Wham Bam Thank you SPAM

[jimmy]

I wonder if this is the cheekiest person in the world ever? This guy - 'Ben Austin' from EZATMS hired a company to spam links to his companies website and now google have recognised this correctly as spam and have punished them by lowering their google rank.

So Ben wrote to me to request I remove the spam he paid someone to put on my website!

I replied (below) and then a further two times to ask him for a response which he's simply ignored. I figure since it's about the cheekiest thing I've ever seen in my life - Spamming me and then demanding I remove it - he and his spamming company ezatms (they make ATM cash machines, I guess) deserve to be 'outed' since an apology wasn't forthcoming.


If you hate spammers then feel free to send spammer ben@ezatms.com an email to let him know. sales@ezatms.com and info@ezatms.com probably deserve some attention also.


################################################



From: ben@ezatms.com
Subject: Link Removal Request
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 03:54:02 -0700

Dear Webmaster,


I am the Director of Online Marketing www.ezatms.com.

We would like to bring the following to your attention -


Sometime in the past, an employee of ours had hired a company providing SEO services. They have placed links on your website, which Google has treated as "unnatural". Consequently, our website has got penalized and there was a huge drop in our rankings. The following are examples in this regard -

http://www.oople.com/Forums/member.php?u=7492

We have severed connections with the SEO Company some time ago and they no longer represent us or do any work on our behalf.

Please remove these links from your website at your earliest convenience so that our site will cease to be punished. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated as it will enable us to get back to focusing on our customers' needs, as opposed to worrying about whether they can find us online.


Thank you again for you attention to this matter.

Ben Austin
Director of Online Marketing
www.ezatms.com
ben@ezatms.com



#################################################



To: ben@ezatms.com
Subject: RE: Link Removal Request!
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:06:27 +0100

So, basically Ben what you're saying is that you've employed a company to spam my forum - which has resulted in your google ranking going down, and now you want me to remove the link you employed someone to put onto my website?
Is that a fair summary?

I'm wondering why the tone of your email says 'Please remove these links' - which sounds a little like a demand rather than an apologetic request.

As a forum owner I have to deal with a lot of spam, paid for, seemingly by companies like yourself who foolishly believe they're promoting their wares. Thankfully Google recognise this sort of criminal action and punish those responsible.

Perhaps you can understand why I might be slightly bemused that I have to ban HUNDREDS of spammers - and spend many hours of my time on this over the years - only for an admitted spammer to contact me requesting the removal of such spam.

If you will apologise to me it will be a good start and perhaps a donation via paypal to the running of my website would make me feel a lot better about the situation and enthused to remove said links?

I work in a similar role to yourself and quite honestly I would feel embarassed if this was a situation I was having to deal with - I would certainly express a lot more humility and regret.

Thanks for your time, I've spent a further 20 minutes writing to you because you spammed my forum.

Jimmy
www.oople.com



Below are a few nice links just like the ones ben asked me to remove.

atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
I hate spammers and companies that think they can get away with paying someone to spam forums to increase their profile. I think ben@ezatms.com would like to hear from similar non-spam fans.

[Gayo]

Well done Jimmy.

[Jamie.T]

Well done Jimmy, clearing spam is no easy job so they deserve to be punished by google for trying to be clever.

[RudeTony]

That is increadible - maybe a nice email from a nice person would be appropriate - great reply Jim

[jimmy]

I was just shocked at the tone of the email - which I felt took no responsibility and came across to me as arrogant.


Like I said - I did email the guy three times asking for an appology but was ignored - so I thought posting this up and sending him and his colleagues the address would be a FUNNY move.


I hate spam - and these people have paid a company to spam - the first thing out of their mouths should be appologies and regret.

[budfish]

I thought spam was dodgey emails and pop ups I'm not big on computers

But I could send him and his buddies some pleasent emails while I'm bored no probs.

If oople has this spam that the ATM company does in what way do they benefit does it steal our emails addresses and then send me dodgy emails about penis enlargements ?

[tisher]

Originally Posted by budfish

If oople has this spam that the ATM company does in what way do they benefit does it steal our emails addresses and then send me dodgy emails about penis enlargements ?

I dont get any off these emails Buds what sites you been on

[jimmy]

They spam links to their website around to make it look popular - this in turn fools google into thinking a lot of people are linking to that website so it must be popular and its 'ranking' goes up.

Google have obviously found a way to detect bogus 'spam links' like this and are punishing companies responsible. In other words EZATMS are a set of wankers.

Feel free to tell ben@ezatms.com
I think ben@ezatms.com loves to hear from people. As does info@ezatms.com and sales@ezatms.com. Did I mention ben@ezatms.com loves to receive emails? if not then ben@ezatms.com loves to receive emails.


Now, let me just childishly add a load more links to nudge their google ranking down a touch more.

atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine
atm company
mobile atm
atm machine

[bigred5765]

seems he will be surfing and signing up to lots of porn sites tonight

[MikePimlott]

Ben@ezatms.com has just entered a few online competitions, online porn searches, he also needs a penis enlargement and he joined a few casino sites lol.

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by budfish

If oople has this spam that the ATM company does in what way do they benefit does it steal our emails addresses and then send me dodgy emails about penis enlargements ?

It's not actual spam as you know it in this case, but spamming websites by sticking links to their website all over the internet where they shouldn't be.

By having lots of links all over the internet Googles servers assume it's a popular/important website so puts it higher up their search results, and most people just look at the first page of results. An SEO consultant is supposed to tweak your website to make it more Google and user friendly so more actual people link to it and Googles search robots recognise the website as more important.
Plenty of dodgy companies that say they can get you to number one on Googles rankings but they just spam websites. For anyone doing a search for "atm company", "mobile atm" or "atm machine", because Google has found lots of links over the internet pointing links connected to those words to ezatms website it gets a high ranking. They do this and Google rates you number one, but then they disappear with your money before Google spots it and moves you to the bottom of the search results.

[jmke]

Hey Jimmy, don't know if you run this plugin for vB but it has reduced spammers from 10-20 a day to 1 a month on our forums: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=176481

not sure if it will work on 3.8.6, I'm running an older version, but do check it out.
if the subscriber's email or IP is flagged in this database: http://www.stopforumspam.com/ they are unable to register at your site

so not only does it stop bots, but humans too who are known to spam


edit: also use http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=132482
which is hell for bots, easy for humans, set some RC specific pics (wheels, body, suspension etc) and ask them to click the pic that matches the word