Safra, Hitachi & Mapletree Websites Screwed up by Active8
I can’t help it but to use very very strong words to show my anger with such unscrupulous, deceitful and devious Singapore web design company in the pursuit of search engine ranking for the keywords web design and content management system using black-hat SEO tricks.
Such unethical practice will damage the web design industry in Singapore.
The Singapore brand is at stake and could be tarnished by such an errant web design company.
The Japanese MNC Hitachi in Singapore would be jumping mad when they discovered the hidden links planted in many of their websites across Asia by their web designer, Active8.
Even Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd, a $5.6 billion company, and Singapore Armed Forces’ SAFRA fell prey to the ploy by Active8, so there could be many more victims which we didn’t know.
SAFRA.SG
The web design company added a hidden link to point back to their own website using <span style=”display:hidden”> to hide the link so that it will not display when you view it with a browser such as Internet Explorer. In order to see the offending link, you have use the view source function.
Here’s is a screenshot of the HTML source code of SAFRA homepage.
If your client did not give you the permission to insert your “Web Design and Content Management System (CMS) powered by Active8″ then you should not use hidden link to trick your client.
Here’s a screen shot of Google’s cache text only version of the web page.
And this web design company added the hidden links not only the main landing page but into many other pages of Safra.sg site.
Hitachi Consumer – Hitach Singapore, Hitachi Philippines & Hitachi Vietnam
Do you think Hitachi will ever allow a H2 link with anchor text such as “Web Design and Content Management System” placed right at the top of the HTML source page next to the <body> tag!?
Here’s the screen shot of the HTML source of www.hitachiconsumer.com
And Active8.com.sg also added their links to
- Hitachi Singapore – www.hitachiconsumer.com/sg/
- Hitachi Philippines – www.hitachiconsumer.com/ph/
- Hitachi Vietnam – www.hitachiconsumer.com/vn/
HTML Source Codes Screen Shots
Again, the web design company added their own links to many other pages of Hitachi Home Electronics website.
Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd
With Mapletree Singapore website, Active8 got even more audacious – link to their own website with achor text “Web Design” and “Content Management System (CMS)” in H1 tag.
And here’s the screen shot of Google’s cache text only version.
But for Mapletree Singapore website, Active8 made a typo in all their client’s pages – they forgot to use the “http://” in the anchor link.
I guess the thief was in a hurry!
Do you know of any other websites being screwed by their web designer?
Expose them! Leave a comment below.
Tags: active8, Hitachi, SAFRA, Web Design
July 1st, 2009 at 9:31 pm
this is definitely some good lessons for me to learn. I think only those who are good at html coding will be able to dig out what good or bad web designers in Singapore can do for web designs. Active8 html coders must be really good. The choice of a good consultant or web designer is really important.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 am
WOW! This is so ridiculous! and is totally unacceptable in the industry. Such an unethical action apply on clients’ website? As all professional know that meta tag and is is a semantic HTML coding (in search engine point of view) is a title or topic about this web page, I doubt Hitachi providing web design and content management system services? Haha is very pitiful for all these clients still happily engaging the service from this unethical company and without knowing what they have did behind.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
OMG. That is incredibly awesome! Could it be an over-enthusiastic web teams doing it without the knowledge of management? OMG!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Good grief. They’re really bold in thinking that they can get away with this. It just angers me that clients are getting the wool pulled over their eyes by businesses who prey on their unfamiliarity of the web.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 am
Wouldn’t this ‘harm’ the client’s SEO if H1 and H2 tags are used instead for their own selfish ambitions?
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
wah lao, if got permission put at footer still ok, but using h1 and h2 is totally unacceptable!!!!!!!
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
http://www.singaporemint.com/default.php
zoom in top left hand corner and highlight to see the microtext…have been wondering what is that about for a long time…
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Have to agree that unless permission has been received (hard to believe that it has) this is very unethical. Just curious though, what made you start looking into the source codes of these websites?
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Hmm, not surprising, you pay peanut you get monkeys doing work for you. Just that this monkeys can do nice piece of work but in an unethical manner.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
LOL! nice one on the Singapore Mint site! Can’t believe they hired a noob company like that!
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Im not really a full time dedicated web designer but I definitely know that they shouldn’t add that redundant link on top of the site
and who else uses table for layout nowadays!?
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
@Tim yes if you were Hitachi, would you want “home electronics” in H1/H2 or web design and content management system in your web page.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
These companies… SAFRA, Hitachi, Mapletree and Singapore Mint are large corporations. I guess they could afford truck-load of banana to feed gorillas and elephants.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
The links to http://www.active8.com.sg in Hitachi Consumer and Mapletree have been removed but the one on SAFRA.sg is still there. Apparently, Active8 has full control of these websites as if they were their own.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
These programmer and html coder from Active8 are good..talented…and know how to use the opportunities..Great job.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Wow i didnt even notice that in the Singapore Mint page. It definitely wasn’t there when it was first launched.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Hi Shi and everyone,
my name is Sam and I am from Active8. Thank you for highlighting the issues on your blog. As per my email to you last night, I have personally look into the issues you raised immediately this morning. And I have gotten my team to remove all the links from the small number of sites that has this line of code. I have also personally inspected all the other sites done by us to ensure that no such codes exist.
The codes was placed in very small number of sites by a former staff who was tasked with SEO our website.
Active8 does not believe in using black hat techniques in seo optimisation. I personally agree the approach was wrong which is why I acted immediately to resolve the issues highlighted.
Thank you once again for highlighting them.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
TIMMGuru, you are right, just now I also saw all the hidden links on Hitachi and Mapletree site, now they took out quickly meaning they are maintaining their web pages.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hi Sam Chia,
I am impressed by your quick response and action to remove those links on your clients’ websites.
This blog post went online about 18 hours ago and you must be really good with online visibility to find out about this blog post on Active8 so very quickly.
No I did not receive any email from you. In fact, your comment on this blog post is the first time I have contact with any representative from Active8.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I think its commendable for Active8 to take quick action on a blog post.
well done Sam!
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Hi Shi….
On I submitted via your contact us form last night around 2129hrs. And I have received an acknowledgement (with subject Hi there – TIMMGuru Contact Form)
My working style is that if it is not right I will personally led the team to fix the issue. Especially in such a situation whereby there is a mis-rep in the way we do things.
FYI…except for one of the site waiting for file deployment the rest of the 2 sites are restored.
If you have time for coffee I have more than happy to buy a cuppa and let me explain more about company. Love to find more about the work you are doing.
thank you once again highlighting the issues.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
@tankianann, Blogopreneur.com, that is not taking quick action, that is a guilty person trying to cover the track and the simplest way of doing it is to blame on the ex-ex-ex-staff. Don’t you have the do and don’t document for your staff?
like what TIMMGuru said, he did not receive any email from Sam. Maybe go to junk folder, I don’t know.
Active8 claim to provide SEO service, how scary is that, just imagine how many customers might get their site URL hidden on other people sites without them knowing it?
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
If is done by ex staff, can understand is quite pitiful to have such staff in the company, anyway just be careful next time
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
black hat is always pathetic.
i cannot believe the gorrillas actually decided to throw bananas to the monkeys.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
popurls.com // popular today…
story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
[...] out there taking advantage of clients who are unfamiliar with the internet. The report came from timmguru.com and it state that Active8, the web design company uses unscrupulous methods to pursuit their search [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
@SamChia Kudos to you for owning up and correcting the situation. However, I have to agree with Unethical Monkey that blaming the notorious ex-staff will not clear Active8’s name. You should have had proper processes in place to begin with.
Why was a novice staff was given access to meddle with production servers (for high profile clients at that)? Either your internal processes were messed up, or somebody from management approved it.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Sam Chia of Active8 has taken the neccesary actiion to remove the offending links promptly so let’s leave him to clear up the rest of the sites.
Now. let’s move on to identify other websites which are “hijacked” by their web designers and developers.
Do you think http://www.homecrawler.com.sg and http://www.homecrawler.sg belong to The Singapore Mint http://www.singaporemint.com or maybe someone from the company actually allow the planted links?
Because someone I met at SMX Singapore today actually suggested that the owner of the website or the person who in charge of the website of that company could have arrangement with the web design company to plant those hidden H1 and H2 links.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:01 am
TIMMGuru, I have a question about the way that you brought this issue up. Did you contact Active8 before posting this article?
If not, it might seem that you are using this issue to bolster your own online reputation/popularity rather than helping the Singaporean web community out.
As a web programmer myself, there is enough leeway for a HTML coder in a web design company to put in code that they deem as “helpful” to SEO and have that code released into production. No tester, manager or even technical lead inspects every line of code. It would simply be a waste of time. Most companies just test applications in the browser to see if it works correctly. The fact that this was a hidden piece of code makes all the difference.
Active8 could just be the victim of one of its employee’s misguided initiative.
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:53 am
@unethically monkey – what i meant was a representative from Active8 responded and actioned on the issue within 24 hours. That is not immediate, but very fast response. You will be surprised how many firms don’t even monitor news of their firm online.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:12 am
@Noobie Everything I do with this blog is to bolster my own online reputation/popularity and I cannot deny this fact – it is the purpose of writing my blog. However, that does not mean my blog post cannot be used to help Singapore web community.
I have no dealing with Active8 or the owners of the websites of SAFRA.sg, hitachiconsumer.com and mapletree.com.sg so I don’t see the need to inform anyone of them to expose some black-hat SEO tactics.
My friend, Pema Wangchu from Bhutan once said, “if we knowing let things slip from under us nose then we are equally guilty”.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:24 am
Hi Noobie, if the employee screws up, the company is at fault because they were in charge of hiring him/her. That is a lousy excuse for shirking responsibility.
At least Active8 has taken swift action in removing the links.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Noobie, I do not see there is a need of TIMMGuru have to inform the Active8 before he wrote this post. The most important this is a real facts. In fact TIMMGuru is doing the right thing to share out the news like this. Is to educate more people to know about this, so that these unethical SEOer get lesser in the industry. He is not part of his company of his vendor etc, so they isn’t a need of he doing that.
Michael Jackson death is a recent buzz news, if someone know the facts want to write something about Michael Jackson on his/her blog, which mean he/she also need to inform MJ family first before he write? That means all the news and reporter have to do the same also?
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
@xc I don’t think Active8 is “shirking responsibility”. Sam Chia of Active8 admitted the hidden links were by planted by “former staff” and has since make good the websites by removing all these hidden links as he’d claimed.
Let’s NOT assume that everyone who works for Active8 is guilty of planting the hidden links.
As Kian Ann, Dinu and you have mentioned, I also think that Sam’s swift action is commendable. He got the problem fixed within ONE working day.
And that reminds me of a post I made on 12 December 2007…
Flash Web Designer Using Sneaky SEO Trick
The website is still not fixed after 18 months!
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
What they mean shirking “responsibility” is push the blame to the staff. They should have admit that they know is unethical but still doing it for the sack of pushing SEO ranking and they do not think clients will know this, until someone pointed it out.
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Good on you, Sam! Swift action taken… fantastic! Make sure your staff do the right things from now on. Let all web designers and SEO consultants maintain ethical practices. I do hope that those who are doing the “black hat” will stop or be exposed eventually.
July 4th, 2009 at 4:59 am
I don’t buy this.
I agree with the various commenters above that blaming a “former staff” for this fiasco is a terribly convenient excuse.
Even if that is the truth, I question the internal policies in place at Active8 to allow this kind of thing to happen.
I mean, an employee who was tasked to do SEO for Active8 (and not the client) actually had full editorial access to the production websites for all these companies? And there was no operations or project management in place to audit and double-check all changes?
I don’t buy the fact that this was entirely the work of one rogue employee at Active8, with no one else knowing. I mean, common sense dictates that surely after this employee completed his job, he had to report to his boss what he has done to improve SEO for the company, right?
No matter how it’s spun, as a customer I would never trust a company like this to handle my website for me.
July 4th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Jonathan Wong, you are absolutely right. However that’s the best answer Active8 can use now, nothing else. Or perhaps blame on the clients? They put hidden links to sabo them? No way… hehe
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
Agreed with Jonathan. You got the guts to do it, just admit it. If A8 can pick up a blog post within 18 hours and response to it, don’t tell me no one in the company is monitoring the backlinks to the company.
This is your bread and butter, isn’t it?
July 24th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Rank High,
Active 8 did not take 18 hours to discover this blog post.
To set the record right, Sam Chia of Active8 discovered this post before 2129h on 1 July 2009. He picked up this blog post within 49 minutes and sent me an email.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:48 am
This isn’t the only case of “evil” practices I have seen. Many unethical companies and people are willing to make use of their client’s ignorance.
Anyway, FYI, your link to the mapletree site in this post is broken. Suggest you fix it.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
That’s the word for it – a convenient excuse.
I had my website content ripped by Quaffs.com and pasted on their blog. As if that was not enough, it went on to say that the company is associated with me. When I pointed out to Eric Chia, he claimed ignorance and blamed it on his copywriter.
Active8 is just doing what many web design firms commonly do. The only difference here is they probably didn’t have the permission from the customers to stick the link there. No doubt the content may be unrelated, but at a lower weightage, it’s still a free backlink.
May 1st, 2010 at 11:36 pm
nowadays there are more and more self-claimed “SEO consultant” who are actually using black hat tactics to do SEO for clients. In Malaysia, there are few guys are doing this and ironically their website say they are following “anti spam policy” .
they go to various forums and create multiple accounts and fill in the signature field with many links. I even noticed that they created more than 50 accounts in a forum and all the signature are links to same domains.
wondering who they are ? well , both of them are rank top 10 for the keywords “Malaysia SEO” and they are freelancers and do not publish any company information.