A Case of LinkedIn Spam?
I’ve been on LinkedIn for over three years and I’ve been amazed that spam related content has not been a huge issue. Rarely do I see, or maybe its that I haven’t recognized it, this type of activity. Compared to Twitter direct sales messages rarely work.
Today I received a message from a fellow group member that at first I assumed was legitimate. Now I’m not so sure. I’m going to leave the final decision up to you.
First here’s the message I received from Bradley Mitchell which included a note apparently sent to him from Mr. Brad Kenzie. It includes a link to http://www.moresocialleads.com which advertises a social media product called PMA Desk.
The message is pretty straight forward. Since I work with clients helping them with their social media strategies, and having written a blog for the past two years that discusses LinkedIn and social media, I was curious. I clicked on the link to check it out.
This is part of a screenshot to where the link directed me.
After looking at the site I was also curious about the person that sent me the message so I visited his profile as well. That’s when I started to have my suspicions. Here a screen shot of Bradley’s profile.
A couple of things stood out. First the photo doesn’t look like a real profile shot, rather something captured off of iStockphoto or Jupiter images. Second the number of connections caught my eye. Third the lack of web url’s. Fourth the lack of a customized profile url. And then the last part was the lack of information in the rest of the profile.
So I next did a search on Twitter for Bradley Mitchell and PMA Desk. No listings were found. So next I searched Google using the keyword search term “bradley mitchell” and sofcar. Here’s the result.
No listing found. So then I decided to search for the company, Sofcar. Per Bradley’s profile they are based out of Chicago. Here are the results.
There were lots of listings for “sofa” etc. but no listing for a company named Sofcar.
The last search I tried was on LinkedIn for a profile for Brad Kenzi. Here are the results.
Once again no luck in finding such a person listed on LinkedIn.
So once again here is what I’m wondering (but I’ll leave the final determination up to you). Did PMA Desk create a fictitious LinkedIn account, join groups, and then start sending out fake messages to spam people to drive traffic to the PMA Desk?
If so this is a major breach of social media protocol, and advertising ethics in general. At a minimum they are guilty of spam, even if all of the accounts were real. They sent me a sales message without my permission.
At worst they’ve sent me a spam message after going through the trouble to create a false profile in an attempt to generate credibility. In either case they failed. But obviously some people will click on the link thus driving traffic to their site.
If the account is false it also raises questions about some of the claims on their home page.
First are the claims of the product. If they did create a fake account how am I to believe the product claims stated on the site.
Second they have a banner claiming that the product was featured on Fox and Friends. Here’s the screen capture.
If they created a fake profile should I believe this? I decided to do a search on “PMA desk” and Fox and friends. Here are the results for that Google search.
That’s it. Seems like if I had a product or service featured on Fox and Friends you’d see press releases and article touting this success.
The third thing to question is the actual testimonials on the site. If they did create a fake profile how could I believe the validity of these claims. (I have been able to confirm that Mathew Sapaula is a real person)
You’ll have to make your own decision but something doesn’t jive.
Interestingly enough there is a company page on LinkedIn for PMA Desk that lists four employees on LinkedIn. The page claims that there are 87 employees total. A small percentage of employees with LinkedIn accounts for a company that sells a product geared to creating a social media plan.
Here are the screen shots of the four employees profiles.
The first three unfortunately raise the question of whether or not they are real accounts are bogus profiles. The last is possibly the person behind PMA Desk.
Is PMA Desk a real product that can help you with your online social media efforts, I don’t know. I do know that from a credibility perspective there are some glaring questions that have been raised.
Here’s the thing about this social networking world that we are all exploring and participating in. Its easy to create a presence online. It’s easy to build an apparent history and track record. Most people are going to initially take you at your word, or at least believe what’s on the page.
But its also a community that when it feels its been misused or its trust violated that will immediately respond by ignoring, disconnecting, and sharing what its learned with others. Your online brand can takes years to build but be destroyed instantly by actions that cross the community threshold of decency.
Spamming is one of those no-no’s that will tear down your brand. Creating fake accounts to engage in false discussions is another.
Using social media to connect and engage in conversations to drive business is a good thing. It doesn’t matter if it is a corporate account or an individual account, as long as the conversations are legitimate.
What do you think?
Tags: brad kenzie, carl doppler, chicago, more social leads, personal Marketing Assistant, pma desk, pmadesk, sofcar, www.moresocialleads.com, www.pmadesk.com
November 16th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I think if I ever need an online detective it will be you Sean. Breaking out into new roles?
I’d say its bogus….Just like the Twitter people with hundreds of connections and no tweets!!
Best to you my friend!
Ross
November 16th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Did PMA Desk create a fictitious LinkedIn account, join groups, and then start sending out fake messages to spam people to drive traffic to the PMA Desk?
ABSOLUTELY!!! I would have done the same searches as you Sean. My next search would be finding out who this Carl Doppler fellow is. Probably a stolen identity.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I agree, Ross. Sean has expanded on the concept of forensic accounting into social media.
Sean – great job as usual. You kept it simple, applied common sense and logic to your approach and laid out a pretty solid case of what not to do!
Thanks for sharing!
-Jim
November 16th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Impressive research, Sean. Thanks for sharing. Can’t go wrong with gut instincts.
November 16th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Hey Sean,
I agree. Excellent research. Too bad companies need to resort to BS to trying to sell products. Then they wonder why salesmen get bad raps. We, as a community, need to clean up after ourselves or the bad press will continue.
Thank you for your diligence.
To Your Continued Success
November 16th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Ross,
I periodically get direct pitches and I can live with that. Creating fake profiles to build credibility is not something I’m OK with. My goal is that this post gets passed on and exposes PMA Desk for what they are.
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Mike,
I think Carl is actually a real person, and the person behind the message.
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Thanks Jim. I would love to see this post go viral but its not as sexy as “The Top 5 Mistakes on LinkedIn.
Retweets are a place to start.
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Thanks Bill. The sad part is they don’t have to stoop to this. They can accomplish the same goals by taking the time to build their communities, share value, and start real conversations.
If you get a chance, and you tweet, consider retweeting the post.
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Received this from a reader:
Hi
I attended this webinare and found it very informative. Here is a copy of what they sent me. This should help you too.
Best Wishes,
Daniel Dice
Thank you on your feedback about our last LinkedIN, Facebook and twitter training class. We really value our attendee’s views. Here is the link to the new tool to help generate leads.You can forward this to a few people who you know that may need some help with lead generation of website traffic.
Thank you
Tim Morris
______________________
Search Daniel Dice on LinkedIn and the results are the same as for Bradley Mitchell.
Sean
http://www.socialnetworkperformance.com/
November 16th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I haven’t gotten that one. LinkedIn has been very clear of spam (although I’m getting tired of students posting homework questions in Answers) and I hope this is an isolated incident.
Very well written Sean.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Apparently Bradley Mitchell is gone with the wind. No such profile, at least based on my quick search.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Oh, and maybe this guy could shed some light: http://tr.im/F6Ex
November 16th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Sean-
I received this same message (and a couple of similar variations) from multiple people in the last couple of weeks. I deleted them since I DIDN’T know the senders…
November 16th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Joel,
I’m starting to hear from folks and it does not appear this is the first time PMA Desk is doing this.
If you Tweet I would appreciate it if you would send out a tweet linking to the article.
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Dave,
Bradley Mitchell has indeed vanished. Also checked some of the apparent groups he was in and no such luck.
I would imagine that Carl Doppler knows where he went: http://www.linkedin.com/in/carldoppler
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Could be the same or a similar site. Did you receive any spam from them?
Sean
November 16th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Michael,
Whenever you receive one of these post it to this discussion. The only way to shut them down is to expose them.
Sean
November 17th, 2009 at 9:34 am
I got the same message this morning, but from a Paul Carney. I suspect a check into Mr. Carney might produce the same results as your check into Bradley Mitchell. Here’s the text from the message:
“Hi Loraine,
I attended this webinare and found it very informative. Here is a copy of what they sent me. This should help you too.
Best Wishes,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thank you on your feedback about our last LinkedIN, Facebook and twitter training class. We really value our attendee’s views. Here is the link to the new tool to help generate leads. There is no cost for the tool. Your other question was complicated ? the easy answer is Yes, you can forward this to a few people however please do not blast it to your whole network.
http://socialnetworkingmadeeasy.net/
Thanks,
Brad Kenzie”
This does need to be stopped.
Loraine
November 17th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I came to your website today because I attended the webinar. I saw this post and just wanted to comment. If it was PMA desk that spammed you that’s wrong. I do know that pma desk is a real company because we use them and also Matthew is a real person who has a radio show here in Chicago. I know this because my father, a financial planner, was on his radio show. Whether he really gave that quote I don’t know but I thought I would let you know that this company and the customer are real. Hopefully it was not them that spammed you because they are helping us with our social media and I hope they don’t spam our clients!
November 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Loraine,
I’m getting more and more feedback from people that have received similar messages.
On the positive side this blog post is now listed as the #3 result when you search “PMA Desk” Spread the word by retweeting this post.
Sean
November 17th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Alicia,
Thanks for attending todays webinar.
Based on the fictitious account and the profiles listed on the PMA Desk companies page it looks fishy. In the end if its them or an affiliate (if they have those) they are responsible for setting marketing guidelines.
I’m sure they are a real company with a real product. The problem is that they are impacting their credibility by choosing a negative process of marketing.
Sean
November 19th, 2009 at 9:16 am
This type of thing is really frustrating. It makes the rest of us with legitimate business practices suspect to potential clients. And the really odd thing to me is that some of these folks seem to think it’s ok to ‘fudge’ online – with completely fictitious accounts, testimonials, what have you. The rules of business conduct don’t change just because it’s a virtual environment. Excellent post. Keep them coming!
November 19th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Wow, I am very impressed by your thorough investigative work! Hopefully, presenting all of this directly to Carl Doppler may stop the unethical practice! Thanks for your effort Sean!
–Victoria Manuel
November 19th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I agree 100%.
Sean
November 19th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Victor,
Thanks for the comments and for reading the blog.
Sean
November 25th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
So I responded before (see number 20) and am now really doubting this company. I had never talked to anyone on the phone and after reading this tried three times, twice leaving messages and once I talked to a female (the same person who I had left messages with) saying she would have someone call me right back. Its been days and I have not received a call back. This company has not followed through with the majority of what they promised to and now are unable to reach. I just thought I would leave my feedback. Also, the “president” of PMA desk/MYeReputation is Dean DeLisle. Looking at his linked in he has lots of contacts so I don’t know what to think of him or his company.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Alicia,
I would recommend that you contact Carl Doppler, as he is the one person I can verify and find a LinkedIn profile for.
In addition I would take some time and write out your story and then paste it here. Then go to Wordpress.com and create a blog…easy to do. Then post your story there with up to 25 keywords related to PMA Desk and Carl’s name. This will get picked up by search engines. Then Tweet the link to the blog. Over time you’ll get there attention and someone will call you.
Sean
November 27th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
[...] receiving a spam message on LinkedIn from what appeared to be a fake LinkedIn account. You can read that post and decide for yourself if I received a spam message from a fake [...]
November 30th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Just heard back from Carl Doppler. He was out of town last week with his family. He was very helpful and answered all my questions. I feel bad that I posted that second post because I know now that they are a real company and I am not worried anymore that they will help our company grow and tackle the social media world
Like I said in my first post, we do know someone that recommends them and the person’s testimonial on there site is real and now we will be recommending them as well. Just wanted to let you and your readers know so you don’t have to have any worries about this company anymore.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Alicia,
Thanks for posting back. I do believe they are a real company, just concerns on the marketing approach. Hopefully I won’t receive anymore emails and have to write another similar post. I prefer posts where I’m helping others use LinkedIn more effectively.
Sean
February 16th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Sean and Alicia,
Thank you for the comments and research! I have a meeting set for tonight to interview as an operations manager with PMA Desk. They are a new outsourced-company in our area and thanks to your blogs and comments, I will tread very carefully during the interview and get some light as to what this company really is about and what their objectives are, before I consider taking in a job with them. Will post back to you after my meet and greet with PMA Desk tonight.
Dino
February 18th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I received a similar spam message from “Peter Drainer” back in August 2009 directing me to PMA Desk.
If they are a legitimate company as Alicia suggests, how good can they be if their own sites are not ranked well? I had a hard time finding any information on them unless I was searching for PMA Desk.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Dino,
Good luck. I have not seen any recent activities similar to what I documented. Hopefully it was a blip.
March 4th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Dino – Do NOT take a job with Carl Doppler. If you do remember this message 3-4 months from now.