A Tale of 2 WAHMs

Today I got yet another spam email from Mrs. Samantha Kobs. This time she’s crossed a very large line.

If selling advertising for insane prices on new sites wasn’t bad enough, she’s now offering a “business opportunity” that may or may not exist. The cost could very well bankrupt many WAHMs. Fortunately the website is not that well put together, so it’s unlikely that people will fall for it.

For $3,000 she’s offering a few free magazines (which we have yet to see exist and was to be released just last month), and a weak set up to sell these magazines. In return they get 30% commission on advertising they sell.

Here’s the major red flags that go up for us:

- No examples of the magazine and no proof it exists
While it was suppose to be released in June 2008, there is no real proof this magazine exists. Actually, I’ve now seen two different dates - June and July. In fact, I saw these two dates on the same page! There’s also no details on how it’s published, where it’s printed, and so on.

- Poorly designed and organized site
It’s hard to follow anything on the site, and it really is very poorly organized. Scattered general content is just stuffed here and there, and the home page is nothing but one big ad space. A professional, serious magazine’s website does NOT look like this.

- Too many ad spaces
In addition to selling ad space in this “magazine” and selling copies of it, she’s also selling ad space. There is NO reason for this many ad spaces since the magazine can’t be viewed online - unless of course your trying to swindle every dollar you can from wahms (see publications like “Parents” - even they use advertising sparely because their goal is subscriptions). Not to mention this site is very new, so to charge what she’s charging is a true rip-off.

- Known spammer
This person has used some pretty unethical (and illegal) tactics for building her mailing lists. I ended up with just 2 email addresses on her list, but others had several more. The addresses were made up or harvested from groups, message boards, and websites. What’s worse she KNEW what she was doing. She was TOLD this was illegal and unethical, but continued to spam people anyway. She still has yet to take one of my email addresses (one that was only used to accept payments and had to be harvested off a website). BIG mistake on her part, since I now know about her latest scam.

People, don’t fall for her scam. $3,000 is a lot of money to most WAHMs, and I can tell you right now you won’t get anything in return. Since everything is so poorly put together, I doubt many would fall for it, but I wanted to put this warning out there anyway. Do NOT give money to Samantha Kobs, KobsMedia, WahmWahm Magazine, or any of her other websites. She is a true scam artist and needs to learn how to be a professional, honest business woman.

Oh boy has this one hit home BIG TIME in the past couple of weeks.  There is a huge spammer around right now who’s not only spamming a bunch of work at home moms … but also harvesting email addresses.

Between myself, Kara, Val and Lauren I’m guessing that we’ve now received probably over 50 of this women’s newsletters.  And guess what?  We’ve received this many copies within about 2 or 3 issues! 

She’s sent to every one of our legitimate email addresses as well as some fake.  See, I myself have something set up as a “catch all” email account.  So, if someone sends something to anything that ends in @mommyshelperonline.com, I still receive it.  For me, she made up addresses such as contact@, sales@, etc. etc. 

She must be using some form of harvesting software because for Kara and I, she also used an email address that is used to only accept payments.  This email address is not published anywhere besides in HTML code for our shopping cart on one site.

Normally, when I’m adding things to my “unprofessional business acts” series I don’t use names or website addresses unless I have permission.  However, in this case … We’re all so tired of receiving these emails that this time I am going to.  Another reason I’m going to is because this particular women is well aware that this is not allowed.  I know this because I have told her and so has all three of the others mentioned above.

I know for a fact that she certainly read my warning because she did indeed remove some of my email addresses.  I’d also like to share with each of our readers exactly what can happen if you’re caught for spamming and/or email harvesting:

The following is an overview of the CAN SPAM Act from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission):

- > You cannot use false or misleading header information. This must be accurate and identify you or who you are affiliated with.

- > You cannot use deceptive subject lines. You cannot use one subject line to encourage someone to open the email and have the contents of the email say something different.

- > You must offer an opt-out method. This is so that the receiver can choose to not receive any other mail from you. This law is often misconcepted at being for mailing lists only. By law, this is not so. This includes any commerical emailing at all. (This includes business opportunities.)

- > The email must be identified as an advertisement and you must include a valid physical postal address. You must let it be known that you are sending a solicitation email which is an advertisement. You also must include your postal address along with opt-out instructions.

Be sure to read and inform yourself of the full Can Spam Act. Ignorance is NOT an excuse! Did you know that each violation is subject to fines of $11,000.00?

As I said, this particular spammer has been well-warned and has decided to NOT take the proper action. It’s bad enough that she’s harvesting emails. It’s bad enough that we’re recieving issues of a newsletter that we did NOT opt to receive. But we’re not just recieving one per issue - we’re receiving several per issue. It’s gotten entirely out of hand!

The more I investigate this all … the more people I find she’s doing this too. There is one particular yahoo group that is immense in size. She’s apparently chose to take the addresses from these people also. It’s also obvious that she’s targeting work at home moms. I guess I could say this is about the only thing she’s doing right. With her list of websites … she’s targeting the right group, lol!

For those of you that also have fallen victim to Samantha Kobs of KobsMedia, WahmWahm.com, DirectSalesMommy.com and SalesMommy.com to name a few … you can take the following actions to report her:

Simply forward the newsletter that you did not subscribe for to her mailing list provider here:
abuse@streamsend.com (Use this email address ONLY for emails received from Samantha Kobs!)

You can also forward this newsletter to the FTC here:
spam@uce.gov

Now keep in mind … if you’ve fallen victim to any spammer, you can forward the email to the above address to the FTC. This email account creates a database to store the information so they can pursue law enforcement actions against spammers.

And if you haven’t figured it out from what I’ve said above … NEVER, EVER, EVER SPAM! It’s just not worth it.

Apparently the possibility of having the Unprofessional Business Acts  a “regular thing” here is a good idea!  I’ve had many requests to continue with this series and I’ll do my best to keep up with it.  I do have a few more stories to share but, if you really want it to continue, make sure you share your experiences with me.  Like one reader said:

I think you should make a series of it. Not only can us old timers learn and laugh about things but I think its a great learning source for newbies who are clueless. I would love to see a series on that topic so I am giving you my personal vote on it!

So, that said … let’s move onto today’s Unprofessional Business Act - Unprofessional Direct Sales Representatives

Kara actually shared this story with me.  
A friend of hers was invited to an ”adult company” party.  Her friend as well as many of the guests had been looking forward to it because these types of parties have quite a reputation for being a lot of fun.  Her friend had actually had every intention of booking a party and one of the guests had saved of $200 in cash just for this party.  Can’t beat that!  Ready made bookees AND sales - before they even got there! 

 Well apparently this particular representative had it in mind that it was all professional - meaning NO fun allowed.  This representative actually scolded the girls for giggling - saying “come on girls, let’s get serious“.  She told them not to make any jokes about it as it “is a serious matter and we all jsut need to get through this together“.

Of course as a result … the lady who had been saving money just for the party got up and left.  Two others followed behind her and Kara’s friend decided to not book a party.  Ouch!  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

There’s definitely a few lessons to be learned here:

 - > Never, ever scold your guests.  Never - end of story.

 - > Yes, you DO need to maintain some level of professionalism at a home party, I agree.  However, the idea of a home party is to create a fun and inviting atmosphere. 

 - > We all know there are a few important messages to be heard at all parties.  This message of course would be to book future parties, make sales and hopefully do some recruiting.  So, when it’s time to hear the important messages, say something like:

I’m so glad you ladies are having such a great time.  This is what makes my parties such a success.  However, if you could please just give me 5 minutes of your un-divided attention, I promise we’ll get right back to the fun stuff.Your guests will appreciate this.  There’s not a single guest sitting in front of you that don’t already know you’re going to pitch the business.  They expect it.  With the promise of getting back to the “fun stuff” … they will give you their attention.

  - > You let your guests decide how the party is going to “go”.  I guarantee you this - Laughing, giggling, joking and story sharing WILL mean more sales and probably more bookings.  This is a guarantee for all companies but especially a company such as this.  When the guests are sharing stories - guess what they’re doing?  They are selling your product for you.

 - > Always treat your guests with the utmost respect - always.  Scolding and nasty looks is how you treat a kindergartener - NOT your potential customers, party bookers and recruits. 

There of course is so many more lessons to be learned here and I could go on all day.  However, a lot of these are just plain common sense.  Use it at all parties - yes, all of them.

Click here to visit our message boards to read the conversation of many others who had something to say about this matter as well as hear from the guest who didn’t book a party. 

So, what do you think?  Is laughing at home parties acceptable?

—————————————————————————————–
If you have a story you’d like to be heard … feel free to send me an email to mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Unprofessional Business Acts in the subject line.  And no worries … if you’d like, we can keep it completely anonymous.

Please keep in mind:  I reserve the right to refuse any stories.  Remember, I have to draw the line somewhere.

I think sometimes the words “business professional” is just way over-used.  It often becomes a way to justify something that ends up being very unprofessional anyway.  I have to say this too … some people never cease to amaze me.

The past couple of days I’ve either been witness to or heard of some really unprofessional business acts which turned into some really good blog content if you ask me. 

It’s a fact, you can learn a lot from someone else’s mistakes and this topic is going to give you the opportunity to do exactly that.  (If not even a little giggle here and there because … yeah, some of it is just too darn funny!)

The first unprofessional business act I want to share with you happened to at least 3 good friends of mine.  I say at least because there were actually many involved with this but I only for sure know three of them.  I will also only share the name of one because she is the only one I’ve asked permission.

It all started when Shelly became the member of a particular parenting & pregnancy message board.  Now I do have to tell you upfront before I even go on that Shelly is a very upstanding message board member.  I can certainly vouch for her because she’s been a member of my own boards for I couldn’t even begin to tell you how long plus I’ve seen her at many other boards.  Long story short, she really is an outstanding member.   She starts new posts, helps fellow members - she even helps moderate and invites new members on a regular basis.  I’ve never once had a single problem and actually view Shelly as a very important asset to my community.  That said …

At this particular message board, Shelly posted an introduction and made a total of 17 posts - all of which can be proved to not being an ad or spam.  After a while she had invited a few friends as well as one of her direct sales team members.  A few days later she sent out an email to a few more friends as well as made an announcement at her own message board.  This resulted in quite a few sign ups.

Within these sign ups, there happened to be quite a few consultants from one particular direct sales company joined.  According to the owner of this message board owner, one of these consultants posted an ad.  (By the way, this has yet to be confirmed for sure anyway.)

Here’s where the story gets good …
Since one of these consultants supposedly posted an advertisement, the owner took it upon herself to not only ban this particular consultant but also every other consultant with this company AND Shelly (because she invited them) AND (yeah, I’m not done yet …) Shelly’s downline member - because she was in Shelly’s downline and because Shelly invited her!  Oh and I have to mention some of these ladies were banned before they were able to so much as post an introduction!  What?!?

And there’s more …
Not only did she ban all these ladies, she also decided to write Shelly a nasty email explaining that she banned her because she invited spammers and went on to call herself as well as the rest of the consultants horrible names.  She also stated that she tries to head off any trouble before it starts.

Hmm …
This by far is an interesting way to run an online community.  As a message board owner myself, I can totally respect her “wanting to head off any trouble before it starts” - however, this is not the way to do things.  There’s certainly a few lessons to be learned from this story …

 - > First of all, even if this particular person did indeed spam, you cannot hold another person responsible for their actions.  Could Shelly control what this other girl posted?  Of course not!

 - > Just because one person from a particular company spams a message board, it doesn’t mean that every single other person associated with this company is going to do the same.  Nor should they be punished for the other consultants acts.  They can’t be held responsible for what she did anymore than Shelly can be!  So one student in a class does something bad.  Do you punish the entire class?  Of course you don’t!  You punish the student who did the wrong doing!

 - > Do you ban a new member the first time they post something of spam nature?  Of course you do not.  Yes, you can have “No Spamming Allowed” posted all over the boards you want but you’re still going to have a new member who “misses it” or thinks they can get away with a little “sneaky spam”.  (Trust me, it’s inevitable!)  When it happens, you warn the offending member (only) and you delete the spam.  If it happens again - then by all means - give them the boot!

 - > Do you ban everyone else invited by a particular member because she invited someone else who spammed?  Need I really answer this one?

 - > Do you send an email to the person who invited the “offending member”, call her and everyone else who just happens to be in the same direct sales company nasty names?  I think not!

I can’t let this story end with out mentioning that after Shelly contacted the owner and complained as well as pointed out how wrong this was, the owner decided to re-instate her membership.  Uh, a little too late for that don’t you think?  If I were Shelly (or any of the others effected for that matter) I wouldn’t come back if she paid me!

Be sure to click here to stop by Shelly’s blog and read the whole story in more detail.

So, have you been treated unfairly or been witness to an Unprofessional Business Act?  I’ll be sharing a few that have happened to me over the next few days but I’d love to feature your story too!  Who knows - we could come up with a whole new regular feature here!

If you have a story you’d like to be featured … feel free to send me an email to mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Unprofessional Business Acts in the subject line.  And no worries … if you’d like, we can keep it completely anonymous.

Please keep in mind:  I reserve the right to refuse any stories.  Remember, I have to draw the line somewhere.