The Web’s Biggest Directory and Search Engine
Posted by glo on 12 Sep 2005 | Tagged as: Web Spam
If you are a webmaster then you have some idea of how important it is to get your site indexed in the major search engines. What some may or may not know is that it can be equally as important to get you site indexed in a good Web directory. There are many benefits of being listed in a good directory but that isn’t what the focus of this posts is about. I received an email (unsolicited) from a scumbag spammer. Below is the email:
Could you please update the CAL-MOAA.ORG web directory listing by Sunday so we can continue to list you, if you don’t mind? Update your listing for FREE at: http://www-goto.com/update.cfm?d=CAL-MOAA.ORG&e=w Thanks. To unsubscribe: http://www-goto.com/cancel.cfm?d=CAL-MOAA.ORG&e=w Media LLC, 1158 26th St. #528, Santa Monica, CA 90403 USA
I blinked a few times and thought, what the heck? What listing? In which directory? The site this person is referring to isn’t my site. I’m just the webmaster for the site. I received the request on Friday. Nice of them to give me 2 days to update a listing in a directory I’ve never heard of. But before I clicked on the link I looked at the html code and copied the url without the extension and did a whois search on the domain. Note that the domain is www-goto.com, which is very misleading if your not paying attention to the details. It appears that the www is the prefix that most sites have in the url path but in this case it’s a part of the domain. The whois didn’t tell me much so I pasted the domain into my browser address field and up comes a crappy site claiming to be the Web’s Biggest directory and search engine. Right! They use Google for their search and Dmoz for their directory. What a crock. This sites owner is not only a spammer but a scammer as well. The domain, www-goto.com, is actually a front for http://dirs.org/. www-goto.com frames the real site. The whois info is:
Domain ID:D104710290-LROR
Domain Name:DIRS.ORG
Created On:01-Aug-2004 17:35:04 UTC
Last Updated On:01-Aug-2005 17:14:31 UTC
Expiration Date:01-Aug-2006 17:35:04 UTCSponsoring
Registrar:Intercosmos Media Group Inc.
(R48-LROR) Status:OKRegistrant
ID:IMG-574589
Registrant Name:Web Master
Registrant Organization:Media LLC Registrant
Street1:1158 26th Street #528
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Santa Monica
Registrant State/Province:CA
Registrant Postal Code:90403
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.5306889820
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+1.5305048433
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:listings2@www-goto.comAdmin ID:IMG-574589
Admin Name:Web Master
Admin Organization:Media LLC
Admin Street1:1158 26th Street #528
Admin Street2: Admin Street3:
Admin City:Santa Monica
Admin State/Province:CA
Admin Postal Code:90403
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.5306889820
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:+1.5305048433 Admin
FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:listings2@www-goto.comTech ID:IMG-574589
Tech Name:Web Master
Tech Organization:Media LLC
Tech Street1:1158 26th Street #528
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Santa Monica
Tech State/Province:CA
Tech Postal Code:90403
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.5306889820
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:+1.5305048433
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:listings2@www-goto.comName Server:NS1.DIRS.ORG
Name Server:NS2.DIRS.ORG
This scumbag also owns the domain, websbiggest.com, which the others mirror. I found a press release on this directory Here, making incredible claims that apparently can not be proven to be accurate. This release was published in January this year so things could have changed since then. Here is what Danny Sullivan has to say right after the release. Then I found that the Web’s Biggest was purchased by Edgetech in June, 2005. You can read about it Here. Is this the same directory in my email? It appears that it is. This Edgetech company has info in Yahoo Finance. I’m completely mystified. Why is this company spamming unsuspecting webmasters into updating a listing, which by the way is not FREE, in their directory when what they actually have is the RDF dump from the Dmoz directory? Here is another financial report that confirms that this company did purchase the Web’s Biggest. Amazing! And the sad thing is, some webmasters will pay to continue to be listed in their spammy directory. All I can say is, DON”T DO IT!!!! Don’t give spammers anything but a tongue lashing. They certainly don’t deserve your business. I’m sending the spammers a link to this posts in response to their slimy spam.
Update: It appears that www-goto.com and/or websbiggest.com has changed it’s whois info as well as the so-called company name. And apparently Edgetech has shut down completely. Just thought I’d update this post for those who may be searching for information using the whois info.
Registrant:
Media LLC
33 Hazelton Ave., Suite 118
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E3
CA
530-688-9820
Fax:530-504-8433Domain Name: WWW-GOTO.COM
Administrative Contact:
Master, Web searchenginecompany@bigfoot.com
33 Hazelton Ave., Suite 118
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E3
CA
530-688-9820
Fax:530-504-8433Technical Contact:
Master, Web searchenginecompany@bigfoot.com
33 Hazelton Ave., Suite 118
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E3
CA
530-688-9820
Fax:530-504-8433
Hahaha, I just did a Google search with the following query:
Media LLC, 1158 26th St. #528, Santa Monica, CA 90403 USA
And I came up with your site and your little explanation of it. That’s hilarious. I just received the spam myself today….ahhh, good times.
Eddie, glad you found this information useful and enjoyed a good laugh.
Your listing is interesting… but you need an editor.
The word “publisher” should be “published.”
The word “mystifies” should be “mystified.”
The word “certianly” should be “certainly.”
If you change these words, your paragraph will carry more credence… yes… I know it doesn’t change the meaning… but it does change the Feeling about what one is reading.
Just trying to help.
Well, Not Telling, thanks for the edit and yes, I could use a good editor. I’m surprised you didn’t find the other errors that have now been fixed, though a good editor might find more. Perfection, though I do admit to striving for it, is highly over-rated and lacks uniqueness.
I came across your site by searching the text of that spam message I got. Such a spamming scam. I’ve been getting these messages left and right.
Got the spam message, did some googling and found your link. Major thanks for creating a web page detailing this link farmer. Peace out.
I also want to say thank you for creating this page and providing the info. I searched in the same way as the others, and found your very helpful details. Thanks for taking the trouble, and proving it is worth looking into something which “doesn’t quite sound right”, before getting drawn into it.
Ha! @ Not Telling.
Thanks, Glo! I received a similar Media LLC spam and found your website by Googling. The red flag for me was that the three links to their website contained TCP/IP addresses:
Could you please be so kind as to update the description of your website.
Thank you for highlighting these scumbags. Where are the authorities?
Shouldn’t these scumbags be locked up?
It looks like their names are Adam Radly and Paul Aunger. Have a look at this link:
http://www.dynamoo.com/diary/topsites_topsitez_us.htm
Not only are they spamming and scamming, but they are fleecing investors too.
TM, I have seen the info on the dynamoo site as well as a few other places but I’m not sure these are the same scammers as the Web’s Biggest Directory and Search Engine. They are certainly doing similar scams and I’m sure there are others out there.
Having revisited this posts, I see some of the info has changed. Edgetech is no longer online and the whois info has changed. I think I will be updating the info, though I fairly sure the info is bogus. But if anyone does a search, it might help them to find this post.
Thanks for leaving a comment.
THANK YOU! I wished I had seen this BEFORE signing up with them. I fell for it beacuse the info was passed on by a previous webmaster on a site I am supervising the content of. If I recieved the info directly, I most certainly wouldn’t have followed through, I just assumed it was a pre-existing contact our old webmaster had…At least I didn’t pay. I will call them and ask them to stop harrassing people.
I was scammed as well. sponsoranything.com is related to all of this and they have taken me for $450 and the credit card company cannot do anything about it. I am getting the FTC and FBI on this one.