Straight talking truth!

Storm Media and other Google Scams

28 Sep, 2009 Business, Hot Links

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:

Top Spot Marketing
Storm Media
PolePosition Media
Match Maker
Zenith Marketing
Sphere Marketing
First Search Consultancy
Apex Media
Lime Media
Media Mountain

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:

No1 Position in Goolge Scam

_________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

_________Update____________ 14/5/10

Media Mountain is now practicing the same scam.

154 Comments so far »

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. 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!
Jeremy Murphy said

am March 11 2010 @ 6:21 pm

Hi all,

I too got caught by this shower of wide-boys, The service was questionable at best, my web master does the same thing for me now included in her fees, with noticeably greater effect. never the less they have continued to charge my card months after I formally cancelled, even having the neck to charge again after I disputed it.
I have like Clare above have handed the matter over to my card company who indicate that my case is open & shut so they will charge-back Top spot but it’s going to be messy.
I can’t figure out is why they have accreditation of sorts from Google, whats that about?
BTW has anyone brought this crowd to the attention of RTE’s Joe Duffy? I have just mailed radio 4’s You and Yours.
Ronan said

am March 11 2010 @ 6:51 pm

I sincerely doubt they are really accredited by Google, they probably stole the logo. After all they lie about being Google, so why stop there. Anyway to be Adwords accredited just means that someone took a course in Adwords that is run by Google. Certainly Google don’t approve of them and they aren’t in anyway associated with them.
call yourselves men? stop whinging and sort your business out. u r clueless. said

am March 13 2010 @ 11:31 am

you blokes are brain dead wimps. take apex for example, they are indeed a google certificated company and if you click on the google logo you will see the proof.
they can guarantee you a first page listing through the usual legal methods. if you don’t know what these legal methods of listing a company on google serp then get a life and start learning.
although i am personally annoyed that so many idiots are getting our industry something of a bad name i do feel that you are adults running a business and if you do your own research prior to buying you should be alright going through a gap. but really guys and gals, wake up smell the coffee and get using both your seo and sem strategies in order. buyer beware.

though i really doubt that any of you miserable groaning dinosaurs will ever be winners of dragons den more like dragons dinner.

go read a good book and get off the internet.
Ronan said

am March 13 2010 @ 2:10 pm

Yawn, i think its laughable that people like the above are afraid to use their real name (or even real email address). Clearly you work for Apex and your upset that people are copping on to your a scam and that you add no value for.

Maybe you should have done some reading before you posted on my blog. Ofcourse i know the legal methods of SERPs, i’m one of the top SEO’s in Ireland. As for being a winner on dragons den, I’m more than qualified to be a dragon on Dragons den. I’ve gone head to head with one of the dragons investments (and won).

Go sulk somewhere else, your scam has had its day. Go read googles white papers and learn to add some value to people, its not that hard.
Noel said

am March 18 2010 @ 11:31 pm

Hey guys,

I wish I had seen this blog before I got involved with storm media. They have so far scammed €300 off me. They set me up with this amateur web site offering me a months trial with first position on google when one of my ‘key phases’ were searched. I have yet to receive one phone call from a possible customer.

When my month was up I had no intention of renewing my contract with them but they charged the same fee to my credit card for another month without my permission. When I rang them looking for my money back they blamed paypal saying that it was a subscription and that I gave them the money, they didn’t take it and therefor didn’t have to give it back. I hit the roof when I heard this and demanded it back immediately but was simply told “no”

My account manager then had the audacity to try and sell me a full website saying that the reason I wasn’t getting any calls was because the one I had wasn’t good enough. Even though THEY MADE IT!

I really really wish there was something I could do to get my money back as I am only 24 and starting out in business and things are very tight at the moment.

Anyway, keep up the good work and hopefully with this blog we can put an end to this disgraceful and immoral scam.

Regards,
Noel
Ronan said

am March 19 2010 @ 12:18 am

Contact Paypal and make a complaint… they will at the very least take the money from the company and put it into escrow until the matter is resolved or they agree to refund you.
joanne said

am March 24 2010 @ 10:54 pm

biggest scam ever. had to cancel credit card as they kept trying to take money even though it was cancelled. after i rang them and said i wanted to cancel subscription within the 30 days they still tried to take the money. lucky my credit card was cancelled. they even want me to pay a cancellation fee of €300 which isnt stated in their policies.
beware and dont be fooled.
joanne
Deirdre said

am March 27 2010 @ 6:00 pm

Just wondering has anyone managed to get any of their money back from these scamming bastards or is there any point even trying??
Deirdre said

am March 27 2010 @ 6:14 pm

I called Visa and apparently they said that even by cancelling your credit card, Stormedia can still take funds from your new card as you have entered into a direct debit arrangement with them???!!
Can this be true?
Ronan said

am March 27 2010 @ 9:39 pm

Nope you can cancel a direct debit and have the right to do it if the other party did not delivery their part of the agreement. Ask for a new card number, not for them to just cancel the card you have and re-issue one with the same details.
Beatrice said

am March 30 2010 @ 3:53 pm

Yes I am another idiot who has been sucked in by the storm media scam. I’m in France. I have read all the comments above and I am at a loss as to know how they are still getting away with it. I accept that I have stupidly thrown away money I could not afford to lose. They will get no more but surely with so many of people having been stung there must be something that can be done to take these slimeballs to task. How do they manage to sleep at night?
Coral said

am April 1 2010 @ 9:42 am

I have had great dealings with Storm Media so far. They created an excellent website for me and they manage it, making any changes I want almost instantly -for far less $ than any local company quoted to do the same thing. Hey, and I don’t care whether I show up on the top of the google list or not. I agree they shouldn’t be promising to do something that apparently they can’t do. Being on top of the sponsored list isn’t really important to my business. Mr Lancaster is pleasant and I am pleased to have him as my web manager.
Ronan said

am April 1 2010 @ 12:00 pm

Hi Coral,

Great to have someone give a diverse opinion as things were getting a bit one sided, however having looked at your site, its up there with the worst sites i’ve ever seen from an SEO perspective. Initally to be honest I thought this was another post from the Storm media guys themselves, but no one would claim that site as their work and hope for future business.

From a business point of view what’s the point in having a website if nobody can find it? And if noone can find it why pay for one it at all?

Obviously by paying this shower you were hoping for businesses and customers for your service. People might trying to find you using Google and not be able to since your not indexed. Ofcourse they would be cheaper, your not getting any value for your money though.

Your website is missing page title tags, meta descriptions and other relevant information which is needed to tell google what your site is about. It indexes both http:// and http://wwww. so you have duplicate content issues, which means Google sees two different pages with the same information.

I’m a little miffed at what your goals for the website are? You’ve inserted a random Utube video which gives a competitors website in it. If you let me know i’ll give you some pointers to get a page up on the internet which won’t cost you a penny.
Yvonne Lines said

am April 8 2010 @ 3:31 pm

I have just been scammed by Storm Media like everyone else I cannot believe that I have been taken in by them. They said it would cost £149 and when I looked at my emails the invoice is for £172.84 – I quickly phoned my bank to see if I could stop the payment but they have said that they cannot do anything until the money has been taken. Thought I would do a more extensive Google search and came up with this thread. Does anyone have any advice on how to stop this payment being taken?
Daz Parking said

am April 11 2010 @ 7:37 am

At least storm media don’t sell childrens fancy dress items and ### XXXX on the same site.. 5 year old kids that are searching for a party outfit can also see ‘blow up XXXXX’, ‘XXXXXXX handcuffs’ and ### costumes. DOUBLE STANDARDS Mr Ronan O Brien.. You should look closer to home before you accuse others of wrong doing. I’m sure you’re not a paedphille but http://www.thecostumeshop.ie could be used by them. Why not let others decide and keep this post on your ‘Straight Talking Truth Page’ for the world to make up their own mind..
Ronan said

am April 12 2010 @ 3:43 pm

Daz, (or should I call you Mr. Lancaster?), my online stores, just like all other online stores are for adults and don’t allow 5 year old kids to buy from us or anyone under 16. 5 year old don’t have credit cards. Just like any other costume shop we sell hen night accessories and in my opinion don’t cross the line of bad taste.

Ironically, I looked at your domain as per your email address… your comments would be more credible if the domain was in use…
Tom said

am April 13 2010 @ 5:05 pm

Good comment Ronan. That Mr Lancaster really is a bit of a fool! He clearly doesn’t have an intelligent answer for anything so just resorts to smear campaigns. You will be glad to know that all those who have been stung by Lancaster’s scam hold you in high regard and think he is just a worthless little toe rag.
Natalie O'Rourke said

am April 19 2010 @ 1:03 pm

Storm Media- what a joke!!!! We got the same call a few months ago, and I was sucked in! After trialling them for one month, and not really seeing a result, I cancelled 8 days before the end of the month via email (as it’s a European company, and I live in Australia. Trying to find a phone number to call became extremely difficult!). Still, 8 days later, I received an invoice for their monthly fee, along with some funds removed from my credit card. It’s now been a few weeks, and no one is returning my calls, emails, or letting me know IF and when to expect a refund! This company is DODGY! Don’t trust them! When we paid our first installment, we were told to expect phone calls regularly and advice on new Google adwords, stats, etc.- this NEVER happened! I’m still in the process of trying to get my refund, and am constantly getting fobbed off- no one seems able to give me an answer.
Craig said

am April 27 2010 @ 10:47 am

Hi All

First off thanks for Ronan for creating this and allowing all to comment on their own interactions with this company and others of their “ilk”

I head PPC for a large advertising agency (which I will not name as I don’t wish to appear to be soliciting work) and see the handy work of these companies on a regular basis. Thankfully most of the companies that we work with will typically forward the “stunning offer” to us before signing the dotted line.

There are a number of organisations out there that offer similar services all of which for my mind are nothing short of fraudulent in the way they present to their prospective clients.

Unfortunately I don’t think that there is enough being done to stop these types of scams. Again I thank Ronan for his efforts in this.

One of the things that strike me when looking at the offerings being punted by these “Market Leading Digital Advertising Companies” (apart from the scam that it is), is there is no emphasis on delivering results other than clicks. Purely delivering visits to a site guarantees nothing, even obvious keywords that best represent the product that you are selling.

If you are serious about generating income from your site invest time in acquiring a good analytics program (Google Analytics will do nicely as it is free and relatively comprehensive although there are better if you are willing to pay) and then set objectives (i.e. Email Enquiries, Brochure Requests, Purchases e.t.c.). Measure the performance of your PPC campaign against what objectives are met. Set realistic goals that you can measure objectively i.e. if you know that for ever 10 email enquiries you receive you will typically generate 1 sale for an average value of say £1000 of which you have a margin of £300 and for which you would like to make a profit of £200 then you know that each email enquiry should on average cost no more than £10 to acquire (£300 margin – £200 desired profit = £100 – £100 divided by 10 emails = £10)

I am more than sure that if you are interested in setting up and running a PPC campaign Ronan will be able to guide you if you require help. Also there are a number of forums and sites that will help you out.

It is very easy to spend money for no return on PPC, but if done well PPC can and will deliver the results you desire at a cost that provides a good, if not excellent, ROI, just don’t leave it in the hands of people such as those outlined here
Craig said

am April 27 2010 @ 10:49 am

PS – If you are spending a lot of money, or intend to, on PPC, and are even remotely unsure of what you are doing please enlist the help of a reputable Digital Agency that can either run it for you or work on a consultancy basis

It as i have stated before very easy to spend lost without a suitable return
Nicholas said

am April 29 2010 @ 12:07 pm

hey,

Got a call from a British woman from TOp Martketing.

Sounded good but a little cagey. Kept talking about amount in pounds. Apart from being a scam, I was insulted that she didn’t even give me a euro rate until i asked for it. Glad I read this blog.

I know a little about google ranking so I was dubious.

Cheers again.

If anyone has any legit companies or system for getting better ranking please let me know. I am involved in a not-for-profit arts Centre in a disadvantaged area of Dublin.

Sadly I think a lot of people fall for this since they are not Internet savvy.
Ronan said

am April 29 2010 @ 1:19 pm

There’s lots of legitimate companies out there, just be wary of things that sound to good to be true. There is a huge amount of information online that will help you increase your own rankings if you have time to invest on that aspect of your project, which is a really great one by the way.

To answer your question though, In my opinion http://www.redcardinal.ie/ are one of the best SEO company and http://www.redflymarketing.com/ for PPC. One good screen I use is asking people for their webmaster forums name, if they are keeping up to date on current change chances are they will be posting discussions their and you’ll quickly find out if they are learning the trade or an expert in their field.
david said

am April 30 2010 @ 12:32 pm

I see in todays SUR in English, Storm Media are “Under new managment” and offering a stagering(ha ha)15,000€ a year for Experianced tele sales reps.
SEO can only be described as the latest parasite industry. These people supply nothing, make nothing and provide nothing, I got a recent email from some jerk telling me they could get me in the “top 5″ – for only 40€ a month, they could keep me in the top 5, by giving me a couple of new key words each month.
Be careful out there!
Nicholas said

am May 4 2010 @ 1:12 pm

Hey – told Top Marketing that I thought it was a scam and that i was annoyed that the sales rep kept using pounds instead of Euros, which might be a little cheeky. Here is there reply. Not sure if this should be posted but nothing personal is expressed.

Start of Top Marketing Email
_____________________________________________________

Ok first off i am a little disappointed that you decided against coming on board with us.

Secondly WE ARE NOT A SCAM however we are a fast paced marketing company where the turnover of employees is incredible so occasionally YES mistakes have been made but i guarantee you the person responsible is no longer with us as a company. yes there are a couple of bad reviews on the internet about us but type in the name of ANY major marketing company, bank, brokers etc. And you will see the amount of bad things people have to say about these so called “household names!!!”

Unfortunately Nicholas People NEVER have the time to sit down at their computer and tell the whole world how much money we made them…….. how we filled their diary for the next 6months……how they now have more business than they can handle……THANKS TO US… although i can give you names and numbers of client who are more than happy to sing our praises.

Ive seen the comments in question i know exactly which ones your talking about and like i said we realise mistakes were made in the past but believe me we make sure it doesn’t happen again And we have THOUSANDS OF EXTREMELY HAPPY CLIENTS…. don’t get me wrong i realise how seeing this may of upset you but like i said there isn’t a company in the world where every single client gives them a glowing report. And that’s being honest

And finally…… I Am very very sorry for INSULTING YOU by reffering to the price in the currency of my own country and the country we are based in i am well aware the republic of Ireland has been independent of “us” its own country for the whole time I’ve been alive and have lots of friends in and from Dublin…. but if im honest i think that being insulted for me using the word pounds is a little bit silly i definitely would not be insulted if you called me from an irish company and reffered to the price in euros?!! Especially considering the fact that its 1.1 euro to the pound at present…

But I am deeply apologetic if it did offend you and like i said it certainly wasn’t intentional

Sincere appologies

End of Top Marketing Email
__________________________________________________

http://www.xe.com €1 = £0.86

Cheers for advise. I will check out both those links.

Nicholas

if it was incorrect of me to post this, my apologies.
Gerd said

am May 4 2010 @ 1:37 pm

we have a Lodge in South Africa close to Pretoria and get pestered already for the second time by lime media. The name is right, they are a bunch of Limeys trying to sell a first page appearance on Google. No way, that they operate out of cape Town
Mark Bundschu said

am May 4 2010 @ 4:48 pm

Hi there,

Not sure what those other companies are offering – sounds like PPC. While the posts above are correct about National Search, Google have set up Google Places (formerly Google Local) so that even businesses without Web-sites can register and appear on Google. Google set this up because they discovered that 30% of searches (out of 2.6 bn. worldwide p.a.) contain a City, State, Region, Zip or PostCode.

Many people are now searching for Local products and services by refining their searches by the town they live in eg. Solicitor Dublin 6, Hairdresser Clondalkin, Accountant Chelsea etc. instead of looking up the Yellow/Golden Pages.

The Local Advertising Market is significantly larger than the National Market and Google’s share of these searches has now overtaken the Yellow Pages in the U.S. Google will dominate local search in a few years and companies who can’t get on Page 1 will have to go the PPC route as they do today for National Search.

If you conduct a Local Search you will see a map on the top of the screen, listing the local businesses. Because this type of search is very much in it’s infancy it is possible to guarantee a Page 1 listing in most cases (not a No. 1 listing although we have achieved this).

If you want to test our results search on google.ie for Bookshop Donegal or ‘Bookshop Letterkenny’ (You will see Books Direct, one of our customers), search ‘Hostel Wexford’ (another customer of ours). I’m happy to give you other examples if you want to call me at 086 811 9339 (Ireland).

I am prepared to lodge €1,000 with a solicitor if you are prepared to match it to prove that it is possible to get a Page 1 listing for Google in a local area for a particular business. If you pick 3 businesses from the Golden Pages (not hotels as the competition is too fierce), I will guarantee to get at least 2 of them listed on Page 1 of Google in their local area within 30 days – not PPC – organic search.

It is actually free to register with Google Places but it takes some optimisation work to get the listing to appear on Page 1. We don’t guarantee that every business will get listed on Page 1 but if we take on a business we have about an 85% success rate and we refund the other 15% who may be in a particularly competitive industry in which case we recommend PPC.

I personally believe that there will only be one local directory in 3-5 years and that will be Google. Yellow Pages advertise on PPC in Google because they know that most of their online searches originate in Google. Their revenues are declining at the rate of around 10% p.a.

Best wishes,

Mark
http://www.enlocal.ie
Selling Page 1 Listing on Google Scam? | Mark Bundschu Personal Blog said

am May 6 2010 @ 11:42 am

[...] http://www.ronanobrien.info/selling-first-place-on-google-scam/ [...]
Ronan said

am May 6 2010 @ 1:30 pm

Hi Mark,

Google Local is a good service, but totally unrelated to this topic since its not what the scam is using.

I’m not saying SEOs aren’t a very necessary professional, after all I would consider myself one. But the fact is it is IMPOSSIBLE to guarantee first place, or for that matter first page on Google. They could change the whole algorythem tomorrow.

Ofcourse someone can get on page one within a few days depending on the search. In your example “Letterkenny Books” – Its an uncompetitive search term. ABCbooks.ie have FOUR listings on the first page today, including the homepage listed twice as they haven’t used proper 301 redirects! Probably a bad example to choose as today your client isn’t showing up for me on page one.

Now I know I’m going to come off like a right jerk here (and i’m really really sorry), but your selling SEO services and your site is totally unoptimized.

1. It’s got NO Google page rank;
2. Your own missing a Page Title,
3. No Meta Description and
4. No Meta Keywords.

This is SEO 101 stuff. Please take this constructively because your site is very nice and the video is cool (although seriously rename the freaken thing: having _rev01.wmv in the Video name is search suicide).

Again meant in a productive way but I wouldn’t hire a 50 Stone person to be my Personal Trainer and I think you are underselling yourself by not practicing SEO in your own business.

About the bet… Game on, I’ve posted it on your blog so this topic doesn’t go off in a tangent.

Trackback on comment above for the other readers who want to follow the bet.
Ronan said

am May 6 2010 @ 1:39 pm

@Nicholas

That’s actually a very well worded letter. Doesn’t take away from the fact that what they can’t do what they are trying to sell.

I think the Red Flag is that they do have such a high staff turnover, if they company was doing well and legitimate – in this economy very few people are leaving jobs as there isn’t too much out there.

Also if I was happy with a service, I wouldn’t hesitate to give a testimonial – It’s the normal run of business. And i’m not talking about testimonials from companies you’ve never heard of (because they just make up these companies and their websites). The only testimonials that are important are the ones who have reputation to loose by putting their name behind the brand.
Mark Bundschu said

am May 6 2010 @ 2:31 pm

Hi Ronan,

Thanks for your comments about my Web-site. You are absolutely correct that it is unoptimised. However, our expertise is not aimed at Google National, it is aimed at Google Local (now Google Places), and is only up there 4 weeks. (I might need your services for optimisation in the National listings at some point but it isn’t a priority just yet as Internet Marketing Consultant is a very competitive term and I suspect you wouldn’t be prepared to guarantee me a Page 1 listing other than through PPC)

It is interesting that you mention http://www.abcbooks.ie as this is a business that I own, which is optimised for google national search. However, I would not offer any company what I can’t deliver, namely Page 1 ranking for National Search.

Google Places is different because Google want people to list here. I’m sure you would accept that 10 years ago any SEO consultant worth his salt could have guaranteed a page 1 listing in Google.ie because there was no competition. That is where Google places is in terms of development and, although the algorithms might change, if a business is relevant to the search term and geographical location and gets in early there is no reason why they can’t maintain a page 1 listing.

Re. local traffic – according to a study by Piper Jaffray in the U.S. there are 2.6 billion Local searches worldwide each month online. And, according to Google, 73% of all activity online is in one way or another related to Local content.

These statistics are what caused Google to invest millions in Google places with the objective of building the world’s most comprehensive database of small businesses.
Ronan said

am May 6 2010 @ 2:43 pm

Lol, at the job offer. When I said I was an SEO I didn’t mean I was also consultant or for hire, but thank you and respectively will have to pass

About the “73% of all activity online is in one way or another related to Local content” – I think you might be confused with local on a national level vs local on a county by county level. As in “Nike” is a general search as it leads to NIKE.com, but “Banks” is considered a Local search as it returns the countries banks – but not necessarily your local branch (which would be Google Places).
Mark Bundschu said

am May 7 2010 @ 10:10 am

Sure but as I said, 30% of searches do have a City, Region or PostCode attached to them.

For example, according to Google there were 26,000 searches on Google in Ireland last month alone for Plumber or Plumbers; 39,700 for Electrician(s); 12,000 for Skip Hire; 27,100 for Graphic Designer etc. If only 30% of these have a town along with them there is still a huge opportunity for these merchants.
Anton123 said

am May 14 2010 @ 1:48 pm

Hi there from South Africa

Here is another Lime Media offshoot to add to the list:

The Lime Media Marketing bunch are now masquerading as “Media Mountain” – mediamountain .co.za

Media Mountain has the exact web design, layout and offer as Lime Media – limemedia .co.za

An American named ” Jason Lee” called me pretending to be living in Cape Town , the line was very bad (VOIP) and I immediately knew he was lying – clearly phoning from abroad.

After a 5 minute non stop sell about their “fixed fee” google adwords (which is a scam and doesn’t exist) – I asked him to transfer me to a South African colleague – he fumbled and said ok – then put the phone down on me!

SCAM SCAM SCAM

Do not pay these guys for Adwords, you won’t see that money again or and have an increase in online traffic / sales
Richard Latter said

am May 14 2010 @ 5:34 pm

Thank you for the info Ronan, I have just recently put up a web presence and exploring Adwords an being haunted by hard sell from Apex Media. The next call i’m expecting any minute will be a firm NO to thier £85 a month scam
Thank you so much for saving me, would love to buy you a pint
John said

am May 17 2010 @ 3:29 pm

Cape Town, South Africa
These guys also go under the name New Approach Marketing and the name of a person (owner) Andrew Dryden is also associated, although they denied knowing him today when I was phoned by Media Mountain.
They (Lime Media)supplied me with a Tax Invoice on which VAT was charged, but they are not registered for VAT.
I laid a complaint with SARS, and was advised other complaints had been made against them for other forms of TAX evasion.
These people are petty con-artists exploiting a gap in the market and indifference by authorities. This really needs a united effort by everyone, to make this a priority investigation for the commercial crime unit.
steve Jones said

am May 17 2010 @ 5:27 pm

I worked at this company for a a few months, And let me tell you it is a scam, The Boss is a massive Coke head that is all i would like to say, So if any one gets a call please put the phone down on theese Horrid people.
Philip said

am May 18 2010 @ 1:28 pm

Just an update. Before I got scammed by Apex Media, I’d receive at least a call a week from these “Google” companies. Sometimes therer of more. Since I have blocked payments and received some charge backs from the bank, and threatened legal action, I have received ZERO calls from any of these dodgy companies, they must be linked somehow, I’ve no idea dn not too concerned any more. But I’m happy that they have gone away from me at least.
Paul W said

am May 18 2010 @ 6:41 pm

Work stopped on the website soon after the money had been paid. Couldn’t get anyone from the company to talk to me except the girl with the english accent answering the phone 0818719380. Website stormmedia.eu no longer accesssible.
They did ask me for my cc details, luckily I paid through Paypal instead, and they got me my money back within 24hrs. (an extremely quick resolution!!?!) Though I am apparently left with an unusable website half built and i dont know how to access or get the domain name back.
Paul Sutherland(Irish accent) was the sales rep and Alex Mcillvride was the web designer. They claimed to be based in Spain.
Meri van Wyk said

am May 18 2010 @ 7:50 pm

Hi,
Just did a quick search to suss out the phone call I received an email that followed, copied in below. For everyone out there – the latest name is Pole Position Media. Same story as all the others listed. But I have not responded.

” EMAIL:
Hello Mari,

Thank you for your time, further to our conversation earlier I have attached our terms and conditions and listed the details of our service. Our website is http://www.polepositionmedia.co.uk .

Please call me between 09.00am √ 17.00pm (UK time) to discuss further on 0044161 4773846 or 0044161477 1097 or email me anytime, however I will call you at a later date as discussed.

· Guaranteed First Page Listings on Google Everyday.

· May Special Offer: 1338 ZAR for 5 search terms or 2 230 ZAR for 12 search terms.

· 24/7 support.

· Account Management.

· Free One Page Webpage if required (including hosting & domain for 1 year!)

· Option of Professional website update (3,000 ZAR one off payment).

· No contracts in first month, no clauses, simply a one month trial and you decide whether to continue.

· Average position of 1.8

The first month is simply to establish which search terms will work best for your business. The price for the next month starts at 400 ZAR per month.

Once payment is made we will be notified and will have you live on google within 24 hours. You will receive a confirmation letter and invoice straight away with an analytical report (after 28 days).

Please email me when you are ready to come on board for 1 month and I will happily return the call to let you know of the availability.

Kind Regards

David Baker

Google Sales
Pole Position Media Limited
United Kingdom
http://www.polepositionmedia.co.uk

0044161 4771097

Direct Line: 0044161 4299933
Office Number: 0044161 4771097

Company Reg. 7062482
VAT Reg No. 981 463986″
French House Party (Moira Martingale) said

am May 28 2010 @ 12:23 am

I’m afraid that I too have been conned by Storm Media – partly because I agreed to pay £149 last September for promotion in the USA (which then turned into a monthly payment taken from my debit card) – and I’ve just discovered that this never happened; they just promoted it (if indeed they did) in the .co.uk Google pages.

But the worst thing is that I have been trying to cancel this payment since February. I have emailed, phoned and written registered letters to them instructing them to cancel, and they just ignore it. Amazingly, the card services people at my bank says there is no way to stop Storm Media from continuing to take money from the card – how can this be the case? It’s crazy.

I am now going to try and recover the £1300+ they have taken from my bank account under false pretences by forwarding all my correspondence with Storm Media to the Small Claims Court. Their methods are strikingly similar to another company which I fell foul of about five years ago: It’s Cold Outside. They were based in Altrincham, Cheshire. Wonder if it’s the same company by a different name?
Natalie O'Rourke said

am June 4 2010 @ 1:59 am

Moira, I too sent numerous emails (about 20 in total) cancelling anything to do with Storm Media. I phoned nearly every day, and yet, no one was able to assist me with my cancellation. The only person available to talk to me was a British lady, who hung up on me a few times when I refused to get off the phone unless someone dealt with my matter. It seems “Mike” is the only person who can deal with complaints and cancellations for this multi national company… Yet, in their “welcome pack”, it states that cancellation can take place at any time in the first 30 day trial period (which I did). Thereafter, they require 30 days written notice. For some reason, they don’t seem to be able to read the word “cancellation”. I kept getting told that “Mike would be in contact with me in due course”… Well, due course never came. They continued to take money from my account. The second time, was under the name of Storm Media. The third time was under a different name all together, but it was connected to Storm I’m 100% certain. I’ve cancelled ALL cards, and my bank are refunding the money taken after the many cancellation emails and phone calls. Why are they doing this? Because they are a FRAUDULANT company! Mike and his team of fraudsters deserve to burn in hell. They promise everything and deliver nothing!!!!
Alan G said

am June 5 2010 @ 8:30 am

Another dodgy SEO company has cropped up called Rank Right

Written about my partners experience here
http://agraham.org/blog/2010/06/05/a-rank-seo-company/
Eugene Ras said

am June 7 2010 @ 1:02 pm

This is happening in South Africa now in a big way too
I almost fell for the same scam.
I have been contacted by the same James as mentioned in above comments.
He also promissing first page expoture and when i said no he said, well go to you nearest computer and search your company name under a search name that he gave me and there it was ! how do they do this ??
after reading all the comments however i will not be doing business with them ever !
Philip said

am June 10 2010 @ 10:59 am

Beware of a Barry Archer from Pole Position Media, offering much of the same scamming nonsense.
Leandi said

am June 10 2010 @ 1:23 pm

Hi, i just read all of your comments.

I just got a phone call from the company from the UK telling me they can get me on top google positions and that they are from google. So this is a scam?

Here is the email:
From: Chris Rhodes
Date: 2010/06/10 01:58:59 PM

Hello Leandi ,

Thank you for your time, further to our conversation earlier I have attached our terms and conditions and listed the details of our service. Our website is http://www.polepositionmedia.co.uk.
Please call me between 09.00am ˆ 17.00pm (UK time) to discuss further on 0044161 4773846 or 0044161477 1097 or email me anytime, however I will call you at a later date as discussed.

· Guaranteed First Page Listings on Google Everyday.

· June Special Offer: 1338 ZAR for 5 search terms or 2 230 ZAR for 12 search terms or 3430 ZAR for 18 search terms.

· 24/7 support.

· Account Management.

· Free One Page Webpage if required (including hosting & domain for 1 year!)

· Option of Professional website update (3,000 ZAR one off payment).

· No contracts in first month, no clauses, simply a one month trial and you decide whether to continue.

· Average position of 1.8

The first month is simply to establish which search terms will work best for your business. The price for the next month starts at 400 ZAR per month.

Once payment is made we will be notified and will have you live on google within 24 hours. You will receive a confirmation letter and invoice straight away with an analytical report (after 28 days).

Please email me when you are ready to come on board for 1 month and I will happily return the call to let you know of the availability.

Kind Regards

Chris Rhodes

Google Sales
Pole Position Media Limited
United Kingdom
http://www.polepositionmedia.co.uk

0044161 4773846

Direct Line: 0044161 4299933
Office Number: 0044161 4771097

Company Reg. 7062482
VAT Reg No. 981 463986

Kind Regards

Google Sales Team

Pole Position Media Ltd

T: 0161 477 3846

http://www.polepositionmedia.co.uk
Ronan said

am June 10 2010 @ 1:43 pm

Hi Leandi,

Yes this is absolutely a scam, Google changes its algorithm 450+ times per year, guaranteeing first page on Google is absolutely, 100% impossible. And these guys are either completely delusional or Scam artists, i’d hedge a bet on the latter.

I’ve reported them to the appropriate team Google. Thanks for posting their email.

Ronan
Ronan said

am June 11 2010 @ 3:41 pm

On 3.6.10 Mr Rodgers-Davidson has sent me a letter claiming that his business Top Spot Media is not involved in any such scams. While their firm no longer claims to sell first place on Google, It still is selling services which they have no ability to guarantee delivery of. As I’ve said to the other companies solicitors when they called, any correspondence will be made public. Below is my response to Mr. Rodgers-Davison’s letter.

Dear Mr. Rogers-Davison,

With regard to your letter dated 3.6.10, I do not take solicitations to have content removed from my personal Blog and therefore decline your request.

I am of the opinion that your service which was offering first page listings on Google and still lists your Key Benefits as being “Page One of Google with bespoke marketing text”. Is completely misleading and preys on customers who do not understand how internet marketing works and that offering “Page one of Google” is something that no one can guarantee. Google changes their algorithm 450+ times per year, you have no control over other people bidding strategies and while yes you can Geo-target to someones specific location, it’s deceiving to imply you have control over what happens on Googles pages tomorrow and take payment for such.

So that you don’t feel I’m being too harsh, I would like to point out that despite having the basic Adwords qualification which anyone can get, your own site doesn’t demonstrate that you understand or implement the basics of what you offer to sell to your customers. I understand the need for SEO’s and adwords companies but you seem to be missing the very basics of one of the biggest factors of adwords “Quality Score”.

For example, you don’t seem to understand or have used canonicals in the structure of your own site, this over any other factor would affect your page quality score.

http://www.topspotmarketing.co.uk/index.php (Is your home page)
http://www.topspotmarketing.co.uk/ (Duplicate content issue)
http://topspotmarketing.co.uk/ (401 Error)

In Ireland we call this pissing into the wind in terms of your claims of “Website optimisation aligned to high Google position maintenance”, especially when your own pages have No page rank another factor in quality score.

I have published this reply in the comment section of the blog post in question, any further communication should be made via this blog to avoid duplication of effort.

Your Sincerely,
Ronan O’Brien
keri green said

am June 11 2010 @ 11:07 pm

We were scammed by this company. Our debit card was used after we cancelled the account. Despite being told the money was being refunded, not a penny has been returned. We received no reports at all from them. Bunch of cowboys. Stay clear!!
Stephen Nutley said

am June 14 2010 @ 4:38 pm

I also have to point out that

http://www.topspotmarketing.co.uk

Is built using Flash, and yes Google can index flash, it is a huge disadvantage doing so,

I would never suggest using flash for content if it all possible

Stephen
Michael Monaghan said

am June 15 2010 @ 1:36 am

Hi,

I run a business called Apex Media and this is nothing to do with us, just to clarify that.

Mike
Ronan said

am June 15 2010 @ 1:44 am

Yeah I’d like to come in behind Mike and verify that it’s not the ApexMedia.ie is not associated with ApexMedia.biz. Mike it’s unfortunate but in the online community that business name is torched for this industry, time to re-brand.
Karen W said

am June 17 2010 @ 5:40 pm

Had a phone call from Ken today from Top Spot Marketing who sounded very genuine and well spoken. I said I wanted to read through his info first before making a decision. So glad I did as I searched this company and came up with your blog. Brilliant, keep up the good work. I presume this is part of the Storm Media scam? Ken is calling me back tomorrow and I will now tell him NO!

Dear Karen,

Top Spot Marketing is a Google Adwords Qualified Company who specialise in offering a comprehensive access point for Small and Medium Sized companies to capitalise on the world’s largest advertising space without it costing them a fortune. We tailor advertising campaigns to suit both your budget and your business requirements.

We offer a basic introductory package for £139 + vat which is detailed below:

· 10 keyphrases*

· Prominent 1st Page Listing every day for one month

· Tailor made adverts written by a Google Qualified Individual

· Unlimited keyphrase changes

· Monthly statistical report

· Dedicated account manager

· Your listings live within 48 hours

· No click costs

*subject to acceptance

3 days before the end of your period we will send you a report and you can then decide on whether to carry on in to a second month. The ongoing cost is then £30 per phrase per month.

There is no obligation for you to carry on after the first month and you can cancel your arrangement by e-mailing us or writing in to our address below.

Here is a link to our professional status as a Qualified Google Adwords Company:

https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/org?id=010465668860016506704&hl=en_GB

Gary, these prices are the usual prices, as discussed with yourself, I will help out with the start up cost to show you that we want this to work for you.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours Sincerely

Kenneth Galloway

Regional Allocation Manager

Top Spot Marketing

Ravenstone House

Britannia Rd

Sale

M33 2NN

Phone: 0161 968 8041

Fax: 0161 9739623

http://www.topspotmarketing.co.uk

mailto: adrian.conway@topspotmarketing.co.uk

https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/org?id=010465668860016506704&hl=en_GB

ILILK
Mike said

am June 18 2010 @ 6:35 am

Thanks Ronan,

Bit of a pain when I have paperwork etc etc done
Will see for now if it has much of an effect..

Dam con artists, seems they can taint anything

Oh well back to work
Marcus said

am June 18 2010 @ 7:28 am

Just been reading the Manchester Evening News and applied for a job starting at £27,000 with commission up to £45.000

was wondering if similar or same company :-

Top Spot marketing.co.uk

scott.unwin@topspotmarketing.co.uk

Yours sincerely looking for a good job.

Marcus O’Hara.
Ronan said

am June 18 2010 @ 4:04 pm

Hey Marcus, Same company i’m afraid. Things that look to good to be true usually are and anyone that “guarantee to place your website link on page one of Google every day” is a scam. Good luck in the jobs hunt.
Ronan said

am June 18 2010 @ 4:42 pm

Hi Karen, Technically nothing that is said in that email is incorrect, except for the promise that you will be on the first page of Google which is possible but not something they can guarantee. Its what they don’t say is the issue. They don’t tell you if the ad your paying for is across the country, the world or targeted to your specific street. They don’t tell you you could run the same campaign yourself for around £1 and that all the adwords reports are a free service provided by Google. In one way or another they are paying Google for any traffic that visits your site and by having a fixed price with you their motivation is to send as little traffic as possible and Maximise their revenues.

Once again if they aren’t ranking for terms like “SEO” and given how poorly their own site is designed my question would be if you say you can optimize websites why don’t you practice what you preach (sell!)

Interestingly but probably not related, I Googled their office address. The results talk about a firm called “Kerobo Claims” that would tell people they didn’t have to repay their loans for and credit card debt as they could overturn them in court, all in exchange for a small fee. The company was suspended by the Ministry of Justice on 28/05/10. I mention this only because the websites have some several common features and they share the same offices.
chris said

am June 24 2010 @ 11:47 am

Hi,
I am Managing a Small store In Southern Ireland when yesterday i got a call from TopSpot Marketing about getting us on the 1st page of the Google Web Search
this is the Follow e-mail i got from:-

John Paul (Which was at the Bottom of the e-mail)

Who as Contacted me Twice and Has Had a Great chat about England in the world cup.
On his 2nd Conversation he told me that we would have to book a place to keep our Spot Held??
The Funny thing is his Email address is:

john.poole@topspotmarketing..co.uk

i Felt a bit pressured by these calls but so far the chat has been friendly..
he is calling me back later .. and ideas
thanks

Top Spot Marketing is a Google Adwords Qualified Company who specialise in offering a comprehensive access point for Small and Medium Sized companies to capitalise on the world’s largest advertising space without it costing them a fortune. We tailor advertising campaigns to suit both your budget and your business requirements.

We offer a basic introductory package for 150 EUROS which is detailed below:

· 10keyphrases*

· Prominent 1st Page Listing every day for one month

· Tailor made adverts written by a Google Qualified Individual

· Unlimited keyphrase changes

· Monthly statistical report

· Dedicated account manager

· Your listings live within 48 hours

· No click costs

*subject to acceptance

3 days before the end of your period we will send you a report and you can then decide on whether to carry on in to a second month. The ongoing cost is then 30 EUROS per phrase per month.

There is no obligation for you to carry on after the first month and you can cancel your arrangement by e-mailing us or writing in to our address below.

Here is a link to our professional status as a Qualified Google Adwords Company:

https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/org?id=010465668860016506704&hl=en_GB

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours Sincerely

JOHN PAUL,

Top Spot Marketing

Ravenstone House

Britannia Rd

Sale

M33 2NN

Phone: 0161 968 8041

Fax: 0161 9739623

http://www.topspotmarketing.co.uk

mailto: adrian.conway@topspotmarketing.co.uk

https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/org?id=010465668860016506704&hl=en_GB

ILILK
top spot marketing ( the directors) said

am June 26 2010 @ 4:00 pm

Ronan- You have too much time on your hands and obviously not enough clients haha, if you would like us to promote your business online let us know, with prices starting at just £99 we can guarantee to get you more business and enquiries, thus allowing you to actually earn some money rather than blogging like the little bitch that you are
Ronan said

am June 26 2010 @ 7:41 pm

Sticks and stones. As for “Clients”? Probably should had done your research before you posted.

Don’t suppose you Googled your own business name lately, because for pages in Ireland your not on the first page of Google at all. Pathetic for an SEO company who shills that on their clients as their unique selling point.

So you think you can make Guarantees about first place on Google eh??? Care for a challenge to prove your worth or lack there of? If you deliver what your sales pitch offers, ie. can get three specific keywords of my choice to the top of Google in a country and to a domain of my choosing, forget the £99, i’ll write you a no strings attached cheque for £10,000. Now put up or shut up.
Karen T said

am June 28 2010 @ 1:33 pm

It’s hilarious that Top Spot Marketings’ directors commented and yet didn’t even try to pretend that the service they offer to deliver is even possible. Such a bunch of fraudsters.

You should have asked them to bet their topspotmarketing.co.uk domain against your 10k bet incase they are naive enough to take it on. haha
Shelly said

am July 6 2010 @ 5:33 pm

Hi All,

I work for one of Ronans companies so i decided to update you all on this issue.

I just received a nasty phone call from a man wanting to give Ronan some “free advise on the Google”.. alarm bells went off immediately as anyone with a brain cell in IT doesn’t call it THE Google.

The caller proceeded to ask if Ronan was a “know it all” who knows everything about the Google *again*, myself thinking the caller was clearly not with it decided to get a name and get the caller off the line. Caller refused a name and said he only called to ” take the piss out of mister know it all”. Funny thing most prank callers are smart enough to turn off caller ID so I Googled the UK number…

Why hello John Paul from Top Spot Marketing, thanks for your call.

I looked at your comment on the blog – did you know you’ve have been suspended from your Google Adwords qualification since you posted??? Classy operation you’re running there.
kenny said

am July 7 2010 @ 9:49 pm

Ronan,

Tell me what Top spot marketing, have said that is wrong?
From what i see they haven’t said anything that is actually wrong. Yes i can do SEO and Adwords myself with a first class honours in Marketing, where did you study? a lady commented earlier and said they have actually helped her, and you started bitching at her? “your site is one of the worst i have ever seen!” is one of the comments you made at her, she was very polite, seems you do very well on your one sided opinions, everyone is wrong bar YOU! where do you get off?
it is a ittle obvious a bit of sour grapes here, trying to get more business for yourself, cashing in on the mis guided claims what others have made while reputable companies you have tarnished with the same brush. I will take great pleasure in one of these companies take you to court for some of your libelious remarks As for the sheep who cannot think for themselves, and say “Ronan you are right!” in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.
Ronan said

am July 7 2010 @ 11:23 pm

Kenny,

They are selling a service which they cannot actually preform. If you think you can either explain how this is possible please post it or better still i’ll open up the 10k bet if you can deliver guaranteed first place listings. See no one can guarantee real estate on Google, they change the algorithms 450 times per year. What they are doing is deceiving customers and delivering no real value. I studied and lectured in University College Dublin. I don’t compete in these scammers market place. I don’t sell SEO services and am not a consultant. I do however own several businesses so I hate to see fledgling businesses stunted by dishonesty and greed. It’s not like i’m some anonymous name on the internet.

If they we’re credible Google wouldn’t have revoked their accreditation and just to stick my finger in the wound, yes it was me who brought it to Google’s attention!! Click the link they themselves posted. Head of Web Spam Matt Cutts spoke about how anyone selling guaranteed positions on Google is clearly a scam so are you really saying you know better than Google’s head of Webspam???

As for the lady who commented, just like the prank phone called to my offices (with Top Spot Marketing’s caller ID) some times people don’t tell you who they really are! Frankly i’m certain that “lady” was just another part of the scam pretending they got value for service. Basic SEO says if you don’t have page titles, incoming links and Meta Descriptions you wont rank, therefore her site is awful! She said they made it for her – so its a sample of their work not hers. Also she said she made great money from a site that wasn’t selling anything, well you don’t have to be a genius to work out somethings not right there.

Look if someone was a conman and someone called them on it, educating potential prey, what course of action are they likely to take? The logical thing to do would be try to discredit them and to post positive comments to counter all the bad reactions untill they can rebrand under a different name. Basically hoping peoples cop on will be over run by their curiosity / greed / desperation during the recession.

The traffic on both my blog and particularly this post is large. If there was a way to do what you are suggesting can be done while actually delivering value (not just tricking people), why not post about how it is possible here??? The fact of the matter is this post is doing damage to their “business” because this post features prominently in Google above their own website for their own name!

That no-one has actually sued is because they wouldn’t have a leg to stand up on in court.
TimmyTimmy said

am July 9 2010 @ 6:10 pm

Thats exactly what I was thinking when I read the positive posts, looks like they were written by the guys running the scam. When will people learn if it looks to good to be true, its usually too good to be true.

Just looked at the site Kenny was talking about, your right its offering free service and runs ads on the site to attempt to make revenue, so saying they made money for their business is clearly misinformation as their site so many months on still ranked ZERO with Goolge page rank so it mustn’t be getting barely any visitors.

Would be funny if they tried to explain how they run the “service” on the site. I bet its based almost targeted to a single PC and only when they are logged in to Google accounts or something.
kenny said

am July 11 2010 @ 7:15 pm

Ronan,

I am an IT consultant, i usually get my business from good old word of mouth, but, there have been times where i have used local papers, yell, goldenpages etc.
i have been called by the following companies.
storm media
Matchmaker
double click
first page allocations
fulcrum media
rank right
lime media
apex media
top spot marketing

every single one apart from Top spot marketing have said “we will get you at the very top of the first page, in the shaded area.” which you know as well as me it can only happen if they give me a crap search keyword, for example “toshiba laptop with all the discs for sale in Dublin.” nobody is going to search for that.
so they will increase the budget to say €50 per day so it as a lot of impressions (times the ad appears) and increase the CPC to increase the position of the ad.

The guy at top spot who called me, actually asked me what budget have you got to run for the month, they were the only ones who were actually honest, so the reason i have an issue with this blog.
if i had been done and ripped off by a cowboy builder, would i be in my right to start a blog and say “all builders are scam artists?”

@TimmyTimmy
which website are you referring to? i was merely pointing out that Ronan personally attacked someone who disagreed with him.

the point is you shouldn’t tar people with same brush, not all companies who manage peoples adwords accounts are all scammers! But i agree that a lot are. so before you add a label to a particular company, and libel them make sure of the facts!

i do think that you will soon be out of pocket, to an hefty tune, because i bet your blog as damaged their business, and if mine was damaged because of lies spread then only one place you would end up “in court.”
kenny said

am July 11 2010 @ 7:34 pm

Ronan,

i actually agree with you, anyone who tries to sell me “guaranteed web positions, are clearly scammers, and need to be avoided like the plague.

your key word bet is a falsehood.

on certain keywords, you would need to have a budget of 10k per day and an average cpc of 5k per click
Google’s sponsored links, are put simply, an auction. your position is determined by the amount of cost per click you put. the amount of times your advert appears is down to your budget.
Tom said

am July 19 2010 @ 6:13 pm

Hi Ronan,

I have been following your Blog with much enjoyment for nearly a year now having been ripped off by “Mike Lancaster” and his team of cronies at Storm Media. Luckily, I gave them card details rather than bank account details so was able to just cancel the card.

I have tried British Trading Standards who did actually manage to contact Lancaster who in turn contacted me to basically say no, he wouldn’t refund my money. Unfortunately the company appears to be based in Madrid so BTS were unable to do anything.

The fact of the matter is Storm Media is a scam, any postings on here praising Storm (or any of the companies other names) are clearly in on it and I commend you for the great work you have done bringing this to the attention of the masses.

Like you have said countless times, for a company that claims to guarantee 1st place on Google, yet it can’t outrank a Blog titled Storm Media And Other Scams is in my opinion not only hilarious but a damning indictment of these rogue traders.

Keep up the good work!

Tom
Tom said

am July 20 2010 @ 11:30 am

Have just been contacted by Precision Media claiming to have bought out Storm media. I asked who the MD was and was told it was Phil Kennedy – could this be the same as phil.kennedy@matchmakermarketing.co.uk ?

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/scam-key-world-media-scam-marchmakermarketing-scam-precision-media-lt-c351589.html

The first thing I was offered was a guaranteed 1st place listing on Google. Now anyone who has read this Blog knows that is not possible. When I told him it was not possible he said he would prove it. after ten mins of pleasant chat and denials that this was a scam the phone went dead. So I am guessing its the same company.

the number they call on is 0845 286 0000
Percy Chattey said

am July 22 2010 @ 11:02 am

Thanks for the blog but unfortunately a bit late for ourselves. We were approached by Storm Media last December and agreed, in our ignorance of how things work, to a one months trial for December at a cost of 99 English Pounds. This turned out to be 114.34 when they added Vat.

To our surprise in January another debit went through our account, which was refunded to us by the credit card company when we explained the agreement was for one month only. But the same thing happened in February and March it was only then did the card company recommend cancelling the card, which we did.

We thought that was the end of the matter but Storm Media by using false documentation have convinced the card company that we do owe the money and our account has beed debited again.

With the help of all the information on this blog we are hoping to be able to reverse that decision.

With best wishes.
Angie said

am July 31 2010 @ 5:45 pm

I too have been completely taken in by Storm Media. They promised me I would be on the first page of Google etc but then after quite some time they said that Google would not accept my site and that they would return my money at the end of the month. That was in May and they have done nothing – not even replied to my emails.
Last week I was then called by someone saying they were from Precision Media, just like Tom in the emal above, saying that Storm Media had gone broke and that they had taken over but could not give me my money back but they could give me a special deal if I paid £99 etc etc.- Never again!
Does anyone know about Storm Media going broke or any other information. I was dealing with the Fuengirola office in Spain? What can I now do other than warn others.
Angie
Ronan said

am July 31 2010 @ 9:26 pm

How did you pay them? Why dont you go to your bank and try to reverse the credit card charges???
Angie said

am July 31 2010 @ 10:31 pm

Sadly I paid with my debit card so I don’t think that that works.
Adrian Conway said

am August 5 2010 @ 11:06 am

Dear Ronan,

Please be aware that the comment on 26th June purporting to be from Top Spot Marketing ( the directors) is a rogue post and certainly was not posted by any director at Top Spot Marketing.

On a separate note it seems that you are slightly confused about what we actually do. When questioned about what was technically wrong/inaccurate about an email sent to one of the posters on here you answered as though we were selling SEO services which, quite clearly , we weren’t. I’d prefer that you dealt with questions in a logical way rather than ranting about your educational qualifications and your own expertise at SEO.

Regards
Ronan said

am August 5 2010 @ 12:20 pm

Adrian, what you are touting is that you have the ability to sell “a guarantee to place your website link on page of of Google everyday under five key search phases”.

Also I don’t care what you’d “prefer”, someone asked what my qualifications were and I shared them to make a point that I’m well educated in this area and not some unknown entity, like yourself, with no internet presence at all (bar a linkedin page asking for job offers).

Whats wrong with the email, well everything you offer are either free service from Google or services that you cannot guarantee to deliver. I spend massive amounts with google for PPC and therefore have studied in great detail how it all works. If you think you have some secret way of tricking Google i’d be more than happy to let you self explain how you are more intelligent than the rest of the online marketing community who combined spent $23Billion dollars on PPC with Google last year?

Also care to explain why Google has discredited “your professional status” at the link you’ve been emailing out???
Adrian Conway said

am August 5 2010 @ 1:14 pm

1.”Adrian, what you are touting is that you have the ability to sell “a guarantee to place your website link on page of of Google everyday under five key search phases”

Can you explain exactly what is incorrect about this? The only cases where we are unable to do this would be where the website has such a low Quality Scoring that it is impossible to display ads on google. Such cases are very rare.

2. As regards the google accreditation we do not guarantee positions on google. It only takes 5 approaches to google in order for them to revoke accreditation. It would appear that some of these approaches have been from you ( you’ve admitted this yourself)

3. We’ver never said that we can do something that clients cannot do for themselves for free. I often look at adwords campaigns run by the business owners themselves and 9 times out of ten they are wasting money. One solicitor client was spending 1000 euros a month and the majority of this was on the display/content network. Her ads were being displayed on sites such as NY times. Now google recommend that new advertisers display ads on the content network – the exact wording is ‘ recommmended for new advertisers’. We’ve taken over her campaign with the result that she is getting more quality enquiries and spending less money.Google certainly didn’t go out of their way to explain this to her!

4. We’ve never made any claims to be able to trick google. I’m not arrogant enough to think that I know more than the rest of the online marketing community but I do know my onions when it comes to the Adwords and I haven’t across many business owners who I haven’t been able to offer good advice to with regards to their PPC advertising on google.

5. Would you care to let me know the IP address of the comment purporting to be from the directors at Top Spot Marketing? Or at least verify that it is not from the same one as I’m emailing from?
Carl said

am August 26 2010 @ 3:45 pm

Are Dot Com Chrome a scam as well? They have contacted me regarding some google listings.
Ronan said

am August 26 2010 @ 4:27 pm

Their site is under construction so i can’t see much information, they must be brand new as its unusual for an SEO company to have a Google page rank zero. They aren’t making any claims about guarantee’s to be number one on Google so no reason to consider them a scam.
im a salesman and yes iv sold google lol said

am September 2 2010 @ 1:16 pm

u get sold a ppc campaign these companies are in competition with each not working together so companies will just rip u off an sum will do a good job it all depends wot industry u are in an what area u work in . ppc can be time consuming and all these companies do is offer to manage there campaigns for them simple its the salesman who twisteds the truth and if u believe everything sum1 says who u dont then ur stupid these aint scams its ppc

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Storm Media and other Google Scams

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