Offshore Alert review: Slandering 5

This is possibly the most ###ic and dishonest posting about OffshoreAlert that I have ever seen (and that's saying something).

Within a few hours of the above message being posted on this site, I received an email from "Anthony Godley", who provided a link to the above 'complaint' and offered to have it removed, for a fee, of course. I have copied and pasted Godley's email below in its entirety.

Although he claimed his business, Bloomer Digital, was based in London, I searched the records of Companies House and there is no company called Bloomer Digital incorporated in England. I visited 'bloomerdigital.com' and found there was no web-site at that address and also found that the domain name is registered through a privacy company.

So the scam seems to be this: Post a negative message about a company and then send them an email soliciting money in order for it to be removed.

David Marchant
OffshoreAlert

This is the message I received:

Hi there,

We have found negative content appearing on the search engines about your business.

Below is a sample of some of the negative content we found:

Offshore Alert Newsletter — Fraud, cheating, misrepresentation
http://www.complaintboard.com/offshore-alert-newsletter-l9946.html
OffshoreAlert — Slandering

This type of negative content really can prove disastrous for a business, especially in today’s web based society.

Make no mistake, your current and prospective customers are looking at this information and be assured that the creator of these complaints will be writing complaints elsewhere.

Bloomer Digital provides comprehensive Reputation Management services; we are an international leader in the field.

Please see attached for some information from our online media kit.

The process is simple. One fixed monthly fee, no on-going contract and complete online security.

Some of our previous customers include:

Avon.com
Lidl.co.uk
Philippines Department of Tourism
Imperial Bank
Talk Fusion
BetOnMarkets

AND MANY MORE…

We offer a very cost effective solution to Online Reputation Management and will get negative content removed from search engines and repopulate search engines with new, fresh and optimised content.

We also have a full ScamBoard & Scambook Business Resolve Account and have hundreds of complaints removed from Scambook & ScamBoard every month.

Please see more information by going to our Reputation Management page which also includes some Project Examples:

http://www.bloomerdigital.com/online-reputation-management-orm

Of course at this stage there is no obligation, but it would be great if we could have a chat about how this can be achieved and perhaps discuss any questions you may have?

We hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

--
ANTHONY GODLEY
Director

Bloomer Digital - Digital Marketing Specialists

FOLLOW US:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ReverseMediaGroup
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReverseMediaLTD

EMAIL: anthony@bloomerdigital.com
HEAD OFFICE UK: [protected]
LONDON OFFICE: [protected]
WEB: www.bloomerdigital.com
SKYPE: reversemedia

REGISTERED ADDRESS: Unit 8 Cherry Court, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 5LA

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

The first part of the scam was a complaint from someone who called himself "C. Grahame" and used an email address of cgrahame1983@hotmail.com. I replied to his purported email address asking for more information and my email was bounced back (see below).

David Marchant

This is the mail system at host smtp16.relay.dfw1a.emailsrvr.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

: host mx4.hotmail.com[65.54.188.72] said: 550
Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable (in reply to RCPT TO
command)

The first part of the scam was me being sent the following email:

From: offshorealert@offshorealert.com [mailto:offshorealert@offshorealert.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 10:22 AM
To: cgrahame1983@hotmail.com
Cc: offshorealert@offshorealert.com
Subject: Editorial / Forum Issues

Good day Stop using my name and putting up false information in my name. After I did a googal search of my name, I found your posting. Let me be clear if this is not removed. I will be forced to find your true address through the Bermuda courts and serve you, You can not hide behind the vale of the internet as you have to log on to a computer (IP address) and if you do receive money from your site your real contact information can be ordered by a court from your bank. As you may know. I am asking nicely and if I see this fraudulent posting (which came to be after I visited your site looking for information on a case) within two weeks. I will proceed without any more communication to you but through your local court system. Have a good day Mr. C. Grahame

____

I replied to the email asking for specific information and my email was bounced back (see below).

This is the mail system at host smtp16.relay.dfw1a.emailsrvr.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

: host mx4.hotmail.com[65.54.188.72] said: 550
Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable (in reply to RCPT TO
command)

Today, I spoke with Anthony Godley, of Bloomer Digital, who explained to me that his business' software was specifically designed to pick up reputationally-damaging comments about individuals and businesses as soon as they appeared on the Internet and immediately notify the party being disparaged.

So what appeared to me to be suspicious (being contacted only an hour or so after a negative message was posted) may simply have been an example of the effectiveness of Bloomer Digital's software.

After speaking with Mr. Godley, I accept that neither he nor any of his employees wrote the offending message.

David Marchant
Owner & Editor, OffshoreAlert

Hello everyone, I just wanted to warn you about a person I hired from
PPH, namely Anthony Godley who is the owner of Bloomer Digita!

The former person was suppose to do a web design and front-end
development for me, and in the beginning he was very friendly and kind,
and then the problems started and after many discussions we decided to
continue with him as he managed to persuade me. However, the problem was
that this Anthony Godley did not at all either design the website as I
wanted it to be, and even though I tried to meet him to describe to him
several times he did not have time. But when the deadline were getting
closer he more or less called me on Skype telling me that he had sent a
zip folder to both me and another person I was working with saying that
the work had been completed. Then he contacted me and told me that he
wanted the money for the job he had done, and started to be very
impolite to me on the phone. It was then that everything started to get
ugly, this due to that I had found out that the zip folder he had sent
to me neither contained the completed material and that there were
several bugs with the actual work. But still Anthony claimed that the
work was done and that he wanted to have his money, and I several time
tried to explain to him that I did not believe that the work was done
and that I did not want to pay any money for the job he had done until I
had seen it completed. Unfortunate he started to threaten me, insult
me and call me all kind of insulting things and it even went so far that
I have now called the police both in England and in my home country and
filed reports against him. To my evidence for this accusation I have
saved our Skype chat (containing the threat, insults and his lies), and
have also had the zip folder checked by 3 independent experts and have
now to hide on a secret address until the police have done their
investigation as I am scared of that he will try to harm me. The
saddest thing is that this person has now said he has reported me to the
police because I had apparently threatened him, which I think is really
strange as our Skype chat and email correspondences shows quite the
opposite and have shown that to the police who thought it was really
strange that he must have felt threaten by me and still continue to act
as my friend and "doing" the work.
So my first notice is to warn you all from Anthony Godley and his company Bloomer Digital!

I come from a Christian tradition and have been studying a BA and MA in
Theology and having been living in my little Theology bubble I have not
been able to either see or understand why someone would lie to me or
want to harm me. But I have now understood that people have exploited
my kindness and honesty, and that I am an easy prey because I have this
belief that people are always kind and honest to me! Because of the
whole situation I have now lost a lot of money on both these people, and
being a poor student with a thin budget it did not make me much more
happier when Anthony only laughed against me saying that he did not care
about money because it was so little for him anyway! But for me it is a
lot of money as I had saved this money to be able to do this homepage,
and had to sacrifice buying books, online journals, and other things
needed for my studies in order to pay the deposit to Anthony. Plus that
some of the money were money which my local Church had given to me
because they knew I had a very tight budget and wanted to help me, so I
feel really sad and bad now as I feel that I have "fooled" my Church as
these money could have been spent on better things than paying his
luxury life!

I know that either Anthony or someone else may reply to this text and
try to make me look as I am a liar and whatever they may be able to dig
up, but I am not too worried about that as I have shown the police the
evidences which I have and they have informed me that there are too many
evidences indicating that I have been scammed and threatened.
So please be cautious if you are doing business with either Anthony or
Bloomer Digital please be cautious as Anthony is now under investigation
for scam, threat from both UK, my home country and apparently US
because there are suspicions that he may have scammed people there.
But, I cannot say that he in my case has been convicted in any court,
only alert you about him and that he is now under police report for
these things in three different countries!

Thanks!