Watch Out For SEO Scam Emails – Dear Website Owner – 60%, 65%, 70%, 75 of people searching the Internet will never find your web site
July 7th, 2008I had a client recently forward unsolicited emails she had recently received that claimed to offer SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. I wanted to share these emails with you and to give you my comments on their legitimacy, or lack thereof.
Here’s the first email:
Dear Website Owner,
70% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re ranked on first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I assist you to achieve at least 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by getting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our internet marketing company is ranked on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search phrase “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can come up for your main keyword search phrases as well? All of our methodologies use the most ethical Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your site banned or penalized.
This proprietary SEO service includes:
• No setup costs
• Cancel at any time
• Guaranteed increase in traffic
Please reply to my email and I would be delighted to supply you a custom proposal
Warm Regards,
Don H.Ritz
5021 VERDUGO WAY, STE 105
CAMARILLO, CA 93012 – USA
Wow, this sounds pretty good doesn’t it? But wait, let’s look a little closer. Where’s the company name? Where’s the company website? Hmmm.
Let’s look at the email address: pencilling80370@gmail.com
Now, why would someone who has a legitimate SEO business use a junk email address from gmail, rather than a more professional email address, like Don@TheBestSEOCompany.com?
Because it’s fake. This is a good example of an SEO scam email. This person got my client’s email from her website and sent her this message, in an (weak) attempt to get her to pay him money for nothing.
Let’s look at another example. The same lucky client of mine got an email from Jen@bigwavetraffic.com. Here’s the email:
From: Jen Evans [mailto:jen@bigwavetraffic.com]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 4:10 PM
To: Info
Subject: your websiteI can get your site to the top of a search engines listings.
If you’re interested, reply with the web addresses you want to promote and
the best way to contact you with some options.Thanks in advance,
Jen Evan
So I looked up BigWaveTraffic.com. What did I find when I looked it up?
Coming soon? The page title reads “Absolute Listings SEO SEM” so I know I’ve gotten the right website.
So the moral to the story is this: If you’re a small business owner and you get a email from someone you don’t know, claiming to be able to boost your website traffic – do a bit of research. Look at the website of the company. Put in the keywords they should be targeting and see if you can find them on the first, or second, or third page of Google. If you can’t, they are not a legitimate SEO company and it’s simply one of the many email scam attempts.
Be careful out there!
UPDATE: I just received the exact same email above that starts with “Dear Website Owner”…but this time, the return email is for “Barry Burn” and the email address is listed as fanciable44243@gmail.com – it’s a SEO email scam alright! And another one, this time from borneo90856@gmail.com with the name Joseph Samules.
ANOTHER UPDATE: My client just received another one, this time from “Blaze Web Design Inc”. Here’s the email:
Hello,
My name is Mark J. Blazick from Dade City, Florida and previously from Akron, Ohio and I think you have a great looking website.
I am an SEO that has been attaining and maintaining top search engine placement in Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other search engines for businesses across the USA.
We help companies get ranked at the top of the search engines so that they can spend less on sponsored links and Google AdWords. Our prices are very affordable and we have references as well as 12 years experience in Search Engine Submission and Website Optimization.
Did you know that only 20% of people searching will click on a sponsored link or Google AdWord while 80% will click on a ranked listing in a search engine?
You can bring in much more business via your website by getting your site ranked at the top of the search engines in their ranked listings. Google is always our main target followed by Yahoo, MSN and Ask but we do submit to many other search engines as well.
Your site has meta tags but they are not optimized strongly. We code strong page specific meta tags so that the title, description and keywords meta tags for a specific page work together. The title, description and keywords meta tags are coded so that they have a synergy with each other in order to give very strong emphasis to your most important keyword phrases.
We also work with you to get a synergy between the page specific meta tags and the page specific text content of your websites pages. We assist in getting pages to support other pages as well so that the site can rank well when ranked as an entire website.
Please phone me at 352-458-9217 and we can talk about your site and how to make it much more of an asset to your business.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Mark J. Blazick
President
Blaze Web Design, Inc.
352-458-9217
blazeman@tampabay.rr.com
Notice the similarity? A website designer without a website? So I googled “Blaze Web Design” and found a website and looked at their “Promotion” page. A long list of mostly extremely minor search engines that they’ll submit your website to – nothing more specific. And by the way, submitting your site to different search engines is FREE, you don’t need to pay anyone for this.
So here’s a test you can do to see how good a company is at SEO. Start with their home page. See what their title is. The title is visible at the very top of your browser window.
My title starts with “Aldebaran Website Design Seattle”. So just Google “Website Design Seattle” and see where my home page is ranked. As of the writing of this post entry, I’m ranked on the first page at #3. Not too shabby.
Do the same with this company. The title on the home page is “Search Engine Optimization”. Let’s see where the home page is ranked. I use a tool on GoogleRankings.com to search for where a website is ranked for their keywords because it can search the top 1000 automatically. The result? This website is not within the first 1000 results for the very keywords they should have optimized their own website for.
Now, perhaps it’s harsh of me to pick on this particular company. But they sent one of my clients a unsolicited email. So this blog article is fair play I figure. I’m protective of my clients, and of all small business owners who may not know much about SEO and respond to emails such as these.
So if you get one of these emails, just do what I do. Look up the website, if there is one listed. Look at the home page title and Google it. If they’re not on the first page, delete the email and forget about them.
UPDATE 8/20/08: I just got another SEO Scam Email:
Dear Business Owner,
75% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I could get as much as 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by promoting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our company is consistently 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 Company’s website so you can rank for your main keyword terms as well? All of our techniques use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization methods that will not get your website banned or penalized.
This search engine optimization program includes:
• No upfront fees
• A month to month program (no long term contracts)
• Guaranteed increase in trafficSimply reply to this email and I would be delighted to send you a custom proposal
_________________________________________________________Warm Regards,
Erroll2060 AVENIDA DE LOS ARBOLES, STE D
THOUSAND OAKS, CA 91362-1361 – USA
I guess they never learn. They keep sending me spam SEO emails, I will keep posting them to my blog to help warn other folks.
UPDATE: 11/10/08
I’ve just received another email, same words, different name: Neal SamulesDear Business Owner,
75% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I could get as much as 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by promoting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our company is consistently 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 Company’s website so you can rank for your main keyword terms as well? All of our techniques use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization methods that will not get your website banned or penalized.
This search engine optimization program includes:
• No upfront fees
• A month to month program (no long term contracts)
• Guaranteed increase in trafficSimply reply to this email and I would be delighted to send you a custom proposal
_________________________________________________________Warm Regards,
Neal Samules2060 AVENIDA DE LOS ARBOLES, STE D
THOUSAND OAKS, CA 91362-1361 – USA
They never learn. I guess they don’t read my blog 
UPDATE: 1/02/09
Just got another one last night:
JillDear 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 guaranteedPlease reply to my email and I would be happy to send you a proposal.
______________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
Deave Leave501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
--------------
J. Olkoski
Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle
Jill Olkoski has a BS in Engineering, a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Clinical Psychology. She delights in using her advanced technical, psychological and interpersonal skills to help small business owners develop cost-effective and successful websites.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Voted One Of The Best Seattle Website Design Companies
July 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Here is another one that I received. Searched the address and this blog came up.
From: Barb Hall [mailto:views89007@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 1:15 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Suggestion re: XXXXXXXX.com
Dear Website Owner,
70% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re ranked on first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I assist you to achieve at least 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by getting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our internet marketing company is ranked on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search phrase “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can come up for your main keyword search phrases as well? All of our methodologies use the most ethical Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your site banned or penalized.
This proprietary SEO service includes:
• No setup costs
• Cancel at any time
• Guaranteed increase in traffic
Please reply to my email and I would be delighted to supply you a custom proposal
Warm Regards,
Barb Hall
5021 VERDUGO WAY, STE 105
CAMARILLO, CA 93012 – USA
July 7th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Hi Joe,
Looks like they’re still trying…thanks for posting!
Jill
July 7th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Unbelievable. That sad part is these guys have probably scammed quite a few people with these messages.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I’m small business owner as a Computer Consultant. At first I was upset that someone would try to sell me services I provide, then I realized it was a scam. It reads the same as Joe’s does, except for the mail address and the PS stating that this is legal spam.
From:interrogations32794@gmail.com
on:7/8/2008 9:48 AM
Re: Suggestion re: XXXXXXXXX.com
Dear Website Owner,
70% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re ranked on first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I assist you to achieve at least 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by getting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our internet marketing company is ranked on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search phrase “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can come up for your main keyword search phrases as well? All of our methodologies use the most ethical Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your site banned or penalized.
This proprietary SEO service includes:
• No setup costs
• Cancel at any time
• Guaranteed increase in traffic
Please reply to my email and I would be delighted to supply you a custom proposal
Warm Regards,
Barb Hall
5021 VERDUGO WAY, STE 105
CAMARILLO, CA 93012 – USA
_________________________________________________________
P.S. This is an advertisement and a promotional mail strictly on the guidelines of CAN-SPAM act of 2007 . We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form. We have found your mail address through our own efforts on the web search and not through any illegal way. If you find this mail unsolicited, please reply with “Remove” in the subject line and we will take care that you do not receive any further promotional mail.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Just thought you might be interested to know I received one of these today.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Just for fun I looked up the address…it’s a UPS store!
July 11th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Oh Britt, that is just fabulous…thanks so much for sharing this! A UPS store!
July 15th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
It is truely amazing how some people will fall for emails like this. I myself am constantly recieving messages similar to the one in your article. It sounded like a good deal when I first read it but there was one thing in the way….
I am only 14 years old!
Why would a professional company be bothering a minor like myself? I don’t know, so with a smile on my face I simply press the spam button for any of those phony emails I recieve.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hi Jeevani,
Well, not all folks understand SEO that well, and that’s why educating them to help prevent them falling for this sort of thing is part of my mission. Thanks for your comment!
July 19th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I have received two of these scams in the last couple of days. I was doing my “homework” looking up the “website” and found your blog. Thanks for the information and everyones response.
Liz
July 21st, 2008 at 10:36 am
Hi Liz,
Glad you found this and didn’t fall for the SEO scam email – good job!
Jill
August 6th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I keep getting stuff from Majon. I have tried to block them everyway I know. I have blocked their address but they change it all the time. Can’t they get the message? Whatever they are doing, I do not want any of it. Majon is spamming me. They are also listed on Ripoff report saying they sent millions of emails for some customer. Since Majon is a company with a website, do I have any recourse?
August 7th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Hi Zech,
Can you submit a copy of what they’re sending to you and we can take a look and maybe come up with some ideas.
Jill
August 29th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I have a few domains, the one that got spammed from this guy is just collecting dust and spam. So I replied back.
Â
Turns out the spam is from:
http://www.nationalpositions.com
National Positions USA (Headquarters)
5012 Chesebro Road
Suite 200
Agoura Hills, California, 91301
USA
Phone 866 669 8789
Fax 1-805-498-9036
September 6th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Dear Jill,
I also received the similar mail, you see below and I´m shore, from te same Don H. Ritz, but from a different address (may be McDonalds over there?) and I also found his name with his old address on a Californian spam mailers black list.
Furthermore I also got the company, maybe behind his letter, probably looking for costumers:
nationalpositions.com
National Positions USA (Headquarters)
So why do I write this letter to you?
I am asking you, if I should trust in this “national headquarter” company? Do you think, this company is also a spam or an existing company, offering SEO work and more, you see on their homesite?
Claus Kolleth
Hamburg/Germany
Now, this is the letter, I got from Don H. Ritz:
That maybe Dear Business Owner,
75% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I could get as much as 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by promoting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our company is consistently 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 Company’s website so you can rank for your main keyword terms as well? All of our techniques use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization methods that will not get your website banned or penalized.
This search engine optimization program includes:
• No upfront fees
• A month to month program (no long term contracts)
• Guaranteed increase in traffic
Simply reply to this email and I would be delighted to send you a custom proposal
_________________________________________________________
Warm Regards,
Don H.Ritz
2060 AVENIDA DE LOS ARBOLES, STE D
THOUSAND OAKS, CA 91362-1361 – USA
September 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Hi Claus,
I can’t make any comment on National Positions, other than their website did come up on the first page for “search engine optimization log angeles”, which is what they’re targeting. So I don’t see any obvious red flags.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Thank you for posting this and making people aware. While obvious when you point out the fraudulent aspects of these emails, there is something tempting to these emails that make dupe a novice web/business entrepreneur.
September 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I replied to this email just for fun and asked”what is the ranking of your site and under what keywords you can be found”. Then I checked the website has exact “coming soon” logo as you posted above.
From: Jen Evans [mailto:jen@bigwavetraffic.com]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 4:10 PM
To: Info
Subject: your website
I can get your site to the top of a search engines listings.
If you’re interested, reply with the web addresses you want to promote and
the best way to contact you with some options.
Thanks in advance,
Jen Evan
September 29th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Hi Muradian,
Wow, they still have the “coming soon” image up? That’s incredible.
October 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
A simple thanks. I almost responded to the scam e-mail I
received today, but my google search on the fraudulent sender led me to your site and the extensive information you shared about this.
If I didn’t adore my long time web designer I would be your new client!
I can see youare steward of the planet and cyberspace…..
October 8th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hi Pepper,
You’ve made my day, thank you for your comment. It’s nice to be helpful!
October 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hi Jill, I received the message from Jen@…. I put it aside until I could investigate. I designed the site for my wife and she asked me was this true. I began to search for this soliciter’s site and came up with your comments. It is great to have folks like yourself, professional and dedicated to get behind a lot of the fraud that’s out there. Thanks for your investigation and teaching
Rene
October 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Hi Rene,
Thanks for the comment – it’s always nice to hear that this is helping folks. It keeps me writing posts like this!
November 4th, 2008 at 8:46 am
THANKS FOR THE SCAM ALERT!
I ONLY JUST REGISTERED THID DOMAIN A FEW MONTHS AND HAVE NOT ADVERTISED IT YET. THEN I GET THIS EMAIL FROM RYAN FRANK
Dear Website Owner,
70% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re ranked on first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I assist you to achieve at least 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by getting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?
Our internet marketing company is ranked on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search phrase “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can come up for your main keyword search phrases as well? All of our methodologies use the most ethical Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your site banned or penalized.
This proprietary SEO service includes:
• No setup costs
• Cancel at any time
• Guaranteed increase in traffic
Please reply to my email and I would be delighted to supply you a custom proposal
Warm Regards,
Ryan Frank
5021 VERDUGO WAY, STE 105
CAMARILLO, CA 93012 – USA
November 4th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Hi Amanda,
Very glad you found this post! Thanks for letting me know you found it helpful.
November 4th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I want to confirm that this Joseph Samules guy is a fraud. He sends me 2 or 3 spam emails a week, always to ‘Business Owner’, he stole my email address from the whois information. The services he claims to offer, SEO, are fake, he is just out to steal your money. Dont fall for those fake emails of his, nothing but lies. He says he reviewed my website, but if he did then he would have seen it was a placeholder site! Why does he think I would want to increase my traffic to a site that does not sell anything?
His statistics are fake, his spam says:
What we’ve done for others
Increased Online Revenue by 411% in 7 months.
So that means someone with 1 visitor, was ripped off by Joseph Samules and in 7 months he got 4.1 visitors on average. Not impressive.
Anyone who sends you an email saying they will increase your SEO ranking or send you millions of visitors is trying to scam you. If they could do what they claim, they would be promoting their own business pages and not yours.
This Joseph Samules is a liar, a scammer, a spammer and I am sick of receiving his criminal messages.
November 4th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Another thing to check for is page rank of seo company. I think its fair to say that it should be at least 3 or higher. If they couldn’t do that for their own website they probably wouldn’t be able to do much for the clients
November 5th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Hi Log Angeles Movers,
I completely agree – if the page rank is low, it either means the company is very new (a red flag) or they have done a poor job at the link building aspect of SEO.
J
November 5th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Jill thanks for agreeing. But hopefully people who are shopping for seo company do simple checking
CHeck page rank
also ask what previous websites thay have optimized and do yourself a favor before paying 100s of $ a month speak to a few previous of customers ask direct questions what was your experience how compatitive were the words? How lond did it take? Would you recommend them?? I actually have seen previous customers say I would NOT recommend this seo company
November 5th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Los Angeles,
Also very good advice. SEO is very pricey, and talking to previous clients is a very good idea. Especially since SEO tends to take a bit of time, perhaps many, many months to achieve first results – you would want to ask former clients who have been working with them long enough to see benefits.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I just received another one – same format different name – Bella Grace:
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,
Bella Grace
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I received the unsolited email from:
Mark J Blazick
Blaze Web Design, Inc.
What I find so funny about, how do I say this nicely, dumb? SEO companies, is they send the emails to those they find on the top ten of a search.
I guess if someone is already optimized, they don’t have to worry about working if someone falls for it.
I just went to the site and it reminds me of 1998. I think these guys are a little behind on the times. I wonder if they are still using a 28k modem to get online with AOL???
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Hi Shawn,
Thanks for your very funny and well put comment – you’re completely right – if they find us via search engines and spam us – then there’s not much work to be done is there? And I also agree that if you’re going to spam folks claiming to be an SEO company, your website had better be really well done, modern, relevant, etc. Don’t get me started on AOL!
January 5th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
This is the email i got in my email box
fromHarper ryat
dateFri, Jan 2, 2009 at 9:18 AM
subjectIdea For [allurmeds.com]
signed-bygmail.com
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,
Harper ryat
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
January 14th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Here I have mine
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,
Pfiffer
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
______________________________________________________________________
Simply reply with opt out if not interested to hear from us.
January 16th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I just received this email, I thought it was quite interesting. It looked somewhat realistic, and the only thing that led me to believe that is fake is that, they mentioned that they were the top ranked business on Google for “SEO Company”. Yet when I did a Google search for this term and looked back at the email, there is no business name provided.
Who claims to have the top ranking, and not even provide a business name?
January 29th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I got this email today thank you for your site.
Wallace D. I almost responded!
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,
ByanHarperbr>
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
______________________________________________________________________
Simply reply with opt out if not interested to hear from us.
February 8th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Here’s another one:
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,
lor brew
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
February 16th, 2009 at 8:08 am
So many of these spam SEO emails contain the same physical address that I am now using that address “501 VERDUGO WAY” in my spam filter.
If the spam email asks you to reply to a Gmail address, you can report them to Google as a violation of their policy. This only works if you know how to copy the email headers (it is worth learning how to do that, if only for the satisfaction of knowing that there is a way to get back at a spammer). The URL is:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=abuse_phishing
February 16th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Hi Carl,
but others may indeed want to block them completely.
An excellent tip for folks. I myself have received several of these, so a spam filter could indeed catch them. Of course I want them to get through so I can keep adding them to this blog article
February 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Thank you for this posting. I just received the one with the address 501 VERDUGO WAY. Decided to check out the address because of curiosity and found your blog.
Good job:)
February 26th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Here’s another one!
from: Bell Haugh
to: XXXXX
date: Feb 26, 2009 3:11 PM
subject: Idea For [XXXXXX.com]
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,
Bell Haugh
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
______________________________________________________________________
You can easily opt out by replying to this email with OPT OUT in subject line.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Great info. I found your page by doing an address search on the “SEO company” that spammed me.
What tipped me off was they claimed to be on the first page of Google under “SEO”, but listed no company name on their solicitation e-mail.
Damn spammers.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I live in the area and almost got caught b/c I recognized the address (or at least part of it). But then I thought twice of it when I asked myself why they would have such a non-professional e-mail address.
Thanks for posting the article sounding off about the scam.
Cheers!
March 19th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I got another one last night from Varmani:
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,
Varmani
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
April 7th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
They just keep coming:
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,
Girbu Gargja
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
April 10th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
While researching an address from a spam email, I came across your your blog. It looks like they are still at it, I have a client in Atlanta that received the same email from 2 different names at the same address.
Here is one of the emails…
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,
aman Skan
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
______________________________________________________________________
Simply reply with opt out if not interested to hear from us.
April 20th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
We’ve recently been slammed by repeated emails from different names all trying to sell us the same service. We have in one day received over 75 emails. So just out of curiosity we responded to a few of them and finally heard from a gentleman at nationalpositions.com named Mr. Kafka. He assured us the spamming would stop. He also sent us a proposal asking us to spend around $1,000 per month for their services. We have no intention of responding to his proposal and I might add the spamming has started up again. I find them to be totally annoying and unprofessional. And they clearly didn’t research us very well as we “do” appear on page 1 of Google for most of our keywords and we did it on our own.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
hey Jill! thanks for the post! i just got a spam from them.
i noticed the lack of proper email and web address and that was a give away.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Has anyone noticed an increase of spam coming from India? My clients are getting bombarded with it.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I’ve blocked traffic from India from my website for that very reason.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Hi Jill- I called you from the airport to thank you for posting about this. When I looked at our business email today we had 86 emails from these people in our order email account. It does no good to ask them to stop emailing us. This is annoying and is affecting our business.
Also I wanted to let you know about some other questionable companies that I have encountered.
Traffic Logic- was doing doorway pages and pay per click. So if someone saw your doorway page menu they could click on your link 500 times and you paid for it. Steve Lazuka has owned a few of these kinds of businesses. I recommend people avoid them.
MainStreet Host- charges your credit card up front and put us off for two months. I’m glad they did though because had I researched sooner I would never have agreed to let them touch us. They kept putting off on our site SEO because if they get you past the window so you can do a chargeback on your credit card, then you are out your money. You usually have 30-60 days to dispute a charge. I’m not sure what all they do to get your rankings up on the search engines, but you will find a number of complaints against them if you search on their name.
We have a unique niche on the Internet and have great ranking on most of our keywords. For me being unique certainly has made a difference.
Thanks for speaking with me and for giving me my sanity back. It is nice to see others are dealing with National Positions as well, and that we are not alone.
Regards,
Toni
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Hi Toni,
It was so nice to hear from someone who reads my blog and found the info useful, thank you for that. Also, thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding Traffic Logic an MainStreet Hosting. While I haven’t had experience with them, it’s always good to hear feedback like this so that others can help avoid companies, especially SEO companies, who might be taking advantage of folks. Again, thanks for reading, calling, and leaving this comment.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I got this same message from Ellsworth Nob… If it looks like a duck…
May 27th, 2009 at 8:01 am
I get these spam emails all the time. I thought I would point out the fact there is no Verdugo Way in Camarillo. Go figure.
That was the first tipoff that something was wrong. The gmail disposable email addresses was the second one. Then I noticed the contact name changes but the message doesn’t. Oh Well …
May 27th, 2009 at 8:36 am
A question to those receiving this scam email, are you all in California or other places? I have some domains with whois registered in CA and some in other states but I think I only receive this spam every week at my CA domains. Just curious if maybe this scammer was really in ca so trying to find victims in Ca. Maybe he is not on verdugo but may be somewhere else, kind of an odd place to pick as your business location. I mean if you are going to lie why not say los angeles or san francisco?
May 27th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Hi Mike,
I’m in Seattle and have received at least 5 of them, so they are targeting way more than California.
May 29th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Received this today, the subject line was “idea for [aldebaranwebdesign.com] and the return email address was Alejandro Vaughn institutionalisation82819@gmail.com
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,
Alejandro Vaughn
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
May 30th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I have received hundreds of spam forms from National Positions – I think we should all call their phone number at 877-866-6699 and drive them crazy until they stop! I came across a funny protest site: National-Positions.com – looks like they have an angry ex-worker!
June 1st, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Another one…
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,
Donnie Schultz
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
June 11th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I’m glad I found this post. I just received an email with the same verbiage. The only difference was the person’s name and the address is very similar. Here’s the 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.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Today, another one:
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,
Salley Mcelhaney
567 WEST CHANNEL ISLANDS BLVD
PORT HUENEME, CA 93041 – USA
July 12th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Another one:
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,
Adam Mandel
567 WEST CHANNEL ISLANDS BLVD
PORT HUENEME, CA 93041 – USA
July 15th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Another one:
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.
us.
______________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
Gita Dingle
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
July 16th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Another one:
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,
Chia Stowers
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
July 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
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,
Nevada Deberry
501 VERDUGO WAY
WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA
91362 – USA
July 27th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I am one of those suckers that did sign up with National Positions. Here is what I would warn other people about:
National Positions writes the contract such that they do not have to perform in order to collect your hard earned monies. For instance, they will say “Up to 25 Keywords will be optimized” for your site. Zero is a number within that set of “up to 25″. You don’t think about these things till after the fact. Next, they’ll say “A Fulltime technical support person will be assigned to your account” – what they don’t tell you is that person will sit in Bangalore, and simply stare out of the window. Technically, he or she is assigned fulltime to your account, but no visible work is being performed.
Next they’ll tell you that up to 95% of their customers renew with them. What they don’t fess up is that the contract is written to automatically renew, even if you send them a registered cancellation notice.
I’ve lost $3,000 on them so far, not to mention countless hours of my own time – my site’s rankings dropped with all of their great service, by over 1,000,000 places in the space of two months.
Of course, you’ll not receive any ranking reports, as that would be embarrassing to them and hard to explain. I could go on – maybe another time.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hi Colin,
I am so sorry to hear about your experience with National Positions – although I do appreciate your posting your experiences here for others to benefit. The points you make about the language of the contract regarding number of keywords and technical support are very good ones indeed – and for anyone considering hiring a SEO firm – please read over Colin’s comment carefully.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Hi there,
I love researching spam when I get bored which is how I came upon your site. Not only do I get the lamo spam for SEO, I frequently get phone calls for it too. I like to toy with them simply by saying “you do search engine optimization?” when they say “yes” I google Search Engine Optimization and when they don’t show up in the first three pages, I tell them “guess you’re not very good at what you do…” To which they ALWAYS respond by telling me to search for their company’s name. So I tell them, “well if I search for my company name, I come up first too”. The call usually doesn’t last 10 more seconds after that before they realize it’s time to give up.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Hi Kevin,
Ack, SEO spam phone calls? That would drive me insane. Your tactics sound just lovely and quite entertaining! Thanks so much for sharing with those of who hate spam!
July 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
That’s a good one Kevin.
Everyone be on the lookout for a company called Visible.net. They’re one of the bigger SEO firms that have been ripping businesses off. These SEO firms tend to prey on small businesses that don’t have much knowledge of SEO. Then, once they get them signed up for a 3-month contract, they fabricate a bunch of BS documents “to prove they did a lot of work.”
Visible.net is known to also fabricate positive reviews online. Their reviews are so obviously fake. They are currently being sued by the Attorney General in Washington – your state Jill.
July 30th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hi Steve,
Can you send a link to any information about Visible.net and the WA Attorney General – I’d love to write a separate article about it!
July 30th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I just found the link:
Attorney General sues Washington business that promised Web hits but struck out in customer service – November 13, 2008
July 30th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Sure, here’s the press release direct from the source: http://www.atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?&id=21378
And another one from SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/washington-state-sues-seo-company-visiblenet
Keep up the good work, Jill!
July 31st, 2009 at 4:08 am
Hi,
Here I leave 4 important points to identify a SEO scammer:
1 – The SEO company’s email can never be from a free email accounts: yahoo, gmail, btinternet, etc. They must use their company’s email address.
If you received an proposal for optimization from a free email just move it to your SPAM folder…
2 – The company must have a website and their website must have minimum Page Ranking 3 (use google toolbar to check).
3 – Their website must be on top 5 in google when you search for a keyword such “Webdesign Marbellaâ€â€¦
The trick is use always the keyword of the service offered + your location:
SERVICE + LOCATION
example: seo London, webdesign California, search engine Optimization Canada…
4- If you’re in USA never contract a service from an Indian company, China or whatever place is far from your zone. I’m sure there are plenty of professionals around your zone(google is your friend). Sometimes is better pay a bit more and know where you have to go to complain if necessary…
“Real SEO experts will match all the requirements above so you can be sure you are not going to lose your money.â€
I hope this helps,
IT-Design
July 31st, 2009 at 10:27 am
In response to IT-Design,
I hope you’re not saying that these are definite criterias for spotting a scammer.
In any case, I understand your intent.
August 6th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
You know, I posted this:
“I get these spam emails all the time. I thought I would point out the fact there is no Verdugo Way in Camarillo. Go figure.”
I should have said that there was no Verdugo Way in Westlake Village.
Sorry, gang. My bad.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I fell for the National Positions pitch. I spoke to a Jesse Heller who gave the initial pitch and then Chris Biascan called and introduced himself as my “Technician”.
After Jesse told me what his company could do for my website he gave me a tour of other websites and showed me the source pages to explain what changes they make to the html codes. Always stating that they could make me #1 on the search engines.
Jesse told me the usual fee was $1000.00 per month, but when I explained that I was a small company with very limited funds he lowered the price to $600.00 per month, no contract. All the way through his pitch he kept saying that my site would be on the first page within a few weeks, which I thought meant 3 weeks. Jesse told me step by step what the company would do within the first couple weeks.
I signed up and let them charge $600.00 to my credit card. Initially Chris contacted me often updating me of the work he was doing. After the first couple weeks, I was not getting routine e-mails from him anymore. I would write e-mails and it would take a couple days for him to respond. He told me upfront that it took approximately 8 months to get to the first page on search engines, which was totally different from what Jesse told me and I said so to Chris. I told him that if Jesse had of been honest with me then I would never have hired National Positions because I knew I didn’t have $4,800.00 just laying around collecting dust.
Meanwhile, Jesse who said if I ever had any questions to contact him as he was the sales manager, never once replied to my e-mails or phone messages.
After the second $600.00 charge I put the brakes on. I let Chris know that I was not happy with being left out of the loop, and that I had not received any updates concerning improvements to my site and therefore how my money was being earned.
When Chris called me back I told him of my unhappiness with the outcomes of their service and the fact that I had told Jesse several times that funds were limited. I had no orders in 6 weeks and could not afford another payment to National Positions. I sent him a cancellation e-mail as requested, changed my passwords and canceled my credit card.
I think that if you hire a company to do the optimization for your website that they should send an invoice as to what updates they have made and where you can look to see these updates. If they have put a link on another website to your website then they need to give you the name of the website so that you can see for yourself the link and test it. For all I know they may have spent a couple days initially making changes in Titles, Descriptions and Keywords, but the rest of the time playing checkers and collecting payments from credit cards.
I bought some books; Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, HTML and CSS, how to build a website from scratch. These books have become my new friends and they didn’t cost $1,200.00.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hi Loyce,
Wow, what an awful experience! I appreciate you sharing the details of your dealings with National Positions here. I agree with your tips regarding making sure any SEO company actually sends proof of their work (if they say they’ve created links, they should be able to prove it, etc). I also strongly agree that getting a good education before hiring someone to do SEO is a wonderful suggestion. While I haven’t read the Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, I have several other of the For Dummies books, and they are really well written and helpful. I’m sorry this lesson cost you $1200.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
For anyone considering a SEO company, I would suggest that you do some initial homework on what SEO is about. These crooked SEO companies prey on small businesses that do not have any idea of what SEO is, and hope that their ignorance will cover up for the lack of results.
Before I joined my current employer, they were ripped off by a SEO company that charged them $6,000. When they tried to fight the charges, they realized that there were small prints in the contract which were overlooked initially. Be very careful, these SEO companies hire good sales people.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Some guy called Robert from National Positions left me a voice mail about SEO optimization, being a skeptic, the first thing I do is Google the company name followed by the word scam or rip-off. Loyce, thanks for saving me from these scam artists and sorry for your experience.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
National Positions has been spamming my contact forms and those of my web design clients.
I actually replied to one of their spam contacts via their GMAIL account and got a response today from another non-GMAIL account. That’s how I found out that National Positions was behind the scam.
They are using various GMAIL accounts to carry out their spamming. The GMAIL accounts are typically different each time I get spammed but it’s always an identical message.
I reported the last email address to Google and everyone else receiving their form spam should do the same. They do rank well for “SEO Company” in Google which is surprising because after my research I see they’ve been doing this for quite some time under a couple of different names.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:10 am
There is, in fact, a Verdugo Way in Camarillo. I live here and it’s right next to my high school. There are several office buildings down the street as well, makes perfect sense for the address on the letter. Just thought I’d point it out before people start believing what you tell them.
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:26 am
Someone has finally had enough BS SPAMMING from National Positions – it appears that the genius owners did not register National-Positions.com – They are providing links to report spam from National Positions to The FTC, California Attorney General Office and Domains By Proxy at GoDaddy – Spamming is Illegal! The penalty in California is $50 per transmission to a maximum of $25,000 per day – Do Your Part – Please Report Spam Activity You Have Received!
Thank you!
April 19th, 2010 at 9:14 am
I’ve heard of National Positions. I didn’t realize they were spam.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:15 am
I was just contacted by National Positions and was thinking about hiring them. I’m so glad I read this blog first. Thanks!