John Vincent says: "The Real Power is in Your Opt In List. BUILD IT!!!

Scams...A New One!

SCAMS: A New One!

I'm sure you've received emails galore, you've seen the website with the meditating man at the top of the page and you read the page about a too good to be true program called MTT or More Than Traffic.

This program turns out to be a # 1 SCAM check out the details below:

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=11412&page=1
http://morethantraffic.cc
http://morethantrafficscam.com
http://www.associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic17315.html
http://blake.wordpress.com/2006/05/26/convinced-ive-been-scammed/
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9513
http://www.computerincome.net/advertising-reviews.html (scroll to the bottom)
http://www.moneymakergroup.com/index.php?showtopic=63588
And too many more to mention here…

So what is the evidence that has been presented to determine MoreThanTraffic.com is indeed a scam?

For the benefit of newcomers here is a brief rundown on the scam so far, there is more information buried in this thread but I haven’t had the time to go through and collect everything. This should be enough to arouse the interest of any LE Dept you take it to and they can always be referred to this thread if they need more info.

Please also take any emails you have received from MTT, complete with the email headers. This is very important and help with this can be found here:
http://www.ispa.org.za/spam/extractheaders.shtml

Although I agree that complaints should be filed online with the FTC and other agencies it is also very important that you contact your local LE and file a complaint with them. This was suggested to me by the cops in Liverpool, UK. This will hopefully speed up the process of taking these scammers out. Explain the connection between MTT, Monopoliser and Juice Boosted.

THe domain name morethantraffic.com was registered through Godaddy on 6th Sep 2005 (My #1 Rule: If a program has not been on the internet for at least 4 years ...with a good track record ... I ignore it). The domain expires exactly one year later, a sure sign that MTT didn’t plan to be around too long. The registration details are bogus, false name (John Smith??? Might as well have been John Doe), hotmail account,hidden telephone number and a maildrop which apparently is just one of a series of maildrops.

Administrative Contact:
Smith, John morethantraffic@hotmail.com
More Than Traffic
Temple House
221-225 Station Road
Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2TH
United Kingdom

08707202218 Fax — 08707202219

Mail delivered to the address above is supposedly forwarded to a non existent address as shown below, according to the lady in building management…

Morethantraffic.com
No 7 Church Yard
Ashford
GM23 1QG

The address above does not exist, the correct address is here and I believe this address has major significance:
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=188061&postcount=145

Here’s a little info on UK 0870 numbers which can replace any number, even International Numbers.
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=186106&postcount=95

It was discovered that MTT didn’t accept Paypal despite displaying the Paypal logo on the website and neither do they accept credit cards for payment. Two Huge Red Flags. Not only does this make it difficult to track the payments but this can also make it impossible to obtain a refund when things go wrong.

Other Red Flags…..

• Bogus results on keyword searches.
  On their website you can request a search report for a keyword. Several people have tested this with requesting search results for words like “fsibdisyenflso” and would receive a report stating that this keyword got round and about 10,000 people searching the word in the last 2 hours… Soon after this was published online, the script was changed to filter out bogus keywords. Results however are ALWAYS between 7,000 and 16,000 search queries in 2 hours…

• Rude and unprofessional customer support.
  Customers of this program have reported to have been insulted or simply ignored when asking questions. Or not receiving a real answer but a pasted selection from the website’s FAQ page. Also any customer who has the guts to ask legitimate but ‘dangerous’ questions, risks their account being blocked. If also an affiliate for the program, their affiliate account suspended and commissions forfeited. Examples of ‘dangerous’ questions include but aren’t limited to:
  • ‘Why was my affiliate commission not paid in time?’
  • ‘Can you tell me the names of companies who’ve earned $100,000 with your system in the past?’
  • ‘Why do I always get an answer machine when I try to phone you?’

• No reference of real sites benefitting from this service.
  If you look at the testimonials on their website, you’ll find no real names and no website addresses. Sometimes a company name is mentioned which allowed to research the Fruto Vida claim (see below). Otherwise they claim to have had bizarre successes in the past while developing this system. (Mainly with casino and porn sites btw - because nobody cares to check these out?) Several customers have requested to see real stats with real back account results from existing customers, only to have their account blocked without further explanation…

• Bogus testimonials on the MTT website.
• In their testimonials they claim “…Fruta Vida just paid me $420,000USD…”, when contacted about this Fruta Vida said it was a lie. Other testimonials which stated the customer names and profession/product have been researched, but no results were found when searching for both name and product on the internet.

• Recently banned by Egold.
  Twice by now actually…

The website FAQ says that morethantraffic.com started out as www.CommissionHQ.com in early 2002. But a Whois search shows that the CommissionHQ.com domain was created in 2004. To date nobody who purchased one of the traffic packages has received the traffic as promised.

MTT was connected to Monopoliser, another very well publicised scam, very early on. Both scams share the same bank account, and the name Simon Baxter appears as a contact for the affiliates and victims of both scams.

MTT Emails appear to be sent from Spain but this could be a deliberate ploy to throw victims off track.

MTT Bank Details:

Company Address:
Temple House,
221-225, Station Road,
Harrow
HA1 2TH
United Kingdom

Domestic Bank Account Number: 02906449

Sort Code: 72-00-00

Name of Bank: Alliance and Leicester Bank PLC.
Bridle Road, Bootle, Merseyside. GIR 0AA.

BIC Code / SWIFT CODE: GIRBGB22
IBAN: GB27GIRB72000002906449

Compare the details above with the bank details for Monopoliser
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=10215&postcount=319

And for Red Hot Digital[TV.] - Not to be confused with another legitimate company of the same name.
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=199326&postcount=808

Those who paid for Monopoliser “services” by check were instructed to make checks payable to Red Hot Digital[TV.]
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=7130&postcount=8

Connection between Monopoliser and Juice Boosted:
http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=10099&postcount=306

(Above information courtesy of ‘richardboyce’ from www.scam.com - link: http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=206229&postcount=1323)

In the mean time more and more reports are dripping in from customers who…

• never received affiliate commissions;
• who found their stats were cleared when commissions were due (again no affiliate commissions);
• who are not getting any significant traffic sent to their websites;
• who are seeing their accounts blocked when asking questions;
• who are seeing their accounts blocked without asking questions to customer support directly, but because they posted questions on one of the scam forums;
• who are threatened with legal action and otherwise if they should publicly state anything negative about this program;
• who are receiving tens of emails daily urging them to participate in the special $60,000 program (see Terry’s 2nd email as well) which promises extra sales when shelling out more cash…
• et cetera.

Here’s one customer report (of the many by now…):

I havent posted here since the 5th of May but have followed the thread sitll on a daily basis, i have been waiting for the friend of mine also with MTT to get to his 68 day delivery which has now arrived & gone again.

He contacted me yesterday to state he had been waiting first of all for 5 MTT commissions for clients he sold into this rubbish, he was due to be paid on the 1st of May BUT RECEIVED NOTHING, the 10th went by & so did the 15th, he then e mailed them again to ask for the money he had been promised, no reply, what’s new.

On the 16th of May he went to his MTT account & found all £372 in commission had gone, he had a zero by his total & no clients under his downline, he complained again this time with force, no reply to over 10 e mails sent.

17th May he logged into his account again, username & password invalid for both MTT client site & affiliate site. His base stats site the one which was packed full of .html pages they had created was offline completely.

Yesterday the client site was gone & the affiliate site has been removed, not only has 77 days elapsed since his order was created he has received no traffic from them & now has been deleted as a client & affiliate for making a complaint.

MTT would not take a credit card from him nor paypal, he had to send postal orders to the Temple house address, yet one more person to add to a vey long list of people who have lost their money & will never see justice done.

The normal complaints to the police have been made & a fax was sent to Carol Grossobel the Temple house center manager begging her to start listening to people about MTT being a scam & her letting them use her office space to collect money by fraud, he is waiting for a reply.

(Above information courtesy of ‘deepdigger’ from www.scam.com - link: http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=200657&postcount=917)

You can find plenty more of these accounts when you research the links I gave you at the beginning. The http://www.morethantraffic.cc link is an interesting one since it is a blog started by an affiliate who genuinely believed this to be a great program…

Will This Evidence Hold In Court?

That is a big question people are quarreling about. I frankly wouldn’t know. It probably depends on where these scammers are really from. It seems to be from the UK. There are also signs they may be located in Spain or the US. But does it really matter at this point?

What matters is that YOU don’t fall into this trap. There is enough ambigious material out there to doubt the integrity of this company. As long as nobody has come forward with proof that this system does work, I’d stay miles and miles clear of it.

Some other points to consider…

When you do participate in this program, you will receive a new website which runs the software that is supposed to gather your traffic. It was mentioned on the www.scam.com forum thread that though the site is registered in your name, you don’t really have control of what’s happening on this site.

This is only speculation, but in theory the people who are in control could start using your site to spam. And if they do, you are the person who is legally responsible meaning you get the blame and have to bare the repercussions…

Even though it has not been reported happening so far, the fact that the company’s customer service has been behaving terrible, the fact that they state their successful customers all come from an industry which is notorious for their spamming behavior, the fact that customers have reported their accounts being shut down and their access to their new sites blocked should be enough to be extremely precautious about any dealings with these people.

I have also noticed claims that people who are promoting a scam can be prosecuted for fraud as well - but again I don’t know how this really works out legally.

I think this is a great story to illustrate how a little due diligence can save you from a lot of tears about a wasted investment. The internet is a wonderful medium but one of the hardest to determine if you are dealing with a genuine business. Not all which shines is gold…

John C Vincent