'AI girlfriend' spam on a university website: how trusted domains are abused for ranking

By Tema EN · virtual girlfriends/partners · October 14, 2026.

The material received contains no news story. There is only a promotional-looking headline ("AI Girlfriend Free Cancellation: Which AI Girlfriend App Should I Pay For, Worth It") linked to the domain of the University of Córdoba (UCO). There is no downloaded article, and there are no figures or verifiable data on AI companion apps.

The only thing that can be checked is the URL. It points to a virtual tour page of the UCO's SCAI service and carries an `xml=` parameter with base64-encoded content. When decoded, it appears to be an instruction that loads an XML file hosted on an unrelated GitHub Pages repository. This is a known pattern: poorly configured 360º panorama viewers are abused so that a domain with a good reputation "serves" spam links. This is our interpretation based on the URL, not a confirmation from the university. There is also no sign that the UCO published this content.

Our take: this matters little as news and quite a lot as a signal. The rise of virtual companions has created a commercial niche profitable enough to attract spam specialists. When a category fills up with "which one to pay for" and "free cancellation" reviews, it pays to be wary of the sources that look most trustworthy because of their domain. In the short term, this means more noise, more subscription scams and more verification work for the reader. In the long term, the question of how humans relate to artificial companions deserves serious analysis, but with real data and not with hijacked links.

We are publishing nothing further on this case: without verified facts, any expansion would be filler.