We're glad you joined us here at The Unsponsored Link. Does the world need another blog? Probably not. We think, though, that over time you'll find The Unsponsored Link a valuable resource.

We created this blog to respond to the hundreds of e-mails our users have sent us over the past five years, asking questions such as: Is this site, or that site bogus? Should I buy something from Blankety-Blank.com? And, believe it or not, many of our readers still forward us messages like this one, wanting to know what to do: "Greetings! I am Reverend Prince Dr. Garlicke Pewke, Minister of Housinge of the Republique du Benin, would you please send me $500 so that with your help, I may deposit a sudden windfall of $5 billion to my family, into a secure bank in your country, from which I am generously offering you a 35 percent commission..."

This is, of course, a well-known scam. It predates the widespread use of e-mail, in fact -- but the Internet's reach has given the scam an annoying pervasiveness. We even get these messages ourselves at WebWatch -- delete them!

We also created The UnSponsored Link because we do a lot of heavy research work here, and publish long reports. Our site lacked a venue to talk about things we do daily - help you with answers to questions about Web scams, bogus merchants, cyber-snake-oil pitches, or point you to useful sites, government agencies, and organizations that might help in disputes.

You'll notice a slight change of tone here at The Unsponsored Link. Much less "b-to-b," less stuffy and rigid, more in the spirit of Penn and Teller's Showtime series, "Bull****!" Or maybe something James Randi might want to read. And we'll have some fun.

Thanks for joining us!