This is my advice to those who received emails claim to maintain your website's listing, help you boost your traffic, etc.
How did the story begin?
It started I worked for dmoz.org (Open Directory Project, owned by Netscape) from July 1999 until November 2001.
Recently, I received at least 3 emails from Topsitez.us
The one I received on 18th January,
(Note: email was sent in HTML format)
From - Sat Jan 18 19:50:14 2003
X-UIDL: 1042879607.999
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: <postmaster@topsitez.us>
Received: from [192.168.1.2] ([64.2.62.8]) by ; Sun, 12 Jan 2003 19:39:38 -0600
Received: from topsites (localhost.concentric.net) by [192.168.1.2] (LSMTP for Windows NT v1.1b) with SMTP id <0.0020EEDB@[192.168.1.2]>; 12 Jan 2003 6:55:55 -0800
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 06:54:47 -0700
From: "Paul Thomas" <postmaster@topsitez.us>
Subject: Netscape Version Guide - Silly Dog 701 - Summarises the new features of each major release of Netscape, and includes a list of links to press releases. http://sillydog.org/netscape/verinfo.html
To:
bcc: <sales@sillydog.org,info@sillydog.org,webmaster@sillydog.org,>
Reply-To: <sales@topsitez.us>
Organization: topsitez.us MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_000B_01C238C5.A7241DF0"
X-Priority: 1 (Highest)
X-MSMail-Priority: High
Importance: High
Precedence: bulk
X-Rcpt-To: <webmaster@sillydog.org>
X-DPOP: Version number supressed
X-UIDL: 1042879607.999
Status: U
TOPSITES LLC
3328 West Coleman Road, Kansas City, MO 64111 USA - Phone 415-294-5300
Could you please be so kind as to click on renew for information on renewing your listings in the TopSites-us directory listing by Sunday, January 19, if you do not mind? If you cannot access the Internet, let me know and I will renew your listings for you. Your listings only cost US $5 a month (other currencies).
If you have any questions, please click FAQs. If you cannot find your answer there, please let me know. I will be happy to help in any way I can.
Kind Regards,
Paul Thomas
To remove your address from our mailing list and to cancel all of your listing simply click unsubscribe.
RENEW YOUR LISTINGS FOR $5 A MONTH
Netscape Version Guide - Silly Dog 701
Summarises the new features of each major release of Netscape, and includes a list of links to press releases.
http://sillydog.org/netscape/verinfo.html
Category: Top / Computers / Software / Internet / Clients / WWW / Browsers / Netscape
Netscape Browser Archive
One simple and comprehensive page for downloading nearly any version of Netscape browsers for Windows, Mac, Linux, and OS/2. Featured in Dynamic version.
http://sillydog.org/narchive/
Category: Top / Computers / Software / Internet / Clients / WWW / Browsers / Netscape
REACH A MILLION
Let us introduce you (a million times)
People often ask, "How can you guarantee to show my listing a million times? What if I am in an unpopular category?" It does not matter! Why? AutoSearch--our patent pending tool--continually displays renewed TopSites-us listings on our users’ PCs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That is why we can guarantee to show your listing more than a million times a year.
Save $40,000 in adverting
It would cost you up to $40,000 to display your listing a million times at sites like MSN and Altavista. Googles charges up to $200,000 depending on your category. At TopSites-us we charge $5 a month!
Save $100 re-listing fee
Please do not let your listing expire. Our editors listed you without charge. If your listing expires, however, you may need to pay a $100 editorial review fee to get listed again. And our editors may not re-list you if there are many listings in your category.
Only TopSites-us gives you:
* Massive Reach: We display our listings billions of times a year. We guarantee to show your listing more than a million times a year.
* Cost-Effectiveness: This is the least expensive advertising you will ever buy. You want to bring lots of potential customers to your site in a cost-effective way. TopSites-us does exactly that!
* Highly Targeted Leads: TopSites-us reaches customers when they are searching for what you are selling. That means high sales and low costs. More visitors become customers!
* Highest Return on Investment: Independent research confirms that you get the highest ROI from online listings like TopSites-us. E-mail, banners and other forms of online advertising all have a lower ROI. And unlike direct mail, you pay nothing for mailing lists, printing or postage. No media buy returns better results than TopSites-us.
* No-Risk: Cancel your listing any time for any reason--no questions asked!
* Hassle-Free: Change your listing anytime or even move it to a different category--for free--and your changes will instantly appear in the directory
"TopSites-us is the least expensive way I have found to bring buyers to my site. I have tried other online advertising companies and you beat everyone!"
--P.A., President, Go Software (g-o.us)
"TopSites-us makes my online marketing easy. I can change my message 24 hours a day so it is always up-to-date. And everyone who sees it is a pre-qualified prospect."
--N.B., CEO, My News (my-news.org)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
* Can I change my listing?
You can change your listing now or later. You can rewrite the headline and description before renewing. You can change the URL too—even to another website.
Once we receive payment, we will send you instructions on how to change your listing whenever you like. (There is no charge to do this.)
* Can I change my category?
Can I list my site in additional categories?
Can I list other sites too?
You can list as many sites in as many categories as you like. Each listing costs only $5 per month per category. Just click TopSites-us. Click on the category links until you find the one you want (or search on your keywords). Click on the Add My Site link. Then type your listing. If your old listing was in the wrong category, you can click on the Cancel button to cancel it.
* How much does a listing cost?
It costs $5 a month to list your site in TopSites. We will bill you for 12 months. There are no additional costs. You can change your listing as often as you like for free. You can cancel your listing anytime and we will refund your remaining money.
* How do I pay?
You can pay with a check from any country. (Simply convert the amount to your local currency.) Or you can pay by Visa, MasterCard or American Express. Simply select the option you prefer on the renewal form.
* Can you call me and tell me more?
We are happy to answer all your questions by email but we do not contact our customer by phone at this time. Sorry.
* Can I still renew after your deadline?
We give our customers a month to renew so do not worry too much about the deadline.
* How do I see my listing?
I could not find it when I searched.
You can see your listing on our website by clicking on the Renew button and then on the Your Category tab. Or you can go to TopSites-us and click on the categories until you get to yours.
You can also see it at TopSites-us by entering two or more keywords from your listing into our search form. Since we have more than three million listings, you probably will not find your listing by searching on only one word. And you definitely will not find it if you search on words that are not in your listing.
* What keywords display my listing?
How do I change them?
Every word in your listing is a keyword. Anytime someone searches on two or more words in your listing, we will display it. The only way to change your keywords is to change the headline or description of your listing.
* How much traffic did you send us last year?
We do not know. Sorry. We are working on adding this feature.
* Who listed us?
When did our listing start?
We do not know. Sorry. We only began to keep track of names and dates this year.
* How much did we pay to get listed?
Originally you could not buy a listing—you had to wait for our editors to select you as one of the top sites in your category.
* Do we have a contract with you?
We do not do contracts for a $5 service.
(Note: email was sent in HTML format.)
Fraud!
They laid in that email... many proofs...
1. they send this junk to following three email address, sales@sillydog.org,info@sillydog.org,webmaster@sillydog.org. I do not use webmaster@sillydog.org.
(Why I don't use webmaster@sillydog.org see below)
2. They STOLE data from dmoz.org and claimed they own the data.
Please note, everyone can use data from dmoz.org, however, there's license agreement.
3. Those listing and descriptions are STOLEN from dmoz.org, and they are not promoting it at all.
4. listing in dmoz.org is free (although not by request, being reviewed by dmoz editors), why do I need to pay USD 5 / listing / month for topsitez.us
5. all the links in the email contain hidden information...
(such as http://topsitez.us/faq/index.htm?id=704625&d=sillydog.org&op=cat&c=1 )
6. how many people is searching through topsitez.us?
7. They can't fool people like me worked for dmoz.org before.
Later, I received more emails from them with following differences...
Could you please be so kind as to click on renew for information on renewing your listings in the TopSites-us directory listing by Friday, February 28, if you do not mind? Or if you cannot access the Internet, simply ask me to renew your listings for you. Your listings only cost US $5 a month (other currencies) per category.
Could you please be so kind as to click on renew for information on renewing your listings in the TopSites-us directory listing by Saturday, April 5, if you do not mind? Or if you cannot access the Internet, simply ask me to renew your listings for you. Your listings only cost US $5 a month (other currencies) per category.
Antony's Suggestions
- Don't reply to any of those website listing offer. You can get your website listed in popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc, why pay for unheard and possibly fake searching sites.
- Do NOT click anything within such emails, particular HTML formatted emails. They all trace who (or which fools) click it.
- Suggestion, disable JavaScript for Mail/News and disable cookies for Mail/News.
Footnote
Why I don't use standard from of email address such as webmaster@sillydog.org ?
I am not getting myself SPAMMED, at least saves me time to filter out junks.
In the footer of every sillydog701 page, there is a link to Feedback form, which is the standard way to contact me if you don't have my email address. It also means, people sending feedback forms are real visitors, not from mass emailing programmes.
(more to come)
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)
