When a “comment” is a come-on

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Good morning. We’re playing catch-up today, so bear with us. This item is a weird one; it came in as a comment, but is clearly an unpaid advertisement. We don’t have a hard and fast policy on whether to publish this kind of comment -- if a blogger, for example, posts a comment that calls attention to his or her blog, that’s a kind of advertisement. But sometimes we go ahead and publish, because we decide the link, or the comment, has some value. On the other hand, we routinely decide not to publish comments that have no informational value -- are you listening, Costa Rica land-for-sale guy?

That said, we thought this one was worthwhile. We think the news value here is obvious -- this is a website that helps you create fictitious pay stubs -- so that you can qualify for loans. (What’s the news value? Now that old-fashioned, stated income ‘liar loans’ are hard to get, there are new ways to lie to get a loan.) We deleted the website being advertised, but here’s a hint: it does begin with the word ‘fake’:

‘I say if you cant beat them.....join them! GET THE COMMISSIONS YOU DESERVE!!! http://www.fake(deleted).com seems like you can get any bad credit home or car loan simple fast and easy! if you are needing a proof of income letter or any other ways to make or create the perfect pay slip cheque then you are on the right track! http://www.fake(deleted).com it is simple, for you can use the easy to use fake pay check stubs anytime anywhere even if you need a fast cash pay day loan. How about refinancing or consolidating all of your bills! this is it! if you want fake id or need fake pay check stubs for the job then i suggest using the best site on the net http://www.fake(deleted).com ... it worked for me!!!’

While we’re on the subject of random dot-com come-ons, we received a new one in our Yahoo email the other day. We’re immune to the usual wave: every day we win several lotteries (usually the ‘Irish lottery’), are reminded by Pay-Pal, EBay or some of the nation’s largest banks to kindly re-enter our social security number for security reasons, and are befriended by numerous African heirs and heiresses who need our help in claiming their fortunes. The new one was this: a woman working as a fashion model in London is coming to town and wants to rent a room from us for a couple of weeks. We give that one points for creativity.

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