{"id":720,"date":"2009-08-14T00:06:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T04:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.searchenginegenie.com\/blog-seo\/toronto-based-scammers-sending-fake-seo-service-invoice\/"},"modified":"2012-09-20T02:52:45","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T06:52:45","slug":"toronto-based-scammers-sending-fake-seo-service-invoice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.searchenginegenie.com\/blog-seo\/toronto-based-scammers-sending-fake-seo-service-invoice\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto based scammers sending fake SEO service invoice"},"content":{"rendered":"

See more information here http:\/\/powerofgenie.com\/2009\/02\/scam-takes-a-new-turn\/<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the FTC, since 2004, Toronto-based Internet Listing Service has been sending fake invoices to small businesses and others, listing the existing domain name of the consumer\u2019s Web site or a slight variation on the domain name, such as substituting \u201c.org\u201d for \u201c.com.\u201d The invoice appears to come from the businesses\u2019 existing domain name registrar and contains terms such as \u201cWEBSITE ADDRESS LISTING\u201d and \u201cANNUAL WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE LISTING.\u201d The invoice also claims to include a search engine optimization service. Most consumers who receive the \u201cinvoices\u201d are led to believe that the defendants are their current domain name registrar and that they must pay them to maintain their registrations of domain names. Other consumers are induced to pay based on defendants\u2019 claims that their \u201cSearch Optimization\u201d service will \u201cdirect mass traffic\u201d to their sites and that their \u201cproven search engine listing service\u201d will result in \u201ca substantial increase in traffic.\u201d
The FTC\u2019s complaint charged that most consumers who paid the defendants\u2019 invoices do not receive any domain name registration services and that the \u201csearch optimization\u201d service is ineffective and does not result in increased traffic to the consumers\u2019 Web sites.
The FTC charged that the \u201cinvoices\u201d represented that the defendants had a preexisting business relationship with the consumer. The \u201cinvoices\u201d also represented that consumers owed money for the continued registration of their Web site names and that the defendants would provide continued registration services for consumers. The defendants also claimed that the \u201csearch optimization\u201d service would substantially increase traffic to consumers\u2019 Internet Web sites. The FTC alleged all that of these claims were false and violated federal law.<\/p>\n

There are scam in search engine optimization everywhere we just need to be more aware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"