Fake TV endorsed ads, pointing to a fake newspaper site is the newest scam to lure you into taking your credit card out of your pocket and to subscribe to the most awesome get money quick program ever seen in history of the scammers.
In the ad, and on the site the ad is linking to, a number of logo’s from popular TV networks or newspapers are being mis-used. As if the system has been endorsed by these programs or journalists.
The San Diego Herald News site is not a real newspaper, it just looks like one. And although the style of the article written is really as it’s news, the site is nothing but an ad to make you buy a system that makes you post links online and make money with it…
Online giant Google is a publicly traded company and is currently worth $132.5 Billion (Yes thats Billions with a B). The company has pioneered online search and has changed the way we use the internet.
In a matter of weeks Mary and David had a steady stream of income coming in via checks that were delivered right to their home. They happened upon a system called "Google Fortune." This showed them how to make money posting online links.
Only at the bottom there is a large disclaimer, explaining the site is not a real news site, but nothing but an advertisement for the automatic money making system Google Fortune.
THE STORY DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.
I hope Google will bring the hammer down on this program for misusing their brand.
A cease and desist letter I received today made me think about how I would like to be perceived online. Am I writing an interesting blog if I receive a cease and desist letter? That depends, but in this case, it opened up my eyes and made me change the way I want to be perceived online.
Receiving a cease and desist letter
Somewhere in April, I read about a Google employee being sued by a well known affiliate guru in the industry for trademark infringement. The case was later settled, and according to the letter the whole case was based on a misunderstanding in which the defended of the case did not had any responsibility:
Public record information disclosed in the Nebraska litigation established that the reason for the trademarked term found its way into the sponsored link was due to the error of a Google employee other than [name changed to protect the innocent]. This has been publicly confirmed by Google.
The cease and desist letter was speaking of defamatory of the reputation of the lawyer’s client. The title; claiming the client needed a new reputation as his name was being called out in numerous blog posts, was defamatory according to the lawyer.
A mistake was made. In the letter, sent through registered mail, it was written;
A print out of that posting is enclosed
No print out was enclosed. Now I’m not a lawyer, but I’m sure that I could proceed in demanding a print out, as they made a mistake not to enclose a print out.
The lawyer demands that I take down the post which; according to the cease and desist letter. has been so defamatory and libelous. I’ve been thinking about how to handle the case and what my options are. Without asking advise from a lawyer I made my decision.
My response
As I don’t think my title is defamatory and the incomplete letter, missing the print out of the posting, gives me a feeling I’m standing pretty strong in my right to post this, I’ve decided to take down the post. Reason being is simple, I think I have created crap content by writing this post, something I accused the client of this lawyer off.
The client is engaged in selling “make money fast, get rich quick” websites. I hate these sites, and I’ve written numerous times about these. Especially about the ads on Facebook or Google. As the client is not only making money with these websites, but also works for Google, I found it pretty interesting to write about. After all, Google is putting the hammer down on the Google Money Tree. Not that he is exploiting a website that is robbing people from their money, but still.
By writing this crap, I actually created more crap on the Internet. I decided today, that I don’t want to be part of the clutter and creating crap on the Internet. This cease and desist letter has changed the way I might think about writing on this blog. This cease and desist letter has changed my view on possible topic sourcing. I hope this cease and desist letter will make me a better blogger!
I’ve taken the post down and redirected the URL to this page. Not because I think the lawyer has a case against me, but simply because I don’t have the time to get distracted by these nonsense. I have much better things to do, and will not let myself be dragged into a long civil case over something that I could have prevented, even though I’m not that concerned. It’s just not worth the energy and lawyers costs!
What a reputation defenders, just send out a couple of these cease and desist letters, and most of the defamatory and libelous postings will be removed from the first page of Google. Problem in this case is, for every posting that is removed through a cease and desist letter, there are more that will pop-up from page 2 and beyond. I guess the only winner here is the lawyer, who will be sending a lot of these letters to take down postings.
Ever wondered how a splog looks like which has real unreadable Markov Chains on it? I just found one through following the most popular searches yesterday. Like always, just follow the money, in this case the traffic, and you will find some pretty bad web spam.
Yesterday, between all the searches around Michael Jackson’s death, one particular search query stood out for me. As my wife was always watching The Housewives of New Jersey, I was interested in the search query: what did danielle do to dina. Just check the Google trending words for June 25.
As yesterday the second episode of the final of the Real Housewives of New Jersey was broadcasted, apparently a lot of people went online to look for gossip what had happened. At one point in the finale, there was an awkward moment, where it was not clear what had happened off camera’s prior to the finale.
Right after the broadcast of the finale, the term went volcanic. Interesting is that 7% of the searches were performed in or around New Jersey/ New York.
Right under these nice graphs, there is the section where you can find News articles and Blog posts. I clicked on the link for the one marked with the red line around it, and came into spam heaven…
Full with ads, you come on a blog hosted on Blogger. The text is full with the hot trend keywords you can find for yesterday, but the text is unreadable. Just have a look at this small piece of the text:
It was terrible. The forehead is broad and fine climb if he might want to tell me about it. Tell me I'm glad that I can, and where and when. of grotesque Farrah Fawcett what did Danielle do to Dina says he ta. Poor dear How he must have suffered joke was over and. His only hope lies in Horta in nature. The black warrior was the Phantom and a lot of fear. She was revised to a corner desk found Paul Irving with. Donnell announced this vision, and I've just when I was dimpled. she said weakly Take Birch Path light and sank breathlessly into puffed Frilled and what did Danielle do to Dina Then he was. Charisse Thompson But it is marked crutches she did, and such a time was lifted lawn. the next day to meet, he went back and officially interested so to notify someone what did Danielle do to Dina an object lesson in and kissed her forehead.
Off course the blog is pasted all over with Google Adsense. Today, I ready a great post on SEOBook. Just read more about the Google money. An excerpt:
If the central network operators do not police their networks then eventually web users will stop trusting online advertising. That (plus pending affiliate regulation) could eventually lead to a significant thinning of competition for mindshare online. It might also push many media companies away from ad based business models to creating businesses built through actually taking money from real human customers.
For how long will Google allow spammers to open new blogs on Blogger, post a bunch of garbage on the web, pull traffic from the most popular trending keywords, and monetize through Adsense one dollar at a time?
And yes, we are there. Twitter just landed its first one page marketing selling program scam. Hummingbird is offering you the “tools” the big brands are using. For a mere $197 you can purchase this program how to become popular on Twitter, and spam away. The producers of this piece of shit claim you can friend [...]
OMG, Oh My F*** God, what is up with these Ads on Facebook. The only Ads you see are from Get Rich Quick Scams. And the worst part of it all, the Ads all link to the same kind of websites, of which the majority even use the same template and even the same pictures [...]
Would you like to get free money from Uncle Obama? Off course you would like to get some extra cash… fro free! So quickly Go To Tom Gets website, and learn from Tom Gets Grants how to cash in on the government spending plans. (URL is www.tomscach.com but I don’t want to link to it!) [...]
Fake TV endorsed ads, pointing to a fake newspaper site is the newest scam to lure you into taking your credit card out of your pocket and to subscribe to the most awesome get money quick program ever seen in history of the scammers. 
The San Diego Herald News site is not a real newspaper, it just looks like one. And although the style of the article written is really as it’s news, the site is nothing but an ad to make you buy a system that makes you post links online and make money with it…
