Category Archives: Corporate Folly

Don’t Click That Ad

Posted on by The Old Wolf

rule

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, clickbait ads are everywhere. They are the spam of the World Wide Web, unwanted intrusions into your browsing experience, and like spam, the vast majority of these ads are deceptive and lead to spurious or borderline criminal offers.

What’s that “New Rule?”

If  you click that ad, you are taken to http://www.easy-autoquotes.com/, which looks like a respectable financial advice website:

insider

And what’s that “one rule?”

“Don’t even think about getting insurance without first comparing discounted quotes from an unbiased source.”

The “unbiased source” they want you to visit is the Easy Auto Quotes™ official site, which deceptively redirects you to 

"http://provide-savings.com,"

which turns out to be a scummy outfit which, like LowerMyBills will gather your information including sensitive personal data and sell it to anyone who waves money in their faces. You won’t get a quote from them, but you will be inundated by calls and emails not only from competing auto insurance agencies, and countless other disreputable marketers hawking everything under the sun. The only way you’ll be able to stem the tide is move, cancel your credit cards, change your email address, get a new phone number, and walk widdershins around a rotting stump at midnight while looking at the new moon over your left shoulder.

Have a look at the disclaimer at the very bottom of their page, which most people will never see, and which is hard to read even if you get there:

disclaimer

Here it is in plain text:

Disclaimer and Consumer Information.

THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT AND NOT AN ACTUAL NEWS ARTICLE, BLOG, OR CONSUMER PROTECTION UPDATE
THIS SITE GETS PAID FOR CLICKS OR SALES PRODUCED FROM CONTENT FOUND ON THIS SITE
*We are dedicated to bringing readers valuable information which can help them accomplish their financial and lifestyle goals. Our disclaimer is that this site does receive compensation for product reviews and referrals or purchases made through our links. This page is an advertisement/advertorial. The story depicted here is for demonstration purposes only and everyone’s results may vary. We hope you find our online resource informative and helpful.

This site is in no way affiliated with any news source.

Important information regarding the truthfulness of this article (For our site visitors and the FTC): There have been issues in the online marketing industry with fake advertorials to pitch certain products within the affiliate marketing industry. This site and the owners of this site have never participated in these false advertising practices. Here are a few clarifications points regarding this article: First, as stated at the top of this site, [NOTE: No, it only says “Advertisement’] this is an Advertisment/Advertorial. This site receives compensation for purchases made through our links.

*Clarification of the advertising headline “New Policy in your State”: Some of our website visitors may have visited our site after seeing an ad regarding “New Policy in your State.” This ad then clarifies that certain individuals may receive discounts of up to 50% off car insurance. The newest United States information and insurance tips for lowering your car insurance cost can be found at usa.gov (recently updated October of 2011). The United States federal governments and state governments are constantly looking out for consumers and have published new information on helping consumers lower their car insurance bills. Here’s a specific link regarding the newest usa.gov advice, tips in order to receive lower car insurance rates: http://www.usa.gov/topics/travel/cars/insurance.shtml. In addition to this information, each state and their respective state insurance commissions may have additional recent policy changes which may affect the insurance rates in your area. The specific new discount car insurance policies in your state which are currently helping individuals save up to 50% on car insurance is information that can be found through the insurance comparison site Provide InsuranceTM mentioned in this article. Upon visiting this site you will see the claim that individuals can save up to 50% in their respective states. This is information that we have found to be true. From the article mentioned from usa.gov, we see that the federal government has also given the advice and made the claims that “To get the best coverage at the best price, get several quotes from insurance companies. It may save you hundreds of dollars a year… You may be eligible for a discount based on the number of miles you drive; your age (turning 25 or 50); your good grades if you are a student, your driving record (no moving vehicle violations or accidents in three years); or if you’ve taken a safe-driving course. You might also be able to get discounts if you insure more than one vehicle, insure your vehicle and your home with the same company, have anti-theft devices or have safety features such as air bags or anti-lock brake system.”

*Clarification of the advertising headline “New Rule in (Your State)”. – Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “rule” as “a piece of advice about the best way to do something” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rule). This article aims to advise the public that comparing rates is one of the best ways that you can save money on car insurance. No matter what city, state or zip code you live in you can compare rates and get free quotes. If you truly want to find the best rate and save on car insurance then follow our advice or “rule” to compare rates. Here are links to two surveys which demonstrate the importance of comparing rates and how applying this “rule” in any state, city or zip code may help drivers save 32%. A new survey found that the #1 reason people switch is because they found a cheaper rate. Click Here for Survey. A second survey which analyzed car insurance quotes for 1,000 zip codes across the U.S. found that within a given zip code, rates vary by 154% on average, allowing drivers to find an average of 32% in savings. Click Here For Survey.

This site is committed to protecting the privacy of our online visitors. If you join our mailing list, your information will not be shared with others. Anyone who wishes can choose to be removed from our mailing list at any time.

This site is in no way affiliated with any news source. As mentioned at the top of this web page, it is an advertisement.

This site contains affiliate and partner links, and as mentioned previously, this site is only an advertisement. The owners of this site receive compensation when sales are made.

This website and the company that owns it is not responsible for any typographical or photographic errors. If you do not agree to our terms and warnings, then leave this site immediately.

Product is not affiliated in any way with ABC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Consumer Reports, CBS, Wink News or USA Today. All trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the “Trademarks”) displayed are registered and/or unregistered Trademarks of their respective owners. Contents of this website are copyrighted property of the reviewer and/or this website.

Note that this disclaimer consists largely of weasel words which attempt to justify the deceptive nature of the advertisement; the worst example of this kind of humbuggery I have already shared over at the “Hall of Shame.”

It gets worse. When you visit Provide-Savings, they begin a process which will gather all sorts of PII (Personally-identifying information) which they claim they need to provide you with your requested quote. Take a gander at a selected portion of their “privacy policy.”

In order to provide you with insurance quotes, we collect your personal contact information including name, telephone number, mailing address, email address, gender, birthday and marital status. For home insurance quotes, we also collect details about your home and personal property. For auto insurance quotes, we collect information about your vehicles and drivers and may also collect information about your credit and your existing insurance coverage.

By submitting your e-mail address and/or phone number (as the case may be) via this Site, you authorize us to use that e-mail address and phone number to contact you periodically, via e-mail and manually-dialed and/or auto-dialed telephone calls, concerning (i) your quote requests, (ii) any administrative issue regarding the Site or our services and/or (iii) information or offers that we feel may be of interest to you. We may also send e-mails to you periodically regarding updated quotes. You may opt out of receiving e-mails from us at any time by unsubscribing as set forth in the applicable e-mail.

Additionally, by filling out information on this Site as part of your request for information about insurance policies and quotations, you authorize us to provide that information to various insurance companies, insurance agents and other related third parties that participate in our insurance quote network (collectively “Insurance Providers”). The Insurance Providers may provide your personal information to their insurance carriers, suppliers and other related vendors in order to generate price quotations and information relevant to insurance policies that you have requested

We may share your information with third parties with whom we have promotional or advertising relationships (provided that we are not otherwise restricted from this sharing of information). If you do not want us to share your personal information with these companies, contact us at compliance@adharmonics.com.
We may provide your PII to, or permit access to it by, our subsidiaries, affiliated companies, vendors and/or service providers, such as our ISP or infrastructure hosting companies, for the purpose of processing such information and/or contacting you on our behalf, or where such access is incidental to their providing assistance to us. In such cases, we expect these parties to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this privacy policy.

At some point, we may establish subsidiaries or other related companies, or merge with or be acquired by another company. Should that happen, then we may disclose your information to them, in which case we will request that they abide by this Policy. We may also disclose some information to a potential acquirer, although such disclosure would be subject to normal and customary requirements.
We reserve the right to disclose your PII as required by law or when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a court order, legal process or judicial proceeding served on us.
We may work with third party data providers to obtain additional information about you, other drivers on your policy or in your household, and information about your car. By using these data providers, we are able to prefill your questionnaire and save you time. You will still be able to review and edit this information before you submit it.

The TL;DR¹ here is that they have essentially reserved the right to sell your personal information with anyone under the sun.

Ultimately, to be perfectly honest , the advert on the original referring page should look like this:

ad2

It goes without saying that you should not even be seeing ads like this. The easiest way to cut down on such things is to install a simple extension, Ad-Block Plus, which quietly and unobtrusively blocks ads like this from ever appearing on your page. It works with Chrome, Mozilla, IE, Opera, and many other browsers.

Be careful out there, and don’t give your information to scumbags.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

¹ Too long; didn’t read

Acc

Woo Water

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Visitng a LYS (Local Yarn Shop) in Logan, Utah, I had a glance at the April 2, 2015 edition of Time™ while my wife was finishing up her browsing.

And once again it was confirmed that there’s a sucker born every minute.

Producers try to replicate the success of coconut water

Coconut water, the trendy sports drink that’s exploded into a $400 million-a-year business in the U.S., has new competition. Bottled-water outfits are trying to sell consumers on H2O with vegetables, tree saps and other flavored ingredients. Startups and small companies especially are marketing a raft of new products spiked with a little extra…

Coconut water? I had never heard of such a thing. But have a look at all the wannabes who are jumping on the money train:

water

©Time Magazine

Claims, claims, claims! Improves digestion, soothes sore throats, revitalizes, liver detox, hangover relief, woo, woo, woo! In today’s atmosphere of anti-science and galloping gullibility, there is more opportunity to profit from the ignorance of the masses than ever. Plus ça change…

Edit: Props to Sharon Neeman for catching an error: Victoria’s Kitchen Almond water makes no claims at all, except that it’s delicious and refreshing, which I could certainly get behind if that sort of thing appealed to me.

Petroleum

Lucky Luke, “À l’ombre des derricks”

Snake oil salesmen and purveyors of medical quackery have been around since the dawn of time, but let marketing departments get a whiff of a trend, and the trickle becomes a deluge.

I have nothing against natural remedies per se, and have expanded on this topic in other articles. What I do object to is pure

BS Meter

which these products are, and I recommend that you save your money.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Please do not share from these 10 Websites or Facebook Pages

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This is a condensation of an excellent article from DawnsBrain. I’ve summarized the ten here for easy consumption, but her complete article is worth a read.

DBRielly_LovePotionsAndSnakeOil

☛ TL;DR – these websites promote pseudoscientific woo¹, and are dangerous in that they lead people to shun and be afraid of science-based health and medicine. ☚

10) Alex Jones

Mr. Jones uses a ton of hyperbole, conspiracy theories, and a loose connection to reality, to whip up fear and loathing in his audience.

9) The Food Babe

Ms. Hari, the “Food Babe”, parrots Dr. Mercola and cobbles together cherry-picked blurbs from questionable studies and Wikipedia. She uses the term “investigation” to excuse the fact that she often gives medical advice without having any education in the life sciences. She picks the weirdest ingredients to go after.

#8 Eat Clean. Train Mean. Live Green.

Ms. McDonald mixes some common-sense dietary advice with a shot of “detox” and disordered eating, GMO and fluoride fearmongering, and pondering about chemtrails. She even claims that honey is medicine. Proof that even registered dietitians can be wacko.

#7 Dr. Joseph Mercola

Dr. Mercola, by virtue of his credentials and large fanbase, is possibly one of the most dangerous people on Facebook. Because he generates fear around science-based medicine, he discourages people from seeking real help for illness. He also scares people away from vaccinations, fluoride, GMO food, pasteurized dairy, and dental fillings. But you know, buy his line of supplements and all will be well.

#6 Prevention Magazine

Everyone that promotes “natural cures” above all else seems to jump from one cure-all to another. WebMD specifically states that there is insufficient evidence for at least three items on their list.

#5 NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com is arguably the most balls-to-the-wall looniest page on Facebook. They have never met a conspiracy theory they don’t love.

#4 Collective Evolution

All the misinformation, all the time.

#3 MindBodyGreen

The “conversations about health” are decidedly in favor of “natural remedies” that are not supported by scientific research. People who waste their time mucking about with ineffective alternative treatments often die much sooner.

#2 Spirit Science

Most of their posts are harmless new-agey spiritual stuff and kookiness. But sometimes they veer into unsupportable natural remedies and outright pseudoscience.

#1 The Mind Unleashed

They’re a good example of slipping in a bit of bullshit here and there amongst the standard viral Facebook stuff. There’s a theme of immature hippy-style mistrust of any and every authority. What are you rebelling against? What have you got?

Bonus Post

Ernest Hemingway coined the term Crap Detector to refer to the little mechanism that ought to be working inside each person’s brain.

The most certain way to develop this ability to discern truth from baloney is education. In particular, an education in science will help protect you from the charlatans and cranks of the world.

I highly recommend starting with one of the many free online resources, such as Crash Course: Biology, Crash Course: Chemistry, and Crash Course: Anatomy and Physiology.

Bonus 2:

Dawn did not mention him, but I personally would add Mehmet Oz to the list. A sad case of a classically-trained physician who has sold his reputation for a mess of pottage, and in his quest to find natural remedies has devolved into a pitchman for the most ridiculous and worthless products known to man.

Disclaimer: Even with education in the hard sciences, it’s wise to remember that not everything is known that can be known. Aspirin is a direct outgrowth of historical use of willow bark to treat fevers. I have a strong conviction that there are literally countless chemical compounds out in nature that remain to be discovered that can have beneficial effects on human health and disease… but most of them have not been discovered yet.

Heath and wellness is soon to be, if it’s not already, a trillion-dollar industry – and everyone and their dog wants a slice of that pie. Trouble is, most of those dollars will be made selling bullcrap to the ignorant. There are very few exceptions.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

¹ Woo is a term used among skeptical writers to describe pseudoscientific explanations that have certain common characteristics.

One News Story – Twelve Clickbait Ads

Posted on by The Old Wolf

The image below was assembled from Newser.com. I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems that sponsored ad placement like has risen to the level of the absurd.

bullshit

Every one of these ads is clickbait and leads to some sort of deceptive or disreputable website, things like Lower My Bills, Pimsleur Appraoch, snake oil peddlers, things like that. Twelve scummy ads for a single news article? Even if you need to place ads, one would think you could choose more reputable businesses to promote than these deceptive, barely-legal scams.

It’s getting more and more difficult to navigate the web for substantive content witnout being bombarded with things like this, hard-coded ads that AdBlocker won’t wipe out. But one thing is certain – you should never click on ads like this; you’ll only be taken to a site that wants to get your money and/or information, and doesn’t care how they do it.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Why tipping is a bad idea.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This will be a short post, with a good video to watch.

I’ve written before about why tipping is not optional. The video below addresses that, but provides a good overview of why the example provided by Bar Marco – banning tipping and paying their servers a living wage – is a good idea, and should be the wave of the future. Mind you, Bar Marco is not the first – Sushi Yasuda started the practice in 2013. It is my hope that the entire industry is ultimately going to follow suit.

I love eating out, and if prices go up a bit to make this happen, as far as I’m concerned, it’s well worth it.

The video is below. It’s from College Humor, so there’s a bit of language in it – but I recommend this short film to anyone who enjoys dining out.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Global Travel Network in Salt Lake City: Avoid these ripsters like the plague.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

global 2

Around December 20th, I entered a drawing for a $2,500 mall shopping spree. Of course, I didn’t win – but what I got was a call from representatives at “Rewards Fulfillment,” letting me know “we had been selected” to receive a “luxury vacation.”

Well, I’ve written about this kind of scam before. This time, it was Global Travel Network. They called me, told me “I had been selected based on my demographic profile,” and all I had to do was go up to Salt Lake for a presentation and to collect my prize.

The musicians have changed, but the music remains the same.

I told them I was not interested, and why. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.

Were we done? Not by a long shot. These people or their contractors called me back five times more, each one giving the same spiel, and each one being given the same information from me: 1) I’m not interested. 2) This is the [n]th time I’ve been called. 3) please remove me from your database.

Today I got a call from a lady who acknowledged that I had told previous agents that I wasn’t interested. She launched into a sales pitch, saying she was from quality control and her job was to make sure that her agents were doing their job right. I explained to her Rule No. 1 of sales: “Never try to sell to someone who isn’t going to buy.” Yet she rattled on for 15 minutes, trying to get me to come in for a presentation that I wasn’t interested in (I was just waiting for a car to be repaired and had nothing else to do at the moment.) They must get paid based on how many people they sign up.

Talk about relentless and disrespectful. This outtfit is worse than a rogue debt collector, and there seems to be no way to get them to stop calling. Each call, for what it’s worth, has come from a different phone number.

Here are a couple of horror stories about Global Travel Network: This one and this one.

An investigative report from 9News in Denver give you a good look at how the scam works – apparently Global Travel Network is behind this as well, but in Denver they were representing themselves as Global Connections, and hijacking that company’s BBB rating. Nice and honest, huh? Global Travel Network is not accredited with the BBB; have a look at what the Better Business Bureau has to say about them as of 1/12/2015:

This company has a pattern of complaints alleging misrepresentation during initial contact with the representative as consumers allege being offered several different incentives for attending a presentation such as gas cards, cruises, round-trip airfare, free vacations, etc. with promise that nothing will be required out of pocket and there are no black-out dates or restrictions. Once consumers receive said incentives or attempt to book their vacation they find that what was initially promised to them is not what has been received. There are additional fees required or difficulty booking the vacation.

While the business has responded to the BBB’s concerns and stated all terms and conditions of the offers are disclosed and that additional training has been set in place to ensure that this no longer occurs, BBB has continued to receive complaints with the same underlying issue.

This is an excellent report, and worth watching and reading both. They give you an idea of how deep this deceptive pool of slime goes.

After having the police called on them, here’s the response 9News got from Global Travel Network:

Global

Would you do business with this company? Don’t.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

UPS Sure as Hell Doesn’t Want My Business

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Not if they’re going to make shipping a package online so flaming impossible.

I used to have a UPS account years ago, but apparently they purge them after a year of inactivity. So I went to their website to try to ship a package this morning.

ups

So they give you the option to ship as a guest, but then the website throws an error and tells me I must login.

In the meantime, I get an email from PayPal stating that there’s a pending charge.So there’s obviously no problem with UPS getting access to my PayPal account. Take note of that, there’s going to be a test.

I wasn’t really all that excited about registering, so I end up calling their customer support people, who promptly shunted me off to a technical support department.

Tech support has me try submitting the shipment again. Same error message. And another pending charge in my PayPal account. The rep told me I needed to create an account.

Fine. I’ll create an account.

UPS 2

Oh, this is getting fun. Try again with a different email account, a different user name, the whole works. Same result.

Call tech support back. The lady manages to create a profile for me, although every bit of information I gave her was horribly mis-spelled, including the UserID.

OK, I can live with a UserID that’s not one of my choice. Go into my profile and change all the information. She directs me to the area where I can add my PayPal account as a default payment method. Go through all the steps. The PayPal side seems to work fine.

ups 4

Another error. The lady tells me helpfully that there’s something wrong with my PayPal account. Oh wait, remember? You can actually submit requests successfully so oh, gee, I guess there’s not. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been using this account successfully for years. She tells me it’s because I have tried to access the account unsuccessfully three times, so I have to wait a full 60 minutes before trying again.

No, sorry. UPS threw the error the first time I tried shipping a package this morning. I ask her for someone in her department who is able to really dig in and find out why UPS is throwing all these errors. She says there is no one, and that I’d have to try contacting the programmers at corporate.

Good luck with that.

OK, fine. I guess I’ll make a credit card my default payment method.

UPS 3

This is my standard business card which works like a charm everywhere else in the world.

Call Tech Support back. They helpfully direct me to the number provided with the error message, saying that I have to call that number to get any help.

So i call. And get a recording. Naturally, this is Saturday and no one can take my call until Monday.

By now, I’ve spent over two hours just trying to ship a single package.

I have come to one inescapable conclusion:

download

It’s clear UPS doesn’t want my business. Their clunky and inoperable website, and the inability of their representatives to help me overcome these myriad problems, has guaranteed that they won’t get it.

The Old Wolf needs a drink and it’s a bloody shame he’s teetotal. He’ll just have a good cry instead.

The Next “Miracle Weight Loss Herb” – Caralluma Fimbriata

Posted on by The Old Wolf

According to Wikipedia, caralluma ascendens, another name for caralluma fimbriata, is an edible form of cactus used throughout the Indian subcontinent as an appetite suppressant, or so-called “famine food.”

Leave it to the snake-oil hawkers to turn this into the next big thing they can make a few bucks on.

Got an email today from a “friend,” one whose email account or information had been compromised:

From: Redacted

To: store-news@amazon.com, ChaseNotification@emailonline.chase.com,

…snip… pmlncc@kkwl.ac.th, mrs.phillipjones@live.com

Subject: [Redacted]

Hi! How are you?

It works! http://nationalbranding.com/probably/dead.php

[Name Redacted]

These spoofed emails are so transparent at this point that I can smell the fraud before I even open them. But, in the interest of public service, I follow these links to see what new scam is being perpetrated on the general public.

Today’s bowl of steaming camel ejecta led me to a website hawking caralluma, the new New NEW weight-loss miracle.

Landing

This is the same kind of affiliate marketing effluence that I have described elsewhere (just do a search at this blog for garcinia cambogia, for example).  Notice the tiny print below “ACT NOW!” that obligates you to a monthly $10.00 charge. But in the end, they’re less concerned with selling you their product as they are about getting your information which in the long run is much more valuable to them than a single sale.

Smell the foul rot of desperation as we proceed through the following screens:

Hook7

The first come-on is BOGO. If we don’t fall for that, we get this:

Hook1

Wait wait wait! OK, what now?

Hook2.jp

One of 50 customers, huh? Wow, I must really be special. But I guess I’m not really interested after all.

Hook3

Wait wait wait! Wow, a free trial bottle, and the offer is good for only 10 minutes! Shall we look and see?

Hook4

Now this is a wondrous thing. Instead of caralluma, I’ve been sent to a page to order garcinia cambogia. Looks like the affiliate marketer forgot to update his previous campaign.

Hook5.jp

More desperation.

Hook6

Now the bottle is free, and I only have to pay 99¢ for shipping. But remember, I’m still providing my credit card information, and obligating myself to that $10.00 per month “subscription.” Once these drones have your financial information, they are in a position to bill you for anything they want, or sell your credit card and personal information to other scumsuckers.

It’s all garbage, poorly-crafted but sadly effective affiliate marketing for products that have little or no value, or worse, are actually detrimental to your health.

Be careful out there.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Another “Domain Registration” Scam

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Edit: 5/26/2025 – Still going on. Mail received from “Domain Name Services” in Buffalo, NY. They want $265.00 for a 5-year renewal

Here’s some junk email that showed up this morning:

ATTENTION: IMPORTANT NOTICE
Domain SEO Service Registration Corp.
Order#: 780438
Date: 12/14/2014

EXPIRATION NOTICE

DOMAIN: [redacted]

Notification Offer
EXPIRATION DATE: 12/22/2014

Bill To: [Redacted]
Domain Name: [Redacted]
Registration SEO Period: 01/05/2015 to 01/05/2016
Price: $64.00
Term: 1 Year

SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT

Domain Name: [Domain Name Redacted]
Attn: [Owner Name Redacted]

This important expiration notification notifies you about the expiration notice of your domain registration for [edited.com search engine submission. The information in this expiration notification may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information from the notification processing department of the Domain SEO Service Registration. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) named above.
If you fail to complete your domain name registration [edited].com search engine service by the expiration date, may result in the cancellation of this domain name notification offer notice.

PLEASE CLICK ON SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT TO COMPLETE YOUR PAYMENT.

Failure to complete your domain name registration [redacted] search engine service process may make it difficult for customers to find you on the web.

CLICK UNDERNEATH FOR IMMEDIATE PAYMENT

PROCESS PAYMENT FOR
[Domain Redacted]
SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT
ACT IMMEDIATELY

This domain registration for [Domain Redacted] search engine service notification will expire 12/22/2014.

Instructions and Unsubscribe Instructions:

You have received this message because you elected to receive special notification offers. If you no longer wish to receive our notifications, please unsubscribe here or mail us a written request to Domain SEO Service Registration Corp., 5379 Lyons Rd. 452, Coconut Creek, FL 33073. If you have multiple accounts with us, you must opt out for each one individually in order to stop receiving notifications notices. We are a search engine optimization company. We do not directly register or renew domain names. We are selling traffic generator software tools. This message is CAN-SPAM compliant. THIS IS NOT A BILL. THIS IS A NOTIFICATION OFFER. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO PAY THE AMOUNT STATED UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS NOTIFICATION OFFER. Please do not reply to this email, as we are not able to respond to messages sent to this address.

Notice several things about this garbage:

  1. The emphasized text in the spam disclaimer, written in tiny, gray print so as to be ignored, states clearly that you are signing up for worthless services, not domain registration. This shows the blatant deception being perpetrated here.
    disclaimer
  2. It’s designed to look like an invoice. There are, sadly, many unwitting office managers and secretaries and even executives who will take one look at this, pay the invoice, and kiss their money goodbye.
  3. The “registration service” being offered comes from http://www.domainrseo.net/, which has been flagged by Web of Trust (WOT) as Phishing, Scam, Potentially illegal, Misleading claims or unethical, and Spam site. The two posted comments are informative:

User Carl Legg posted on 11/29/2014

WARNING: New Internet scam out of a shoebox office in Florida. Called Domain SEO Service Registration Corp. It’s the same, tired old false flag operation.

1.) Perpetrator looks up domain names (owner contact information is public)
2.) Perpetrator e-mails domain-name owner with an official looking “Payment Notice”
3.) Threatening “expiration” deadlines are made in the Payment Notice
4.) Payment notice written in legal-technical gobbledegook to scare people into paying.

The perp makes it look like you are renewing your domain name, but in reality, and through some seriously twisted use of English language (that leaves one’s head swimming), you are signing up for one year of expensive search-engine optimization. Many people would not understand this, and the perp wants it that way.

Registered in Florida, but likely owned by a Hong Kong firm? Hard to tell. Here’s the registration data:

Florida Profit Corporation DOMAIN SEO SERVICE REGISTRATION CORP.
Filing Information Document NumberP14000093458
FEI/EIN Number NONE Date Filed 11/17/2014 State FL Status ACTIVE
Office/Director/Agent: TAUBERT, MATTHIAS (Matthias Taubert)
Principal Address 5379 LYONS RD. (452), COCONUT CREEK, FL 33073″

User eden-g posted on 11/29/2014
“Scam site engaged in misleading illegal activity owned by Chinese criminal Zhu Bing.”

I can’t speak to the source of the name in the second comment, but whoever is behind this scam is a dirtbag.

Be very careful out there. Domain registration scams are rampant, SEO firms are, for the most part, offering useless and expensive services, and most unsolicited commercial email is deceptive.

The Old Wolf has spoken.