Storm Media and other Google Scams
In general i don’t like writing about scams and giving attention to evil companies tricking people out of their hard earned cash but this particular scam is really really annoying me. Storm Media and several other incarnations of the same scam (such as a company called Matchmaker) have been tricking upstarts out of money in Ireland for the last few month. This is a SCAM and absolutely no one can sell you a No1. Position on Google. It can’t be bought, it must be earned, no exceptions.
The Following companies are Scams, listed here are some of the Aliases they go under:
Storm Media
Match Maker
Top Spot Marketing
Zenith Marketing
Sphere Marketing
First Search Consultancy
Apex Media
Lime Media
If something sounds too good to be true it nearly always is - €149 to be on top top of Google organic search? Get real! On the phone they claim to be “from Google”, they most definitely are not and yes I have reported this scam to Google who are dealing with it, however the companies change names so often its hard to keep up.
First off organic search cannot be switched on and off like PPC (price per click campaigns). Second if there was a trick to getting to the top of Google they would be out selling it for millions, this is preying on the week and is the lowest of the low. If you happen to coincidentally have some success during the period of your campaign you might correlate it to the scam and they will suck on you until eventually they put you out of business after all they can threaten to turnoff your success if you don’t keep paying a monthly fee.
As i have several businesses i’ve received it several times and also we receive regular calls, it’s always the same. Usually in a well spoken British voice. I can only assume the increase in the calls is due to the scam working on some people. Here’s what the email looks like:
> Hello Ronan
>>
>>
>> Thank you for taking the time to consider this proposal.
>>
>> Over the last few years, the internet has grown to such an extent that
>> no
>> matter what industry you are involved in or what your demographic is, it
>> is
>> vital to have an online presence. As a company that has invested time
>> and
>> resources into creating an online presence, I am sure you are aware of
>> the
>> importance of gaining exposure for your website.
>>
>> There are many routes your potential client base could use to find a
>> product
>> or service, however it is statistically proven that the vast majority of
>> all
>> online searches and therefore all online business is directed through
>> Google
>> and more specifically the 1st page of Google.
>>
>> Most people are aware of the power Google holds although very few people
>> know how to take advantage of Google’s search volume.
>>
>> You have probably been approached with, or possibly even tried a variety
>> of
>> methods to obtain high positions, for example ’search engine
>> optimization’
>> or ‘directory listings’. Although these methods can have some level of
>> success, there is only one way to obtain GUARANTEED Google Pole
>> positions. The
>> answer is very simple, GO TO GOOGLE ! !
>>
>> As a licensed Google retailer, we are able to offer a package that is
>> unsurpassed within the marketplace. The offer is as follows;
>>
>> ALL PACKAGES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
>>
>> -GUARANTEED 1ST PAGE GOOGLE POLE POSITIONS WITHIN 48 HOURS
>> -5 SEARCH PHRASES IE: THAT ARE THE MOST LUCRATIVE TO YOUR BUSINESS,
>> COVERING THE AREA? OR REGIONS REQUIRED.
>> -NO LONG TERM CONTRACT
>> -FULL SUPPORT FROM A DEDICATED CAMPAIGN MANAGER
>> -MONTHLY REPORTS
>> -FREE UNLIMITED SEARCH PHRASE CHANGES
>> -FREE GOOGLE MAP
>> -EXCELLENT VALUE FOR MONEY: 196,04euro
>> .IF YOUR VAT REG” 169,00euro
>>
>> -STORM MEDIA WILL BUILD YOU A TWO PAGE WEBSITE” FOR 99EURO,
>>
>> If you would like me to do a preview” its not a problem.
>> If there is any question you can contact me by phone or e-mail using
>> my contact details below.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Patricia Buckley
>> Senior Sales Advisor
>> email:ireland@stormmedia.eu
>> Tel:0034 951311935 0871 9711142
I will continue to update this post with the latest name of the business everytime they call or email, but please post if you have received similar scams under one of their business names. If you have been unfortunate enough to be caught out remember you can reverse the payment on your credit card by VISA and Mastercard.
If you are listed on any Irish directory service you can expect a call from someone trying to sell you a Number One Spot on Google. It’s a scam, tell them nicely you hope Karma sees them soon and hang up. I really do feel awful for start ups that have fallen prey at a time where every marketing Euro means so much to them.
_________Update of Alias Names____________
Thanks to Sian at Whatswhat.ie who’s directory was used (without permission) at one stage to targeted Irish companies other Alias’s of the company Storm Media are:
Top Spot Marketing
Zenith Marketing
These have been added to the list above on the page.
For more on this Scam read Here:
_________Update of Alias Names____________
Geraldine of Eonish Lodge brought to our attention a new name they are using which is now added to the list - First Search Consultancy
Also got an email back from the company reacting to my somewhat frank and direct reply saying “one thing I found that sceptics have in comman over the years is that they’re all broke.”
I wonder when they read this blog post if their gonna tell their mummy on me too, grow up and stop trying to earn a living from other peoples misfortune and lack of knowledge.
_________Update____________
Apex Media is another new name for this scam. They also seem to be getting much bolder judging from the comments below. Expect them to seem to know details about your business and claim the knowledge is because you confided it in Google.
This Scam has spread across Europe and the USA now, new front lines are Spain, France and Germany. WhatsWhat.ie has a blog about how a customer that was scammed is having awful problem with them - apparently they used the card details (given for a trial version) to make “4 unauthorised debit card transactions” when they tried to cancel their campaign!
_________Update____________
Should also point out if storm media were infact in any way competent at SEO or being at the top of Google organic SERPs then the current search for their own business name would have them ranked higher. After all I have done zero SEO work on this post. So its only a geo-targeted PPC ad that they are shilling as an organic listing.
_________Update____________
Lots of comments suggesting the name for the company doing this scam is now Lime Media
Whatswhat.ie Blog » Blog Archive » Google Imposters still around said
am September 28 2009 @ 11:04 pm
[...] he’d been contacted by them aswell. He let me know on Twitter and has written on his blog about [...]
Cairbre O'Donnell said
am October 15 2009 @ 3:46 pm
Hi I was contacted by ‘ireland@stormmedia.eu’ first by phone I asked them to email me. I forwarded a copy of the email to Rory of Western Web Marketing who created our website and he told me to stay well clear.
Bunch of chancers. The guy who spoke to me had an Irish accent thou.
Thanks for this article Ronan I appreciate it. It proves the internet is just as capable of combating fraud as it is at creating it and maybe more so.
Graham said
am October 22 2009 @ 4:12 pm
Thanks for posting this, a few of our clients have recently been targeted by this sort of scam.
I did a search in Google for “scam stormmedia.eu” and found your blog post. I will recommend our clients to also do this and see what other Irish businesses are being targeted.
Cheers,
Graham
Ronan said
am November 5 2009 @ 2:25 am
Interestingly we’ve had 10 visits from “webmail.stormmedia.eu” so they are reading the blog and afraid to post.
Therefore you can expect a whole host of new business names to continue this scam.
Siobhan said
am November 5 2009 @ 4:53 pm
I have been using Storm Media for the last 6 mths with 2 seperate accounts.I have always remained top of Google Page and have noticed excellent improvement in my business.
I dont understand why you are slating this company off.
To me it is just too benefit your own Company Zatori Results.
If this is the only way you can get business for your company by slating others you should not be in business.
Ronan said
am November 5 2009 @ 5:12 pm
Siobhan that’s a load of bull. I’m an expert in the field of online marketing, own the biggest Irish B2C e-commerce for last month (Oct 2009) and simply put you can’t pay your way to the top of organic search, it’s laid out in the Google guidelines how it all works.
So either that’s a spammy comment from someone working for Storm Media or your getting taken for a ride and the success is just a coincidence.
Whats your URL? I’ll be happy to dissect your traffic rank here and explain where in fact your traffic comes from.
Also do you see any ads on this blog?? I don’t write here for profit, i write to educate people about business.
James Lancaster said
am November 6 2009 @ 2:51 pm
Mr O’ Brien,
I am contacting you from Storm Media, after some very concerned clients brought your blog to our attention. While we appreciate the need for people like yourself to keep colleagues, peers and the general public aware of scams and fraudsters we have found the information you published about our company inaccurate, very misleading and it is my belief this was intended to have a negative effect on our business directly. Naturally we are very upset and offended by this.
Having read through your post it would appear you have completely misunderstood the service we offer our clients and the information you published is not only untrue but quite frankly slanderous.
I feel it is extremely important to point out that we do not, have not and will not ever guarantee to put our clients at the top of organic search results. It is possible through search engine optimisation techniques to boost a business’ rankings tremendously, but I do agree it would be impossible for anyone to promise a page 1 listing every time, particularly with the thousands of directory companies now cluttering the internet. We can however and do guarantee our clients that their personalised advert will appear on page 1 of Google searches, (and all other search engines,) for their particular services, and the position on page 1 is very much dependent on the advertising budget set by our clients.
Our very professional Internet marketing team are run by very highly qualified people who have qualifications and accreditations awarded directly from Google. Our account managers work with clients to develop advertisements on Google, and all other search engines, and assign key phrases potential customers will enter in order to find our clients services. Our personal account managers use their extensive knowledge of search engines, and discuss with our clients the best and most cost effective search phrases for their individual business and every package is tailored to suit the exact needs of our clients. We then monitor the success of advertising campaigns and our personal account managers have the ability to produce very accurate reports on the success of every single key phrase and are always on hand to advise and adjust any campaign as necessary. We can adjust the times the advertisements are shown, and even the areas they are shown in, after all there’s no point in a business in Ireland advertising themselves to the world, unless they really want to. We do have a department who work solely with our Irish client base and their training is tailored to ensure they offer the best possible service to our clients in Ireland and have a particular awareness of the needs of Irish businesses to diversify and balance their advertising between Google.ie and Google.co.uk.
Our services have been highly praised by hundreds of clients, some of whom without our help would have been forced out of business. I think if you had taken the time to research Storm Media properly you would more likely be recommending us to your readers than bad mouthing us. Every businessman knows that internet marketing and web presence are paramount to success in today’s economic climate. The introductory offer of a basic website for 99 euros you mentioned I feel is incredible value and aims to provide small and struggling businesses with the tools they need to grow and flourish, you must be aware of how costly web design, publishing and hosting are these days. I cannot see how this could ever be perceived as a scam, our service is invaluable to thousands of businesses. If you have any questions at all about how our company operates or the services we offer, we would be more than willing to discuss them in a professional manner by telephone on 0871 **** **** by Email customersupport@stormmedia.eu, you can visit our website stormmedia.eu. We would be pleased to hear from, and I think you would be pleasantly surprised to hear what we can do for you
In the meantime we would appreciate it if you would remove the untrue and misleading information about Storm Media and publish a formal apology. We are aware that there are some unscrupulous people in the world and not every company out there is as honest, reliable and professional as ourselves but we do not want our good name associated with them or tarnished by them.
Thank you and kind regards,
James Lancaster
Storm Media.
James Lancaster said
am November 6 2009 @ 3:06 pm
I must point out, the number I gave you in the earlier comment, can only be dialed from the UK, anyone wishing to contact us from Ireland need to dial 0818 **** ***.
Apologies.
Ronan said
am November 6 2009 @ 7:06 pm
James, If you think I’m going to back down simply because you posted you couldn’t be more wrong.
I’m glad I’ve upset and offended you, because you offended me with your emails, calls and in general preying on Irish businesses who aren’t as savy to your scams.
I’ve published above the exact email your firm sent me. It offers “GUARANTEED 1ST PAGE GOOGLE POLE POSITIONS WITHIN 48 HOURS”. We both know that that is pure bull and something you can’t guarantee deliver on in organic search. I requested a list of your Irish clients so that i could investigate this article to see if any could independently say they actually got positive results. Your firm refused to provide any.
You imply that people should “Go to Google” as if you are in some way part of Google, which is a lie. You have a hard sell attitude that sucks in the weak and vulnerable.
So now you apologize, for the mis-information your sales people have been feeding me and other companies just like mine. This is the internet, people will Google your company and since your SEO isn’t as great as you think this blog post will be what people read.
Also there is no such thing as a “licensed Google retailer”, do you just make up this trash as you go along?
**** Update Company now uses the domain topsearch-google.com and “Top Search” for this scam ******
Gina said
am November 7 2009 @ 12:23 am
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Mr. O’Brien.
We take fraud very seriously, and we are in the process of filing suit against Mr. Lancaster and his fraudulent company(s).
As you have stated, they do not represent, nor are they affiliated, with Google. We do not tolerate these kinds of deceptive and illegal activities, and Google’s policy is to prosecute infringing parties to the fullest extent of the law.
Rest assured, Mr. Lancaster will be facing prison and severe fines in the near future.
Sincerely,
Gina Borres
Google Legal Team
#################################################################
Guys I’m assuming this is a prank post as it’s rare Google communicates this way, I checked with a guy in the know at Google who has said they are looking into the above company but seriously doubts someone from their legal department would post the above. Also IP of post was made from a residential address in the Utha not a Google office.
- Ronan
Sian Phillips said
am November 7 2009 @ 2:31 am
Ronan
Finally you have managed to achieve what I’ve been battling against since May 09 and have over 200 emails from companies complaining about them. Fantastic you’ve broken tha back hopefully as last week they were still in touch with customers on our directory. Google press office in London have been telling me for six months that it is being looked into. I will check with him that this lady from Google is the real deal too.
Storm Media’s website actually proves what they are saying over the phone (which we have recordings of) - go to FAQ and it says “Although we cannot determine exactly the position your business will appear, we can guarantee that it will receive first page listing and appear in Google’s top ten”
I have taken a screen shot.
Despite stacks of my articles, forums and blogs, plus being in the media in June about this, finally you have achieved what I’ve been trying to crack all this time. I’m sick of hearing from the people who have been scammed by them. Full details of my stuff can be found on Irish Business Women under Matchmaker - it’s been made sticky for the last few months so always at the top. Or check my blog on Whatswhat.ie.
Well done Ronan.
Sian
Sian Phillips said
am November 7 2009 @ 2:37 am
PS. When I said I’m sick of hearing from people scammed I actually meant I’m sick of hearing that people have been scammed - I welcome hearing from them as it builds the case. Just wish there weren’t people being scammed.
Sian
Ben Chapman said
am November 7 2009 @ 3:25 am
I feel somewhat saddened that Mr. Lancaster has seized this blog post and used it as Michael O’Leary would by pointing out that they promise something in very vauge language and then not quite doing as the promise said.
I have been involved in (mostly non-profit) internet business for about 4 years now, anyone with a basic understanding of Google’s Page Rank will realise that there is no way to guarantee spots on their regular search. The disparity between “Sponsored Links” and the normal Google search is the main fault in Mr. Lancaster’s firms promises and may be there as an intentional way of getting one over on naive internet users/business owners, of which there are thousands.
I also thought Mr. Lancaster’s claims of slander (which isn’t in fact slander at all in this case, it would be libel because it’s in an “electronic broadcast”) laughable as no information was presented here that wasn’t already represented by his own firm in the email sent to Mr. O’Brien. With that claiming materials to be slanderous when the information given to Mr. O’Brien was inaccurate was laughable in it’s own right.
I hope that people like Mr. Lancaster either cease trading or cease using almost fraudulent methods to scare customers into buying their product/service. Unfortunately people like him will exist as long as people are greedy and laws remain untouched because governments don’t understand the issues involved in such cases.
Ronan said
am November 7 2009 @ 3:12 pm
Hi Sian and Ben,
Thanks for the comments guys. Really love the power of the internet to protect itself from within.
The pulse of november | Search Engine Optimisation BlackDog said
am November 8 2009 @ 3:48 pm
[...] keywords. Â A while ago, fancy dress mogul Ronan O’Brien called foul over a SEO company Storm Media , and managed to grab their attention via his blog. Check out the blog post about Storm [...]
Kamel malek said
am November 23 2009 @ 12:29 pm
hi, they are in france now trying to sell the same shit! i had a guy on the phone from this “compagny”, when he saw i wasnt stupid to give them money! he started to became rude and call me liar lol!
if they got offices in Paris i will try to go there personaly!
best regards,
searchbrat said
am November 30 2009 @ 2:40 pm
I am surprised companies like stormmedia can still attract clients with crappy services like that. I suppose it goes to show there are still a lot of businesses out there who are yet to utilize online. It’s a shame companies like stormmedia can actually operate at all ..
Lotharius said
am December 2 2009 @ 4:37 pm
Hi everyone.
As Kamel Malek says above, Storm Media is now campaigning in France. They call people who are newly set as self-employed professionals (”auto-entrepreneur”, a new status in France) pretending that they *ARE* (not just represent, but ARE) Google.fr and that they help self-employers having a better ranking in Google searches.
The offer consisted of a trial month (for 140 euros) putting you on the first page of Google searches with 5 search phrases at choice. After that first month and positive results using those 5 phrases, you have to pay 40 euros each month to stay on the first page of results for searches *in your region and the nearby area*. I never heard of something like Google Britanny or Google Normandy, did you ?
Anyway, I said I wasn’t interested because my target customers are located abroad, more specifically in Flanders (Dutch-speaking Belgium) and The Netherlands. The person on the phone asked her team manager, who told it was possible to target a foreign region. It was miraculously the same price !
I still was sceptic but thought : “Why not ?” I didn’t thought of a first place ranking in organic searches, but merely of something like the sponsored links or a new sort of AdWord subscription with flat rate.
I told the person on the phone - wihtout any doubt a native French woman - that I am already using a bunch of Google services, like Google Local Business. She replied she knew, because that’s where she found my profile as self-employed pro, She even read the first line of my company description to make sure. I said OK, send me an e-mail if you want to and she asked for my e-mail address … erhm, doesn’t Google.fr have my Gmail ad on my Google profile ? Strange, anyway, I gave her the Gmail address and she said “Great, you use our e-mail services too” (like, d’oh, it’s kinda necessary for using any Google service).
Anyhow, something wasn’t right there. SO I looked up my Google Local Business profile and noticed two things :
1. there is absolutely no mention of my self-employed status on there.
2. the sentence she read wasn’t on my Google Local Business profile, but it is taken from my company profile on a self-employed internet index (there is one word difference between that description and others), and my mobile number is unencrypted on that index.
So, this company claims to be Google.fr and to view my Google profile, but they have to look up for self-employed people on independent indexes and don’t know my associated Gmail address ? Isn’t it weird ?
I then understood it clearly wasn’t Google when I received the e-mail from this company : “Google Storm Media”. I looked up in, well, Google, for this company name and found this blog and some other alerts on forum. It clearly is pure scam.
So here’s a note to French people who might be concerned (sorry, I’ll post it in French) : Storm Media appelle les auto-entrepreneurs en se faisant passer pour Google France et en vous promettant un bon classement dans Google. C’est clairement une arnaque, ne marchez pas !
Thanks Ronan for this blog entry. Now I know what to tell them when they’ll phone back tomorrow for my special offer ^^
Lotharius said
am December 2 2009 @ 4:47 pm
P.S. : Apparently, their trick, and maybe the reason why they are not prosecuted by Google, is that their offer more or less works in that way that it really is something with sponsored links and adword. So if you use their services, you really will have a better ranking : in fact, they just use those services for you, taking a substantial commission on the way. They’re just customers of Google.
The only clearly illegal thing, is to claim to be Google itself, this is clearly usurpation.
Btw, Storm Media now operates from Spain.
Ronan said
am December 2 2009 @ 5:32 pm
Great post Lotharius, and fantastic idea to post a warning in French. If anyone knows Spanish or other languages that would be a helpful addition to curtail the effects of this scam in other countries.
Sian Phillips said
am December 2 2009 @ 6:08 pm
I received an email from a lady in France a couple of months ago saying she had been stung by this crowd. They are branching out everywhere but I believe the holding company is still in Manchester UK. If you have a look at this forum there are full details there of what they are doing
http://www.irishbusinesswomen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12530 plus company details and addresses of where to find them.
Not only do they insinuate they are Google but they also use the Google logo which they do not have approval for.
I believe Google are investigating them and something is going to be done about them soon but with red tape it isn’t happening soon enough and I still get calls/emails every week about them.
I keep my blog updated with any news too - http://www.whatswhat.ie/blog and will link back to here too.
Hopefully with the power of this we can make everyone aware so that when they get a call they will be wise to it and put the phone down.
Sian
Micheal said
am December 8 2009 @ 11:07 am
We have been contacted by 3 seperate companies in the past 2 weeks offering this service. The fist was stormmedia, they even went so far as to put our website at the top of a google search to prove that they could do it. We had almost signed up when we did a search and found your blog. A company offering the exact same product called a few days later but we were wide to them and just played along and told them we weren’t interested. This morning a guy called claiming to be representing Google, said the company was called Chrome and again offered the same service, this time I pulled him up on it and when I insisted that he take our company off their database he hung up on me. They used info that they got from the fist 2 calls the third time, they guy even knew to ask for me by name and gave the title Marketing Manager, which I had thrown out in conversation with the second caller. I’m as much a marketing manager as the man on the moon. Thanks for posting your blog, you saved us.
Micheal
BigBlog said
am December 14 2009 @ 5:33 pm
Storm your a load of rubbish, your zennith branch scammed a client of mine and charged him to run a campaign despite the face that I already had him setup with a top 2 PPC advert!!!! Your flash site isn’t even search engine optimized - what hypocrisy! Would you take your car to a mechanic who doesn’t know how to drive?
Steer clear of these clowns people.
luke howe said
am December 15 2009 @ 12:40 pm
i have read your blog with interest, I was nearly sucked in today by a Reggie Afful claiming to be from google. There was no mention of storm media, but the email I received from him had stormmedia.eu on it and only 5 minutes of research has turned up your blog. He promised top of the google list every day for 5 search terms of my choice, daily statistics, my personal account manager to help optimize the 5 search terms etc. It did seem to be too good to be true, so I gave my email address, should I be worried by this? Will they just go away if I ignore them?
I am in Australia, so the field of play is ever increasing.
Trina - Cork Ireland said
am December 15 2009 @ 7:44 pm
Thank god ive seen this blog, my boyfriend’s skip hire company received a phone call from Storm Media today offering €169 for the first page of Google. They said they would put our website on as an example for us to see but it did not work!
Thinking this sounding strange i searched and found this blog.
They are ringing back tomorrow to talk again, id say my boyfriend will give them a piece of his mind ;-).
Mark said
am December 16 2009 @ 4:02 pm
Just got contacted by Storm Media and did a google search to check this company out and came accross your post.
Thanks for the info, the number they called me from was 0034 952 474 337
Also some more information: I am a company in in Bristol so it looks like they are not just targeting Ireland.
Tom Abram said
am January 4 2010 @ 1:36 pm
Thank you for starting this forum. I run a company based in Oxford and I was contacted by a so called Angie Mckenzie from Storm Media. She sounded very professional on the phone and convinced me to sign up for the Google optimisation package for 1 month. We negotiated a price and I gave my card details. As soon as she had received these, I was only then informed that the onus was on me to cancel any further transactions which would automatically keep billing me monthly. This is a fraudulent act in itself as I did not authorise a direct debit. By this point I was already suspicious but knew that they already had my money. I was told that Mike Lancaster would be my account manager. Even though the service appeared to be working, i.e. my key phrases were bringing my company to the first page of google, I did not really notice anymore traffic coming to my site so in good faith I emailed Storm Media to inform them that I would not be continuing my contract. Just to be on the safe side I also canceled my card. I was then horrified to discover that Storm Media had simply cancelled the contract immediately rather than allowing the final 10 days to expire. I have tried in vain to contact the company for an explanation and surprise surprise they don’t return my emails or calls and when I tried to mail a complaint to the alleged London office, it got returned saying the premises are unoccupied. I therefore have no hesitation in stating that Storm Media are acting fraudulently and in breach of contract. As for James (or Mike) Lancaster. You really are a bloody moron. and no, that is not slanderous. Slander for one is spoken not written and secondly, it is indisputable fact that you and all who work for you are lying, cheating fraudsters. Think of those words when picking up the soap in the shower.
Ronan said
am January 4 2010 @ 2:47 pm
Just to clarify a point in TOMs comment above, when he says his key phrases were appearing, this is not in the Google listings - its in the sponsored section (PPC). Which can be localized geographically to your location ie. not even the guy down the street would get to see your ad for the same key word.
Thanks for the comments and emails guys, glad some people caught the scam before handing over credit card details.
Tom Abram said
am January 4 2010 @ 2:51 pm
Thanks Ronan. I was not aware of that but it certainly explains why there was no increase in visits to my site!
Kerry Harrison said
am January 5 2010 @ 12:06 am
Hi Ronan,
Great job getting the news out on these scammers.
I wished I would have discovered your post in July 2009 when Storm Media’s James Lancaster contacted me in the US. Lancaster’s sales pitch was average but what really pulled me in and boosted my belief in legitimacy of the company was their ability to place me in the first position in the Google Sponsor Ads within 5 minutes of our conversation.
I agreed to ‘try out’ their services for a month. James claimed that first month was $149 but the second month on would only be $45. Actually every month they have been charging my card ~$150.
THE REAL PROBLEM IS THEY OVER CHARGE, UNDER DELIVER, AND WORST OF JUST KEEP CHARGING YOUR CREDIT CARD. I have been trying to cancel Storm Media “services” for three months now. They are over charging and under delivering in their so called services. I have called them, emailed them and sent letters to London
and Spain requesting cancellation. All of which has been ignored. I am incredibly frustrated over Storm Medias poor customer services and now they are making fraudulent monthly charges to my credit card.
Just today, after being billed yet again for another month, I took action by replying to all of Storm Media’s distribution list of clients (which was sent to me and everyone else on the list by some unprofessional Storm Media employee months ago. He or she cced each client the email was being sent to instead of bccing). I explained my situation with the company and asked if anyone else was experiencing a similar problem with cancellation? Within minutes I received all sorts of emails from people all over the world with the same issue.
BOTTOM LINE:
1.) Storm Media is fraudulent and will not stop charging your credit card no matter what you do.
2.) Canceling your credit card or reversing the charges by contacting your credit cards fraud department is the only thing you can do to stop charges.
3.) Stay far away from them and keep warning others.
4.) I have a huge distribution list of email addresses of Storm Media clients. I will be happy to share them with anyone who wants to take legal action against the company. There are hundreds of people who have been scammed and are in the same position that I am in today, being charged monthly for services they have cancelled.
Sincere Regards,
Kerry Harrison
Kerry Harrison said
am January 5 2010 @ 12:48 am
Hi Ronan,
Thank you for the effort of alerting consumers to fraudulent companies like Storm Media. I am located in the United States was contacted by James Lancaster in July 2009. His sales pitch was average but what really pulled me and convinced me in the legitimacy of Lancaster’s business in was within 5 minutes of contacting me, he had my website up in the first spot in the Google Sponsor Ad area.
James Lancaster offered $149 for setting up the first months trial service and $49 for each month afterwords and that there was no contract and I could cancel at any time. They are however charging my credit card ~$149 every month.
I have been trying to cancel Storm Media “services” for three months now. They are over charging and under delivering in their so called services. I have called them several times, emailed them a number of times and sent letters to London and Spain requesting cancellation. All of which has been ignored. I am incredibly frustrated over Storm Medias poor customer services and now they are making fraudulent monthly charges to my credit card.
Today, after being automatically charged yet another monthly bill of $149 to my credit card (even though I canceled the services 3 months ago), I decided to take action. I have a email that was sent to me from a Storm Media employee. In that email he/she has cc’ed a huge number of Storm Media clients. I replied to all, stated my problem with Storm Media and sent out the message to the whole huge distribution list and asked if anyone was having similar problems. With in 5 minutes a slurry of people replied that they were having the same ‘cancelation’ problem. As the day continues I am continuously receiving email after email, all negative and confirming what I already know about Storm Media’s fraudulent activity.
THE ACTION LOW DOWN:
1.) Cancel your credit cards or at the very least reverse the charges back to Storm Media through the Credit Card fraud department
2.) Warn others! (Thanks Ronan!)
3.) If anyone is looking to take legal action against Storm Media, I have a nice long list of about a thousand Storm Media client emails that I’d gladly share with you.
Ronan said
am January 5 2010 @ 2:16 am
Hi Kerry,
Thanks for sharing, out of interest did you exercise your right to charge back the funds they took? Mastercard / Visa have you insured against charges that are unauthorized.
Kerry Harrison said
am January 5 2010 @ 3:50 am
Hi Ronan,
I did but you have to call the credit card company each month and ask them to reverse the charges. It’s a hassle and 20 minutes of aggravation. Plus there is always the possibility that I will have to end up paying in the end. By the time you’ve figured out they are not responding to your mail or phone calls for cancellation, a few months have gone by. Today I canceled my card.
What surprised me most was there are apparently lots of people in the same situation as I’m in. They tried the introductory month and then ‘canceled’ but continued to be charged monthly anyway.
Sian Phillips said
am January 5 2010 @ 12:08 pm
Hi Kerry
I would be interested in getting that email list to pass it on to the authorities I have been in touch with and another investigation that I know is taking place. My email is sian@whatswhat.ie
I think what they are doing is despicable and they are still getting away with it. I will do whatever I can to stop this.
Regards
Sian
Tom Abram said
am January 5 2010 @ 12:19 pm
Just a quick update. Having spoken to British Trading Standards regarding Storm Media just yesterday, I have just a few minutes ago been contacted by Mike Lancaster who has denied everything - so no more surprises there. He swears he sent me an email on the 18th of December confirming the end of the contract. I can categorically say that I log all correspondence emails and despite his claims I was sent no such email. Infact, the first and only email I was sent by him was on Nov 24th. It is irrelevant anyway as I decided to cancel any future payments with the bank as well as canceling the actual card and my complaint is that they canceled the account 10 days prior to the expiry despite it being paid for. Lancaster also denied that I had been guaranteed a top front page listing. This was the entire basis of me taking out this advertising so to suggest that it was not guaranteed is ludicrous! He also said that Trading Standards were dropping the inquiry. I am confident that what ever they decide to do, they will inform me personally rather than ask the company they are investigating to act as an interim PA. 1 other point. If you go onto Storm Media’s website, they have a London address. According to Lancaster this is purely a forwarding address to their head office in Madrid. Convenient that as that is the address I sent my formal complaint to by recorded delivery!
Ronan said
am January 5 2010 @ 3:05 pm
Well done Tom for taking this to the trading standards, if their registered office is in the UK then they are bound by those laws. Follow up your complaint letting them know that you are not dropping your compliant as the defendant implied. Like Mr Lancasters implied threats earlier on this board and those that my assistant received from someone claiming to be from one of the other aliases mentioned in this scam, it’s all just hot air - all hat and no cattle as the Texans would say.
Tom Abram said
am January 5 2010 @ 6:48 pm
Mr Lancaster can make all the threats he wants as far as I’m concerned. He intimidates me as much as a little fluffy kitten with cork on the end of its claws.
I have copied and pasted an exert from James (is this also Mike?) Lancaster’s post above dated November 6 2009. It says:
‘but I do agree it would be impossible for anyone to promise a page 1 listing every time, particularly with the thousands of directory companies now cluttering the internet’
Yet written on the contract on their own website http://www.storm-media.eu it clearly stipulates
‘Storm Media (The Seller) guarantees to use its online systems to create online advertisements based around the buyer’s key phrases. The adverts will then appear on the first page of http://www.google.co.uk under the selected key phrases agreed at the point of sale.’
As you can see, in the terms of their own contract it does guarantee such a service - ‘the adverts will the appear on the first page’
For anyone interested, according to Companies House in the UK, Company No. 05280211 (the number at the bottom of my invoice) is registered as
KEY WORLD MEDIA LTD
44 PETER STREET
MANCHESTER
M2 5GP
I think the London address on the website is fake but I may be wrong
Barbara said
am January 7 2010 @ 1:02 am
I was contacted yesterday also by Reggie and like one of your previous bloggers am in Australia. I was very taken with their offer and my husband who is one of the biggest sceptics was also impressed as they said I could pay by Paypal!, which we all know to be the way to go now with Internet purchases. Thank you for all the information you have all put on, this will save me a fortune and months of therapy!!! after finding it didn’t work.
Ronan said
am January 7 2010 @ 1:45 am
Thats interesting. Did they give you their Paypal address out of interest? Would be interesting if you could post it here for Paypal to see.
I wonder if they’ve run out of merchant bankers? If they get too many charge backs (people insisting the took money without express permission) they would loose their ability to take credit cards themselves.
rachel said
am January 11 2010 @ 5:38 am
i live in western australia and storm media rang me 4 times and sent me numerous e-mails. i finally agreed to doing the advertising. when i checked 48hours after the phone call my ad was not on google as promised. i tried to ring them on the number provided and it rang several times and automatically hung up, tried numerous times and same thing happened. read your website and realised i was stupid and fell for a scam. they were pretty convincing. I cancelled my credit card after they had already taken $300 out on one trans. and $99 on another. I wrote an e-mail saying i new they were a scam and they should be ashamed of themselves taking money out of peoples accounts. I surprisingly got a phone call from a lady saying she was offended i called them scammers. she told me it takes time to build my website and that is why it has taken so long, whilst on the phone i looked at google under my headings and my name didnt come up. Will get the techninian to call you back tonight she said. She asked me to type in a web address and that was my website. She said she left a message on my mobile which is a lie as i listen to all messages every day. When lookin at the website they have put my address and full name on which i asked not to do, i told her to get my address and full name off it now as that is not what i wanted. Mysteriously about 10 minutes later getting off the phone from her i typed in my headings and i came up. I think she did it whilst i was on the phone to try and keep me happy. I have since written an e-mail saying i want them to cancel all my advertising as it not to my satisfaction. I recommend to all to be very careful as they seem very genuine.
nuala walsh said
am January 18 2010 @ 8:41 pm
hi just taught you might like to know storm media are still targeting ireland.had a call today from trisha buckley offering us a top spot on google for our company for a great sum of 265 euro i taught it was to good to be true i decided to google storm media and thank god found your blog.i can tell you they will get a piece of my mind in the morning by the way the caller tells you she is from your area ours being from the southside of cork but living in spain working through a call centre.web sites cost thousands for a reason dont be sucked in.
keep up the good work thanks
nuala
Tom said
am January 19 2010 @ 5:59 pm
I stumbled across this page today while researching a company called Match Maker Marketing. They appear to be employing almost identical sales tactics to those used by Storm Media. Luckily I was home when I took their call, while I still had the aggressive saleman on the phone I googled their company name and found loads and loads of forums full of complaints. I read several of them out to the salesman, laughed in his face and hung up. I have since spent the last two hours reading the numerous horror stories about them. I am based in Manchester, they got my details from Yell.com, they were telling me how rubbish Yell were and that they would get me loads of business. What a lucky escape, good work everyone on here, together we can beat these scams.
Ronan said
am January 19 2010 @ 6:30 pm
Hi Tom, Yeah its the same scam. It seems that either they “franchise out” the scam so to speak or just operate under a few different names. Match Maker is quite an old name for the scam, i’m surprised they still use it.
Tom Abram said
am January 20 2010 @ 5:41 pm
Hi Tom,
Just read your post from the 19th. I have a possible address for them in Manchester. I am based in Oxford and wanted to pay a visit to Mike and his team fraudsters. the possible address for them is
KEY WORLD MEDIA LTD
44 PETER STREET
MANCHESTER
M2 5GP
It might be worth checking it out if you are in the area. Obviously don’t confront them but I would just be interested to know whether they are there or not. I know of many people who would love to pay them a little visit!
Charlie said
am January 20 2010 @ 8:50 pm
Thank you for this website. I also subscribed to Storm Media on 15/1, having been phoned, sent convincing marketing emails & checking their website. They told me they were a “retail agent for Google” & could guarantee we would appear on the first page under our chosen 5 searches for at least some time every day. This would take effect after 48 hours.
Allowing for the weekend, I have just checked on 20/1.
Three of our chosen “key phrases” appear on page 37, page 62, and on another nowhere at all on all 51 pages!
I became suspicious when I could never contact them by phone or even leave a voicemail. When someone finally phoned me they gave me an alternative overseas number, and it turned out they were operating out of Malaga, Spain.
I have now cancelled the credit card I used as a precaution, and unless our Google rating dramatically improves in the next 24 hours, I will be pursuing a refund via the Retail Disputes department of my credit card company.
Storm Media themselves promised a full refund if we were not appearing on page 1 in 48 hours. From what I have read I will take action to obtain the refund myself, not wait for them!
I am surprised that some people say their rankings are so high, when ours has not improved at all. Maybe their ranking is for other reasons than Storm Media’s input.
By the way, we are a small English company, so they are not only targetting Ireland.
I am usually very cautious, but not being a computer expert, their claims to be an agent for Google certainly deceived me. Like someone said, “if it sounds too good to be true, etc…”
Thanks for all the info on here, at least I could cancel my card & not be billed anymore than the original £149.
Charlie said
am January 20 2010 @ 9:45 pm
A further comment on Storm Media which rang a small alarm bell with me, but sadly not a loud enough one!
They asked if our company was VAT registered, and when I said it was & gave them the number, as they requested, they charged us VAT exempt. Originally I thought it was because they were in Spain & thought how wonderful if all VAT registered companies could operate like this. How stupid of me! I koow VAT doesn’t work like this!
baxter said
am January 21 2010 @ 5:58 pm
the address iv got is but i belive its not real
Storm Media
Marble Arch Tower
55 Bryanston St
Westminster
London
W1H 7AJ
Storm Media S.L. Marble Arch Tower, 55 Bryanston St, Westminster, London, W1H 7AJ.
Co. Reg No./VAT no B92947308
Scoville Units Unite » Blog Archive » First Search Consultancy send in the lawyers said
am January 21 2010 @ 10:30 pm
[...] SEO company previously discussed here with a dubious reputation has sent in the lawyers against someone who posted about [...]
Daz Parking said
am January 24 2010 @ 10:22 am
I can understand your comments regarding these companies but ’scam’ seems to be a strong word to classify companies that simply offer a service to people who have not got the time or the knowledge to do this for themselves.. However the pitch is delivered, the end result is that they do get you on the first page of Google at a set price which in turn gains you business. My site got 425 extra hits that generated £3755 last month for a fee of £149… I can’t see a problem…. They are delivering a service and making a bit on top for their trouble..
After all, apples grow on trees but you don’t call Tesco a ’scam’ company for selling them…
Alan G said
am January 25 2010 @ 9:02 pm
This is the equivalent of someone phoning you claiming to be from Tesco and they will stock your apples. It turns out it’s actually a guy with a table on the road next to Tesco with a sign saying that apples are for sale who the public pass on their way out the store.
anne said
am January 25 2010 @ 11:58 pm
Hi, I have been approached by this company and they done exactly what they said they would, they said a8 WORKING hours and in my email I got 48 working hours, way before the 48 working hours my advert is showing on the front page of google, NOT THE ORGANIC LISTING as Ronan says they offer….. this is my second month with them and i am still on front page google, and ny business has noticed the difference in calls . SO FOR ALL YOU PEOPLE THAT ARE SCEPTICAL and believe someone in Ireland is saying, obviously bitter about something or the other, try it out for your self
Ronan said
am January 26 2010 @ 5:41 am
Folks i’m very suspicious about the above positive comments. For example the email “Anne” gave was for a domain that doesn’t exist.
Dan if you want to increase sales on the website you linked to putting your competitors contact details on your site in the form of ads is a particularly bad idea. Also i’m have a hard time believing that a PR zero page that has a note on the site saying their service is currently FREE and a paid version will be launched shortly, generated £3755.
Could this be another comment from someone involved putting a positive spin on a scam?
They claim they are FROM GOOGLE and can guarantee pole position. Both of these key points are the main reason a person would sign up and are totally incorrect and impossible. If they called and told the truth the sales pitch would be - They have no idea about SEO, are not affiliated with Google in anyway and couldnt deliver an envelope let alone results.
tom said
am January 26 2010 @ 3:38 pm
I agree with your last comment Ronan. I think they are posts from people within Storm Media or whatever they call themselves now. My reasoning:
1)Firstly this is a direct quote copied and pasted from the online terms and conditions on their website
* Storm Media (The Seller) guarantees to use its online systems to create online advertisements based around the buyer’s key phrases. The adverts will then appear on the first page of http://www.google.co.uk under the selected key phrases agreed at the point of sale.
and this is from a posting on this forum by James Lancaster of Storm Media
* I feel it is extremely important to point out that we do not, have not and will not ever guarantee to put our clients at the top of organic search results. It is possible through search engine optimisation techniques to boost a business’ rankings tremendously, but I do agree it would be impossible for anyone to promise a page 1 listing every time,
2) secondly, My company website hit rate actually dropped during the period I was alledgedly receiving a service from Storm Media from 23,520 hits in November to 18,919 in December to 20,981 in Jan. My so called contract was from Nov 20 - Dec 20 although as I have stated in earlier posts, it was pulled completely on 10th Dec when I emailed them and told them I did not wish to carry on past that month. Now, whilst I am in no way claiming that Storm Media caused a drop in visits, I think that it is fair to say that by the law of averages, if I was receiving 5 key phrases that GUARANTEED 1st page listings on Google, then my hit rate would have to go up not down.
3) thirdly, why the lack of correspondance from Storm Media. When I cancelled my contract by email, no reply. When I called, I was fobbed off and not called back. When I wrote a letter and sent it by recorded delivery, it was returned to sender. Only when I got Trading Standards involved did I receive a call which was full of denial. Whatever way you look at it guys, this is not the business practice of a company offering a legitimate service.
THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT STORM MEDIA IS A SCAM
Emma said
am January 29 2010 @ 3:48 pm
Hi Ronan, I’ve just been scammed by Storm Media. They contacted me last November offering 1st Page on Google for €300 per month. This offer sounded great as I was paying €2500 to Google a month for advertising. It worked for the first few days and then my ads just dissapeared. When I contacted them they said they were having technical difficulties and strung me along for a couple of weeks. They are still charging me every month even though I’ve sent them several emails to cancel which they dont respond to. I have tried to chargeback but under Storm Medias T&C I am finding it very difficult. Its hard to believe how they are getting away with but they are!!
Tony Dicks said
am February 2 2010 @ 12:57 pm
I am sorry to say I am yet another victim of Storm Media, they took my money and seemed very honest in all there conversations with us, they have had our money for over a week and have done nothing to us at all in moving us to page 1 as they said they would. Having emailed and called all with no response I Googled the company and here I am saying I have been done.
How do these people sleep at night.
Charlie said
am February 3 2010 @ 12:43 am
I take it back! OK, it took much longer than the promised 48 hours BUT I just checked my 5 keyword searches and 4 of them were actually on page 1 of Google (in some cases out of about 900,000 search results) and in 2 cases we were right at the top. One at the top of the main page, the others at the right hand side.
I had got really angry, as you can tell from my previous posts, & emailed them to cancel & request a refund. But if our searches are going to stay up there I shall definitely reconsider.
Perhaps this company really can deliver, I hope so.
I don’t have any connection with Storm Media, you will notice that I too believed I had been conned. But I think I was wrong & I will keep watching our position with interest.
Tom said
am February 4 2010 @ 4:03 pm
Hi Charlie, I thought the same. for a time when I typed in the keywords my website seemed to come top. However, in this whole time my hit rate actually went down. I think they are somehow able to pinpoint your computer so that it appears you are receiving a service. I am always one to give the benefit of the doubt but I have no doubt in my mind that it is a scam. That is why they are so terrified to actually contact anyone. They are liars and cheats.
Julie said
am February 9 2010 @ 4:18 am
OH Dear, ….. by Storm Media I thought I should not be so skeptical and give it a go for a month. Each time, like others they could bring up my seaches on front page … I don’t how. A later check would show there was nothing. Nothing changed on my stats in terms of hits, visitors etc. After a short time they actually affected another payment through pay pal before my supposed campaign even started. This was reversed however. The payment system was set up like a suscription which was not obvious when using a pay pal system. I am so glad I didn’t give them my credit card…. or may be not as at least I would be covered. It seems that Pay Pal is not the protective system it purports to be. One thinks that someone is legit when using pay pal.
Julie said
am February 9 2010 @ 5:38 am
I am in Western Australia by the way. It seems they have come this far. They even had me ring another company Jukebox hire to get some feedback regarding their service. The woman at the company was confident and thought they had delivered. The bastards, bloodsucking carnivorous cyber worms. There should be international laws that go after and punish people who do this type of fraud.
Cam said
am February 9 2010 @ 6:10 am
I just got a call and thought I would do a bit of background on these guys, and found this blog. As for coming up first in Google, its simple, the reason you appear is when your logged into Google Adwords, your campaign shows up in the top search terms. Im not sure if this is because they know your ip address or know when you login, but this deception occurs without Storm Media. If you want to check your search listing always ask friends to look them up or make sure your logged out of and google applications. As for Storm, I cant wait till they call back in a day or so, it might just be an interesting conversation.
Philip Nevin said
am February 10 2010 @ 1:24 pm
Beware of First Search Consultancy, I paid them €300.00 and was told my site would be on the first page on google. It never happen and they would not refund my money. A TOTAL RIP OFF
Tom Abram said
am February 10 2010 @ 3:12 pm
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/arsbilling-c87975.html
hey folks. Just found this link to another website with yet more evidence of fraudulent activity by Storm Media. There appears to be evidence that they are operating out of Gibralter which I believe is a British Crown Colony which should be governed by British Law.
vic said
am February 11 2010 @ 6:39 pm
was warned by a bloke in australia who kindly contacted me after seeing our ad with storm media (dont know how he found it because we cant!!!)
have contacted them and our credit card company as he has had withdrawls from his credit card without his permission.(originally promised him a yearly fee and then altered it to monthly! appalling)
Antoine said
am February 11 2010 @ 6:52 pm
Hi, this blog certainly makes an interesting read, unbelievable. Storm media is now targeting France. Beware, they are incredibly good and convincing, charming even. Not phased at all when one mentions to them the fact that they are considered a scam. If one doesn’t feel at ease paying via credit card, they will urge you to pay by paypal. The demo with one’s company getting the top spot is very tempting, alas. As a rule, being urged to pay, even if for securing a top spot, sounds fishy. The emails they send aren’t professional, and last but not least, there is no contract, unheard of for that type of service. They will have a response to all the issues you may raise, they are very good at what they do, ie getting people to send them money. For the rest, and by that I mean the ranking, I don’t know, but after having entirely read this blog, it does indeed seem to be a scam. So thank you very much for this blog.
Ronan said
am February 11 2010 @ 7:41 pm
Ok there seems to be lots of queries of people wondering how they could pull off this scam since you can see what you think are results. In internet marketing the only results worth counting are sales, never forget that.
Yes you will see a sponsored ad on Google with your name on it. So to clarify this let me explain how its done for anyone that has a shadow of doubt that this is anything but a scam.
Its a simple combination of geotargeting, demographics, device targeting and if they like time settings.
1. Adwords can be “Geotargeted” which means target customers based on your location. Designed for the likes of a hair dresser who doesn’t want to advertise to anyone other than those in your town. In the advanced settings you can manually set the address - ie. I can have an ad appear only in your HOME or OFFICE but NOWHERE else.
2. In Adwords you can also choose your customer demographic. So say you know your victim is a Male aged 25-35. To do this you would need to be logged into your Google account, (ie. if your g-mail opens without asking for your password your automatically logged in). Hence as a commenter mentioned before when he logs out of Google the ads disappear.
3. Device manager, you can choose where the ads show. I can specify if i wish to only show an ad on say the Vodafone Network. One can also specify on what platform the ads run, people using a laptop or iphone etc.
4. Time settings, lets face it you wont be checking up on these guys at 5am. So they only turn on the ad at times your likely so see the ad.
Yes i am experienced with online marketing but i wouldn’t consider this advanced stuff in anyway, the average 10 year old can implement these settings. These guys aren’t useless at online marketing their skill lies in preying the vulnerable, they don’t even rank no1 for their own business name so why would you think they can deliver for you!!!
Lastly on a positive note, i want to say that you don’t need anyone to run these campaigns for you. There’s so much quality information online, just set up an adwords account and give it a try.
Thanks for all the e-mails and twitter messages, from those who were caught out and those that found this post just in time.
Philip said
am February 18 2010 @ 1:08 pm
I also got suckered, Apex Media (apexmedia.biz). Even though we agreed on a reduced figure for the ad and keyphrases per month etc they overcharged me month on month. It was impossible trying to communicate with them, once I was told they were moving office. What this had to do with my cancelling this “google ad” I have no idea. I contacted my bank and cancelled the payment and got one payment charged back. I was so angry. They never responded to my emails and fobbed me off each time I called to sort this out and for them to return the money whihc they scammed me out of. I cancelled back in late November. Then this morning I get a call and they claim to be sending a debt collector after me! Plus I Apex Medi never agreed to a reduced fee per month. BUt I have the email stating this. All this and at the same time he was telling me that he was on my side. What this had to with anything I have no idea, nor do I care I’m done with apex media. They scammed me and then threaten to send a debt collector. It’s outrageous. I hope people will beware of these fraudulent scumbags. That is exactly what they are. Scum.
Philip said
am February 18 2010 @ 5:58 pm
BTW. I received another weird number today. A woman looking for the “owner of the business” to help me get “more work for your website” or something. The caller had what I believe to be an eastern accent, perhaps Indian? Anyway, here’s the very odd number 0044123456.
Are some of these people serious?
Unison said
am February 20 2010 @ 8:36 am
Hi There from South Africa,
I’ve been contacted by Lime Media Marketing and they are offering the same scam, watch out!
http://www.limemedia.co.za/
http://www.limemedia-marketing.com
They call their fixed price PPC “Instant Google” and say that since they have so many Google Certified employees, they get this “special deal” with Google where they pay less for clicks. This is clearly a scam since “Instant Google” just doesn’t exist.
They claim to be working from Cape Town (Mowbray) but they all have Manc Brit accents and I quickly cought them out with a few general knowledge Cape Town questions. They’re clearly calling from a crammed call centre in Manchester and they are all dodgy as FCUK. I must say they have done their homework and are trying really hard on this Scam, they know all the main CT tourist sites and are clued up about the weather etc.
Do NOT be fooled though, they are NOT in SA and do not be scammed into paying over ANY money as you WILL be burned!!!!!!!
A quick Whois confirms that this is the same guys as “New Approach Marketing”: http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=limemedia
Details: Andrew Dryden
registrantemail: technical@newapproachmarketing.com
Please spread the word as I would love to see them fail. Let’s all pitch in and snuff out Lime Media asap.
Surely we should be able to get Google to ban them?
Best Rgds
Chris said
am February 23 2010 @ 10:17 am
Thank you Ronan.
Lime Media contacted me on Friday 19 Feb 2010 with this scam.
They promised me a 30 day free trial with a once off fee of £140.
I subsequently found out that they were to further charge me £350 per month.
After reading the bogs here it seems this is a world wide scam run from an address 3 Northwold House, Dorset Road, Altrincham, Post Code WA14 4QN.
Using Google earth you will find this is just a private house in a small residential area on the outskirts of Trafford Manchester.
When they take money out with your credit card they flag up as New Approach.
I have cancelled all my cards and am awaiting my Recorded delivery Letter of cancellation to be returned back to me unsigned.
Limemedia Marketing is a scam operation
Chris
Ronan said
am February 23 2010 @ 2:41 pm
Thanks guys, I’ve added Lime media to the above list on the basis that they are also guaranteeing 1st place on google, coupled with the above comments and some emails.
Sam said
am March 4 2010 @ 2:54 pm
Hi everyone,
So sorry to hear of peoples misfortunes when dealing with this compnay yet I am so happy that I found this post before I became another unhappy “customer”. I was actually considering using this service but thought it really was too good to be true. Googled them and came across this post.
I will not be using their service however I am looking forward to receiving the phone call from a chap called Kevin who is “sorting” this out for me.
Are there any legitimate companies out there offering services like this that actually work? I understand prices will increase dramatically but I am interested in Google PPC for a new business which I will be launching next week.
Any comments or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Ronan said
am March 4 2010 @ 5:28 pm
Hi Sam,
Glad to hear my blog saved you from getting ripped off.
There’s lots of legitimate companies that offer PPC advice and even will manage your campaign for a fee. Look out for the Google Adwords verified symbol on potential people that can offer help and ask for references etc.
In my opinion it’s best to hire a person to help you set up the campaign if you need them, but make sure they explain what and why they are doing ithings. That way you buy their knowledge and can use it to maintain your own campaign.
Here’s a tip though, the best teacher in adwords in the world is Hal Varian (Googles Chief Economist) & his team at Google business, and all his information is open source. In other words the worlds best teacher gives away his information free online… Start here. Hopefully this will save you even more money!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7l0a2PVhPQ
I feel that even though paying someone to run the campaign on your behalf will make you profit, the normal model for them getting paid is a percentage of spend, which in my opinion gives little incentive to spend as little as possible.
Best of luck with it!
david said
am March 5 2010 @ 9:57 am
I see storm media have an ad in todays SUR in English, from there Fuengirola Office. They need, Irish Telemarketers, Irish Closers. French Admin/Accounts and Telesales. Buisness must be good.
DaveyT said
am March 5 2010 @ 4:53 pm
I work for Lime Media/New Approach Marketing in the sales team and I am considering resigning. It’s a very shoddy operation and I am sick of being told by managers to tell lies to make a sale - including lieing about where we are. The office in Cape Town is one of those virtual offices. There’s no-one there from the company, but any mail or phone calls are forwarded to England. One of the addresses in Altrincham (3 Northwold House) used to be the home of one of the managers. He moved. The other address in Altrincham does exist and it’s where we operate from. Once they have your card details, they are not stored properly and they do what they like with them. Someone complained to me that her card has been charged a month after her cancellation was received. When she spoke to a senior sales person to complain, she was verbally abused and threatened. The authorities in South Africa and England need to look into the running of this company.
Philip said
am March 10 2010 @ 2:46 pm
Today I received a threatening letter from Apex Media. Even after scamming me they claim they are going to pass my info along to a debt collector, where they say the balance may exceed 200%of the amount currently stated!
In fact, they owe ME money after ripping me off. And I have all the emails to prove this.
Here’s the address
Apex Media
Suite 21
Oakfield House
Oakfield Rd
Altrincham
WA15 8EW
Phone Number 0845 371 0677
These people are serious scum
clare said
am March 10 2010 @ 6:30 pm
Hi Everyone, yes I too fell victim to the Storm Media scam. I did see my paid for ad on page one but not every time I checked - for €165 a month.I have another Google Ad I pay directly to Google for and it also shows up on page one- sometimes.I pay €30 a month for this ad.Not great but definitely €30 worth.It was when I decided to cancel my subscription that things got hairy i.e. the guy “Mike” who deals with cancellations was never available and my emails canceling my subscription never confirmed.I called my credit card company and asked what to do and they informed me about the charge back service they provide.So today I prepared my “evidence” i.e. emails with my request to cancel, an invoice so my credit card company has the contact details of the company and a cover letter to explain all enclosed documents.My credit card company said Storm will probably persist a few times but tire of the charge backs and back down eventually.Any company who behaves in this manner has something to hide and cannot trade openly nor in a fair way. Do not sign up with them.Make your own Google Ad on a lazy Saturday afternoon and work out your key words every couple of weeks.And DO NOT GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS TO THEM.I hope this blog stops people from signing up with Storm media and similar companies.
Thank you Ronan for blogging this information- Good Karma for you!