Emails written as if from the owners of defunct websites ask site administrators to swap old links for "mirror" copies on en-html.org. The copies are named after closed charities, archives and local history projects, and now redirect to commercial hotel sites.
Each step looks like a helpful correction. The control point is checking where the new link really ends before you change it.
An email claims to come from the owners of a website that has closed, and offers a "mirror" copy.
See where it really ends. If the original site is gone, link to an archive.org copy instead.
The "mirror" redirects to an unrelated commercial site, which inherits the trust of your old link.
Bloggers, librarians, Wikipedia editors and anyone who maintains old web pages with links
A request to update an old link is not proof that it comes from the original owner. Check the new address before changing anything. If the original site is gone, link to an archive.org copy instead of a "mirror" offered by a stranger.
Russell Coker documented the emails and the en-html.org mirrors on his blog on 9 October 2026 and recommends replacing such links with archive.org copies. The redirects to hotel websites were observed by the Digital Fraud Observatory on 14 October 2026.
The aim of building search ranking from old links is the source's inference; it is not confirmed by the operator. This case does not show that anyone lost money or that the hotel sites commissioned the scheme. The redirects can change at any time; they are described as they stood on 14 October 2026.
