We heard about an interesting URL spoofing issue via BostInnovation today.
The root of the issue is that some content management systems (CMS) allow you to create a story URL that contains the story's headline. Because the story slug is a numeric value that allows search engines to find the story, the URL can be whatever the publisher wants it to be.
The problem is that works both ways - because you can plug anything into that text portion of the URL, someone else can create a spoof URL that uses the correct slug and still direct people to the site. You're then free to post the offensive URL on Twitter, Facebook, wherever, and create the impression that the URL is real.
More effective CMS programming can prevent this, and good content providers should do this to prevent anyone from mis-interpreting their work. In the meantime, however, don't believe a URL is real and don't believe the story behind it is real unless you're willing to click through and find out.
