by CHICKMELIONfreelance
You know there are a few things I just don’t do any more thanks to the pit bull like myopic intents of internet spammers and the total reluctance of the large corporations to take full control and responsibility of the situation that they are more than happy to reap financial rewards from. One is to never allow comments on my blog with links that accompany (no matter how relevant or innocent they may appear to be) and secondly I will never recommend Yahoo Business Groups as a viable means of networking and list building. Sorry Yahoo, but the greater tragedy is the blow taken by legitimate groups trying to survive this plague! It seems at the cost of innocent and legitimate business who stand in the middle a scammer and a large corporation as a wall, allowing both to ignore the existence of each other and continue on as "business as usual." Unfortunately the one who pays the price is the one in the middle.
This article is a cautionary note for all internet businesses out there regardless of how small they think they may be. Everyone is seemingly equal when a scam or a spam is in play. However the key similarity that seems to be targeted is BUSINESS.
I serve internet businesses with writing and design products and I was putting together a starter kit for "new to the internet marketing" entrepreneurs . This kit was designed to be a launch pad for email list building and was completely complimentary to all those who needed it. Like the other three kits already designed and marketed, this one was extensively researched. Now when you are talking about email list building, there is no way to dance around the issue of spamming. Every country seemingly has incorporated anti-spamming laws. However as I communicated with industry leaders a consensus kept popping up, "The spam laws are like a blind dog sitting on it’s dentures!" I was told you didn’t even have to participate in spamming activities yourself, just be linked to the wrong server and it is a simple matter of "guilty by association".
In a highly technological and democratic society... that seemed very unrealistic and backwards to me. We can put men on the moon but we can’t hone in and stop spamming? There were suggestions however, on how to negotiate with governing bodies in order to regain "unplagued status." Now it is worthy to point out that in most cases these governing bodies are a group of "volunteer" agencies formulating their own policies... "say what?"
Perhaps the dog put in it’s dentures back in, because spammers have refocused their efforts to a more direct approach. I can’t begin to count the relentless spamming on SKYPE, it’s crazy! But at least I can block and report these. Yahoo doesn’t seem to want to give you much more than a spam folder. In Yahoo mail ( and not in my spam folder either) I am inundated with widows who have millions of dollars just sitting in Liberian bank accounts waiting for some good and caring soul like me to help release the funds to a less war torn country. OMG seriously? Yet I have no means of reporting the email site.
Not all con artists and spammers are so obvious though and these are the ones that can hurt you the most. Though I am getting prolific with spotting and dealing with scammers and spammers on my social sites... the real heart ache comes with Yahoo’s business groups! It was something that was reccommended over and over again in articles for list building activities. "Join Yahoo Business Groups." I always make a focused effort to test try anything I reccommend before hand whether it be a web-site, tool, or in this case group... so I did just that... I joined!
Now I am stepping up here first of all to make sure it is very clear... NOT all business groups on Yahoo are riddled with spammers but it is my own experience that you have to clear a lot of hurdles to find the legitimate ones and in this busy world I can’t recommend an activity high in maintenance and low in reaping rewards. The re-occurring theme however for all the legitimate business groups are; "this group is MODERATED !"
It is as if they had to throw up the iron curtain to protect themselves from the endless plague that surrounds them. Here is an idea of what an unmoderated business group on Yahoo can offer you and this is straight from my in box. This is just one group emailing me a daily summary of activities. I not only deleted all the links first...I also felt obliged to delete what appeared to be legitimate businesses that posted in this digest so as not to tarnish their reputations. (Including the ones that claim 80 to 100% profits with their easy and super fast no work needed giant money making bonanza offer:)....
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Ok! I think you can get the idea and no doubt you are saying to yourself, "well if it is as simple as just moderating then it is the businesses own fault?" Let me remind you that con’s and spammers don't survive changing times by themselves remaining unchanged. They learn the angles quickly and find their way in the back door before anyone realizes it is open. Which leads me straight into the next issue; spamming on web pages.
I owned a Internet Marketing "Business News Blog" where the hot and current trends were posted and discussed. I did moderate the comments and was for a time successful in controlling the spam on the site. Then I started getting comments that were seemingly legitimate.
Comments like, "I come to this blog often, I find the topics useful for my business, I hope to contribute to it soon..." and a web link ended the comment. I didn’t get suspicious until the identical message was posted by two separate individuals (or at least different names) and both with the same link. I followed the link to check it out and discovered it was spam! Though I denied the post, I get this in my email the very next day!
"Your blog at ********* has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: SPAM. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible."
This is the same situation as with email spam violations, "guilty by association", however in this instance we are dealing with a large corporation who’s claim is to be judge juror and executioner all at the same time. There is about as much negotiation allowed as there was an investigation. In essence, the spammer lives to destroy another day, the large corporation continues to fluff the pillows of the ones they seem to align with and it is the one in the middle left holding the bag. I don’t see how this truly solves the problem. I do however know one thing for sure, when an outcome is truly desired, mankind will go to no ends of the earth to seek a solution. The space Rover on Mars will testify to this. Apparently searching out and locking out spam and halting the con artists is as much lip service as seeking peace in the world. Sounds good, gives a good corporate and caring image if it is touted around a bit in the press and who ever happens to be listening at the moment, but the actions speak louder than words. Hey just a thought!
Now don’t go shedding a tear for me. I am an eternal optimist! I too live to build another day, smart enough not to keep my eggs in a single basket. Though this spammer did not only manage to lock me out of one blog, but all blogs related to my particular email address, (which included the complimentary kits designed to help my fellow entrepreneur to their success;) I see this as building bigger and better! I do have two things I take away from this: I will not recommend Business Groups on Yahoo and I will not allow links on my blog’s comments no matter how good they look; which may be likened to closing the door after the horse got out, because I am sure the scammers have evolved again as you read this and are testing new avenues to feed from hard working citizens.
