Perhaps regular old spam just isn’t working as well as it once did. I recently heard about a Russian mega-spammer getting arrested, so maybe it is becoming harder for shysters like the ones behind TurboATM.com to find professional spammers to do their bidding.
Well, never fear scammers and shysters! We’ve still got the trusty old telephone. Remember how popular telemarketing once was? Well, with just about everyone on the planet carrying a cell phone around, you can imagine the sheer volume of phone numbers available for phone spammers to target!
These “phone spammers” are not your typical telemarketers. They don’t have to hire lots of employees to man the phone lines and sit there making call after call and enduring verbal abuse to boot! This new breed are more like spammers, hence the name. Their calls are pre-recorded and automated. They just sit back and let their machines do the talking!
I don’t receive a huge number of these calls, but they have definitely been on the increase over the last few years. I registered my cell phone on the national “Do Not Call” list and I suspect that cuts down somewhat on the volume of phone spam I receive, but the determined ones like these morons behind TurboATM.com don’t let little details like “Do Not Call” lists deter them.
These ignoramuses had their machine place a call to my cell phone just a short time ago. Since I was out of the room, my son picked it up and brought it to me with just enough time remaining to hear the last few words of the pre-recorded spiel before it disconnected.
Since I was not able to make out the name of the website they were promoting, I simply looked up 206-888-2303 and discovered the TurboATM site. I also called the number back and received a voicemail message instructing me to leave a message. No surprise there. I left them a message just to tell them what I thought about them and their phone spamming campaign.
Here’s a look at the TurboATM.com website. It’s the all-too-typical and thoroughly lame sales letter with opt-in box like those used by millions of other scam artists. The product is yet another set of DVDs with some “course” that will enable you to be a millionaire – or something like that.
Notice all the usual, tired old crap at the top, like the photos of the big house, fancy car and piles of cash? Honestly, do people actually still fall for this crap?
I decided to do just a little digging to see if I could find out who was behind this TurboATM,com site. It really didn’t take too long to find out.
The TurboATM.com domain was registered through “Go Daddy” and has privacy enabled to conceal the name of the website owner. However, since TurboATM.com is just a kind of web “picture frame” and simply displays the content of another website (known as “framing” to web geeks) called MDMFormula.com, all I had to do was look up that domain and discover that some jackass named “Bo Small” is the owner.
Old Bo has racked up a bit of a reputation for himself. Seems the state of Illinois is onto his little scheme and has banned him from calling Illinois residents. Poor Bo. Here’s the cease and desist order from the Illinois Secretary of State. Way to go, Bo! Surely a sign that you and your money-making system are on the up-and-up!
Bo also attracted the attention of the folks over at the Advertising Industry Newswire site, where Bo and his operation were dubbed the “Robo-calling Scum of the Week.” Appropriate title and another “way to go” for Big Bo!
I couldn’t help but notice that the posting on the Advertising Industry Newswire site was dated March 18th. Yet Bo is still at it 9 months later despite the spanking from Illinois. Wow, 9 months is enough time to have a baby, Bo! But I suppose that’s the last think we want creeps like Bo Small doing. One of him in the world is more than enough!
Some details of Bo’s scam and his location information were included by the Advertising Industry Newswire people, so I won’t bother repeating them here, although I did enjoy a good belly-laugh when I read the little gem at the bottom of the TurboATM.com site that proclaims the following:
“We HATE Spam perhaps even more than you, so you KNOW without a doubt
that we will absolutely NEVER sell, trade or give out your name and
email address to anyone – plus, you can opt-out from receiving anything from
us at anytime!”
Oh, please. That’s rich! They “HATE” spam, but more intrusive pre-recorded spam telephone calls to people who are registered on the “Do Not Call” list are just fine, apparently. Shows what kind of scum this guy and his ilk truly are.
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