Hilarious little story:
After a bit more back-and-forth about how he could "just answer any questions I had right now", the sales rep pointed me to their sample ads, a 7mb PDF with sixteen pages of seemingly real companies, all with the same phone number (555-555-5555) and the same website (00000000000.com). Somehow, that didn't convince me to "invest" several hundred dollars, so the salesman faxed over some more information with a single, real ad.
As I eagerly waited for the follow-up call later that day, I thought I'd take a minute or two to check out their website. Almost immediately, I came across their Federal Procurement Officers Only page. Out of curiosity, I entered a username and password, and then clicked the Login button. Instantly, a JavaScript dialog popped-up...
Link here (via Xavier).
Incidentally, I have a neighbor who is in a similar business � selling �guides� or �special publications� that are basically vehicles to sell ads, and rarely see the light of day or get read. I get calls routinely from these sorts of outfits (there is a very active bunch of companies over in the UK that do this, where a lot of this scam got started).
Caveat emptor: Don�t blow hard-earned marketing money on stupid, bogus publications (no matter how impressive they sound), special technology television shows, inflight technology specials, etc. If you�re going to blow money on marketing, you�re better of going to Vegas. Stick with the core basics that work.
Alex Eckelberry
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