I got a contact from Safe Ad Media (http://safeadmedia.com/) through an employee called Harvey Rejouis. We agreed to do a UK campaign for pop ups for $1.500 and pre-paid on the 8th of October. Until today I have no traffic, Harvey and his boss Lou Carter either don't reply or give excuses. I've asked my money back several times and no reply to this. Don't be fooled as me and don't do business with them.
Sorry to hear you got scammed. Stuff like this is why it's important to do due diligence. Just even searching for the domain in Google reveals nothing to suggest it is a legitimate company (and even visiting the site makes me want to bounce, like they are overselling themselves). Are you able to do a chargeback or similar?
I hope that you've paid them with a method that is accepting the chargeback or a crude reclamation for recovering the funds - 1.500 $ is not a small amount
The latest development is that Lou Carter, via skype, asked me for something... Here is the quote: [18-Nov-13 7:55:01 PM] Lou Carter: Nobody stole your money, if you do not erase your posts, we will not refund you [18-Nov-13 7:55:06 PM] Lou Carter: and thats a fact [18-Nov-13 7:55:26 PM] Lou Carter: and in fact, if the post isnt down within 24 hours, you will hear from our lawyers. Funny...
Just wanted to know that is it necessary to pay such high advance to start campaigns? I have only used edomz for advertising and they need is just $50 to start right away. talking about lawyers is damn funny
Depends on the network. Some require more, some require less. Yes, I work with Edomz and $50 is the minimum. Last month I contacted one that asked for $500.000 as minimum budget to start...
I'm sorry to hear that, mate. Do you have any real details such as financial ones or a real address for them? If so and they are actually in the USA, you could make an Internet crime report: https://complaint.ic3.gov Aside from that, post your complaint on sites such as ripoffreport.com and other complaint boards. Share the link with family and friends on social media (encourage them to share your story, too). I know this doesn't get your money back, but at least there are reviews to be found that can warn other people when they research this company. Do not let him discourage you from making such posts with false promises. You could also let NextSpace know they are (at least) using their address as part of their fraud (maybe even actually use their service): http://nextspace.us/nextspace-santa-cruz/ It might not help, but once you have written the email, you could use it as a template to send to other companies these scammers use (such as HostGator and GoDaddy) in the hope of raising awareness.
Thanks Ryan! I will do that. I already did a bit of raising awareness by posting this message on LinkedIn, especially on the groups where the scammer was most active. Nevertheless, I'll post on the sites you refered. Thanks once again.