Līve Ambitions

Nigerian 419 Scams?  Nope.  Now the scams are right in our backyard.

Today, I received this email:

Dear Website Owner,

65% of people searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re ranked on first page of Google, MSN, or Yahoo. If I help you obtain as much as 4 times more WEB traffic to your online business by promoting you to the first page of the search engines would you be interested?

Our company is on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search term “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your web site so you can come up for your main keywords as well? All of our processes use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized.

This special SEO program includes:

• No upfront fees
• A month-to-month program
• More traffic guaranteed

Please reply to my email and I would be happy to send you a proposal.
______________________________________________

Sincerely,
Cliff Blackwell
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA

______________________________________________
Simply reply with opt out if not interested to hear from us.  

I try to check out all emails even if it ends up in the spam box because I figure you may eventually come across a legitimate offer.  In the past, I have done business with companies who have solicited me via email. 

With all offers like this, I do some research even before responding to the email.  Running a simple search on Google led me to a bunch of complaints regarding the same type of scammy email.  The verbiage is usually the same – sometimes they change the name, address and contact information.

Speaking of SEO scams, the company I currently work for was recently scammed by a company called Visible.net.  This was before I came into the picture, but they got scammed for about $6,000 within a couple of months.  My company tried to dispute the charges, but Visible.net fabricated a bunch of BS documents at the last minute.  Credit card companies don’t know crap about the SEO business, so it’s no surprise they bought the documents as proof.  Also, under the terms of contract, should there be any dispute, the client would agree to use an intermediary service chosen by Visible.net.  This intermediary service would probably end up costing more than the disputed charges, so no point.

There are 2 parties at fault here – Visible.net for being the scammer and the person at my company who failed to do their homework on Visible.net.

To make matters worse, these dirt bags post positive reviews on various review sites hoping to fool someone else.

For businesses seeking to hire a SEO company, my advice is:  Do your research!

• Just because they call you on the phone doesn’t mean they are legit!
• Just because they have a legit sounding company and domain name, doesn’t make them legit!
• Just because they tell you what you want to hear doesn’t make them legit!
• Just because they have a fancy looking website doesn’t make them legit!
• Just because they have some positive reviews doesn’t make them legit – it’s easy to make phony reviews!
• If their email address is using a different domain from their website, I would be suspicious.
• Check to see that their credentials are legit.

A good way to find some sincere reviews of companies is by reading forums.  If the forum is popular and well-maintained, more often than not, the reviews will be from real customers.