There is a rash of emails going around, and you may have seen one of these in your own Inbox. It goes something like this...
Subject: I've visited your website http://www.clicknewz.com
Hi,
We've seen your website at http://www.clicknewz.com and we love it!
We see that your traffic rank is 61113
and your link popularity is 162.
Also, you have been online since 4/20/2004.With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website.
If you're interested, read our terms from this page: http://www.contactthem.ws/hit.php?s=10&p=2&w=103047
Sincerely,
Tony Gagliardi
The ContactThem Network
After having received a large number of these emails, all referencing different sites or specific pages on my sites, and all from different senders in "The ContactThem Network" with different referral links, I decided to check into it...
When you click on one of their referral links an audio begins and reads the content to you. Its very convincing and compelling - but gives you that "too good to be true" sense.
It didnt take much digging to find the name behind the network: Stephan Ducharme. Ring a bell? You may remember him as as “The FreeAdGuruâ€.
Ducharme is selling the ContactThem software which extracts details out of databases and allows you to do a mass mailing with all of that personalized information. In fact, if you've received an email like the one quoted above, that's exactly why you got it - one of Ducharme's affiliates extracted YOUR details out of a database and spammed you with their ContactThem affiliate link...
While it sounds like they are going to pay you "up to $4,800/month" to display links on your website or blog - which sounds like an offer for text link or banner advertising - they are actually trying to recruit you into the multi-tier affiliate program.
Basically you are being spammed, with a request to join the band of spammers.
Stephan Ducharme is known for good copy, and also for getting a viral campaign kicked off with a huge buzz. But he is also known for bad customer service, not honoring refunds and under-delivering.
When in doubt, do your research. But as for this particular email... if you receive one like it, hit the DELETE key and move on.
Best,
About Lynn Terry
That's great Lynn,
Thanks for checking that out. I have gotten a few of those, so good to know!
I've gotten about, oh, 5 gazillion of these darned emails in the past weeks. Spam...hate it.
I got them too. Took a look, realized it wasn't being entirely honest, hit delete.
HeHe,
thanks Lynn for the advice... it has just starting coming to my mailbox... i am pressing DEL button instantly 🙂
I knew that had to be a scam, I have been getting similar emails asking to put banners on some of my sites with no traffic. I never bothered to follow up on the emails.
As soon as I get more than one email from a different sender but with the same copy, alarm bells start to ring.
But people obviously fall for the scam otherwise the emails would not keep coming.
Thanks for the Spam alert Lynn
To me this the worst ever link bait program. The emails are sent to blogger/ website owners to annoy them. Bloggers will blog about it and contactthem will gain as bad news spread faster than good news.
Thanks for such a nice scam alert post. I received for 3 of my ID's and all of them are blogs. seems they are just sending mails to bloggers only.
True, but you'll notice I didnt include any live links 😉 And in this case, the harm has already been done. SD's reputation preceeds this particular launch...
Ugh, just what we need, more spam! Thanks for giving us a heads up about this Lynn 🙂
I just got the exact same e-mail, but it was not sent through my contact form or personal e-mail address -- it was sent through the whois protection service forwarding address, so I knew it was from someone who didn't even bother reading or visiting my website. Can you say instant delete? 😀
Glad to see you're spreading the word and protecting others who may fall into the trap.
~ Teli
Yes I can see that Lynn 🙂 you didn't added the live link to it! You also did a great spy work, which many don't care, finding out the name behind the network: - Stephan Ducharme.
Here is an interesting post on scam.com. I am surprised to see this post was made in 2005!
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=6739
Sorry for my typos in earlier comment! 🙂
Thank you so much, Lynn - for the heads up on this! You always take such good care of us! (Which is why I hate that I've been missing the webinars! Life's been getting in the way - ugh!)
You've been missed! Hopefully you can make it next week or at least soon - they'll be there when you're ready 😉
I must admit Lynn, when I got the same email I was abit excited. As I always made my money through products and services. Never ad space.
Until a realized that they were asking about one of my untouched and unbuilt domains. Which made everything sound fishy.
Nonetheless, thanks for the information Lynn.
Regards,
Alvin Huang
I have got them too! Hit delete!
Thanks Lynn for being quick with this. Actually I sent spammy mail to some guys to share their thought and opinions.
I was also thinking how to reach you, now this post. You see, I actually sent a mail wanting to know how they will pay and all that. It was then it dawn on me it was/is MLM kind of.
The whole thing smells rotten. Hey what did you suggest we should do? DELETE? Yes, that was exactly what I did
Anyway, I would not mind adding their banners on my site for one month if they pay the $4.800 upfront. 🙂
Until a realized that they were asking about one of my untouched and unbuilt domains. Which made everything sound fishy.
Nonetheless, thanks for the information Lynn.
Ugh! I've been getting so many of those and they're driving me crazy! The only one I opened was the first one and when I seen this:
With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website.
Yep, I deleted it right way ... just those words immediately made me suspicious!
But, what's driving me crazy the most ...
I'm getting them for websites I don't even own! Two of them were for sites that I've owned in the past and have sold - that I understood BUT, they're also coming for sites that I've never had anything to do with!
Some system then ... they can't even get the correct website owner!
Lynn,
I have received a series of similar emails but from a different company. I clicked on "report spam" and then deleted. I often wonder if these groups actually make money doing like this and could it be worth all the trouble they go through.
Do they ever make money with those? I like to think that with all the email addresses I have had to lose due to spam over the years that someone is making money. But yeah, big whistles went off when I got one regarding a blog site about buffy that was shut down less than a week after going up. You wanna pay me?.....sure
Anyhow, thanks Lynn
Tommy.
Thanks so much Lynn! Just got one of these things in my inbox, and my stats were completely wrong (a different site than what I've got here) but that's not the point LOL! The first thing I did was put their name into Google and there you were with my answer. Again a big thanks and frankly I will be looking around before I go 🙂
Welcome, Diane - I'm glad this post served helpful to you and to everyone else reading. It's very frustrating when these types of things go around and create such a distraction.
And yes, I imagine plenty fall for the "opp" and that they are indeed making money with the system... otherwise it would just disappear. And hopefully it will yet 😉
Hi Lynn,
This is more than just spam... it's almost a bait a switch - where they suck you into their offer by making it sound like they're paying you for the opportunity to place their links on your site, but if you read the small print (and ONLY if you read the small print) you find out you're only actually paid on sales made by promoting their spamming (oops, I mean "mailing") system.
Thanks for helping to spread the word.
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for the post. I got the email too, however, I did join the free affiliate program. This was on Feb 5th. I earned $700, not nearly $4800 but it's reoccurring so I figure I can't beat that.
I also ventured into their forum and see that there will be an unsubscribe link from data base disclosure in future emails...be on the look out for that and you shouldn't be contacted anymore.
I was not pressured to join the mlm style program either. For something free and 1012 affilate websites running the ad in a network that took off from a banner? I'm impressed.
I was trained by internet marketer Charles Hefflin through the payperplay program on the ethics of webmaster partnerships and this program follows the guidelines and I could see that I too could benefit from there software ( I bought it)...however, the problem with spam with this program is that the affiliates (in most cases) do NOT know what they are doing and are contacting the same websites over and over...that my friend is spam!! They need trained better...um, no rather...they NEED trained.
Well that's my opionion, thank for letting me post.
Peace and Joy!
Crystal
Thank you for the insight, Crystal. I definitely look forward to the unsub feature - glad to hear that!
Scammers keep getting better (or worse) by the day and they are not limited to just one country.
Lynn, I received the same email today in my inbox. Red flags immediately went up so I did a quick Google search. Now having read your post, what do you know my my instincts were right. Thank you for the post.
Glad this was helpful to you! 🙂
Thanks, Lynn. You clicked through so that I didn't have to. That's taking one for the team!
Hi Lynn --
Thanks for the warning. I was scammed by that cockroach Ducharme a few years ago and never got my money back despite dozens of calls to his company. (I even registered http://www.dontusethiscompany.com just so I could let the world know about him. I took the site down a while back -- now I guess I'm gonna have to resurrect it again.)
I thought he'd fallen off the face of the earth but I guess he's back out of the hole he crawled into.
Thanks for the notification that the roach is alive and well...
This was the mail which i got from ContactThem
Hi,
We've seen your website at http://www.toboc.com
and we love it!
We see that your traffic rank is 70440
and your link popularity is 128.
Also, you have been online since 4/18/2005.
With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website.
If you're interested, read our terms from this page:
http://www.contactthem.ws/hit.php?s=10&p=2&w=103066
Sincerely,
Tom VanBuren
The ContactThem Network
616-886-1549
i decided not to go for it.
Thanx Lynn for the info
I think the only one to get rich with the 'Contact-Them' software will be that Ducharme fellow !!
I found the spam email extremely useful. I copied & pasted all the whois nfo into notepad for all my websites. Great historical reference for over 120 url's. THEN I hit the delete key.
You lost me, DoC - ?
Great investigative post! I got this similar email on my support email account. Went and looked at their claim and didn't go for it. Today I decided to Google it and your post came up. I will hit the delete button too. Thanks.
I have been spammed also by contactthem.com. If it is Stephan Ducharme the self proclaimed Guru of Lies and Deceptions you know that you will be screwed over.
Stephan Ducharme the self proclaimed Guru is nothing but a Ripp Off Artist who will do anything to make a dollar by screwing over people.
I received an ContactThem email and decided to give it a try. Since it was a Free affiliate link to add to my website I did not feel spammed. I made 2 sells of the software the 1st day. I feel this is a real opportunity to make extra income. After making a few sales I got the software. Like most programs you have to learn how to use and market the product. I say keep up the good work Stephan for trying to share a real opportunity for webmasters and opportunity seekers.
http://www.contactthem.com is bull. Nice job Steve with the Jim Kennedy aka. It's hardly an op I want in on.
My Dear Taylor I'm not an aka for Steve click my name and see. I'm still promoting ContactThem it has slowed in earning but my network of Free affiliates is expanding and some have joined my other opportunities. Much success to you online.
What was the worst experience which you guys had from Contactthem?
I almost went for it until they asked for my ss#.
Sorry Lynn - I guess I should have been more expansive in my response. What I meant was that their data on each of my websites traffic rank, link popularity and length of time online saved me some research time. I did a little research on a few of my highest traffic sites myself (like docsdownloads.com) and found that their data was fairly accurate!
Of course it doesn’t replace my Webalizer or AweStats but it was a different perspective.
I get many requests & queries for paid text links/advertising on my websites and by copying/pasting their data analysis of my sites into a simple notepad file, it gave me some meaningful data about my own sites that I didn't need to expend time finding. I knew it was a scam the second I saw it, but the data piqued my interest. Of course I never "contacted them".
I know it's a stretch, but I've always enjoyed the challenge of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. 😉
Here was my response to them
“Thank you for your email. I checked out your site and i love it. We would be happy to provide a link for you. We will take it to another level and provide an entire page. However, we will require a $4800 payment up front. Contact us for payment arrangementsâ€.
Needless to say, they went away
LOL Flash 😆
Just got the same mail today...lucky for me i do research before join anything online, My research ended up here..Thanks Lynn for the info.
Thank you SO much! I was almost tricked into joining this but of course I wasn't going to join without doing some research first. Your post explained it best & I will NOT be joining! Have a great day.
Docs,
Have you considered getting quantified at Quantcast? There are several advantages of doing that not the least of which is that they seem to be most accurate rankings site right now.
But also, they are specifically set up to allow other sites to search for places to advertised based on various criteria, including site affinity (you put in your url and it will list and rank other sties it believes to have close affinity with yours).
Then it seems Compete is the next most accurate, and then Alexa.
I know Alexa keeps claiming that their fixing their algorithm, but so far I haven't seen much evidence of it. They still seem to be subject to artificial ranking inflation or at least don't seem to the TrafficExchange type traffic whereas somehow (I don't know how) QuantCast seems to be able to do that.
As for ContactThem. What's not to love?
I can make money receiving spam! Every spam I receive from the ContactThem network has the potential to generate "up to" $4,800/month (I think ZERO) qualifies in that equation.
Paul Schlegel
http://www.workathometruth.com/ContactThem-Spam-Income-Calculator.php
I got of these emails too! Thanks Lynn for the info. I deleted the email.
I too received one of these emails today. I went to the website, entered my information and was just about to hit "submit" when I realized the page was not secured (https) and yet it was asking for my SS#! That was enough to send up the red flag.
Thanks for saving me many headaches.
I found the same in emails many times. I was looking to see if it is even more common now since I got one per every 10 pages on my site. It is getting really bad on spam. Also be careful in scam busting if you read the news on http://www.zolaenterprises.com you can find out how a scam buster got in trouble for busting a politicians known scam companies.