Remember the wish-it-were-true tale of 13-year-old Newark, Tex. resident Ralph Hardy? The legend had it that he stole his dad’s credit card and had a pizza party with his gaming friends and some high-dollar escorts. I linked to it before I — and the rest of the Internet — learned it was fake. As it happens, the story was all a Search Engine Optimization ploy to get a bunch of clicks for some guy’s client. The ploy worked, suckering 1,500 inbound links in a week. But then, as this recap of the hoax points out, did it really “work”? Putting up fake news is not a good reputation-starter for a sober financial site. FWIW, Newark is still west of Flower Mound … and Lewisville … and Plano … and Louisiana. [via foul-mouthed Gawker]