Bloggers beware, ad scam circulates

One company’s faith in a third party to handle its online marketing has led to accusations of spam, suspicions of scam and a dodgy reputation.

by Helen Leggatt

Publishers and advertisers can learn from doingfine.com’s recent attempt to drive traffic to their new website. The forum-based website employed Polimedia, a firm with Romania and American interests, to promote their online presence.

An email was dispatched, by Polimedia, to the blogging community asking to place advertising on their blogs and requesting rates (see text of email I received below). Not only is the spelling decidedly dodgy but information on, or links to, the sender or advertiser are almost non-existent. The email also requests that bloggers insert an ad with a small piece of html code into their blogs so they can “test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually provide”. On the whole, the email smacks of spam, the offer of a scam and the format and content unprofessional - not a great start.

The email has generated a lot of conversation online, and has no doubt increased traffic to the forum website, but for all the wrong reasons. Online discussions taking place range from annoyance at being the target of spam to confusion and concern as to the legitimacy of the email and the supposedly innocent html code.

As always, advertisers and publishers alike need to stop and think before clicking on “too good to be true” deals, and do some research before committing. Check out websites devoted to unveiling scams, such as Hoax Slayers, do a quick search on WhoIs, or simply use Google to do some background reading on the company involved.

Email Text

Hello,

We have reviewed your www.bizreport.com/authors/helen_leggatt.html
blog on behalf of one of our clients that would be interested in placing advertising with you.

Client profile :
DoingFine (http://doingfine.org)
New project (<1 month old)
Theme A forum dedicated to those things that came out right
and worked out fine.

We'd like either a 150x150 button, 160x600 skyscraper or 468x60 full banner (or footer). Alternatively, we may be interested in text-only advertising.

This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination, based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the agreed interval.

Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accommodate alternative payment methods.

Thank you.

*Please note that we employ software that reliably detects autoclick and autosurf bots, pay per click and paid to surf type traffic, and other such non-human traffic. This may be a concern for you, especially if you are buying "bulk traffic", or employing the services of dubious "SEO experts".