Here's an email I received on 21 May 2012. Normally I don't respond, but you can read my response below.
You know, I don't really like outing people. In fact, I admire people that go an extra mile to
try to provide a valuable service and I appreciate a low-key humble approach. If they are legitimate.
Unfortunately, there are many so-called SEO specialists that obviously have very little experience
that simply relentlessly promote themselves. They make absurd claims and lie! Then after the scam
is widely discredited, they change their contact information and keep trying.
The lesson is this: Examine unsolicited email. Search the web for their
name, telephone number, email address,
subject line and message phrases.
Find what others have to say. I am certain you'll find a wealth of history and reviews.
On the Internet, nothing ever happens just once.
Resources
This primer from HowToGeek.com explains what kinds of information you can find in email headers and what they all mean.
239-205-xxxx
is a telephone exchange in Cape Coral, FL, with a number of complaints
239-205-3053
is a cell phone in city of Cape Coral, Florida, carrier Level 3 Communications LLC - FL.
This number is also associated with a "Maria Wilson".
I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting
enough Social Media and Organic search engine traffic for Coilgun.info.
Your website Coilgun.info is not ranking top in Google organic search for many competitive keyword phrases.
Your website profile is not available in most of the Social Media Websites.
Your site has 8 Google back links, this can be improved further.
There are many additional improvements that could be made to your website, and if you would
like to learn about them, and are curious to know what our working together would involve,
then I would be glad to provide you with a detailed analysis in the form of a WEBSITE
AUDIT REPORT for FREE.
Our clients consistently tell us that their customers find them because they are at the
top of the Google search rankings. Being at the top left of Google (#1- #3 organic positions)
is the best thing you can do for your company's website traffic and online reputation.
Sounds interesting? Feel free to email us or alternatively you can provide me with your
phone number and the best time to call you.
--------------------------------------------------
Best Regards, Jay Plouffe SEO Consultant
239-205-3053
-------------------------------------------------- PS1: This is onetime email and you may ask us to “REMOVE”
you from our mailing list. PS2: I found your site from online advertising but did not click. PS3: We operate 24 x7. I will be happy to send you links to price list,money back
guarantee, client rankings, client testimonials, “How we are different from others?”,
and “Why should you choose us?” on receiving a response from you.
Barry's Response
From: Barry <barry@coilgun.info>
To: Jay Plouffe <seo.websitedevloper@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Organic SEO - Coilgun.info
Sent: Mon 5/21/2012 12:49 PM
You are both lying and incompetent:
My website IS ranking in the top three for all my keyword phrases.
Why are you looking for social media profiles for an engineering notebook.
I have over 5,000 backlinks according to Google Webmaster Tools. Not sure which
crappy tool you're using to determine backlinks, but your claim of "8 Google back links"
tells me you don't know what you're doing.
You did not find my website through advertising. I don't advertise.
Big lie there, “Jay”.
Your email is identical to the discredited “Maria Wilson” spam campaign.
Your own company is nowhere to be found in Google (much less at the top), and you
yourself have no profile in social media websites nor any backlinks.
However, a Google search found that your email message is comment-spammed into
thousands of blogs. Is this how you propose to make “improvements”?
I invite you to demonstrate the value of your services (or your incompetence) by sending
your “free audit report.”
I will publish this on my blog. So, now that your credibility is shot, what’s next?
Stay tuned; I'll update this when (if) I hear anything back.
Three-Month Update
As of 7/30/2012, there is no response from "Jay Plouffe". However, I have received several
interesting emails from other people experiencing this ongoing spam campaign.
As of 8/19/2012, still no response. But I received a virtually identical spam message
from "Maria Wilson" for another domain I own.
Six-Month Update
As of 12/12/2012, still no response from anyone (not that I expect it at this point).
But now the lying and incompetent "Sophia Nelson", 301-859-4903, SEO Consultant, is also spamming the same
note to people, too.
Justin Taylor: Bad SEO Copycat
They must be finding some real suckers. I just received a copycat email from another Bad SEO
"consultant". They just don't learn, do they.
Headers:
From:
Justin Taylor <justin.webseo2@gmail.com>>
To:
customerservice@fmejeans.com
Date:
Wed 2/6/2013 5:53 PM
Subject:
Gain Organic Traffic:Fmejeans.Com :PS
Delivered-To:
Delivered-To: barry@fmejeans.com
X-Vipre-Scanned:
03515DAE003CBE03515EFB
Received:
by 10.49.51.38 with SMTP id h6csp43305qeo; Wed, 6 Feb 2013 17:52:44 -0800 (PST)
X-Received:
by 10.42.212.8 with SMTP id gq8mr32511738icb.48.1360201963653; Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:52:43 -0800 (PST)
from mail-da0-f51.google.com (mail-da0-f51.google.com [209.85.210.51])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id b9si31974446pax.20.2013.02.06.17.52.43
(version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:52:43 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF
neutral (google.com: 209.85.210.51 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of customerservice+caf_=barry=fmejeans.com@fmejeans.com) client-ip=209.85.210.51;
Authentication-Results
mx.google.com;
spf=neutral (google.com: 209.85.210.51 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of customerservice+caf_=barry=fmejeans.com@fmejeans.com) smtp.mail=customerservice+caf_=barry=fmejeans.com@fmejeans.com;
dkim=pass header.i=@gmail.com
Received:
by mail-da0-f51.google.com with SMTP id n15so921435dad.24
for <barry@fmejeans.com>;
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:52:43 -0800 (PST)
from mail-ia0-x248.google.com (ia-in-x0248.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4001:c02::248])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id w10si27819258icv.58.2013.02.06.17.52.40
(version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:52:41 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF:
pass (google.com: domain of 35wgTUQ4JD9I7IGH6B.K2zG2CQ4Ay69.0CA0IGHCA2FG2FJ6023A272yBG.0CA@maestro.bounces.google.com designates 2607:f8b0:4001:c02::248 as permitted sender) client-ip=2607:f8b0:4001:c02::248;
Received:
by mail-ia0-f200.google.com with SMTP id o25so1448753iad.3
for <customerservice@fmejeans.com>;
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:52:40 -0800 (PST)
I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not
getting enough organic & social media traffic on your website.
I would like to update you that your website is still not ranked on
the top pages of Google SERPs for your popular keywords (Products).
Your loss is your competitor's gain i.e. the traffic which could have
generated quality sales for you goes to your competitors as they rank
well in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) organically.
Reasons:
HTML and other on-page errors are present on your website.
Low number of internal and external quality links present on your website.
Duplicate or low quality contents present in your website without any regular update.
Need to update fresh contents on your website and blogs as per the latest Google guideline.
Broken Links and Poison words might be present in your website.
Social media profile needs to be updated regularly.
Long gone are the days when Google used to give priority to websites
of keyword based domains or websites with huge number of links. Now Google
counts each and every detail to verify if your website is relevant to the
keywords you are promoting for. A single un-wanted link or a duplicate
content can lead your website to be penalized by Google.
We are a leading website promotion company providing online promotion,
SMO, Reputation Management, Content (both web and promotional content)
fixing services to clients. We have a team of 240+ SEO professional
working 24*7. Our team of dedicated Google Analytic and Adwords certified
professionals excel in promoting and increasing the visibility of a website
in various search engines (including the latest Google Panda and Penguin
updates), which will directly help in increasing traffics for your website.
Unlike other SEO companies we do not believe in talking rather we believe
in delivering what we promise to our clients. We provide guaranteed services
or money back-guarantee to all our clients who consider working with us.
If you are getting rigid by paying a huge amount in PPC then Organic
listing by using white hat technique will be definitely a right choice
for you. As the rate of conversion is more in organic listing as compared
to PPC, eventually it will be an absolute gain for you.
This email just tells you the fraction of things we do, our optimization
process involves many other technical factors which can be sent to you on
your request. If you would like to know more about our services then please
write us back else you can give us a call us in our number below.
P.S: - This is our marketing strategy that we use the Gmail account.
Once you reply us back, the next communication I will do is from my
corporate email ID.
Let me know your thoughts and looking forward to work together.
Best Regards,
Justin Taylor|Senior SEO Advisor
PH. No: (217) 650-7095
Skype: justintaylor888
------------------------------------------------
Note:
1: This is a onetime email and you may ask us to "REMOVE".
2: If you are interested I will send more details on our "corporate
identity", "company profile", "why you should choose us?", "Price
list", "money back" etc. in my next mail.
Fraud and Scam:
If "Justin Taylor" is so fucking good, why does he mask his company name and email address.
"If you are getting rigid" - yeah sure, SEO always makes me rigid. Not.
"Once you reply us back" - with English this bad, they are not qualified to search engine work us able.
217-650-7095 is a landline in Atlanta, IL 61723 (near Bloomington and Springfield) served by Level 3 Communications LLC.
"Team of 240+ SEO professional working 24*7". Not fucking likely, unless they're fucking you.
This exact note has been comment-spammed into thousands of websites and google groups and forums.
For example,
here
and
here
and
here
and
here
and many more. Just search on the phone number (217) 650-7095 or
Skype id justintaylor888.
A "white hat" SEO will not resort to comment spamming like these idiots.
This website
shows that "Justin Taylor" and "Jorge Conner" have identical contact info.
One website
reports that 217-650-7095 is assigned to
Jorge Conner, <jorgeconner8790@gmail.com>, an SEO company in Bhubaneswar, India. Really?
You should email Jorge and ask him about Justin.
The whole tone of this note is "this is all so complicated that you'll never understand it".
It's demeaning and disrespectful of potential clients.
Amanda Moss Email
Here's another copycat email from a Bad SEO "consultant". It has more grammatical errors than earlier notes.
Headers:
From:
Amanda Moss <nancylee8555@gmail.com>
To:
barry@coilgun.info
Date:
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 02:13:37 +0000
Subject:
Important Information For Your Website :Coilgun.info :ZS
by 10.76.131.231 with SMTP id op7csp448559oab; Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:13:38 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received:
by 10.60.80.8 with SMTP id n8mr208283oex.33.1382580817886; Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
<nancylee8555@gmail.com>
Received:
from mail-ie0-x246.google.com (mail-ie0-x246.google.com [2607:f8b0:4001:c03::246])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id h5si6572946oed.27.2013.10.23.19.13.37 for <barry@coilgun.info>
(version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF:
pass (google.com: domain of nancylee8555@gmail.com designates 2607:f8b0:4001:c03::246 as permitted sender)
client-ip=2607:f8b0:4001:c03::246;
Authentication-Results:
mx.google.com;
spf=pass (google.com: domain of nancylee8555@gmail.com designates 2607:f8b0:4001:c03::246 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=nancylee8555@gmail.com;
dkim=pass header.i=@gmail.com;
dmarc=pass (p=NONE dis=NONE) header.from=gmail.com
Received:
by mail-ie0-f198.google.com with SMTP id tp5so5044484ieb.5 for <barry@coilgun.info>; Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
by 10.182.87.2 with SMTP id t2mr186202obz.2.1382580817478; Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<089e015372367fe5b504e9732ee6@google.com>
Message:
Hi Coilgun.info Team,
Hope you are doing fine.
I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting
enough organic traffic & most often you stick to Ad words to get more traffic
which is quite expensive and the chances is high of getting a spam traffic as well.
Let me tell you that your website still does not organically rank on major search
engine�s first page for most of the popular keywords, which means people searching
for your products are not able to find your website and you are losing traffic.
Some of the major factors which can be overcome for your website to rank well in
SERP organically and increase your social media presence are:
Seems like your website carries a lot of technical errors which prevents search
engine to crawl and index your website properly.
Your website needs a proper keyword selection and optimization.
Your website is not well furnished with enough quality and theme based back links.
Your website should be more inclined towards Social media promotion and a regular
updates in major social networks.
Missing quality web and promotion contents (Article, Blogs etc.) which is preventing
your website to gain more authority and ranking in Web Market.
In the present day scenario it's very essential to take a proper care of your website
and keep it updated with fresh and original contents. There are many additional improvements
which can help your website to gain more traffic and visibility. If you are interested to
learn more and curious to know how we can help you to improve your website to get a higher
traffic, then I would be glad to provide you a detailed proposal for your website.
Our clients' consistently tell us that their customers find them because they are on the
top of Google. Being on the top of Google is the best thing you can do for your sales and
online reputation. This email just tells you the fraction of things we do, our optimization
process involves many other technical factors which can be sent to you on your request.
If you would like to know more about our services then please write us back else you can
give us a call us in our number mentioned below.
P.S: - This is our marketing strategy to use a Gmail account. Once you reply us back, we
will communicate with you through our corporate Email ID.
Let me know your thoughts and looking forward to work together.
Best Regards,
Amanda Moss
Senior SEO Advisor
Skype:webmarketing.sales
Note:
1. This is a onetime email and you may ask us to REMOVE.
2. If you are interested I will send more details on our corporate identity,
company profile, why you should choose us?, Price list, money back etc.
in my next mail.
----------------DLM-----------------
Barry's Response
From: Barry <barry@coilgun.info>
To: Amanda Moss <nancylee8555@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Important Information For Your Website :Coilgun.info :ZS
Sent: Fri 10/25/2013 06:30 AM
Hi Amanda,
Please tell me more about your company, your prices, and in detail what exactly
you can do to improve results.
Many thanks, Barry
Stay tuned; I'll update this when (if) I hear anything back.
Fraud and Scam:
Differences from previous notes are highlighted in yellow.
This is now totally content-free, with no attempt to sound custom nor analytic.
"Amanda" dropped details like "your site has 8 Google back links."
Weak sales pitch: "Amanda" does not mention a free website audit report.
Known spammer: Searching for "nancylee8555@gmail.com" returns one result to
The Sisters of Spam,
a list of email addresses that are known to defraud or trick recipients.
Cloaking: This email is more successful at hiding its origin. There is no telephone
number to search. The IP addresses are hiding their geography.
Searching on the Skype id found identical spam
here
and here
and here
and here
and here
and here.
And many more.