bit of logic in their system to figure this out. That’s like sending a pirated copy of an ebook to the author. Maybe revenue is down and they need to expand. Maybe they’re looking for popular networking bloggers. Who knows? Maybe they really like poking bears.

What is certain is that I wanted everyone to know that this goes on. And that I’m going to do something about it at the very least. I will report this person’s site, which I will not link to since it won’t be up much longer, and ensure that this crap stops. It’s not just the annoying spam. It’s the fact that they can be this brazen about looking for link karma for a dump site from someone that has the most investment in not having dumps out there.

Don’t buy dumps. You’re not doing yourself any favors. Learn the material. Learn the process. Learn why things work. When you do this you learn how to handle situations and all their permutations. You don’t just think that the answer to a routing protocol redistribution problem is just “B”. You should check out any reputable CCIE training vendor out there first. It’s going to cost you more than the dumps but you’re getting more for your money. Trust me on that.

Moreover, if you get these kinds of emails as a writer or podcaster, don’t accept them. By linking back to these sites you’re adding a portion of your clout and goodwill to them. When (and it’s always when) they get shut down, you take a hit from being associated with them. Don’t even give them the time of day. I had been ignoring this spam for quite a while in the hopes that this group would get the picture, especially based on their text that says ignoring it would make it go away. Alas for them, they pushed one time too many and found themselves on the wrong side of a poked bear.

Tom’s Take

Okay, rant over. This is stuff that just rubs me the wrong way. Not only because they don’t take silence for a hint but because they’re just trading on the good name of other networking bloggers in the hopes of making a few quick bucks before getting shut down and moving on to the next enterprise. I’m going to push back on this one. And the next one and the one after that. It may not amount to much in the long run but maybe it’s the start of something.