Flippa seller abisko - Gotcha!

**Clinton** · February 4th, 2010, 08:00 AM

About this Flippa seller: abisko

He specilises in starter sites. All very well. Has a bit of hype in the auctions. There's no crime against that. But here's one example of how the strictest rules implemented by Flippa would still let some of the nastiest scams through.

Take a look at this auction of his for stressquest.com. He calls it a damn cool "lead generator". Click through to the site and you'll see a big picture of a wad of notes and a contest - "Stressed? Tell me about it and win $100". So, yes, a legitimate way of collecting email addresses.

But scroll down and there in the tiniest of print carefully positioned to be just below the fold is the small grey print saying "contest has expired".

Let's be charitable. Maybe there was a contest and maybe it did expire.

Then I realise the scam.

The whole premise seems to be to capture people's email addresses so they become "prospects" who can be sold to, to fool people into disclosing their contact information. Highly exploitative of a vulnerable group. There is zero effort to give anything back to the visitor. Worse, it goes to great length to give the impression that it is giving something back.

I go back to the thread and this is what he says:

Oh and in case you're wondering, the contest has now expired (which it clearly states on the site). So there's no obligation for you to actually payout anyone here. However it is the perfect setup if you wanted to add more traffic (I mean who doesn't want a free $100?).

So it's deliberate?

Nice.

Flippa, you really are attracting the scum of the pond, the bottom feeders, the vermin.

Sold for $250. Ka-Ching for abisko. Ka-Ching for Flippa.

**benitez17** · February 4th, 2010, 08:03 PM

The seller is a scumbag and the listing is extremely annoying because of all of the hype, but I don't really fault Flippa for this listing because everything in the listing seems to be accurate. If someone wants to buy the site and do something useful with it, or is another scumbag who wants to continue promoting the site as a scam, they have all the information needed to make an informed decision.

If the seller were trying to hide the fact that he wasn't actually paying out any prizes to the users, then I would feel differently.

**Clinton** · February 5th, 2010, 03:39 AM

I can't blame Flippa for it either. As I said, even if they had the tightest rules - and if they implemented every single suggestion ever made here - this one would have gotten through.

**benitez17** · February 5th, 2010, 05:37 AM

Originally Posted by Clinton

I can't blame Flippa for it either. As I said, even if they had the tightest rules - and if they implemented every single suggestion ever made here - this one would have gotten through.

Gotcha. At the end, when you said "Ka-Ching for Flippa," I thought you were implying that they were at fault as well as the seller, which I see now isn't the case.

**DomainMagnate** · February 5th, 2010, 12:24 PM

He keeps emailing me about his new auctions, I don't mind that as it's always interesting to see what people try to sell. But his hype powered writing style is rather annoying, sometimes when reading his descriptions I get a feeling that the author is trying to target complete morons, but I frequently get that idea when reading regular sales copies heh.

Either way it seems to work for him and he also had some decent sites for sale, like this

**3Six** · February 5th, 2010, 05:15 PM

Most of the Flippa turnkey sellers are crooks, they just haven't been caught yet.

**abisko** · February 6th, 2010, 06:39 AM

I wouldn't really say "Ka-Ching" - that was one of the lowest auction prices I've ever gotten :O

And while I don't particularly care about being called "scum" (possibly a little over the top there guys, but I digress...), the line about "He specilises in starter sites" just plain hurts. C'mon man, don't throw me in with the Site Flippers!

Anyway just wanted to jump on here and say that Clinton, while I greatly appreciate the policing work you and others do on flippa (god knows it needs it!), you've gotta chill and not hate so much on the "hype" sellers. This is the IM world, this is the way things work. Nobody's claiming it to be the highest-class form of marketing in the world ;-)

Oh and as for those stress sites, there were actually three:

http://flippa.com/auctions/83694/
http://flippa.com/auctions/83690/
http://flippa.com/auctions/83685/

They weren't even mine, I sold for a friend (as is the case with most of my flippa auctions), but either way the auctions were pretty clear... the sites as well.

Though if you do want to expose my devilish schemes, I encourage you to jump on my seller's list (that DomainMagnate mentioned):

http://www.TrustedSiteSeller.com

So you don't have go to searching for my "scum of the pond" listings :-D

Have a good one mate!

Cheers,
- Chris

**Clinton** · February 6th, 2010, 11:01 AM

Hey, Chris, great to see you here. No, seriously.

I'm encouraging a wider discussion and would like it if this forum develops threads on everything from the $10 sites to the multi million dollars ones. I'd also prefer if the discussion wasn't one sided and was represented by developers, sellers, buyers, marketplaces and periphery service providers such as escrows and lawyers.

It wasn't the hype in the your listing that's the gotcha, it's the tricking of vulnerable people into thinking they may win $100 if they signed up for your junk mail. It's the gloating behind your "discovery" of a pretty fool proof way to build a list at no cost.

They weren't even mine, I sold for a friend

It doesn't matter who came up with the wording quoted in my OP. If it was listed in your name we take it you approved.

**benitez17** · February 6th, 2010, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by abisko

I wouldn't really say "Ka-Ching" - that was one of the lowest auction prices I've ever gotten :O

And while I don't particularly care about being called "scum" (possibly a little over the top there guys, but I digress...), the line about "He specilises in starter sites" just plain hurts. C'mon man, don't throw me in with the Site Flippers!

Anyway just wanted to jump on here and say that Clinton, while I greatly appreciate the policing work you and others do on flippa (god knows it needs it!), you've gotta chill and not hate so much on the "hype" sellers. This is the IM world, this is the way things work. Nobody's claiming it to be the highest-class form of marketing in the world ;-)

Oh and as for those stress sites, there were actually three:

http://flippa.com/auctions/83694/
http://flippa.com/auctions/83690/
http://flippa.com/auctions/83685/

They weren't even mine, I sold for a friend (as is the case with most of my flippa auctions), but either way the auctions were pretty clear... the sites as well.

Though if you do want to expose my devilish schemes, I encourage you to jump on my seller's list (that DomainMagnate mentioned):

http://www.TrustedSiteSeller.com

So you don't have go to searching for my "scum of the pond" listings :-D

Have a good one mate!

Cheers,
- Chris

You (or your "friend") are clearly misleading visitors to that site by having WIN $100!!!! in huge letters, and then claiming that the promotion has expired in a tiny font below.

Was the promotion ever active? Has the owner given anyone a $100 prize for signing up for your list, which I assume the owner profits from by either selling to others or using to promote products?

At least you admit that most IM sellers (including yourself) have little to no ethics and are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to collect a buck.

**abisko** · February 6th, 2010, 11:42 AM

Clinton: That's cool, hopefully this place grows and flippa take on board some of the suggestions I've seen around here :-D

Though I still think you're taking this auction a little seriously. It was a very minor sale for a largely inactive site (just look at the traffic that was being claimed). Either way, it stated on the site the competition was inactive. If this site was getting thousands of visitors I agree it'd be a different story.

You've gotta realise that anything with the words CPA connected to it is going to seem "dodgy" to some people (or rather to MANY people, heh). The whole industry is marketed in an incredibly aggressive manner - this site is actually fairly mild.

And Benitez: mate you've just gotta chill - this is the world of internet marketing ;-)

"lie, cheat and steal to collect a buck"

You can hate on internet marketing all you like - I already said it wasn't the classiest field - but I seriously draw the line at anyone personally calling me any of those three things.