Winhost.com – Will a single review convince you?

April 27, 2011

Winhost.com is my Second host review of 3 hosts for April 2011 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. Looking at webhostingstuff.com I can’t say I could see a whole lot wrong with this site. The affiliate commissions are reasonable. Unlike the last host terms of service link are located on every page. The design is fairly simple, not an eye sore, and while I admit to not migrating to every page seems straight forward on where to go to get hosting, support, and other services. I can’t speak much on the subject of widows hosting. After all I sold Plesk, cPanel, and bare bones Linux. Plesk of coarse my preferred choice. My review will be based off of webhostingstuff.com, winhost.com, web-hosting-top.com, and webhostdir.com

Winhost.com has one and only one review

Well they only have one review with webhostingstuff.com, but that review was over a year ago. Also the domain is expired. Clearly the only reason that they are on the top 25 has nothing to do with being a top host as the reviews are slim.

Winhost.com has 17 reviews with web-hosting-top.com

According to web-hosting-top.com:

“There are 17 total Win Host reviews and this company is listed on web-hosting-top.com since 2009. 7 customers found winhost.com a good provider and 9 as bad (1 were neutral).”

So 9 out of those 17 reviews are negative. The one review that counts as a neutral review, really does not seem to be neutral as it made the reviewer choose another host. Though I suggest checking those positive reviews, because they have 2.5 stars in some areas like support making me wonder why there was no questions to people that posted the low rating on what could be done to improve things. One review in particular sticks out to me.

http://www.web-hosting-top.com/reviews/winhost.com/14295

For some reason the rep of winhost.com is under the impression that the downtime that was complained about happened the day before the complaint or only a short time. If anything this is a rep I would not have doing damage control as too much time is spent in trying to make it look like its the customer. Though I am sure with the details in the email and the first name of the customer should be some clues to who the customer might be.

And the webhostdir.com award goes to winhost.com

Web hosting directory seems like a scam, after all the one thing they do not provide is numbers, details, or anything that validates why someone got an award. While winhost.com is willing to post the awards on their site, they don’t link directly to this link:

http://www.webhostdir.com/search/profile.aspx?spid=16999

Where you find they have won the “Most Popular” August 2009 – March 2011. You would think that would be something to brag about.

But if you look below you see this option to vote now where you give a name, email, and comments. I have to wonder if this is one of those things where you can pay someone to create fake votes. You can do with YouTube videos. For that matter I know a company that sales you people to like your company on Facebook, I think it was something like $35 to get 500 people to like your company. There are even ways to fake your twitter followers. Which is far cheaper then trying to do it the right way.

Now while I do not know that the reviews were faked on winhost, I don’t see anything such as dates when posted and domains hosted to prove they are real.

Premiumwebdesign.com – Hostgator.com customer

April 26, 2011

Premiumwebdesign.com is my First host review of 3 hosts for April 2011 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. Another host that chooses to try webhostingstuff.com’s advertising may not be aware that makes them a top 25 host. Depending on how much they pay determines where in the top 25 they are. So if they choose to contact me like 1/4 the hosts have, they can read https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostingstuff-com-a-rigged-contest.html. Frankly, anyone who tells me they did not know at this point has no excuses. Just by searching for webhostingstuff.com, this site comes up on the first page of Google search engine results. This has been the case for at least 8 months.

The Premiumwebdesign.com / Hostgator.com connection

If you read my initial thoughts, I thought that this host may very well be a reseller for hostgator.com.

To be honest, I am not 100 percent sure they are a hostgator.com client, but the network whois tells me a bit of information that makes me think it’s hostgator.com, which is websitewelcome. They’re not the first host to have that in their network whois. Webinternethosting.com has the same network, and they are a hostgator.com customer. If you visit Hostgator.com, you will find they made a claim to websitewelcome: http://support.hostgator.com/articles/private-name-servers-setup.

Many resellers choose to have their own name servers for appearance reasons. Using our anonymous name servers of ns1.websitewelcome.com and ns2.websitewelcome.com can be less professional looking for a hosting company.

I am not sure that websitewelcome.com is anonymous; as I simply searched via Google.com, I found that link. That and I really do not think that most people look at the DNS of most sites unless they are a host. While I am not sure if Premiumwebdesign.com is on a dedicated account, I am certain of what they are not on because they have their own private DNS.

If you have reseller, SEO, VPS, or Dedicated, you should have those IP’s listed in your welcome email. If not, simply contact HostGator so we can provide you with the correct IP’s.

Here is why I think Premiumwebdesign.com is on webhostingstuff.com

As I stated in my initial write-up, the downtime of webhostingstuff.com may be greater than what is actually listed because they ping only once every 6 hours or more.

Premiumwebdesign.com has a 5-star average rating from all 14 reviews

Clearly, on webhostingstuff.com, which seems to be the only place that has reviews for this hosting company, all are 5-star reviews. The last host to do a review with them is still with them. But the last review was May 14, 2008. Worse yet, That site is not active.

Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Google Cache shows a site under construction page. The other sites are on webhostingstuff.com, have me wondering about the legitimacy of the reviews. Because some of the same people have posted a review, granted, it may be years later. Then, on February 3rd and 4th of 2007, they got 6 reviews. But that’s not all that makes me wonder if they asked their customers to place reviews or did it themselves.

Premiumwebdsign.com – No upfront terms of service

From the main page, clicking on the “Services” tab and picking “Web Hosting” it took me 7 pages to find, but it turns out I could have found it on the first page I came from the tab. Most companies that don’t have the terms of service on the main page tend to have it on the same page where you enter your credit card. http://www.premiumwebdesign.com/wordpress/services/web-hosting/web-hosting-terms/ is where you find that the terms of service have been cut up and placed into several pages. This is the amount of text that they have before sending you off to navigate to pages that have no links to the other terms of service:

Premium Web Development, L.L.C. has a responsibility to protect each of our clients and provide the best service possible. The customer is expected to have a basic knowledge of how the Internet functions, the types of use which are generally acceptable on the Internet, and the types of use which are to be avoided. Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use. Also, common sense is the rule when uploading files during high traffic usage times on the Internet. Premium Web Design and Hosting offers space for your site on our servers and has nothing to do whatsoever with your access to reach our servers or the time it takes to upload, etc. The following guidelines were designed to ensure these services

Most hosts have the bulk of their terms of service; they don’t piecemeal it through the site to make multiple pages. But I think I know why it was made in to separate pieces.

My personal take on Premiumwebdesign.com

The design and the domain are definitely not choices I would have made. Regardless of being a WordPress site, the design seems outdated. I don’t like turning a hosting site into a blog, where comments can be posted anywhere. A blog can definitely enhance a site; it definitely does that for hostgator.com. I am not sure I would want to make the main page of any site the place for anyone to post their comments. Esspecially with a comment such as:

Hi Glennette, I notice that from your greeting on this page (Dear Christian Business Owner,) you assume that everybody is a Christian. I have nothing against any religion. However, do you require all your clients to be Christians? Regards, Jim

While it appears the greeting has been removed, the comment is still there. Which leads to my whole separation of religion, politics, and business. Seldom do the three mix well together. Here, religion and politics are on the main page. Clearly, allowing the comments is for the sake of increasing search engine rankings. The hosting packages are not even up front. I can’t imagine many people can find out where to order a package on this site. Clearly, they need to look at the competition to see how to sell hosting instead of purchasing fake advertising from a so-called top host review site. The terms of service are, in my opinion, a big problem. It’s not upfront. Its spread out to too many places when it should be linked to every page, and the content for the terms of service should only be on one page. It’s not easy to access the “About Us” tab that takes you to a page that is just about one person. This tends to make me wonder if Premium web design is a one-person operation,

Hosting Review sites – Webhostingstuff.com – April 2011 top 25 list

April 23, 2011

Unlike last month where there were no hosts to write a hosting review on, webhostingstuff.com offers me 3 new hosts for April 2011 to write a hosting review on. Not to mention a point where they deleted negative feed back for one of their so called “advertising” customers. Webhostingstuff.com is still blocking me from reading their hosting review site, but that does not mean I don’t get screenshots. Some of the most interesting shots (asides for proof they remove feed back) have me wondering if they bought advertising from webhostingstuff.com because they recently had down time. Another host I have not even looked at and will get more insight when I write up this surface report, or perhaps when I write up its indvidual post. So in sum 1 host had its negative feed back deleted, 2 hosts had a recent sting of downtime, and 1 host that I see nothing on the surface.

Webhostingstuff.com’s Hosting Review for hosts in the 1 – 10 spots for April 2011

Off the first 1 – 10 hosts I have 2 hosts to write a hosting review on. If I I could get away with it I would have someone get me all the screen shots of all the reviews for Hostgator, at this time they only have one negative review, but I tend to doubt that when you average the reviews that they have a 5 star review. Iweb.com on the other hand for some bizarre reason is still on the top 25 list despite our previous discussion. The problem with him purchasing advertising is that it outlines his customers complaints. What is the point in having a hosting review site show case your site, when its only averaging 3 out of 5 stars?

The pre-hosting review for Premiumwebdesign.com number 4 out of 25 on Webhostinstuff.com’s top host list

There are many parts to this host that I can say I don’t like, most of which from the main page of that site that I will cover in my post. The network whois tells me that they are hosted on theplanet, though I suspect they are a Hostgator.com reseller. But here is the first host that makes me wonder if down time may have been a cause for buying the so called “advertising” with webhostingstuff.com.

Now to be upfront I have only taken a snap shot of January 2010 to this month (April 2011). The worst of the down time actually starts In January 2010, where they had almost a day of down time. October 2010 there was almost 6 hours of down time, and January 2011 not that far away there was 4 minutes short of 11 hours of down time.

Though if you understand how Webhostingstufff.com tracks uptime it may very well have been more then what was listed. Supposedly the system they use pings a site every 6 hours or so hours. If it pings a site that is no online it amps up the frequency of pings till the site comes back online. I have heard some people say that system will logically track any down time. But here is where the logic comes apart, what if a cron job crashes a server and the server is brought back up between the pings. I had a few dedicated customers that had this problem, where they had purchased a third party back up script, and when 3 am came around for some bizarre reason 5 dedicated servers crashed in sync. After three days and 4 hours of down time a day, we had angry customers that demanded we fix the issue, I also had a ulcer developing from fear of defective equipment. Further investigation proved it was not hardware, but a software issue. But down time can mean nothing, after all I never hosted my clients on the same server as the hosting companies site. In some cases a hosting company may have been on more then one server. Still I had a lot of reasons for not housing my customers on the same server as my site. I suspect that Premiumwebdesign.com is a hostgator.com reseller, so their Premiumwebdesign.com’s down time is their customers down time.

The pre-hosting review for winhost.com number 10 out of 25 on Webhostinstuff.com’s top host list

What sticks out to me is that there is only one review, but the whois says this domain is 10 plus years old. Webhostingstuff.com says that uptime has been tracked since September 2009. If you look at the waybackmachine for July 2007 you will see that this domain had one of those pay per click place holders. It also shows a graphic that says the domain may have been for sale. http://classic-web.archive.org/web/*/winhost.com

Since this is a host on webhostingstuff.com, lets see what the reviews……….. I mean review has to say.

So its been more then a year since they received a review, and the who is information says this domain does not exist.

Webhostingstuff.com’s Hosting Review for hosts in the 11 – 20 spots for April 2011

Here comes the proof that Webhostingstuff.com deletes negative feed back for paying customers. If you look at Infinite Networks You see they have a three star out of five from 4 reviews. Problem was when I found them in October 2010 they had 4 stars and 6 reviews.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/infinitie-net.html

The pre-hosting review for Jixhost.com number 18 out of 25 on Webhostinstuff.com’s top host list

On the surface you would not think anything is wrong, though that 3 out of 5 star uptime review is troubling. Which is also their average rating for the last 6 months. Looking at the reviews on webhostingstuff.com it confirms that webhostingstuff.com does like to round up on reviews. I am betting I will find more when I do the full review, as there is a lot on just webhostingstuff.com. But from the reviews its clear that this host does not share the same server as its clients or webhostingstuff.com is pings are missing the down time.

Webhostingstuff.com’s Hosting Review for hosts in the 21 – 25 spots for April 2011

So far not much new with the 21 – 25 spots.

While webhostingstuff.com wants you to trust them I am going to show they don’t know how to make a reliable hosting review site

Webhostingstuff.com – A Rigged Contest

April 20, 2011

Why do I write about hosts that appear on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list? The real question is why how did they appear on the top 25.

Some of the hosts contact me and tell me I had no right to do a review on them because I did not use their services. For some reason, they either don’t know that I know, or they don’t know themselves that the “advertising” they paid for actually is a bidding contest between other hosts. The proof of why a host is a top host is not there. Data that breaks down the numbers are absent; there are no facts to tell you why one host was better than another. Some of the sites that are on there don’t have any reviews from customers. A few don’t even have an 80% approval from their customers. Webhostingstuff.com wants you to take their word for it. I want a little doubt, as it is a good thing and protects you from a bad deal. While I had lost my original screenshots and email from when I first started the video that gave my site its initial boost of traffic, almost a year of looking at every host that appears on this so-called top 25 list gives me the data to prove that the system was rigged. At this time, I have found 61 going on 64 hosts this month that appeared on webhostingstuff.com. So if you are reading this, here is where my right to post my findings on any host that appears on webhostingstuff.com top 25.

How effective is your ‘advertising’ if webhostingstuff.com is blocking people from coming to your site?

The point of advertising is to get as much exposure as possible, right? If you had the choice of a billboard ad on a small town in the middle of nowhere or a 1-minute ad on some hugely popular reality show, which do you choose? It does not take any business guru to tell you which you want. A few months after I started taking monthly snapshots and writing posts on webhostingstuff.com, they started blocking my location. Perhaps in part because I let them know what my provider was. But it’s not just my location but also friends around the world and their communities because they started taking screenshots. At some point, it seemed the owner started blocking off large areas of the country, as he understood that I was not bound to one IP. At first, it was triggered by several inquiries, only down to one. Its also been people that have no connection to me at all. Despite their blocking me, more people are volunteering to take screenshots for me. So even though they may block someone, someone else is getting through and getting me the screenshots I ask for.

But the real question is if they have nothing to hide, why would they block anyone? The answer to that is their own data shows why you should not choose any of the hosts that appear on their top 25 list.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostingstuff-is-blocking-me.html

Can you afford to pay a site that blocks people that may be looking for hosting?

I7net, the one host on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 that was not even online

I first found i7net on webhostingstuff.com in June 2010; the problem was it was not even online. Between June to November of 2010, the site appeared between the 21 – 25 spots.

June 2010 – https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostingstuff-com-top-25-best-hosts-for-june-2010.html

September 2010 – https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostingstuff-september-2010-top-25-list.html

October 2010 – https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostingstuff-october-2010-top-25-list.html

November 2010 – https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostingstuff-november-2010-top-25-list.html

Granted, those are not the only posts I did on i7net. But if you search webhostingstuff.com, you will find nothing.

By December 2010, Webhostingstuff.com’s Michel Low must have finally paid attention to my blog because I7net is missing from his database, well more like deleted from the directory. It seems almost like an attempt to sweep this mistake under the rug and hope that many people did not notice this mistake. It may very well be overlooked. It’s not like I have huge amounts of traffic coming in (though it increases with time), and the truth is told, I may be the only one that finds I7net fascinating. Traffic is not that great for the topic i7net, but this is my best argument for not using webhostingstuff.com. I can not help but say that I7net was the dead canary no one bothered to look at while browsing for a host. Though while i7net may no longer be in the database, I have screenshots showing that they were indeed there in the top 21 – 25 and that webhostingstuff.com even knew about the downtime.

Ioxhost.co.uk – the first host to admit the system is rigged

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/hosts-that-use-exposed-reviews/ioxhost-co-uk.html

This year I made a host mad because I posted the owner’s emails stating, “I agree with you the webhostingstuff website is missleading where itsays “top 10..” when its not based on anything apart from there bid.” I did this because even though he knew it was rigged, he chooses to go back to using it.

Later on, I would have other hosts, such as Cornhusker tech that admitted to buying the advertising. Another host contacted me privately via email, admitting he was paying for advertising. He also disclosed another review site that operates on “the pay to play concept”. Granted, my non-disclosure depends on the fact that I never find that host on another so-called review site. But if you choose to contact me via email, I reserve the right to post your comments on my blog.

How about a host that wrote their own review? Like Webinternethosting.com

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webinternethosting.html

This host, which is a customer of Hostgator.com, broke one of the rules of Webhostingstuff.com:

http://reviews.webhostingstuff.com/

“If “positive” reviews have been removed from your company profile, here are some common reasons:

The original reviewer asked us to remove their review in writing.
Review was found to be inappropriate.
You posted your own fake positive reviews!“

Also, “WebHostingStuff takes a firm stance against web hosts that attempt to post fake positive reviews. Enforcement actions include termination of listing and blacklisting on our site.“.

Since September 1, 2010, I contacted Michael Low, and he, of course, blocked me. This review is still up.

Perhaps if this host had been smart enough not to include that site on their BBB record, I would never have found it.

You will find hosts out there that have had their positive reviews deleted, hosts that do not pay for the so-called “advertising”.

I have found hosts online for three months or less that found their way on the top 25 list. hostinglocker.com, 10looniehost.ca, hosthttp.net, and spacenets.com come to mind.

Before I go off into ramble here, I want to clarify that I have no problem with new hosts. Every company had to start somewhere. There is also the chance that a new host could take the industry by storm; in this market, that’s always possible. One company that comes to mind is justhost.com, which did just that, but unfortunately, that was one host that got a false start and was even at one point on webhostingstuff.com. Strangely enough, they left the webhostingstuff.com top 25 host list after I started this blog and covered and other hosts that are owned by Endurance International Group (Fatcow.com and iPage.com). This is about new hosts that were/are paying for “advertising” with webhostingstuff.com. New hosts, which at the time had zero reviews when they first appeared on webhostingstuff.com. Would you not think customers would have some say in rather a host is good or not? Also, would you not think a host would have some time under its belt before being a top host? Considering I recommend no less than 30 days guarantee (you will find me repeating that often).

Hostinglocker.com is the first time I found a host that is online less than a month

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/hostinglocker.html

This was a host I found on the top 25 for November 17, 2010. If you look at their whois record, you can see the site was up less than 30 days before getting the number 11th spot out of 25.

10looniehost.ca

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/10looniehost-ca.html

It’s a host that offers a 7-day guarantee, which I will never recommend. If a host offers less than 30 days, I suggest avoiding that host.

While their whois info says the domain was created in July 2010, but webhostingstuff.com indicates that they started keeping track of uptime on 12/15/2010.

Spacenets.com

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/spacenets-com.html

Despite having purchased the domain in October 2010, the site does not appear to have gone live till February 2011

Hosthttp.net

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/hosthttp-net.html

Another host that had been online less than 30 days, for that matter 16 days by the time I examined them. Somehow they managed to beat out Siteground, who was in the 20th spot, by being in the 13th spot. Worst yet, they don’t have a valid phone number.

Is that that all that is wrong with webhostingstuff.com?

The answer to that is no, and there are so many more hosts that serve as an example of why not to trust this top 25 list. But if you want proof, here are a few more:

Firedragonhosting.com: https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/firedragonhosting.html

First, I have to ask if this host was on the top 25, why was Godaddy.com not on the top 25 list? After all, this is a Wild West Domains reseller, which is owned by godaddy.com. Worst yet, it appears this host is putting his customer’s domains in his name.

Mochahost.com: https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/hosting-reviews/mochahost-com-is-the-worst-host-check-this-review-out-before-you-buy.html

All I can say is read the reviews from customers on my post and other review sites.

Avahost.com and Siteground.com: It’s not hard to be on top when you own your own fake hosting review site.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/avahost.html

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/siteground.html

Both of which own their own so-called review site where amazingly they are always the top host with their top 10 sites.

Avahost.com owns cheap-web-hosting-review.com

Siteground.com owns besthostdirectory.com

Ampheon.co.uk

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/ampheon-co-uk.html

The first thing I found was that 5 out of the 9 reviews they showcased on their site were not even hosted with ampheon.co.uk. This can be explained by the fact that only a small area of the main page of the site is dedicated to hosting. There is no direct link to a secure support area on the main page; you have to navigate around the site to find it. This is a company that treats hosting as a secondary operation, if even that, which can find out when you read what “out of hours” means.

“customers using this service without the appropriate support agreement will be charged £125 per hour, pro-rata to a minimum billing period of 15 minutes if an urgent response is required before the beginning of the next working day.“

While I may not know the exact conversion rate of a pound to a dollar at this time (roughly $2 is about 1 pound), 125 pounds sound like a lot of money compared to what other hosts would charge, especially since most these days offer 24 / 7 service.

……………. and the list goes on of hosts that at one time or another appeared on Webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list

The webhostingstuff.com / hostaz.com connection

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/hostaz.html

But this is a site that claims to be against the top 10 list methodology:

“Unlike some dubious “top 10 hosting sites” that promote web hosts based on affiliate commissions, our fair and honest ranking system helps visitors find the real top web hosting companies.“

So, in short, trust this site of mine, not my other site? Hostaz.com is one of those sites driven by affiliate commissions. Interestingly both Webhostingstuff.com and Hostaz.com are owned by Michael Low.

Does webhostingstuff.com delete negative feedback?

The answer to that is yes. I will be pointing the proof in my April 2011 review of which host of the 25 had 2 negative reviews deleted, driving its two out of five-star rating to a three out of five-star rating. This means I need to start copying feedback of customers, which you will see starting this month with my monthly reviews of WHS.

Ask yourself, do you really want to do business with a site that fakes your rank? Better yet, do you want your company associated with the hosts that I have listed? Webhostingstuff.com is only the first of the hosting review sites I plan, and I am already in the works of new methods of digging up the truth.

Do you still have to ask why I wrote a review about your hosting company because you appeared on webhostingstuff still?

Greengeeks.com – Another host that gets endorsed by hostingsthatsuck.com

April 7, 2011

This is not the first time I have encountered greengeeks.com, the first time when I decided to start keep an eye on the sites that appeared on webhostingstuff.com. I decided to cover their “green” angle, which amounted up to green washing, and proves at least one part of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is useless. https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/uncategorized/greengeeks-sucks.html. These days they are no longer on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25, now they appear on another site I am starting to keep track of hostingsthatsuck.com. The whole premise of hostingsthatsuck is that you do a search on “*host name* sucks” and you can find out rather a host sucks or not. They are so kind as do that research for you, and then they go through and tell you how many of them are valid.

Too bad its not that easy. After all “sucks” is just one of many English words that will tell you if something is bad. But this time they really are not even trying, or are they? Keep in mind hostingsthatsucks.com is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart.

http://greengeeks.com/affiliates/

“When you bring customers that sign up to GreenGeeks, you will receive $50.00 up to $100.00 per referral.”

Hostingsthatsuck.com has a very good reason not put too much research into their own failed methodology.

Here is why you should not trust anything hostingsthatsuck.com has to say about greengeeks.com

First off, lets take the very first company that brought me to this hostingsthatsuck.com, justhost.com.

http://blog.youcanhost.com/host-reviews-exposed/just-host-just-sucks/

This is where you find another hosting company that points out that hostingsthatsuck.com does a rewrite, which is not the first time they do this with a host.

http://www.hostingsthatsuck.com/mochahost-sucks/

You would think after almost a year they would remove mochahost.com after that, but no. To continue getting affiliate commisions they put the warning below the how that host is so wonderful.

The number one reason not to trust what hostingsthatsuck.com has to say about greengeeks.com

The whole philosphy of a site is a good host because they have no negative complaints gets turned on its head when 2 of those hosts have not even been business for a month.

Back in January I got two emails one from Zyma.com and another from serverclub.com asking me to do a review on their company. Zyma.com offered a free hosting account (like I am going to trust a serious site on a 4.95 pound a year account), and Serverclub.com offered to pay me for a review. I gave them both free reviews after I found them on hostingsthatsuck.com.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/unlimited-hosting/zyma.html

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/review-sites-exposed/serverclub-com.html

The owner of Zyma.com would love for me to pull my review, I would love to see hostingsthatsuck.com remove the glowing endorsement which links to their affiliate link with Zyma.com. Which makes me doubt Zyma.com canceled the affiliate link.

But there are only 5 hate pages in regards to greengeeks.com?

Keep in mind their determination on how many hate pages is : “If you go through each of Googles result pages, it seems there are very few unsatisfied customers of GreenGeeks. If you search for the keywords “GreenGeeks sucks”, you can see that there are a few search results but you have also heard elsewhere that GreenGeeks is one of the most reliable web host. Is that a lot of bad things said about one hosting? Assuming all those result pages really talk about why this hosting provider sucked in some ways. There may be a few more result pages when you search for “GreenGeeks scam”, “GreenGeeks issues“, or ”GreenGeeks problems“. Should these hate or complaint pages worry you after you have read so many positive reviews? Did the hate pages make you wonder if GreenGeeks hosting is any good?”

Which they come up with 53,000 pages about Greengeeks.com, and less then 5 total hate pages which = less then 1%.

So lets see if I can find more then 5 hate pages, or better yet more then 5 negative reviews.

4 negative complaints with our good old buddies at webhostingstuff.com

http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/GreenGeeks.html

19 negative complaints at web-hosting-top.com

http://www.web-hosting-top.com/companies/greengeeks.com

More then 25 negative complaints with webhostinggeeks.com ( I gave up counting after 25)

http://webhostinggeeks.com/user-reviews/index2.php?item_id=40

1 negative blog article at momblognetwork.com

http://www.momblognetwork.com/parenting/green-geeks-web-hosting-review

1 negative review with Hostjury.com

http://hostjury.com/reviews/greengeeks

So that makes 5, oh an they mention the Better Business Bureau “Think again. However, do not dismiss the fact that GreenGeeks receives a B rating from Better Business Bureau, which means they have quite a high rating. BBB acknowledges companies with this rating level to have demonstrated good business-consumer relations, and BBB would expect any consumer complaints not to be of a serious nature and to be satisfactorily handled by the company.”

Going to BBB, I find a rather intresting link to a rating site:

http://www.trustlink.org/Reviews/GreenGeeks-206059091

3 out 5 customers gave Greengeeks.com a low review.

Which brings us to more then 5 pages, and I really was not looking for other things besides the terms sucks. But you have more then 49 negative reviews for greengeeks in what I found in 10 minutes.

Mindshark.ca – Seo Marketing Experts or Spammers? Part 2

April 6, 2011

With the second post for mindshark.ca I am going to explore their seo skills, which pretty much amount a weak show of smoke and mirrors. My first post can be found at https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/spammer/mindshark-ca.html. I am still waiting for an email from a spam expert in regards to what mindshark.ca sent me. Netfirms.com contacted me in less then 24 hours and has already indicated that they will shut mindshark.ca down if they spam again. I have made them aware Mindshark.ca used a third party “over seas” to phish/harvest my email. I know this has nothing to do with hosting companies or fake hosting review sites. But I have to admit I am really out of the grove on writing blog content because of a rather hectic March, and I am rather fired up by this spammer. Not to mention I really hate spam. That sentence alone does not tell you just how much I hate it. So the next part brings me to the very heart of who they claim to be, which is seo experts.

Now keep in mind I am no seo expert. Before I got into the hosting business I did graphics and simple html. When I got into the hosting business I ran the billing, purchasing, and staffing. Someone else was in charge of tech support (Even though I seem to be the one that would knock heads around when there was a problem) and another was in charge of sales, advertising, site design and seo. I was no longer a graphics person. The last was/is the person I contact when I need help in getting this site or any other site noticed. There are also experts that he works with that I have to pay when I need their field of expertise. It would be a mistake to employee my services for SEO, granted I know the people you would employee. I also know people that have ethically questionable methods of obtaining seo. Autoblogging, fake pings, spam commenting on blogs, article spinning, and other things that I think are no better then spam, as it clutters search engines such as Google with useless results.

So with my limited knowledge of SEO, let me tell you why you should not go with Mindshark.ca

When it comes to finding experts in the field of seo, you would expect their site to be a shinnying example of their skills. There are alot of tell tale signs that their seo knowledge is not what they claim. Looking at compete.com I find the most interesting thing, which is nothing.

I find it odd that despite having a Alexa score of 387,496 which is double mine (the lower the score the better), and 284 sites linking in ( I only have 32 according to Alexa). Despite all those numbers Compete.com has no data. Perhaps their domain whois might explain the problem:

I find a few intresting things about that.

1. Their site is a little over a year old.
2. They recently updated something on their domain. Which might be that they just moved to netfirms.com.

So far the only thing they have me beaten on is sites linking in on Alexa.com.

http://www.alexa.com/site/linksin/mindshark.ca

Intrestingly enough I find another site that also does seo.

Mindshark.ca’s video tells me exactly why you should not trust them

The quirky thing about this video thats hosted on youtube.com it seems to be the opening for a reputation cleansing service. For which there is not an active website for: mindsharkdefense.com. I guess Zamir Javer got to be an expert for a Canadian News station – Global News, where a model that had nude shots taken of her got leaked on the internet. Zamir explains that the best way to cover it up:

“Hide” Negative Material by posting positive content
Increase Credibility = Blog on Professional Sites
Look Like an Expert
Ongoing monitor = Free Google Alert

So the problem is she has nude photos with her on the web. In order to compete and put “positive” feed back, she is going to have to go to professional sites that deal with photos. After all which do you think is going to stick out when type in “*model’s name* photos”:

The nude pics?
Her attempts to talk about jogging?

So that means that she would have to write things in regards to “*model’s name* photos” on professional websites, and every other term that shows up when you try to search for the nude photos. She might have problems if she had to deal with trying to compete with the term “*models name* nude photos”.

But here is what I find interesting about the video, all of the people that have posted postive feed back on Youtube.com seem to have only created their user name to comment, rate postivly, and to make this their favorite video. All of which was done the same day they created the account. Every user that has comment on this videolooks like this.

After which these accounts have zero activity.

Frankly I am surprised they did not use a service that fakes your comments and views. It would have made it far less obvious. Or better yet have all those over 450 seo experts comment and view the video with some real youtube accounts.

Also I did comment on the video, and as you can see I put the one negative vote on their video. Unfortunately my comment was deleted. I guess they did not like that I drew attention to the fact that the comments were not real.

Then there are the sites that link in to Mindshark.ca

While I am not going to point you to the link at Sharenator.com that links to Mindshark.ca, I find it interestingly that hosting-reviews-exposed.com has 1 of every 117,647 internet visitors.

http://www.sharenator.com/w/hosting-reviews-exposed.com

Many of the sites that are part of the back links, linking in, and what ever else seem to be a combination of sites like this, some sites that tell you what you can do your site.

http://www.woorank.com/en/www/hosting-reviews-exposed.com

Which tells me I need to talk to one of those seo experts I mentioned.

Then their is a site that tells me I have a terrible domain name: http://websiteshadow.com/hosting-reviews-exposed.com

Some sites like http://qeoz.com/1-hosting-reviews-exposed-com show nothing you could not find through going to Alexa.com directly

Then there are sites that I consider spam like http://feeds.joe.to/recent/page-2. While I find that on second page of search engine results for “mindshark.ca”.

Here is the first thing to show up on the second page of their search engine results.

“Once again I did not opt-in or authorize use of this email address for their marketing / spam purposes.”

http://www.searchengine-marketingsoftware.com/blog/mindshark-ca-%E2%80%93-irvine-web-design-experts-or-spammers-part-1-hosting/

I am almost tempted to believe they just took part of my content and re-spinned it.

I have yet to find any of what Zamir recommends of posting on professional blogs.

Now to see if 450 Mindshark experts can hide my negative review.

Epsilon.com – Let the Phishing begin in 3 or more months

April 5, 2011

If your like me your getting an email from some one that tells you that their email data base with epsilon.com has been compromised. So far I have gotten emails from Usbank.com, chase.com, bestbuy.com and walgreens.com. Before this week I did not know the name epsilon, yet now I see it all over the news, and I am still getting emails.

I am not even sure why usbank.com still has my email as I left them because they refused to provide me a letter on USbank stationary for my merchant stating an account was mine, and the merchant is owned by the same company. Elavon (formerly Nova) told me to do what usbank.com refuse to do. The fastest thing they could do was to wait 2 – 3 weeks for some checks to come in for an account that I did not want debit cards or checks tied to (a deposit only account). What was even faster was to close my accounts and take all of the money to another bank that had no problem typing up a letter on company stationary saying and account was mine (50 minutes arguing and canceling my account with usbank, 10 minutes to drive to another bank and 20 minutes to open the account and get the letter). You would think after 2 years they would not have my email address. Nor would you think they would tell an ex-customer “As a valued U.S. Bank customer, we want to make you aware of a situation that has occurred related to your email address.” Then walgreens.com got my email because I had them print some digital pictures. If anything I am bothered by the fact that Chase.com is one of the people effected by this epsilon.com. But then again, why would a bank trust your information with a third party such as epsilon.com?

But I think the real opportunity is being missed by Epsilon.com and every other company effected by this data theft, and that is to make phishing a more commonly known issue.

Chase.com contacts me about Epsilon.com

Chase does some what of an effort, but its almost as if they do not want to draw attention to the fact that of what those emails + names could be used for:

Chase is letting our customers know that we have been informed by Epsilon, a vendor we use to send e-mails, that an unauthorized person outside Epsilon accessed files that included e-mail addresses of some Chase customers. We have a team at Epsilon investigating and we are confident that the information that was retrieved included some Chase customer e-mail addresses, but did not include any customer account or financial information. Based on everything we know, your accounts and confidential information remain secure. As always, we are advising our customers of everything we know as we know it, and will keep you informed on what impact, if any, this will have on you.

We apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. We want to remind you that Chase will never ask for your personal information or login credentials in an e-mail. As always, be cautious if you receive e-mails asking for your personal information and be on the lookout for unwanted spam. It is not Chase’s practice to request personal information by e-mail.

As a reminder, we recommend that you:

Don’t give your Chase Online^SM User ID or password in e-mail.
Don’t respond to e-mails that require you to enter personal information directly into the e-mail.
Don’t respond to e-mails threatening to close your account if you do not take the immediate action of providing personal information.
Don’t reply to e-mails asking you to send personal information.
Don’t use your e-mail address as a login ID or password.

The security of your information is a critical priority to us and we strive to handle it carefully at all times. Please visit our Security Center at chase.com and click on “Fraud Information” under the “How to Report Fraud.” It provides additional information on exercising caution when reading e-mails that appear to be sent by us.

Sincerely,
Patricia O. Baker
Senior Vice President
Chase Executive Office

Walgreens.com contacts me about Epsilon.com

Walgreens does a slightly better effort then Chase to inform what could happen with the information that was stolen

Dear Valued Customer,

On March 30th, we were informed by Epsilon, a company we use to send emails to our customers, that files containing the email addresses of some Walgreens customers were accessed without authorization.

We have been assured by Epsilon that the only information that was obtained was your email address. No other personally identifiable information was at risk because such data is not contained in Epsilon’s email system.

For your security, we encourage you to be aware of common email scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Walgreens will not send you emails asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If ever asked for this information, you can be confident it is not from Walgreens.

We regret this has taken place and any inconvenience this may have caused you. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact us at 1-855-814-0010. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.

Sincerely,

Walgreens Customer Service Team

Epsilon only lost emails?

If you read all these emails, the only thing that sounds like that was taken was your email address. However Epsilon’s own site says:

IRVING, TEXAS – April 1, 2011 – On March 30th, an incident was detected where a subset* of Epsilon clients’ customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon’s email system. The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only. A rigorous assessment determined that no other personal identifiable information associated with those names was at risk. A full investigation is currently underway.

http://www.epsilon.com/News%20&%20Events/Press_Releases_2011/Epsilon_Notifies_Clients_of_Unauthorized_Entry_into_Email_System/p1057-l3

Why is it that only Epsilon tells you and “The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only.” Despite what the companies that use Epsilon say, more then email was taken, worst of all part of that data may be your name.

Epsilon.com only lost my email and name, so what? right?

If your like my mom, your going to think it was just your email, maybe even your name. But what can they do with that? After all thats what Epsilon.com tells the companies that use their service was compromised. But what they are not telling you is the value of those email address, and perhaps your name to someone that does not have your best interests at heart. This is one of those things that could come back later to haunt you. Its not like who ever stole your information will use it today, or even tomorrow. Maybe not next week, but perhaps months after you forget about this. Your going to get an email that tells you that there is a problem with your account. Please click here, enter in your name, address, social security number, who your third grade teacher was, the name of your pet, credit card numbers, bank numbers, and what ever else they can get from you to steal your identity. As a former hosting provider, I can not begin to explain how big of a problem phishing is. But I can tell you there just is not enough talk out there on prevention.

I get email all the time from companies that I have never done business with. But I do get emails that try to phish for my details from companies I do use. Lets take for example I play World of Warcraft. One pretty common piece of Phishing I have seen is I get an email telling me my account has been banned for x reason. Funny thing is last time I got one of these emails while I was playing the account when I got that notice. Got to love having a multi-monitor system where you can game and read email at the same time. The problem is the email came from China, and the domain that I am supposed to go to was recently purchased. So it was not Blizzard.com contacted me, or I would not been able to play. Another problem is they don’t know my name. Granted not everyone that got that email plays World of Warcraft, like my mom. While she knows that I play, she thinks for some bizarre reason Blizzard is going to contact her to tell her I have been banned. So she will of coarse forward me this phishing spam, then try to call me or chat to “help” me out.

I can’t tell me how much that worries me, because she thinks if things are on the web then they are true. I have yet to meet a doctor she has not tried to prove wrong because someones blog ran counter to her doctor’s years of training and experience. I have had the talk with her that she needs to avoid emails that tell her to click on links. Also that Blizzard.com does not know her, or that we are related. Also that thousands if not millions of people that do not play World of Warcraft got the same email. But what would help me is if the companies effected by data theft would tell her what could happen.

What Epsilon.com and every company thats emailing you should tell you about phishing

Here is what phishtank.com say phishing is: “Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to get you to provide personal information, including but not limited to, account information.”

Its not always by email, which is why I say it was a problem as webhost. Someone might buy a hosting account under one name, then later host a domain that is similar to whom they are trying to mimic. Like world of warcarft. Hence why I did random audits from time to time. I strongly encourage anyone that does not understand phishing to visit:

http://www.phishtank.com/what_is_phishing.php

PhishTank is a free community site where anyone can submit, verify, track and share phishing data. Their words not mine, but it sums it up on what they do.

Its also one of the tools I used in verifying orders. But while they have an impressive data base, their not going to know every site that is trying to scam you for information.

If you are not 100% certain that the email was sent to you by the company you do business with:

1. Go directly to their website. Do not Click on the links in the email your not 100% sure of to get to the website.
2. Call them.

Also keep in mind the advice that Chase sent me:

Don’t give your User ID or password in e-mail.
Don’t respond to e-mails that require you to enter personal information directly into the e-mail.
Don’t respond to e-mails threatening to close your account if you do not take the immediate action of providing personal information.
Don’t reply to e-mails asking you to send personal information.
Don’t use your e-mail address as a login ID or password.

If you do go to the site that you were at first confident with, but it asks for details such as banking information, your social security number, and other details I suggest stopping there and contacting the company in question directly.

I still have to ask why does a bank have to use a third party like Epsilon.

Godaddy.com and the Elephant not in the room

April 3, 2011

If you have know anything about the latest hosting news you will see that Godaddy.com’s Bob Parson is the lead story because he decided to kill a elephant while on vacation last month. Lets make not bones about it, I am an animal lover. I have 3 cats (2 no kill shelter adopties and 1 stray), 3 box turtles (1 of which I traded a play station 2 back when they were new for), 3 red ear sliders (aquatic turtle), 2 tiger salamanders, and 4 tropical fish tanks. Did I mention I was practically raised by a Saint Bernard and a Golden Retriever?

Not related to Godaddy and somewhat off topic – A cat in need of a home!!!

Now if you will pardon me as I use this post to do something off topic before I go into my thoughts on Bob Parson of Godaddy.com. Friday night when I came home after grabbing take out I spotted a cat crying on top of my roof, who looked just like one of my own cats. While it was not one of my cats, it nervously came to me after I climbed up on a ladder. Which is a good thing since I have terracotta roof I was not exactly sure I wanted to climb up as I was not sure if I would cause the tile to crash down. After eating a whole can of food the cat is no longer nervous and has become very affectionate. Unfortunately due several reasons I can not at this time take on another cat. So I have surrendered the cat to the Arizona Humane Society. Luckily last year I had the time to get a new car, a Nissan Versa 2011. So the cat did not have to go on a 45 minute ride in a car that was on its last leg. Admitly she probable would be a good car trip cat unlike my own cats that rarely ever leave the house.

So if you are reading this and have the time, money, and room and live near the Phoenix, Arizona area then cat a344689 is for you.

The Arizona Humane Society says she has been spaded and is around 9 months old, though I think she is younger. Her left ear has been clipped The AZ Humane Society tells me because she may have been captured to be spaded and released back into neighborhoods, which honestly I am not sure why they did not send this good natured cat to adoption services. Also she likes organic free range chicken and Castor and Pollux dry cat food.

She can be found at:

Arizona Humane Society
9226 13th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85021
(602) 997 7585.

Even if this cat is adopted there are still many animals in need of homes, which include dogs among other species. If of coarse you don’t have the time or space, you can always donate like I do to:

https://www.azhumane.org/artman2/publish/donate2/gendonate.shtml

You can of coarse volunteer time to help as well.

Anyway just to be clear, I am no fan of PETA mostly because over the years their attempts to bring change have at best been counter to anything practiced by those who seek change such as Martin Luther King jr or Mahatma Gandhi. Yet another problem I have is apparently they are killing off animals that are surrendered to them, if this is not true I would love to be pointed to the truth. Either way there are far better charities then Peta like the Humane Society, local no kill shelters, and other established organizations in your community.

Is godaddy.com’s Bob Parson helping or just showing off?

On nranews.com (where I can’t seem to get a direct link to this video), Bob thinks that average American’s will not have a problem with this. But lets face it not everyone is pro-gun, pro-hunting, and not everyone that hosts with godaddy.com is an American. Frankly I am starting to think the best response is no response.

Bob Parson of Godaddy.com’s Excuse

The general excuse he gives is that it was to take out an elephant that was damaging the locals crop and he got approval from the local government (not like they could be bought or corrupt?).

But seriously – if the solution to this problem was to shot these animals would it not be a bright idea to arm the locals so they can hunt more animals? Isn’t that like a National Rifle Association (NRA) dream come true? Clearly the problem is not just one elephant. I am not saying I think Godaddy.com should be killing the animals to solve the problem. I am simply saying the logic is to shot the animals, therefore 1 killing is not going to keep a village fed nor will it solve the problem. Especially if its done once a year. The fence and deterrent ideas seem far more feasible and long lasting then having someone come over to kill a single elephant.

What I don’t see is how much Bob of Godaddy paid for this trip.

Mindshark.ca – Seo Marketing Experts or Spammers? Part 1

April 1, 2011

Mindshark.ca seems to think this is a business. Keep in mind it took more than 3 years for this site to make enough money to cover its own monthly bill. So far my experience has been the people either come here to look for a host or to complain about a host. The most bizarre request is from hosts that don’t use fake reviews, is to get me to do a review on them. You would think the last person they would ask to write something would not be me – the guy that has bad things to say about the very hosts that he uses. But in the end, the people that are looking for a host are disappointed because I don’t recommend anyone, and the people that come here to complain are not inclined to buy.

So why the rage with Mindshark.ca?

Back when I first started I had asked a friend to set me up a contact form, I am not known for my non-graphic web skills which are still lacking, requiring me to pay for professionals. Keep in mind I have stated this site makes enough to pay for its hosting, but it’s not paying for experts I bring in to assist me. Anyway getting back to that contact form. It was set up to send to a Gmail account, one in which only my YouTube account was sending mail to. So after adding the contact form, there is only one way to get my Gmail account, and that is used by the contact form. Mindshark.ca used a third party “overseas” to Phish/harvest my email. After a contact with me, they added me to their mailing list. Once again I did not opt-in or authorize the use of this email address for their marketing/spam purposes. This week I got tired of them sending email to the Gmail account I use exclusively for hosting-reviews-exposed.com. Here is the comment I got when I gave them 24 hours to remove my email or suffer a review and complaint to netfirms (funny didn’t I just do a post about them last month https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/endurance-international-group/netfirms-com.html). Here is the response I got this response from Zamir of Mindshark.ca:

“You are off the list. Cheers 🙂

FYI you did opt in on August 9th thx

———————————————-

Zamir Javer
Mindshark Marketing
1.877.MSHARK 1 xtn 730
www.mindshark.ca“

My response:

“Bullshit, I have the emails to prove that your full of it. I will be filing a complaint with netfirms and my own review of your site.”

Yes that’s right, I used profanity. I did not opt in, I did not authorize them to use my email to spam or market to. Frankly, I was a little tame in my response. But I am not about to be treated like I “forgot” that I signed up for their spam.

I get the following response from Zamir of mindshark.ca,

What emails….please send so we can review.

My response:

“You can review them with everyone else on my blog. Your company contacted me by my forum when I responded to someone in your company you added my email without my permission to your mailing list. Hence you are spamming. Benjamin of hosting-reviews-exposed.com”

Zamir of Mindshark.ca response:

“I have reviewed your site. You are an extortionist company like ripoffreport etc.

We are an internet marketing firm. We have not done anything wrong. If you have further questions please direct them to me and I would be happy to respond and address any concerns.”

Yes, I am a terrible person, I told him I would do a review and report him to his upstream provider if they did not remove my email from their mailing a list. An email that I did not authorize/opt in for them to spam me. But why did they bring up ripoffreport?

http://www.ripoffreport.com/computer-marketing-companies/mindshark-marketing/mindshark-marketing-mindshark-f2ed7.htm

Its a bit difficult to read, but it appears that this person also had their email harvest and on top of that their cell phone number.

Ripoffreport.com may very well be extorting, after all, they do offer a paid service to deal with a complaint. I on the other hand only offer a chance to plead your case on my blog, I offer no service to clean up a complaint. But I guess on the surface because I placed a few ads in hopes of re-cooping my costs, it appears I am in the business of extortion.

So my response:

“Zamir,

You’re a bit full of yourself, but I have to wonder what ripoffreport has on your company. Thanks for the material. Your company did harvest my email through my contact page. Your an idiot and so is David Abramovici (the dumbass that thought it would be a good idea to add my email to your list) to think I had my sights on your company as your not a host or a hosting review site. But I really passionately hate spam, and you have the nerve to say I opted into your list. You can call me an extortionist because you glanced at my site, but the truth is you have no idea who I am.

By the way, netfirms is moving to the U.S.

Regards,
Benjamin”

Here is where Zamir of mindshark.ca admits it without knowing it that they are spamming:

“Yes I know netfirms is moving. Lol I have no clue what this conversation is about any longer.

Anyways….we do use a lead generation company from overseas.

IT seems maybe they are the ones that did something on your site, If you can forward whatever info they sent we can review to try and forward it and put a stop to this.

We hate spam with a passion as well and do not engage in any of it.

thx”

I have my reason for mentioning netfirms, which sometimes I might explain to him. But here is the point where Mindshark.ca admits they are not the marketing experts that they claim to be because they used a “a lead generation company from overseas“. Translation they did not gather the emails themselves, nor did they make sure they were opt-in. There is no integrity to the list, and so far there seems like two complaints that prove this.

Just to be clear if you purchase a list from a third party to gather your contacts, that does not free you from spam complaints. If anything its more damning.

My response:

“Zamir,

Now you’re telling me that your not even sure if people have opted in because you used a third party. When I owned hosting companies I did not accept that as an excuse. For that matter, if they could not prove their system was double opt-in after a spam complaint their account was shut down. Seriously if I were you I would get rid of your existing mailing list and start from scratch. After all, you sent your mailouts to me when I did not request or opt-in to your service. Nor would I have reason to do so, if I needed marking assistance, which is not something I need for this site I would contact my previous business partners.

I am not going to send you the emails that were sent to me, you can find it when it hits my blog along with these wonderful emails you keep sending me, sorry but I don’t take kindly to being called an extortionist. After all the only thing I asked for was to be removed from your list.

As for what netfirms moving has to do with this conversation…….

Regards,

Benjamin”

Zamir of mindshark.ca tries to deflect the facts:

“Thanks for your email. Again as I stated earlier. We get hit with spam ourselves and we do not engage in any spam ourselves. If there is any email or information you feel is spam related we would be happy to review it. You are in our system as an optin from a third party lead source.

I understand you business relies on this type of thing to keep you busy with posts etc. However I am extending our offer to assist you in whatever you are looking for. If your intention is to keep responding with vulgarities please refrain.

However if you do have any requests for information or would like us to review any matter we are more than happy to help“.

I would like to think that my last response to mindshark.ca covers that:

“Zamir,

If this was a business it would have failed miserably, its taken 3 years to finale start paying for its own hosting. A post on your site would go against the grain of what my site is about. But you do not realize that a post about your site has nothing to do with web hosting. Though I guess I can work on the angle of how netfirms will deal with you once I send my complaint. But the truth is, my feedback on hosts that use fake review sites discourages people from buying, a wonderful business model when you want people to buy. Coming up with assumptions that I do what I do just for money is at best a poor defense for your spamming me.

Your receiving spam has nothing to do with the fact that you spammed me. I am doing a post because you have indeed spammed me, I did not -REPEAT- I did not authorize or opted for mail outs under this email address. Therefore any mail out sent to me from you is SPAM. Use of a third party does not liberate you from any spam complaints, as clearly the netfirms terms of service indicates.

As for vulgarities, there were none in my last response. Should you not have stated that when I called you an idiot, or when I said what you were saying was bullshit, or that David Abramovici is a dumbass. The world can see exactly how many vulgarities I have used which has been very restrained.

Looking forward to another email where you defend the use of mail-outs to people that did not opt into your list because you used a third party “overseas” to collect peoples emails. While telling me that I am being vulgar and extorting you. By the way if I was extorting you I would have asked for a lot more then removing me from your list. Your claim that I opted in has been rejected. Furthermore the use of a third party to get emails has proven that your mailing list is tainted with other people that did not opt-in.

You can of course continue to lay the blame on me by stating

I opted in. (which you have already shed doubt on this claim of yours).
I am an extortionist (for which the only thing I asked for was to be removed from your list).
I am doing an article for my business.(despite it being totally off topic for my site).
Complain about my limited vulgarities. (which honestly who would not be vulgar with a spammer).

And you can suffer more complaints then just mine, as I will be providing an outlet for other people that experienced the same thing as me. Not to mention information how to register their complaints.

Or you can start your list from scratch and make sure you double opt-in your contacts.

Regards,

Benjamin”

Because I typed this from my phone I over repeated some details, but I think it serves the purpose of getting my point across. Anyway, I did not hear from Zamir of Mindshark.ca again.

Do you have a spam complaint against Mindshark.ca?

First off I enter the domain mindshark.ca into http://centralops.net/co/DomainDossier.aspx

To find out where mindshark.ca is hosting in most cases the network whois will tell you where to send abuse complaints.

The whois tells me that they are with netfirms, it also tells me they are just a little over a year old I will have fun with this on another post where I will discuss mindsharks.ca’s seo skills. But another thing is mindshark.ca appears to have recently moved to netfirms.com.

So if mindshark.ca harvested/phished for your email like they did mine, I suggest sending the mailout they sent you to [email protected].

You’re also more than welcome to place your own complaints in the comments area of this post.

Two more posts on mindshark.ca are in the works to show the email, I am currently waiting on netfirms and I am hoping to get a contact from a spam expert before I do the second post on mindshark.

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