Below is a copy of an email I recieved from one of my customers today. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?? The website seems to go to someone called colossalhost.com. :angry: :mad:


Hi,

I got a mailing today through the US Postal service
from wantsomegetsome.net. They were offering me some
reduced cost webhosting as an "exciting offer to
RFhost customers."

I am assuming that this is just junk mail and that
they are trying to poach your customers. Would I be
correct in that?

The mailing does a very good job though of appearing
to be from RFHost.

Let me know whether this was from you guys or not.

If you haven't already seen the letter I would be more
than happy to forward it to you too.

Cheers.

How did they get his info in the first place?

How did they get his info in the first place?

I have no idea!! My first guess would be that the looked up the whois info on my customers domain.

That's just low. If you have to go and try to steal other people's customers by doing that, then it's just low.

Now if your cusomter were to have stumbled across these guys and decided to go with them, then that's one thing, however, they didn't...

:angry:

It's the next Verisign wannabe.

Over the past 2 months I've received nearly 300 snail-mail letters from Verisign offering me to pay 3x what I currently do for my domains.

-Matt

Wouldn't that be targeted marketing? If that host is local to your customer, he could have seen the web page advertised, looked it up and sent a letter. People take business from competitors everyday. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't appreciate it either, but I have seen it happen in my town. I haven't seen the letter, so I don't know if he is trying to pass himself off as another company, which would be fraud. That would be bad.

Originally posted by RackNine
It's the next Verisign wannabe.

Over the past 2 months I've received nearly 300 snail-mail letters from Verisign offering me to pay 3x what I currently do for my domains.

-Matt

Same here, my mailbox is inundated with crap from Verisign.....hmmmm, must be because they have access to all the info... but that qualifies as spam to me because there is no effort in looking up the info on a company. They just run the database thru it....

wantsomegetsome.net redirectsd to https://www.sslcatacomb.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/s.cgi?features-getsome

look up thier info from a whois and give them a call. Ask them what the heck they think they are doing. That would be the first thing i would do.

Then ofcourse i would do what you did and make the situation public on WHT.

http://www.enom.com/domains/WhoIs.asp?DomainName=wantsomegetsome.net&submit.x=50&submit.y=10 looks fake

That's low indeed. How low can people sink... This business is a joke.. .and a BAD one too :angry:

That's low indeed. How low can people sink...

...how deep's your ocean?

Everyone loves money, not everyone understands or wants to understand the fundamentals of good business. Ultimately though any quick bucks you make will disappear, better have a solid backup plan before that rock you tied yourself to drags you below sunken treasure level :)

-Matt

I checked out the cached version of WantSomeGetSome.net on www.archive.org and found this information on their contact page:


Telephone & Fax
Sales/Orders: 1.877.438.7063
Facsimile: 1.877.342.3998
Technical Support: 1.800.234.8598


Postal Mail
wantsomegetsome.net
ATTN: <see selection>
PO Box 236
Mount Vernon, IN 47620-0236

You may want to contact WantSomeGetSome through this info (hopefully, it works).

Good luck!

Update: It seems like ColossalHost and WantSomeGetSome.net ARE related. If you check the WHOIS for ColossalHost, they have the same address as the one located above. :(

I would suggest using this as evidence.

I really need to find more productive ways to spend my time...

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Sales Department'
Sales Department: Hello. Thank you for your interest in our low cost web hosting solutions. How may I be of service?
you: hello sales department, i had a few questions
you: ever heard of an unscrupulous company called wantsomegetsome ?
you: well apparently they are stealing whois information and pawning themselves off as partners of other hosting companies in an attempt to steal market share
Sales Department: WantSomeGetSome is a sales affiliate.
you: read all about it: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54471
you: and what's stranger is their address is the same as...wait a sec... YOUR ADDRESS
you: weird huh
Sales Department: No. Not at all. The address is not the same.
you: now i don't know about you, but if i were in the line of fire with allegations like those, i'd think of perhaps recruiting some new 'sales affiliates'
Sales Department: All current customers can sign up as an affiliate.
you: well i truly hope it all works out for you and i hope you are able to avoid a lawsuit from rfhost
Sales Department: Thank you for chatting. Please feel free to contact us at anytime.
Sales Department: Have a good one.

Well it seems like ColossalHost cared much about affiliates 'cheating'. :(

Originally posted by Orpheus1539
I really need to find more productive ways to spend my time...

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Sales Department'
Sales Department: Hello. Thank you for your interest in our low cost web hosting solutions. How may I be of service?
you: hello sales department, i had a few questions
you: ever heard of an unscrupulous company called wantsomegetsome ?
you: well apparently they are stealing whois information and pawning themselves off as partners of other hosting companies in an attempt to steal market share
Sales Department: WantSomeGetSome is a sales affiliate.
you: read all about it: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54471
you: and what's stranger is their address is the same as...wait a sec... YOUR ADDRESS
you: weird huh
Sales Department: No. Not at all. The address is not the same.
you: now i don't know about you, but if i were in the line of fire with allegations like those, i'd think of perhaps recruiting some new 'sales affiliates'
Sales Department: All current customers can sign up as an affiliate.
you: well i truly hope it all works out for you and i hope you are able to avoid a lawsuit from rfhost
Sales Department: Thank you for chatting. Please feel free to contact us at anytime.
Sales Department: Have a good one.


Now, im just curious. Did you type that conversation as you were on the phone, or did you record it and then write it afterwards :D

Now, im just curious. Did you type that conversation as you were on the phone, or did you record it and then write it afterwards

I would assume it was a live chat transcript.

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

The traditional LivePerson message.



You are now chatting with 'Sales Department'

Keyword: chatting. I would doubt they'd have a 3rd person machine that states: You are now chatting with 'Sales Department' (although it could happen). :)