Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

ALERT! Not Associated with Ralph Basinger

Posted by Sarah on April 3rd, 2010

For what it’s worth, Mindsprout Marketing has recently discovered that it’s a victim of fraudulent activity. An individual named Ralph Basinger is claiming to be an employee with this company and using the company logo and company contact information as his own. This person routinely performs scams online and requests services for writing insurance articles, but never pays for the work that is provided.

This individual has also posed as someone named James Clemmons and claimed to be associated with another company, Jane Content. Again, they have no connection to this individual.

If you suspect that you’re a victim of this person, please contact your local law enforcement office, file a police report and visit the following website provided by the FBI to file a complaint against this person:  http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

MindSprout has contacted their attorney to discuss additional legal action in regards to the fraud and misrepresentation of its logo, address and contact information.

A call to action is also being sent out via social media to alert any other creatives that this individual is on the hunt. Hopefully by banding together, people will be able to protect themselves. Please Tweet, Digg and post on Facebook and other sites to get the word out.

UPDATE ON 4/4/2010:

The primary ID used on all accounts to post the fraudulent job that has been linked to MindSprout is Ralph43d.

The project title for the job that has been posted is Insurance & Other Topics Articles (yes, he misspelled the title)

The following websites had featured this fraudulent post and they have all been contacted regarding this individual:

Guru.com

Freelancer.com

Project4Hire.com

Freelancer-Job.com

FreelancerTools.com

Extradime.com

Ozlance.com.au

Scriptlance.com

Indiahangout.com

Peopleperhour.com

Updates will continue to be made to this post in order to assist other freelancers with this person’s attempt at fraud.

Again, this person is NOT associated with MindSprout. We do not know who he is. We have NOT authorized any such posting or job listing. We are seeking legal action as a result.

The person is also posting additional jobs under the alias:  Robert38 and Robert B.

Here’s a copy of the first job description that this person is posting:

Hi

I am looking for a good writer who can write original articles for me on various topics like life insurance.

For this project I will need 30, 350-400 word articles.

You must be either native English speaking user or know the English language extremely well.

1. This will be a long term relationship if your work is good; so please bid accordingly

2. Deadlines are very important so please be realistic when bidding ie: no over commitments

3. Please submit one writing sample .

4. Only unique content with PERFECT grammar will be accepted. They must pass copyspace

5. I will reserve all copyrights to the articles.

Thank you and happy bidding..

The second job description reads as follows:

If you cannot meet the deadlines, have poor English, or you will end up in writing plagiarized content, please don’t bid on this project!

I need well written articles on various topics, I want informative articles. You have to be perfect English with proper punctuation and pluralization. Your article must be very smooth and easy to read. The article must be a researched, authoritative, substantiative, professional article with not one edit required.

Below are the requirements;

*Must meet the deadlines
*Content must be informative, interesting and concise.
*All articles should be written in excellent English, There should be no single
Grammatical mistake, all articles must be written in conversational English, with perfect grammar and spelling.
* Only unique, original content will be accepted. Each article must pass CopyScape.
* Each article must be proofread for spelling, errors, grammar and word count..
* You will not use the articles for any reason after receiving payment
* you have to provide one sample article on our choosing topic before selecting you.

I will need for this project 30 articles, of 350-400 words, I don’t know how much a quality article cost today but I have paid before 8$ each for this kind of articles and I know that quality comes with a price and I don’t mind to pay more to get what I’m looking for, still the price matters.

My main business is insurance.

Here are the websites that the person claims they need articles written for:

www. finddiscountinsurance . com

http:// rapidcarinsurance . com