I’ve been happily pinning for over a year on visual sharing site Pinterest, but when stories broke last month of the site breaking all kinds of ridiculous records including trumping the combined referral traffic of LinkedIn, Youtube, Google+ and Reddit and reaching more than 260 million unique visitors every month, I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before spammers found their way into our crafty online utopia.
I know I’m being selfish, but I liked the small(ish) dedicated and genuine community of nerdy craft, cooking, art, and DIY lovers that are (were) the Pinterest populace.
Pins with a cheeky price tag slapped on the corner of the image was what first heralded the invasion of those capitalising on Pinterest.com, so it’s no surprise that spammers have found their way onto our beloved pin boards too.
This morning, I read a story on www.simplyzesty.com about a scam which urges users to repin an image to redeem a gift. The condition to repin is particularly dodgy, allowing the ad to spread quickly through to other boards.
These pins don’t look anything like the genuine pins regular pinners will be used to, but since the scammers are using the functions within the site (i.e pinning) to make the campaign appear more legitimate, there are plenty of newbies bound to be caught out. And chances are, with the meteoric rise of pinterest set to continue, the scammers will get more saavy with their pins.
Boo 
Best beware, fellow pinners.
Have you spotted any scams on Pinterest? Let me know by commenting below… Meanwhile, check out darnsexysecondhand’s pinboards here
Hey Penelope,
Great blog! I found your profile on The Loop today.
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The concept of the project is to exhibit a series of 1000-word original creative writing pieces by authors paired with the images that inspired them. The outcomes of the project are to create an exhibition and possibly a photo-literary book with any sales profits being shared fairly between myself and the authors. For full details on the project please see the info page on my blog.
The deadline for entries is March 31st though I may be able to grant you an extra week or two if you’d really like to be a part of the project but can’t make March 31st.
For more info on myself please see my my website (www.camcope.com) and my blog (camcope.wordpress.com).
Please get in touch if you are interested.
Cheers,
Cam Cope