• White Knight SEO is being bandied about all over the internet as if some altruistic SEO-ers are coming to the rescue to help people avoid the terrible Google kits scams like Google Money Tree.

9/4/2009: Joseph Stein and I have chatted over at his blog and come to better terms. I think the MAIN thing that was freaking me out was that IF the White-Knight SEO-ers push down the scam listings WITHOUT also posting which law enforcement agencies with which to file complaints it could actually make things WORSE as they will bury sites like Scam.com, WorldLawDirect, FraudWatchers and others like them that DO help people file complaints with proper authorities.

I'll admit that I forget to that sometimes myself and plan to make it an ongoing practice from now on to provide that information along with other consumer education resources where appropriate.

The original post about the White Knight SEO crusade continues below:

Umm…where were the SEO white knights TEN MONTHS ago when little sites like WorkAtHomeTruth.com, StrangelyPerfect.TV,, WorkAtHomeNoScams.com, IveTriedThat.com and others sent out the original warnings and helped people file complaints and spent hundreds of hours helping people recover their money? And when people came together to help each OTHER out of the ridiculous Google kit scams?

Was something wrong with your horses?

The scams were and are terrible, but it's been wonderful to see so many people helping each other in their times of need. In my opinion, those people are the REAL white knights of the past ten months (I've posted links later in this blog post to many of the discussions on various sites where people were going out of their way to help one another?

So NOW the White Knight SEO-ers are going to come to "the rescue" AFTER Google has already been banning advertisers for over TWO MONTHS?

Gee, thanks guys. I'm sure the consumers that really needed you TEN MONTHS ago will be thrilled to hear of your little publicity stunt.  Are you going to help them file complaints, answer their emails, help them by phone (you are going to post your phone number aren't you), and continuously research questions that come up for them to help them out?

You ARE going to do that aren't you?

I mean you are "White Knights" after all. Where's your sense of chivalry?

Hey, I have an idea, why don't you go post about your wonderful White Knight SEO plans in the following discussions. Go ahead and post your phone numbers there, too, so people can get ahold of you for your "White Knight" help:

Sorry, White Knight SEO-ers. Looks like chivalry is dead.

If you ran a story exposing one of the Google Kit scams, feel free to comment about it below along with a link to your post in the comments section (please put the date you published your story in FRONT of the link along with the name of your site):

mm/dd/yyyy (mysite.com): Link to Story

It's about time YOU be knighted, isnt it?

UPDATE: Here's a bizarre statement that White-Knight SEOer Jonah Stein just posted to me in his "using white-hat SEO for Good" blog entry:

"Paul

I am sorry if you feel crowded out or neglected, but since you are selling a product to people who are looking to work at home, I can’t include you in the list of articles exposing the scam. This is about being altruistic, not opportunistic.

For what it is worth, other not so little sites like http://www.SEOBook.com have been sounding the alarm for some time, I just felt it was time to encourage other people to do so as well."

Is he really SO naive to think this is about being "neglected"? Does he REALLY think this is about getting a link from his site?

Didn't he work extensively with Aaron Wall? Don't you think he'd notice that I don't NEED a link from his site?

LOL!!!

And also he doesn't want people telling others where the LEGITIMATE training products are?

One last thought…maybe someone can help me out with this one:

How exactly are they "EXPOSING" the scams if so many OTHER sites already EXPOSED almost ALL of them nearly a YEAR ago (some MORE than a year ago) AND the FTC already filed request for injunctions against many of the ones they're "exposing"?

This is about White-Hat SEOers deciding to help when it's pretty much TOO LATE and the  GAME IS MOSTLY OVER this round.

9/3/2009 UPDATE: WHERE TO FILE COMPLAINTS in the United States:

Please, please, please make sure anyone pushing down the scam pages includes the following complaint sites for people to file with and ENCOURAGES the visitors to file complaints with them:

http://www.ftccomplaintassistant.com
http://www.ic3.gov
http://www.naag.org/attorneys_general.php (You should file with the AGs office of the state you are in AND the state that the company is operating out of).
http://www.bbb.org (the Federal and State government agencies will NOT put out warnings, because doing so could possibly jeapordize their case before they have time to collect evidence). The BBB on the other hand will issue warnings AND the FTC goes through their documentation in case they need extrinsic evidence to make a judgement on matters of deception.

You might also post that you can help people find the IP address of the companies site as sometimes they complaint forms will request that. Of course the sites often keep switching IPs as the complaints are filed against the host, but it’s an easy matter to keep your blog post updated on the IP/hosting changes.

It CAN make a BIG difference for people to file complaints as the FTC sometimes does rely on extrinsic evidence when bringing their requests for injunction against companies.

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