18 days after exposing Youdao Ads, they sent a takedown request, their trust score dropped from 28.8 to 15, their dead site came back to life, and they rewrote their entire outreach from scratch. A full forensic timeline with SSL certs, WHOIS data, DNS chains, and the email that proves everything.

📌 This is Part 2 of an ongoing investigation.

Part 1: EXPOSED: The Youdao Ads Influencer Marketing Scam — Technical Analysis & Red Flags

I want to be upfront about something before we start.

When I published Part 1, I called this operation a scam. After 18 days of forensic follow-up, the picture is more complex — and significantly more interesting.

This is not a retraction.…