Snake Oil On The Web
The good news: There’s an incredible wealth of knowledge and lots of good people in our Wild, Wild Web.
The bad news: Like any frontier, we’ve also got a lot of opportunistic snake oil salesmen and women. They’re absolutely shameless in their over-the-top claims and their obnoxious, intrusive marketing. I really hate it when I see a Web newbie falling for their pitches.
I’ve been spammed and splogged by any number of these sleazeballs - and I’ve written about it before (Hand-Made Spam), changing the name so the people wouldn’t get the links they are so cravenly seeking. Then today I get another one from “James Blah.” Okay, twinkums, you’ve hit my last nerve (and I’m in a good mood today…)
So, Mr. Blah - I’m outing you. You’re James Brausch and you’ve been here pitching everything from Internet in a Box to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to (?!) weight loss.
The most recent “comment” from “Richard McLaughlin” on my Friday Martini Time post:
Richard McLaughlin | richardpmclaughlin@gmail.com | askrichardmclaughlin.com | IP: 87.89.87.18wow, I just landed here after reading http://www.jamesbrausch.org/9th-step/ and it seems like a lot of people are writing about being more positive.
Just ending the holiday season, I didn’t expect that people would be needing to talk about things like this - you want to talk about someone seeing the world through rose colored glasses!Happy - a very happy - 2008.
At least Brausch has deleted the cheesy “Sign up below to have all of your wildest dreams come true” come-on for his newsletter, to which I referred in my Hand-Made Spam post.
This IS NOT the way any of us should be marketing on the Web - so don’t fall for pitches from snake oil salespeople about how they’ll help you miraculously make money, instantly increase site traffic, etc. You don’t want to look like a sleazeball to your customers…or end up being blacklisted by Google…or reported as spam, now do you? Of course not.
P.S. The link to “Ask Richard McLaughlin” takes you to a billboard (no content) that looks amazingly similar to Blah’s stuff - with the sole purpose of sucking you into giving your email address (and clicking on a even sleazier “Send Me a Million Visitors” link. Yeah, this is “viral” and not the kind of virus you want to spread.) There’s a lot more techie stuff you can do to track back to real site owners (Who is), servers, and real email addresses. Constant Reader, Steve - if you wanta share, pitch right in here! You sent me that great educational email.
P.P.S. This is not the way to do SEO:
From one of blah-Brausch’s Web sites “suck ‘em in” billboards:
Promote Your Website With This Free Software That Will Submit Your Site To Thousands Of Search Engines, Directories And Other Sites…
P.P.P.S. Yes, I moderate all comments and I’ve got killer spam filters on my email accounts. Tip: If the commenter sounds like a not-too-bright toddler or someone for whom English is a second one and a half language - you’ve very likely got a snake oil crap comment. If they’re loading it with links to billboards, it’s a sure snake oil sign. So, good idea to always check your comments periodically - even if you’ve got captcha.
Now, I’m going back to my happy mood Saturday.
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January 20th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Well. With an intro like that? How could I refuse. Warning. Techo phrasing ahead. If readers do not understand, just put a comment to that effect and I’ll rephrase/explain!
First off: Look at what we have been given.
The trick here is to separate what is fact, from that which is *possibly* fiction.
In this case? The IP Address: 87.89.87.18 is most likely good. Some ifs/buts/maybes, but we’ll ignore for now.
So what can we ascertain here?
Mary mentions a few tools. Reverse DNS Lookups, Whois. One other gem is traceroute.
But from these we can confirm, in multiple ways, that this IP Address is located in France.
Now this gets interesting, if you apply the same tools and sleuthing to Richard McLaughlin and his domain, you discover that apparently it, and possibly him!, are also located in France. Google is also your friend here.
To add to the trail, the domain askrichard… is really *new*: Created on: 18-Dec-07
So what does all this tell us?
I’d suggest:
(a) Richard is *probably* a real person, and a moderately gullible one
(b) He has (probably) signed up to write these fake blog comments with our Dear Friend James. Probably gets paid to do so.
(c) This is typical Blog Spam.
(d) The cross links to the domain which is registered via an address in France; The IP Tracing to France as a cross check would TEND to suggest that his PC hasn’t been Zombied - he’s doing this himself.
The cure?
If possible, put a text-reject-filter on James’ last name for all comments.
This isn’t a complete list of things one can do. There are others, and most revolve around using multiple information gathering sources (logs, email, email-logs, google etc etc etc) to cross verify. One can also make use of tools that …. “door knock” the PC that created the comment. This can be legally suspect. So not recommended if you aren’t sure of exactly what you’re doing. It’s also not nice, if someone is proxying via a Trojaned PC.
But at this point, I feel we have enough verifiable information to call a spade a spade. Or a snake-oil seller…. Not enough for a judical/legal conviction. But enough to be pretty sure we’re not zotting an innocent third party.
HTH?
Cheers!
C.R.S.
PS If anyone is interested in the details of the results of the above tools? Do comment accordingly and I can add those in with explanations on how to interpret.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:43 am
Thanks Steve!
I hadn’t even thought Richard might be a dupe. So - there ya go - another tip - blindly blogging for pay may not be the best idea…
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
And this is just too goofy. He’s still doing it! And even glomming onto Martin Luther King - here’s the comment I got on my MLK day post.
Jim Lee | jim@inthepines.net | IP: 207.112.24.237
Martin Luther King also said these immortal words:
“Free at last! Free at last! Free at last!”… yet as James Brausch so vividly posted recently, most people these days — white, black, yellow, red (if we can use these crass labels) — are no longer truly free:
http://www.jamesblah.com/free-at-last-free-at-last-free-at-last/
(MS Note: The link takes you to a blog post with comments closed. Of course, it’s not really a blog, it’s a snake oil c’mon to get you to buy internet in a box.)
They’re enslaved to their employers… their debts… their government… their fears…
As another great statesman, Thomas Jefferson once said:
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
Too many these days are more concerned about their comforts and the good life, than to concern themselves about what they’re slowly losing.
GO AWAY James Blah!
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
They keep inventing better idiots.
To steal a punch-line.
Spammers just have no shame. An… individual in another forum is trying to convince everyone that because they make money from their practice and that it helps people get jobs (they spam job placements/recruiter style), it’s all ok; and that in a survey of their customers - “only” 3% said spamming was evil.
Admittedly I’m not summarising their entire POV well.
The start within the relevant thread is here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/webanalytics/message/15005?threaded=1&var=1
I’m wondering if Corry realises that in his/her last reply at the end of that thread, s/he just agreed with me that s/he is spamming. I am strongly suspecting they have no clue that they have done so.
Cheers!
- Mildly Evil Steve
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Who cares if it’s “evil?” It’s sleazy. You wouldn’t barge into some company’s office unannounced waving resumes would you? (Well, these people might.)
In reading the thread, i think the problem is that - as you imply - they’re clueless.
And, depending on how you write a question (and who you ask) you can get any survey result you want. Further, their sample size was far from statistically valid. I’d bet they sent it out to a lot more people who deleted it unread or it ended up in the spam folder.
Yours,
Mildly Evil (on some days) Mary
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Survey Results?
This is the *best*, albeit fictitious, example of slanting surveys IMHO:
http://users.aims.ac.za/~mackay/probability/survey.html
One of my favourite TV shows (Yes Minister; Yes Prime Minister) I’ve ever seen. And too close to reality by half, for all that it is a comedy.
Cheers!
- Not As Evil As Some Steve