Digg gets tough on phoney story posters

News aggregate site Digg is continuing to crack down on users who plant phoney stories on behalf of marketers, recently deleting a user who posted a story about a company that offered to compensate him.

Digg, which allows users to play editor and decide the value of a news story, deleted the user account belonging to Karim Yergaliyev, one of its top-rated users. A Digg spokesman, who confirmed Yergaliyev was booted from the site for violating the company's terms of service, said he was reinstated days after he acknowledged the infraction, apologised and promised never to do it again.

Yergaliyev, 19, said in an interview: "I receive two or three offers [from marketers] a week to promote some product or service. I never do it but the week JetNumbers asked me I met this girl and I was really happy with life. I wanted to help anybody."

JetNumbers provides virtual local phone numbers in more than 30 countries. Nathan Schorr, JetNumbers' business development manager, said when he first approached Yergaliyev, who is known at Digg as "Supernova17", he mentioned his company was willing to compensate the teen financially and give him free phone minutes using JetNumbers' system. Schorr said Yergaliyev turned down the cash.

Marketers are attempting to "artificially" boost the profile of their companies at the expense of Digg, Jay Adelson, the company's CEO, said in an interview earlier this month.

At Digg, which unveiled a new look on Monday, readers vote on a story's worth. Those who like a story hit a "digg" button and those who like it less hit "bury it". The most popular stories appear on the front page. Phoney stories, worries the company, could conceivably erode Digg's credibility.

The company has employed a list of tactics to combat the planting of paid-for stories, such as removing accounts.

Schorr maintains he inadvertently broke Digg's rules. He had heard little about the company prior to sending the email offer to Yergaliyev. He did have enough knowledge to seek out the top 30 or so Digg users and pitch them the same offer he extended to Yergaliyev. Yergaliyev said he was the only one who responded. "I guess I was the only one to fall into the trap," he said.

Schorr, for his part, said he "never meant to bribe anybody", adding: "We don't have a lot of money as a company. We thought the best and cheapest way to promote our company was word of mouth. We contacted other blogs to see if they wanted to try our product and if they liked the product we thought they could write about it."

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com