Beware of this Direct Mail SEO Scam

I want all of my LinkedIn newsletter subscribers to be aware of this new search engine optimization (SEO) direct mail scam that is probably being sent to every business owner in the country.

How Does the?Scam Work?

The SEO company behind the campaign automatically?formulates what appears to be a legitimate invoice?for SEO services for your business.

It looks somewhat like a real invoice with your company?name, your domain url, a fictitious account?number, an itemization of the service, a customer service phone number, and even a due date!

Even though it looks like a real invoice, it's not.? It's basically an advertisement that is designed to look like an invoice.

Last week we had multiple website design clients receive it and ask us if it's a legitimate?invoice.

We educate our clients about scam attempts like this one. So if they feel the need to ask us, then I'm sure the general public is getting fooled routinely.

Click here to see a sample document from this company.

Why Trick People?

The answer is pretty simple, just not ethical.

It's definitely a game of numbers.

When they use direct mail to get this look-a-like invoice into the hands of potentially every business in the country, it only requires a relatively small response rate for them (at $99.58/per sale) to generate great revenue.

Once they identify what business owners are uninformed enough to actually remit payment, they may even convert the one-time sale into residual revenue.

Why wouldn't this SEO company attempt to send the same businesses another SEO invoice every year?

They may even have large upsells that they can offer to generate even more revenue from those businesses.

I'd imagine this SEO company has their cost per direct mail piece underneath $1/per business including the stamp.??

If that's true, and they're selling a $99.58 service, they only need to convert 1 business owner into a sale out of every 100 businesses to break even on their marketing.

If they get 2 sales out of 100 businesses, now they're doubling their money.

If the conversion rate is even higher, then I'm sure you can understand why the scam is profitable.

Get Them to Stop!

The only way to get them to stop this sort of campaign is to make it unprofitable for them to operate it.

Spread the word to everyone?in your network by sharing this article so that unsuspecting business owners don't fall victim.

Unfortunately, I see this type of scenario all the time in the industry and I don't expect it to stop anytime soon.

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Take care,

John "don't get scammed" LiCausi

InternetMarketingExperience.com