India, June 24 -- The email looked harmless.

"Hi Juergen T,

Hope you caught this latest report on the best summer destinations for nightlife lovers."

It arrived in the inbox of eTurboNews from Eva Robinson, who appeared to be running a public relations operation using the domain jbpresswave.com.

The pitch offered an attractive, ready-to-publish travel story: a report on nightlife destinations, presented as research. For a travel publication, it looked relevant. It had the familiar packaging of modern digital PR: rankings, lifestyle appeal, destination angles, and a timely summer hook.

But the real purpose became clearer after clicking through.

The report required publishers to link to the "sponsor." That sponsor link appeared to lea...