Search Engine Optimization Scam
I received a fax today that looks a lot like an invoice for something my company ordered. It's from the "Official Internet Registry & Optimization Bureau" and my "Payment is Due" for annual website marketing and monitoring bundle. Funny thing is, I've never heard of them (even though they sound so "official") nor would I ever
purchase such a product via fax. They must have purchased a fax list for businesses in our area, because a friend of mine in Kasson received the same fax today.For only $329.97/year or $27.50/month they will review my website and send me a search engine analysis report and keyword suggestions. How this would help me improve my search engine rankings is a mystery to me. They would need to help me put this information into the code of my website, as opposed to just sending me a report.
This is a scam and the company won't be around long. The domain was just registered on March 22, 2006! If you'd like some free advice (from a real internet professional), avoid this company and do not pass this information on to your Accounts Payable.
posted by Alan De Keyrel @ 2:12 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
One of my clients have received this scam fax as well. Many other scams like this prey on the Internet public. The key is to 1)Always ask questions and be aware. 2) Never do business with spammers, or telemarketers. (Or in this case bulk fax-ers). 3) be a good Internet citizen and report it, or at least get the word out as you did.
Notice that this company has no phone number? They do have a PMB (Postal mailing box). Doesn't that set off any red flags!
I also recieved the fax. Being suspicious, I went to the web site. (Promptly blocked the CSID on the fax too) My intentions are to call the company. Since they are local to me, I can always find them. A school mate of mine is a cop in Brick. Funny, I was looking for a new marketing company. Steve
Having just renewed my domain name (fedbanklaw.com for The Banking Law Firm) with ICANN, it was easy to spot the scam. I hope Justservers or his friend with the police department in Brick will follow up. My guess, however, is that the PMB is only a drop under an assumed name - which should make the Inspector General at the U.S.Post Office interested.
Got the same fax today too. Thought I'd search the web to find out more...that's how I got here.
Ohhh I just got the fax today 7/21/06. But I get the cool discounted version. I SAVE 20% by only paying 263.97!! Semi annually that is.
Does anyone really fall for this?
I was just given a copy of this from my boss with the note "looks like a scam is it". As I always tell my users if it looks like a scam, sounds like a scam then Google it; it was a scam. Thanks for the info!
got this fax today. i immediately googled it and stumbled upon this blog! my suspicions were right (as usual). but thanks for the heads up!
I've been getting these at our office everyday for over a week - finally Googled it today and found your blog - Thanks for the warning
My business received this 'bill'. This is an easy scam for businesses that don't host their own website. We do not and our contract webmaster was the one who set up our domain and pays for it. So I went out to 'register.com' and checked our domain there and found that ours does not expire until the end of next year. It would have been easy for someone who had never directly paid for a domain name to fall for this.
I just received the same fax. We receive a copy of this fax spam at least every month. This company is from Panama, but they use a NJ address. The address is a PMB(postal mail box) at a UPS store that rents mail boxes. The phone number for the store is 732-451-9500. I am sure it is registered in phoney name. I wouldn't doubt that the UPS store forwards their mail.
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