At listennotes.com , we have to delete tons of fake podcasts submitted to our site [1]
why do people create fake podcasts? they want to get backlinks from all podcast directories
podcasts are distributed via rss feed. and spammers/"growth hackers" put tons of links in the rss feed.
and podcast hosting services (especially those allow free trials, e.g., rss.com, ) could help them one-click to distribute to a bunch of podcast apps / websites. this is like one-click large scale spamming automation
any examples? here you go -
* https://podcasts.apple.com/us/search?term=UU88%20
* https://podcasts.apple.com/us/search?term=%E6%B6%A8%E7%B2%89
* https://open.spotify.com/search/%E6%B6%A8%E7%B2%89/podcasts
most podcast websites / apps don't delete fake podcasts like we do at listennotes.com . so i guess the backlink hack w/ fake podcasts works. real human podcast listeners might suffer with spammy fake shows even on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
... in general directory sites died because they got taken over by spam.
> Please Log In to see this info. It is to prevent malicious computer programs from scraping this website.
It looks like you require an email address just to provide a link to the podcast you listed. I don't buy that it is necessary to prevent scrapers.