New "Scam": exploiting "netizen reporting" as social proof for fake stuff

Some news sources, such as CNN iReport, AllVoices, Gather, and so on, rely on local netizens to provide a more local perspective on certain news and events which are then taken over by the "real" crew. However, some of the reports filed locally are published on the website "as is", and some scammers have resorted to spam those channels to produce their own fake social proof.

In a recent example, a fake University, called Riverbanks University (which uses a dot com address, not dot edu) came into being about March 2013, when it spammed both CNN iReport and AllVoices with a press release style story about opening a new career center or push for more online education. This university claims to exist, but has no names (other than generic student names), and no staff names (not even for the university's president). It also has no address, yet claims 36000 enrollees.

It claims to be accredited by UCAIS, except no such agency is on the record with Department of Education. Searching the website shows UCAIS can't even spell its own logo correctly, so it was probably pirated and edited by a scammer as a clone of a real accreditation website.

But who besides skeptics would look this deep?

A MLM Skeptic: CNN and AllVoices Spammed by Fake University Report