Misidentified as a Scammer

Twice in the past couple of weeks we’ve been contacted by people who thought we had charged their credit card against their will. We didn’t, but you might find this interesting.

When the calls came in I immediately knew that it wasn’t us, but I also felt it was my duty to help these individuals. After all, someone is out there giving SEOs a bad name! They had obviously been ripped off and I wanted to do what I could.

Both callers stated that they were charged multiple times (in increments of approx $15) for an SEO guide. The specific details shown on the statement were ‘pm-seoguide.com’ and ‘NV’. We’re located in Nevada so that’s how these two made the connection to us, but I have not been able to duplicate any search that brings up my company with ‘seo guide’. Strange.

The Culprit

With the callers on the phone I had them type in www.pm-guide.com in their browser. That URL redirects to a SEO Learning Center. What is most interesting about this is that there are several links for help, contact, news, etc. but all of them lead you right back to a login page.

In order to continue, you must first log in. Please enter your username and password to log in.

Hmmm. Friendly.

So I did a quick check of their whois information and found this:

Administrative Contact:
SmartNet Development, Inc
SmartNet Development ([email protected])
+1.8666520479
Fax: +1.7028356891
10161 Park Run Drive
Suite 150
Las Vegas, NV 89145
US

I provided the above information on to each caller; it was the least I could do. Then I did a bit of searching on my own. Doesn’t look like these guys have a good reputation.

Beware! Check your credit card statements. We have another scammer in action, charging peoples credit cards without their permission. Let’s hope somebody stops these guys through legal means. And soon.