A member going by the name of long_jess on the Aardvark Travel Forums recently aroused suspicion among the board moderators there, following her so-called excitement on the news of new ships from Royal Caribbean. A little bit of investigation showed posts from the same IP from multiple members on the board, including mishette, thelittlepixie, pinguin and ladyelf all promoting either Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Cruises. All five members use Gmail and all post from the same IP: 217.207.201.130 (that’s more than just a co-incidence in my book!). Putting the IP into the Web browser gives a company in Richmond-upon-Thames that, on its client list, lists… yes, you’ve guessed it… Royal Caribbean. I wonder if these cruise lines are aware of the underhand tactics being used to promote their sites; I doubt they’d be happy if they were.
