Linking madness from a con-artist
Back on the subject of websites that somehow think they have the right to stop you linking to them, I found this really stupid clause at this one:
Unless expressly authorized by website, no one may hyperlink this site, or portions thereof, (including, but not limited to, logotypes, trademarks, branding or copyrighted material) to theirs for any reason. Further, you are not allowed to reference the url (website address) of this website in any commercial or non-commercial media without express permission, nor are you allowed to ‘frame’ the site.
Apart from framing (which has been determined to be a copyright violation by the courts), the rest is totally unenforceable. But why, you may ask, don’tthey want people linking to them? Well, probably because they don’t want people pointing out that they’re a bunch of con artists trying to rip off the unwary by selling them a get-rich-quick scheme. And their over-protectiveness of their own intellectual property seemingly doesn’t extend to other people’s, given that they reproduce the logos of Google, MSN, CNN and various other legitimate organisations.
The slightly worrying aspect of this is that this organisation has been advertising this site, and similar ones (they’re generally just throwaway accounts – the real HQ is emillionaire.com which, oddly enough, has exactly the same terms and conditions) on Facebook. I don’t expect many people have been taken in by it, but if you do come across one of these ads then I’d suggest you do two things: Firstly, click the ad (since it’s probably being paid for on a cost-per-click basis, every time you click it costs the scammers money) and then report the ad as a scam. See here for some background on reporting ads to Facebook.
February 17th, 2009 at 20:01
“I don’t expect many people have been taken in by it”
Well with the amount they are spending on Facebook and Adwords ads a lot of people must be buying this.
See: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/base/thread?tid=731ed5d8320c6794&hl=en
March 19th, 2009 at 15:26
Indeed. Sadly lots of people appear to have been taken by this scam.
See:
http://www.warriorforum.com/internet-marketing-product-reviews-ratings/41448-brock-felts-emillionaire-any-opinions.html
and
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/163463/page/1
June 16th, 2009 at 15:23
Thanks Mark for this. User “Not Kevin” on my website spotted this so I’ve dug around a bit more in emillionaire.
You’ll be ‘pleased’ to know that their ‘terms’ are still the same since your original posting!
And to answer @Marc above and as John Peters points out, the whole thing is a huge scam and many thousands of trusting people have been sucked into it. It’s now June and the thing seems to show no sign of diminishing – in fact, it’s getting worse!!
Rees
July 2nd, 2009 at 18:16
Mark.
there’s good newws on the scammer front.
User “Not Kevin” on my site spotted that the USA FTC have dropped a bucket load of charges onto the mainly Utah-based scammers. The damages being sought are reputed to be $300m!!
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/shortchange.shtm
This is the FTC news item from yesterday. The charges were all served on 23 June 2009, but I guess they waited a week to ensure they’d everyone served.
July 2nd, 2009 at 19:34
@Strangely nice to know that something is being done about it. What annoys me is that organisations like Facebook are happy to run these ads, despite it being so obvious that it’s a scam.