Social sharing site Pinterest is the web's flavor of the month, but the site's skyrocketing popularity has also come with an uptick in spam. Some of the most popular Pinterest "pins" are scams being promoted by a network of fake accounts, all tied to the same Amazon affiliate.

The Daily Dot discovered a single prolific spammer using thousands of bots to promote dresses and boots, and reaping the referral profits on Amazon.

But how can you tell the legitimately popular pins from the ones that make the popular tab through devious means?

Check the repin profile page of any pin, and you'll notice that legit pins are reposted to pinboards with a variety of names by users with unique profile pictures. A bogus pin, on the other hand, will be shared by thousands of accounts with the default profile pic, all using boards with the same name.

While Pinterest will probably shut down this major scam, social network history tells us that other spammers will pop up to take its place, so it never hurts to be vigilant. With great Pinterest comes great responsibility.

[dailydot]