I think it’s a given that you just can’t trust EVERYONE. Your friend handed over $1000 without checking references, this isn’t the fault of Biznik or anyone other than her and the scammer. Just common sense 101, especially in this day and age. I REALLY don’t think Biznik really needs to go out of it’s way to nerf-coat the edges for the idiots of the world, do you?

She’s received a “report” from the company which details their activities. Here’s the problem though, unless you’re someone (like me) who understands exactly WHY this report clearly shows that this activity is worthless, you could certainly take it as evidence that they did their work as promised. I’ve already started writing a very detailed blog article that goes through the report and explains why what the company did won’t help my client’s website.

Unfortunately, there are many, many folks out there who attempt to scam folks regarding search engine optimization services. I get solicitations all the time from illegitimate companies, and my clients forward them to me as well. I try to always write a blog article detailing how to spot one of these scams, but obviously, it’s impossible to stop them.

As soon as I publish the article I’ll post a link here and email it to you and I’ll be very interested in your feedback. It’s really not a matter of “challenging” the person who did the work – the details of what they did came directly from him. It’s a matter of digging deeper into the details of what they actually did with an understanding of the rules of Google, that ultimately give you an understanding of it’s value. Now, I’m hoping that once I finish my article, it will lead to her getting a refund – in my opinion, that would be fair. But not prevent other people from getting taken.

Thanks very much for your comment!

I would encourage your friend to challenge the person to show what he has done. (Is it possible that he did work and her webpage is still not pulling for other reasons?) I guess I find it a bit hard to believe that someone would go through the trouble of building websites and writing “many” articles for the purpose of getting $1000 out of someone, knowing that he’ll be outed if he does not do the work. If that is indeed happening, it’s a huge problem that must be stopped, but it also sounds to me like she needs to challenge the guy she hired and give him a chance to respond directly to her. (Maybe he has people working for him who didn’t do the job, and he’ll be horrified and eager to make it right.)

I’d be interested to hear how this resolves…

In addition, it’s important to note that Craigslist’s “how not to get scammed” page recommends “DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON (their emphasis) – follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist.” Perhaps Biznik will add similar language to their “Trust” page.

One of the key strengths of the Biznik community is that many of our members have met each other face-to-face at a Biznik Event. You can’t say enough about the importance of meeting someone face to face.

It is the nature of the connected world we live in that you won’t always meet (face to face) the people you work with. But Biznik goes that one step further and enables our members to make this all-important connection.

I’m curious as to how many of these Craigslist tips should apply to people on Biznik.

When visiting national parks, you see signs that say “even thieves go on vacation”…remind people not to let their guard down.

I also fear, and I’m hoping this doesn’t come to pass, that she’s feeling some shame for falling for this person’s scam, and that shame might prevent her from talking publicly (in Biznik at least), about what happened. I’m certainly going to encourage her to do this and hopefully she’ll warn other folks.

There’s also retaliation to consider – when I’ve “outed” other businesses who are less than honest, some of them have retaliated against me and written fake online reviews – and so “outing” a business is not risk free, unfortunately.

Great job monitoring blog articles about Biznik!

Social networks like Biznik do, however, offer an excellent safeguard – for example, you can “out” people who don’t deliver what they say they will, and bad news travels even faster on the Internet than good news.

Also, there’s a form of peer pressure that exists on social networks like Biznik that I’ve observed tends to encourage people to do what they say they will. In an networked world, honesty and transparency are even more important than ever.

Dan McComb
Biznik cofounder