**Hello & Cheers!!** I'm a content detection and information bot.  You are receiving this reply because a short link or links have been detected in your post/comment.  The purpose of this message is to inform your readers and yourself about the use of and dangers of short links.

**To the readers of the post:**  Short links are provided by [url shortening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening) services.  The short links they provide can be useful in some cases.  Generally their use is benign.  But as with all useful tools there are dangers.  Short links can be used to hide all sorts of things.  Quite frequently they are used to hide referral links for instance.  While not dangerous this can be deceptive.  They can also be used to hide dangerous links such as links to phishing sites, sites loaded with malware, scam sites, etc.  You should always be extremely cautious before clicking on one.  If you don't know and trust the poster don't click.  Even if you do you should still be cautious and wary of any site you are sent to. It's always better to visit the site directly and not through a short link.  

**To the author of the post:**  While short links may be useful on some sites they are not needed on steemit.  You can use markdown to format your links such as this link to [steemit](https://steemit.com).  It's as simple as `[steemit](https://steemit.com)`  Unlike short links this allows the reader to see where they are going by simply hovering over the link before they click on it.  

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| <sup><sub>This message was created by a bot.  It is part of the ongoing fight against spam and phishing attacks on steemit.  If you did not use short links in your post and feel you have received this message in error you can contact @fubar-bdhr on discord or @fubar.bdhr on steemit chat to report the issue.</sub></sup> |![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPaR3USbBnbvB4j69Ffh2wPJYnJSoF6BSTgdJ71QVRoJP/image.png) |

While it may not be a scam in your opinion, it could be considered spam. Spam is not appreciated by the community and could be flagged or may result in action from the [cheetah bot](https://steemit.com/steemitabuse/@cheetah/cheetah-bot-explained)..

Some things that can be considered spam:
* Banner ads of any kind
* Referral links/codes
* Repeating the same post
* Links to known scams, phishing sites, and other dangerous links