(Possible) Scam alert: FeedBlitz
Just saw this on Mashable. Have to say, while I’ve seen plenty of extortion scams (including a half-dozen variations of hit man scenarios ranging from pitiful to downright funny) this is the first web 2.0 your-name-held-for-ransom scam I’ve come across.
Here’s what the folks at Mashable had to say about the correspondance they received from Feedblitz. You can read their whole post here.
It’s been a while since I’ve heard much from FeedBlitz, and even longer since they’ve been profiled here at Mashable. In fact, the last time they did anything that got written up here was summer of last year when Kristen talked about a new “Web 2.0 Newsletter Service.” Jason Clarke over at DownloadSquad profiled a service from FeedBlitz today, and it may be many things he says, but one thing you can’t say is that it doesn’t rest inside an innovative business model.
The general idea seems to be splogging as a service - that is they are offering as a service (a paid service, to be exact) the ability to register a subdomain of FeedBlitz in which you can syndicate your existing content to a customizable page, or pretty much the same thing you can do on any number of free webhosting solutions, but for $9.99 a month.
Instead of simply realizing somewhere along the way that this was a sort of silly idea to ask people to pay for, FeedBlitz has gone pro-active and started direct mailing content producers like Jason, encouraging them to sign up:
I feel secure though, because I received an email from FeedBlitz letting me know about this new service, and telling me that they’ve taken the time to reserve three possible subdomains for me that I might want on their site. And as long as I pay for them by August 10th, I don’t have to worry about the teeming hordes of internet bad guys out there that are looking to steal them out from under me. Uh, right.
So what we’re looking at is the implication that they’re creating a site for you, possibly with your content, and if you don’t buy the service, someone else will.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 6:58 am and is filed under Crime / Scams, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
