Who is Shady Business Practices Inc?
Shoemoney has an article about these sites that promise free stuff and then make you fill in ton’s of forms and shell out money to sign up for things. The article was written be someone who wished to remain anonymous and sent it to Shoemoney to print. He seems to think that these companies might be owned by ValueClick, but there is no reason why that association is made (other than the fact that ValueClick don’t seem to be in this market).
I’ve done some digging and I think either Mr anonymous is wrong, or multiple people have the same software that is generating the same code.
First take a look at the source code of these sites. They are obviously all related as they have the same source code, the same terms and conditions, and yet as Shoemoney points out they have different domain registration information. Why would you do that? Maybe if you have something to hide?
taken from Shoemoney’s article:
1) http://www.consumerdirectsavings.com
Registered to:
Inner Concepts (innerconcepts@gmail.com)
297 Kingsbury Grade #D
PO Box 4470
Stateline, NV, 89449-4470
US
775-588-0161
2) http://www.freelawntractor.com
Registered to:
eSolutions Media (admin@esolutionsmedia.net)
4001 Kennett Pike
Suite 134
Greenville, DE 19807
US
866-670-9043
3) http://www.webrewardscentral.com
Registered to:
Inc., MarketLabs.net (admin@marketlabs.net)
MarketLabs.net, Inc
40 East Main Street
#333
Newark, DE 19711-4639
US
866-348-3896
Now I started searching for some of the things in the code and tada. I got a hit. Search for get_demographic and you get a nice link from the FTC. Oh look its about a similar company, bestrewardsaround.com. Same code.
The link shows documentation of ads that don’t conform to some settlement from a company called Zango Inc. And guess who owns it…. None other that Mr Keith Smith and Daniel Todd, formerly known as 180Solutions Inc. Sounds about right.
Seems to me they are trying to hide from their past as it might frighten too many victims.
Of course there always was a relationship between ValueClick and 180Solutions. Maybe Shoemoney has more information than I have found.
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