5 ms·
Every time I try to search for a phone number (Bing/ddg) I get pages and pages of clearly auto generated fake names associated with numbers, all hosted on that
by jimmygrapes 3y ago
Every time I try to search for a phone number (Bing/ddg) I get pages and pages of clearly auto generated fake names associated with numbers, all hosted on that same Turkish government portal. I don't know why.
- mrtksn 3y agoInteresting, Are you sure it’s turkiye.gov.tr?
- jimmygrapes 3y agoNot entirely sure, no. Happens on work PC using Chrome (with uBlock Origin and most lists activatsd), but not at all on phone using Firefox, despite identical searches just tested now. I don't know enough about how this works to say much more.
- emmelaich 3y agoI get similar -- see my comment. But never gov.tr
- mysterypie 3y agoDoes anyone know the purpose served by those reverse phone number search sites that list hundreds of thousands of fake names and fake addresses?
- mrtksn 3y agoThe purpose is to serve ads and make money. They can do that because people will search for unknown numbers and names.
- mysterypie 3y agoWhen these fake name/number sites first appeared about 5-8 years ago, they didn't have any ads or even outgoing links. (I looked without an ad blocker.) Ads might be the explanation for many of them today, but I don't think it's the original or sole reason. Though I suppose it may have begun as a proof of concept without ads to gauge the traffic, then ads got added years later. I've read speculation that they were started by telephone spammers to poison the utility of those who-called-me websites that highlighted spammers' phone numbers. I don't think that's the real reason either. It sounds too cute and clever for spammers. (As an aside: nowadays those services are useless since spammers can so easily fake the caller-ID.) I'm still thinking that there is an interesting story for the original purpose.
- hakanderyal 3y agoThese are not on a goverment site, just the usual SEO spam.