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Pace Lattin has founded several publications in the interactive advertising industry, including ADOTAS and ADBUMb, which being founded in 1999 could be considered the first interactive advertising “blog” of sorts. With more than 10 years of experience, Pace currently publishes Performance Marketing Insider. Read his complete bio here.

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Who Can You Trust? Interactive Advertising Is Dangerous!

Written on
Aug 4, 2010 
Author
Pace Lattin  |
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Who Can You Trust? Interactive Advertising Is Dangerous!

knife_smallINDUSTRY PACE – If you’ve been reading the industry publications, you’ve seen that there has been some talk about “fake agencies” doing business in the industry, notably a company under the name “Bellas Interactive.” Casale Media wrote in MediaPost about their encounter with the company, where they were so fooled by this fake agency, that they even granted them credit based on fake trade references.

This story is extremely interesting to me, because it shows not only that interactive advertising has scams and frauds out there, but that even those working for a major interactive advertising network are quite gullible and ignorant of the methods and scams. I’ve been covering types of scams like this for years — as have the publications I founded including ADOTAS. This means it’s time to review again what one should do while working with new clients.

To be completely frank, I am surprised that someone at Casale was so… well.. there is no other way to say this… so STUPID that they allowed this company in the first place to do business with them. Casale has been around for quite a while and is generally considered one of the highest quality interactive advertising networks in the business.

Interactive advertising, because of its nature is extremely vulnerable to all types of fraud. With the internet opening up borders, anyone from almost any country can pretend to be anyone, from almost any other country. With PO boxes, postal forwarding, IP phones, a virtual company can look like a 100-person company in minutes. In fact, there are some players including agencies and networks that work mainly virtual — and do volumes of business that would be unthinkable just a decade before without a “real” office.

In this case, someone at Casale obviously screwed up. “Bellas Interactive” was obviously a fraud. The website was poorly made, looks like a cheap template site, and despite the claim on the site that they have been in business since 1994, the website was registered in April 2010.

That being said, let’s look at some keypoints that are important in dealing with new (and perhaps existing clients) and how to spot some obvious fraud by “fake companies”:

1. Do research. Look over the domain registration (WHOIS) and see if it matches the information provided. If a website says that it was founded in 1994, and the domain registration says it was registered in 2010, there is a huge red-flag right there.

Domain registrations can provide significant information, including other possible email addresses that area associated with the domain and domain hosting information. If the registered contact email address is affiliated with something else that looks fishy, that can be a huge giveaway that there is a scam.

If the phone number is international in the registration or does not work, that’s another sign something ain’t quite kosher. Similarly, any real marketing company that isn’t engaged in questionable practices will not have a “private” registration. Also, verify corporate information with the state they are doing business with. Every single State has an online verification system now.

2. Look over the website. If it looks like a simple template with no real information about the company except basic template crap about how they’ve been doing business, how they help their non-mentioned clients, then something is wrong.

Similarly, look over the address and phone number on the website. Any company that doesn’t list its address or phone number on its website is a dead giveaway of some sort of scam. All companies that are in this business want people to call them and do more business with them.

Also, check out the address on the website — if it goes to a dropbox, or someone else’s address that should make your spidey-sense tingle a bit.

3. Check your references. References are extremely important, and they should be used as a key guide. Those references must be people that you know. If a company is unable to provide references from people that your company does business with, then you need to ask them for other references.

In the case of Casale Media, the scammers just made up other companies and put them down as references. That reference should be someone that you yourself would give credit to because they are well known, trustworthy and what they say about another company is credible. Verify the information also with other people that you know – ask people in the industry about a company that seems fishy, and find more information.

4. Be smart. I’m just bewildered by the complete lack of common sense in the industry sometimes. I’ve been writing about this for years — you’d think people would be listening right? However, time and time again, people are fooled by extremely obvious scams.

It’s often because of new people in the industry with little experience. In those cases, the company owner or the supervisor should be watching everything that employee does if there is an issue.

During the credit check process, for example, numerous people should be copied on the applications including the CEO, the VP of sales, and other people — just to overlook the process in case they see something. Be smart — there are a lot of scams out there and being a little diligent will make a huge difference.

5. Look at reputation. This is the hardest part and often requires knowing people in the industry. My clients often hire me because of this. If a company has a horrible reputation of doing bad things, that is should always make you wary.

Companies that have been targets of enforcement actions, law enforcement, compliance issues, payment issues, you name it, should be avoided. Would you, for example, allow a convicted sex-offender babysit? Similarly, if a company consistantly has issues, you need to examine if its worth doing business with them.

I’ve found that people who cause issues consistently will always cause issues — a tiger cannot change its stripes, a leopard cannot change its spots. Once a scumbag, always.

What’s your opinion?

Originally printed at Industry Pace.





Reader Comments.

I dont believe one damn advertisement that I see or hear. Come on. Not ALL of us were born yesterday.

Posted by Mike | 11:14 pm on August 4, 2010.

Yeah! Just those of us who had a birthday yesterday!

Posted by Gavin Dunaway | 9:03 am on August 5, 2010.

Good advice. It truly is sad that deceptive ads are all over the net and no one has done anything about them,yet.. keep up the good work educating!

Posted by Amanda | 3:40 am on November 2, 2010.

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