Digg Users Cheating Digg to Earn over $250,000 a Year

Well I have been hearing a lot about People gaming the Digg.com system and earning Tens of thousands of dollars a month doing it, so I have decided to do a little more investigating:
Mr Ryan Frig had done a write up on this and I have taken it a step further to add to his original post with more details he gave me permission to post.:
Here are links to just a few posts by members looking to sell their “Digg bumping” services:
20 Diggs for Only $1.00 (Wow what a deal!)http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=438745
Digg Front Page for Only $470.00http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=439256Only $80 for Digg front page with Money back guaranteehttp://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=448053
Digg is responsible for sending millions of hits a day to various websites, blogs, and articles. The value of having a story among the top digged stories on the front page is very high, and some estimates value a main page link on digg for up to $3,000. A link on the Digg main page can result in 10,000 - 100,000 unique views, which certainly is worth a ton of dough.
Where there is money there are always underground societies filled with people manipulating an otherwise very productive system. What we have uncovered is a trail of evidence that will not only make you think differently about Digg.com itself, but also realize how much money is involved in this Underground Digg world.
- One top Digger (who will remain nameless) has told us his step by step process of how he manipulates Digg for a profit. We will refer to him as Jim.
Jim has been a Digg.com member for about a year and a half now. He has over 40 accounts of his own under various self build server proxies. He diggs close to 100 stories a day and after doing so he adds the author to his friends list. This creates a following, so that they will in turn digg his stories at a later date.
Jim currently has a network of over 500 friends, of which 100+ are considered top diggers in his book. They have an understanding that when Jim submits a story he will receive diggs from all these top members. Jim stated that to date he has managed to get over 300 stories to the front page of digg. He also claimed that he sells front page listings to clients for an average of $1200.00 a piece. If their story does not make the front page they get a full refund. Jim’s entire business is based around digg.com, and netscape.com. He did not give us a specific figure, but claims that he has made in excess of $100,000 selling front page listings, in the last 12 months alone. He also claims to have maide another $100,000 + in the last year simple by gettign his own webpages on the cover of Digg.com.
Jim claimed that he has earned at least $250,000 because fo Digg.
He also stated that he knows for a fact that there are at least a dozen or so diggers out there doing the same, earning probably the same 6 figure income.
- Diggers are creating dozens of accounts using proxies and computers at colleges. They build these accounts up, get friends, and a reputation and then sell them off for anywhere between $5 to $500 a piece.
- Diggers also buy sell and trade diggs. A website call DiggBarter.com, although not all that active can be considered one of the first Digg exchanges. There is also another Digg marketplace call SubvertandProfit.com, which sells diggs for $1 a piece. The same type of thing goes on at forums like Sitepoint.com and forums.digitalpoint.com where users regularly sell 5, 10, or even 50 diggs of a story from anywhere between $0.50 and $20.00.
It is obvious that the system is being manipulated, and there are quite a few people making up to 6 figures a year in the process.
What can be done about this manipulation and underground network? In My opinion not too much. Where money is involved there will always be people looking to cheat the system, and although they may think its not hurting a sole, it is indirectly hurting all those blog authors who write amazing content to have no shot at ever being dugg to the main page.