I sent one recently to Appbrain. They sent me an e-mail suggesting that someone was trying to "claim" my apps on their site. It seemed to me to be a spammy attempt to get me to sign up on their site and pay them for app promotion. Here's the text: (redacted)
********************** Hello USNaviguide LLC, <bogus e-mail>@gmail.com requested to claim ownership of your apps on www.appbrain.com, the online Android app directory. Claiming your app gives access to the advanced AppBrain stats, and to AppBrain's free and paid promotion services. Please click this link to claim your developer account on AppBrain: http://www.appbrain.com/verify_dev?d=<redacted> Please contact me if you have any questions. Best regards, Mathijs Vogelzang, AppBrain team ********************** This unscrupulous marketing tactic prompted me to ask them to remove my apps from their site. When they wouldn't do that, I filed a DMCA notice which got them to do it. SInce then, I've noticed app comment spam like this: by Dylan (October 13, 2010) Great App! Search for more free apps at www.<redacted>.com The site is always a parked domain using Google AdSense for domains but the kicker is the primary result in the ads is always Appbrain. This leads me to believe that Appbrain is spamming comments to promote their questionable site. I've seen this app spam in one form or another on dozens of popular apps. As far as I know, there is no way to stop such unscrupulous marketing tactics nor is there a way to remove or block these appbrain spammers from continuing this spammy marketing campaign. -John Coryat -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en