Spammers are flooding Google with fake copyright complaints

Spammers have taken an odd turn in their unending quest to sell you fake Viagra.

According to a post by TorrentFreak, Google is currently awash in “fake” Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices sent by spammers using Google’s own forms.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1806379,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"A"}']

Spammers are obviously not using these forms to take down any pirated content. Instead, they’re using takedown notices to (very ironically) promote their own stolen and/or bootlegged wares — like sunglasses, handbags, software, and designer clothes. Not to mention spammers’ bread and butter: male enhancement pills.

A quick check of Chilling Effects shows page after page of these fake notices clogging up Google’s pipeline. They look like this:

Posted from 16 years in the future! Truly amazing.

The point of all of this is unclear. As with every other form of spam known to man, it appears to be the product of a bizarre strategy, is barely readable, and seems to be far more trouble than it’s worth.

If the goal is an SEO boost, none of these notices on Chilling Effects are indexed by Google. If the goal is to advertise via a dense regulatory motion that’s mostly automated and largely ignored, then congratulations, spammers!

Google already dedicates huge resources to investigating these claims. In fact, Google DMCA notices reached an all-time high last year with 7.8 million submissions in a single week — about 13 every single second.

Please contact me on Twitter if you’re the type of person to buy bootleg Viagra via a DMCA copyright notice.