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Clinics who spam Podiatry Arena - time to name and shame

Discussion in 'Podiatry Arena Help, Suggestions and Comments' started by admin, Apr 2, 2013.

  1. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member


    Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.
    Enough is enough. I am having to spend more and more time dealing with spam and fake profiles from those who have nothing better to do to build links to their websites to promote them.

    The really poor form is some of that spam is coming from Podiatry clinic websites!

    More and more clinics are outsourcing their SEO to cheap places like India who then spam us. That is still no excuse.

    To make it even worse some of that is from people I know!

    So, from now on, I will be naming and shaming the clinics that do it.
     
  2. kitos

    kitos Active Member

    Good !!

    Well done Admin

    Nick
     
  3. antipodean

    antipodean Active Member

    Next cab off the rank practice management software
     
  4. How to get rid of warts on foot?

    I have seven warts on my right foot. How do I get rid of these painful things? Going to the doc office is not an option so don't even mention it.
     
  5. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Re: How to get rid of warts on foot?

    These are the first low life bottom dwelling scumbags that I calling out.
    The above post was made from an IP address in Pakistan (most often spammers here are from India and Pakistan). Someone was obviously being paid on the cheap to spam forums for the Foot Centers of NC (I have deleted the link to their clinic). Kind of a dumb question to ask on a forum for Podiatrists.

    The Foot Centers of NC shpuld be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves.

    If anyone knows Dr. Jason Zeigler, Dr. William Tomaszewski, Dr. J. Andrew Petery or Dr. Carlos Cooper, contact them and tell them they have just made big fools of themselves.
     
  6. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Re: How to get rid of warts on foot?

    They also spammed the Foot Health Forum:
    http://www.foot-health-forum.com/forum/member.php?u=7291

    They asked this question before it got deleted:
    They really making the Foot Centers of NC look dumb (the posted message had a link to them in the signature! ... why would a podiatrist want to ask a dumb question about a foot problem for) .... boy, are these people stoooooooopid.
     
  7. Lab Guy

    Lab Guy Well-Known Member

    I do not know much about technology and I never heard of Foot Centers of NC but this does not feel right. If the IP address was in Pakistan how do you know for certain that the four good doctors of Foot Centers of NC had any idea of this? What would their motive be for spamming since they have nothing to sell?

    Perhaps who ever is behind the post randomly chose Foot Centers of NC as their moniker to hide behind for whatever reason. The founder of Foot Centers of NC, Carlos Cooper has been in practice 50 years and has participated in missions in underdeveloped countries according to their website. For what reason would he be involved in asking inane questions?

    My business name has been stolen and used before online as have tens of thousands or more. I think this is more likely the case in this instance.

    Steven
     
  8. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    They sure did do it; any forum Admin well recognizes the pattern of spam. They have paid for a cheap link building package as part of the search engine optimization for their website; hence the Pakistan IP address. These very low paid workers then go around abusing other people's web properties such as Podiatry Arena with useless crap that then takes up the time of forum admins to delete. The post here snd the one on the other forum had a link back to the website. I have just become very tired of the spam.

    The fools from the Foot Centers need to be called on this. Hopefully anyone doing a search for them can find this thread and see what fools they are. They also need to realize the damage that they have done to their brand by this spamming.
     
  9. Paul Bowles

    Paul Bowles Well-Known Member

    Your argument works better in reverse Lab Guy - why would a random person take the moniker to promote any company??? That in fact makes absolutely no sense.

    I'm with Craig on this.....its destructive behaviour....
     
  10. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    It wasn't just the moniker; it was the links to the clinics website; this was very deliberate and systematic, which is why forum owners get so ****** at having to deal with it.

    I delete so much every day; as I said above, I am going to start calling out the podiatry clinics that do it.
     
  11. Lab Guy

    Lab Guy Well-Known Member

    Thanks for enlightening me, Craig. I am still confused on why a Podiatry Practice of 3 docs and one part-time doc would pay and consent for itverticle.com for search engine optimization and marketing with knowledge of the harm they are causing to forums and to their own business.

    I emailed the Podiatry Arena posts to Foot Centers of NC and would be interested in their response. I would bet the Podiatrists are clueless as to what is going on and will put a stop to it once they become aware of it.

    Steven
     
  12. Lab Guy

    Lab Guy Well-Known Member

    During lunch, I called their office and spoke to their practice manager and told them the story. She wanted this stopped right away and told me that Greg, their practice administration consultant will call me back. Greg called me back and was very upset to find out that Footcenters of NC was invading forums and would contact ITverticles.com to ascertain why.

    Greg gave me his email address, Greg@footcentersofNC.com should this ever happen again. He also said invading forums serve no benefit to him, most patients come within a ten mile or less radius of their offices and they are not selling anything.

    I do believe the four Podiatrists named were completely clueless and that it was not responsible to print their names in a poor light on this public forum. The post with their names should be deleted.

    Steven
     
  13. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    They were responsible for paying for SEO services that were outsourced to Pakistan. They are responsible for what is done in their name. They need to be held accountable for polluting the web with crap.

    Its too late for them to get it stopped - its been done and the damage done; forum admins are fighting back.

    If they want more evidence of spam, have a look at these egs:
    http://advertisingforums.net/index.php?topic=284.msg396#msg396 paediatric doctors" "certified by the yank Board of Podiatric Surgery"!!!!

    http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/member.php?237578-FootCentersOfNC

    I notice that ITVerticles also offers online reputation management - I guess they trash your online reputation by doing this crap and then try to sell you the reputation management service!

    Just today, we have had over 100 spam sign-ups blocked by automated means; I have additionally deleted 10 posts and banned another 15 members who spammed or met the criteria of high risk of being a spammer.. This is costing forum owners way too much in costs of time. Who is going to pay for that time and recompense those forum admin who do daily battle against this?
     
  14. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    I done some digging .. its gets worse:
    http://shoply.com/FootCentersOfNC/wall/
    and:
    http://www.talkgold.com/forum/r390398-.html

    This is just the tip of the iceberg ...
     
  15. BEN-HUR

    BEN-HUR Well-Known Member

    Oh boy, what a real mess all this is - particularly for you Admin (aka Craig). That was a nice gesture Lab Guy to inform the Podiatry clinic involved about this problem - hopefully they will cancel their contract with those jerks (if I understand the situation correctly).

    I don't know too much about this area but I think it's good that the issue is highlighted so something can be done... including by those who are involved (Podiatry clinics) who may not be aware of the problems this issue creates for forums such as this.

    Is it just me, or are there others starting to develop a real dislike to the internet... to put in bluntly, the internet has created so much B.S... where I'm starting to wonder whether the B.S is overriding the good aspects this medium provides. It's a shame that this type of rubbish spoils the benefits.
     
  16. Lab Guy

    Lab Guy Well-Known Member

    Craig, I understand your frustration.

    Perhaps the forum admins need to petition the government to create and pass laws to fine SEO companies and/or websites that invade forums to eradicate the burgeoning internet parasite problem.

    Steven
     
  17. Steven:

    While you are discussing these matters with Greg, tell him that you would also like the Foot Centers of NC to send Craig Payne, and the other forum administrators that are being spammed by their company, a check for $500.00 for the hours of their time they have spent in ridding the spam from their websites that came from Foot Centers of NC. That small amount of money will go a short way toward rectifying the true injustice that is occurring here with these spammers, the people who hire them and the time it takes out of the lives of the forum administrators who are struggling to keep their websites free of spam.
     
  18. Lab Guy

    Lab Guy Well-Known Member

    Below is a copy of an email I just received:


    Quoting dwyer003@aol.com:

    >
    > Hi Greg,
    >
    >
    > Podiatry-Arena.com is the website. Below is the link to the thread
    > that we spoke about:
    >
    >
    > http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=88023
    >
    >
    > You can sign up to be a member and respond to clear up the matter.
    >
    >
    > Best,
    >
    >
    > Steven Gaynor, DPM

    Dr. Gaynor:
    Thank you very much for bringing this spamming incident to our
    attention and for making the time in your busy day to afford us the
    professional courtesy of a call. As you can imagine, we we appalled
    to get this news, had our hair on fire over this all yesterday,and are
    doing all we can going forward to clean things up. You are correct -
    we are doctors and adminstrative staff - not technical people. We
    engaged a company (who are not inexpensive, by any means) for web
    development who came highly recommended by respected people in our
    community. If we are guilty of anything, it is for trusting the
    recommendations and relying on the alleged expertise of the vendor...
    and I honestly don't know what else we could reasonably have done.

    In any event, we value our reputation more than anything else and we
    deeply appreciate your comments and support, particularly your request
    that FCNC's doctors' names be removed from this conversation. I will
    sign up for the forum today and extend our public apologies to the
    Administrator for (unintentionally) causing him/her such frustration.

    Kindest regards,

    Greg
     
  19. Lab Guy

    Lab Guy Well-Known Member


    Agreed.

    Steven
     
  20. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Calling out another:

    Karl Lockett at the Sydney Heel Pain Clinic - if anyone knows Karl, perhaps you can contact him and ask him to get the spammers from India who are doing some link dropping for his website to back off.
     
  21. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

  22. dropatoeor2

    dropatoeor2 Active Member

    Agree. Some of these guys make all pods look like idiots. Usually they don't need much help, but pop-up ads? Someone's got to corral the crumb catchers and reel em on in. The free market makes foot care by pods look like a flea market. Rope em up, reel em in, brand em down--
     
  23. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    They done it again - if anyone knows Karl do you want to bring it to his attention what fools these spammers that are acting on his behalf are making of him. ... let alone all the work I have to do to delete the spam.
     
  24. Griff

    Griff Moderator

    Just to share my own unfortunate and ongoing issues on this. I tried to get onto my own website on Wednesday evening and noticed it was down. Something didnt feel quite right about the error message I got, so I dropped an email to my hosting company asking what was going on. They began investigating. In the meantime I had (have) no site. Phone call in the last half an hour gave me my answer.

    Apparently someone had hacked into my site and left malicious files. My site then began sending out spam (with no record of how much or to where available to me). As soon as the hosting server noticed it they locked my site down. Long story short - site needs rebuilding on new platform. Will have had no site for over a week by the time its done. Word of warning to anyone using Joomla lies herein. Apparently its security is toilet.

    Thanks to the hackers behind this. Lost revenue (and potentially reputation) for me. Appreciate it.
     
  25. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
    ....been there done that! Probably had to deal with over a dozen websites in the last couple of yrs that have been hacked...
     
  26. DTT

    DTT Well-Known Member

    Griff,
    Check your voicemail on your mobile.
    Gimme a call
    Cheers bud
    D;)
     
  27. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Time to call out Kensington Podiatry

    Please get your little weasel from Pakistan to stop spamming us with nonsensical posts and link drops.

    If anyone knows Alaa Razak, let her know to please stop creating all this work for me to delete the crap.
     
  28. Had similar issues since october my host active24, locked my site down , but have now stopped returning emails and after waiting 30 min most times I try to ring, have lost a customer.

    I have a guy who will fix a new site etc but he is on holidays, so have temporary fix.

    but I do not recommend active 24
     
  29. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
    The wife's clinic got hacked again! I did not notice for a week (obviously don't check every day) - the first I noticed is when she came home from work earlier one day as she was short a couple of appts: "going through a quiet patch" ..... there was no quite patch! The website was hacked and not working; phone calls dropped off! - it makes that much of a difference to a business.

    Lucky, I now got so much experience with hackers and picked up the skills that I was able to remove the hack, restore site almost immediately -- then the Google malware alerts was removed by the next morning. You can't rely on hosts to do this. You need a go-to-person who can act immediately when this happens. You need to have google Wemaster Tools account set up; you need to have all the FTP details and login's ready to give to someone you trust as soon as this happens. make sure YOU have this info and it not just something that your website person has.

    If anyone is in this situation I probably can give some limited help, so get in touch.
     
  30. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Here is another one to call out. They used somone in India to spam us with a fake profile and post:
    So if anyone knows Dr Michael Lyons from MS Foot and Ankle in Hernando, MS, tell him for being a low life and paying people in India to spam us with useless posts, you have been added to the Hall of Shame.
     
  31. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Time to call out another:
    Summit Foot and Ankle Clinic have been using a link spammer from Pakistan.

    Dr. Steven Royall and Dr. Ryan Ellsworth please stop. You are creating extra work fro us to delete the spam.
     
  32. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    The spammer from the Philippines on behalf of the Westside Podiatry Clinic in Vancouver are making a pest of themselves.
     
  33. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Shout out to Louise Buchtmann from MyCare Health Alliance in North Sydney ... please get your spammer from the Phillipines to stop creating fake profiles and creating all this work to delete them.
     
  34. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    Time to name and shame another:
    "Brisbane podiatrist Stephanie Cosgrove & Walk Without Pain Podiatry Clinics Brisbane"

    They using a spammer from India to post crap and bad advice on a number of different forums; really poor form ... taking up or time o delete all the crap.
     
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