If a large well established and respected company invites investment in a system that it knows has no benefit to the investor, is that a scam?

In general I'm taliking about various web portals, a Case in point, One of the lead political news feeds in the UK. They do the hard sell in pushing major companies to have mini web sites on their system, the idea being the massive exposure associated with being listed on that service. My company - against my advice - purchased a few pages and invested a huge amount of money in keeping them up to date. Eventually I insisted on placing a counter on the pages. It was only when I proved that nobody accessed these pages did we cancel the agreement.

This company still pushes this "stakeholder" service, largely focusing on the web illiterate. I say its a scam in the same league as any get rich quick scheme as the seller knows that the buyer in the vast majority of cases gets no return!

(I've avaoided naming the company, only to follow the WPW etiquette) I think these companies should be exposed by name, there are others out there who have equally applied the hard sell and who I am sure retain their respected position while scamming unknowing investors

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Letting Agents, Solar Heating, Solar and Renewable Energy

Simon, Ok you cannot name the firm, but you should at least write to Companies House or contact the FSA at enquiries@fsa.gov.uk

I am FSA registered and I have a colleague who is also FSA regulated who knows a great deal about scams, you can e-mail me privately through WPW

My goodness ctabuk being serious, whatever next!

Woof

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Wait a minute...before you report them...
Let me make sure I understand.

They get you to pay for web space on a 'consolidated' site that they say people will use because they can find a lot of companies in one place. You invest...and get no visitors...so you think it is a scam?

If I have this right...here is my problem with your logic:

If I'm a visitor and not enough companies are listed there...I'm not coming back.
If I'm a vendor...and there are not enough visitors...I'm leaving.

Problem with starting a site like this is what you are hoping for is that tons of vendors post their sites and tons of visitors look at them...all on the same day. It will take time to establish this as the 'place to go' for the visitors...you need to market it like that. But, you can't start marketing it until there is enough content (companies) for the vistor to see...and make it worth his time.

Think about it...if DisneyWorld had only one ride the first time I went...but promised there would be more once the concept caught on...would I go back?

I'm thinking this site is not a scam...just not mature yet.

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Ed Siegel - Business Information Manager
Ampacet Corporation
http://www.Ampacet.com

esiegal, I agree with your comments, however there is some depth to the criticism of this particular company which has been around since 2001. On questioning the likely number of visitors, they stated that they did not record for individual sites but we should expect a considerable share of some millions of page views. I didn't believe this hence the insistence of a page counter which yealded a effectively zero (effectively becuase it did of course record my visits). Following closure of the site and closing the contract for clear and stated reasons I approached the company, as if from another company to ask what levels of visitor numbers and page views I would expect. The same response as above. In fact they were most insistent that it would be a definite benefit and that they weren't aware of any failures.

If I was a relative unknown company offering this service and making the hard sell, then providing all that was promised apart from any benefit (or site visitors) I guess I would be called a scammer.

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Letting Agents, Solar Heating, Solar and Renewable Energy

This is really boarder line
Should
Could
No guaranties only potential and most of the time that does not work out.
The fact that they are misleading and over project themselves in vagueness is almost common to all business.
The fact you kept on this and tracked your results showed that it is not viable to your companies.
The thing is if even 1 or 2 clients do receive those numbers they can easy justify quoting them.

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