Unsurprisingly, super scam site, BlackHatWorld.com offers a variety of link building services from numerous "approved" sellers. That now includes the Indian scammer Luhasr, who will now build "Real EDU Scholarship Links From Very High Authority EDU/University College Sites".
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/real-edu-scholarship-links-from-very-high-authority-university-college-websites.990080/
Though I didn't particularly have high hopes that Luhasr was offering a genuine service, as always, I investigated further to see what this new and exciting service was all about, and whether Luhasr was in the process of changing his spots.
His new link building service appeared on November 25, 2017, on BlackHatWorld.com, and received the seal of approval by "BassTrackerBoats".
The average link building service/scam on BlackHatWorld.com usually evolves around randomly dropping links on websites, making blog comments, or even adding them to a private blog network. Luhasr, however, was offering "scholarship" links, which is fine if your website actually offers scholarships.
This service isn't cheap and will cost you $145 for just 5 "guaranteed" EDU backlinks, or $235 for 10 "guaranteed" backlinks plus bonuses, whatever that means.
At first I was a bit perplexed as to what Luhasr was offering, but after reading some of the comments, it quickly became apparent Luhasr wasn't being honest, and was essentially selling a fraudulent service.
One of his first customers left a review, which was in the usual BHW praise the seller style, but I'm not sure if I've just wasted my money buying complete crap posts.
The user is called "Samrichards", and allegedly bought a 5 backlink package at $145, and was pleased with the "excellent" communication and the hard work Luhasr put into building his EDU links. However, he also goes on to say that he doesn't expect any traffic benefits from these backlinks, and that they won't be permanent and will only last between 6 and 8 months.
Despite spending $145 on 5 backlink's that won't offer any traffic benefits and will end up getting deleted in 6 to 8 months, Samrichards thinks Luhasr should be your number 1 choice if you decide to buy EDU backlinks.
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/real-edu-scholarship-links-from-very-high-authority-university-college-websites.990080/page-2#post-10635662
Is Samrichards, yet another one of Luhasr's fake accounts, or somebody within this circle? I'm not sure, but if he isn't, he's a complete idiot.
A BlackHatWorld.com Moderator with a Conscience
To my surprise, a BlackHatWorld.com moderator called "BHopkins" question the service being sold, and specifically said it was a fraudulent service, as Luhasr was offering the service to website owners who did NOT offer scholarships, and contacting EDU websites and blatantly lying to them, in exchange for a backlink.
Luhasr responded in his usual and unique pidgin English style, and said:
Did you understand any of that? I didn't.
Time to Contact Luhasr
I'll be honest, despite reading the sales pitch several times, and the comments I was still confused as to what Luhasr was really selling. So, time to create yet another account and go through the usual process of asking for a sample, blah, blah, blah, blah.Like a cheetah Luhasr pounces on any potential customer/victim in next to no time, and offers a copy and paste reply as to how he plans to build EDU back links to your website.
Luhasr first message:
So, essentially, he wants access to your website, username and password, plus an email address. He then creates a fake page on your website claiming you offer free scholarships to anybody who applies. After that, he moves onto the next step of contacting EDU websites which match your website subject matter, using the new email address and hopes that they take the bait and add your website URL to their free scholarship list.
I reply to Luhasr and specifically tell him he cannot access my website online, as it is made with an off-line website builder. I also tell him my website is a about fly fishing in Canada, though, of course, it doesn't exist.
Luhasr replies back:
Luhasr wants my website URL. I was really tempted at this point to post the URL of this website, but that would have blown my investigation. So, I provided him with a random website on the Internet, which I won't reveal here. But before that, I make it quite clear that I'm not going to be offering scholarships, and await for his reply.
He's not making himself clear, but I think he implies that I don't have to offer EDU scholarships to buy his service. Anyway, I make it quite clear to him again that I'm not going to be offering scholarship links, but instead just want high quality links to boost my ranking, not to be in the position where all my links get removed after the EDU websites clock on that I have no free scholarships on offer.
Luhasr reply is:
He makes it quite clear that don't have to offer a scholarship program. He goes on to say that he has other customers who don't offer scholarships, and it hasn't been a problem.
So, just as I suspected he's blatantly lying to EDU websites, and trying to trick them into giving you a free backlink. Somehow I don't think this is a great business model as sooner or later people will start asking where their free scholarship is, which in turn will result in your link being removed.
After that I don't send he any further messages for a day, but he's not giving up and sends me the following message:
He really wants my money, doesn't he? So I ask if the links are permanent and whether they are do-follw or no-follow. Do–follow means the links will be considered by search engines such as Google as a ranking factor, while links which carry the no-follow attribute are worthless. I also ask him what kind of improvements in rankings I can expect to see.
He replies:
90% of the links are do follow. So, what's that 4 out of 5 links? He also says don't expect my ranking to improve immediately as it will take time. I then ask him if the links are permanent as after all, I could be spending $145 on just the cheapest package alone.
He replies:
The links aren't permanent then, huh? For either $145 or $235 this isn't looking like a great deal, is it? He goes on to say he can offer a one-year scholarship campaign. By that I presume he means he will keep on lying to EDU websites, after the original ones realise your website doesn't offer scholarships and swiftly remove your link.
After that I made no further communication with the scammer. However, he was still desperate to get hold of my money and kept asking me if I was still interested in buying his worthless service.
Conclusion
With no real surprise Luhasr hasn't changed his spots and has added yet another scam service to his portfolio on BlackHatWorld.com. Unlike his micro niche website scam, this one focuses on building backlinks from EDU websites. The scam works by adding a fake page on your website claiming that you offer free scholarships to websites that match your subject matter. Of course, you don't offer a scholarship, but Luhasr contacts these websites claiming that you do in exchange for a backlink.Some websites may very well take the bait, but these will almost certainly be of a low quality which could end up hurting your ranking rather than improving it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if your link just ends up on a spammed EDU message board. Of course, any reputable EDU website will doublecheck that you do offer scholarships before accepting your site.
What Luhasr is offering for $145-$235 is nothing new, and you can find all the information by doing a Google search on building EDU backlinks. If you did offer some kind of service such as scholarships to certain subject matters, you could easily build 5 to 10 links in a matter of a couple of hours yourself.
If you have bought this scam, then again I recommend that you log into your PayPal account and start a chargeback immediately.
