About Fake PageRanks
Many unscrupulous webmasters have found ways in which a pagerank of a domain name or website could be faked. The majority of pagerank checkers, even Google's own toolbar will show a fake pagerank when the website or domain name is checked.
These individuals often fake the pagerank of a new domain name or website to show a pagerank of 4, 5, 6, 7 or even 8 to 10.
How Pageranks are Faked
The pagerank of a website or domain name can be faked easily. The webmaster will simply redirect a domain name (301 or 302 redirect) to another domain name with a higher pagerank.
Once Google crawls the original domain name, it will read the permanent redirect and assume the pagerank of the higher ranked domain name to which it was redirected.
The webmaster then cancels the redirect, add some content to the website or domain name and offer it for sale.
For a period of time all tools, as well as Google Toolbar, will still be reading the pagerank of the domain to which the original domain was redirected. A month or so later, the pagerank will be corrected and set back to 0. In some instances, Google may even ban the domain name on its network.
Why Pageranks are Faked
Pageranks are generally forged when the offender wants to sell a website or domain name and make a profit from the sale. The offender will then boast about the high pagerank of the domain name or the website.
Offenders will also fake pageranks with the purpose of selling advertising on such domain names or websites. With a high pageranked domain or website, offenders charge high fees to advertisers in selling advertising spots or links.
Offenders of the pagerank scam are aware that they would not be generating the income if they do not fake the pagerank of the website or domain name.
Below are some real-life examples where forged pagerank domains are being sold: