Convert2Media.com Supports Grant Scams

Last week I dropped some posts about how the HydraNetwork, a California-based affiliate network with more than 100 million dollars in revenue in 2008, as well as MarketLeverage, a Florida-based affiliate network (revenue unknown, millions, probably) both actively manage the affiliate / advertising program for one or more grant scam merchants.

I approached both of these companies for a comment but that was basically a waste of time. So today I will present to you another affiliate network that supports grant scams. That network is called Convert2Media, and they are based in Florida, US-of-A. I have not contacted them in similar fashion to my approach with HydraNetwork and MarketLeverage, but I have no doubt they will be in touch if anything I wrote concerns them.

This weekend I was researching a grant scam affiliate site that actively advertises on Bing (Microsoft's search engine):


The search was for 'grant money'. As you can see there are a lot of grant scam affiliate ads on Bing these days, and even sites showing up in the search results, especially compared to Google which could indicate that Google is taking measurements against these. Bing / Microsoft Ad Center however looks like it is suffering from a severe lack of oversight. They apparently did not get the FTC message in March. But that's a topic for a next post.

The ad circled in red, with Headline 'Government Grants' leads to a domain called ForGrants.org:

Forgrants.org is your basic grant scam affiliate site with a lot of fluff and blah blah about how they did research, etc. I am not going to discuss in detail the lies and deception of this page here, but trust me it is all rubbish.

Clicking on the first one of their 'recommended' programs takes us to known grant scam merchant Grants360.com, operated by a company in the United Kingdom (or supposedly so...). Clicking on the second 'recommended program' takes us to again Grants360.com, this time within a iframe loading a page via domain Grants411.com. The third recommended link leads to another known grant scam merchant's site, GrantsMoney.com - operated by the same company in the UK.

All affiliate links on this page go through the Convert2Media affiliate network via subdomain affiliate.c2mclicks.com:

GET http://forgrants.org/grants360.php HTTP/1.1
GET http://affiliate.c2mclicks.com/rd/r.php?sid=46&pub=515155&c1=931 HTTP/1.1
GET http://clktrck.com/track/NjE6Mzox,13/?sub=515155 HTTP/1.1
GET http://www.grants360.com/f/?nats=NjE6Mzox,13,0,0,0&sub=515155 HTTP/1.1

GET http://forgrants.org/government-grants.php HTTP/1.1
GET http://www.govgrants411.com/grants360.php HTTP/1.1
GET http://affiliate.c2mclicks.com/rd/r.php?sid=46&pub=515155&c1= HTTP/1.1
GET http://clktrck.com/track/NjE6Mzox,13/?sub=515155 HTTP/1.1
GET http://www.grants360.com/f/?nats=NjE6Mzox,13,0,0,0&sub=515155 HTTP/1.1

GET http://forgrants.org/egrants.php HTTP/1.1
GET http://affiliate.c2mclicks.com/rd/r.php?sid=49&pub=515155&c1=931 HTTP/1.1
GET http://clktrck.com/track/NjE6Mzoy/?sub=515155 HTTP/1.1
GET http://www.grantsmoney.com/?nats=NjE6Mzoy,0,0,0,0&sub=515155 HTTP/1.1

This shows you two things:

1) The operators of grant scam affiliate site forgrants.org also run a grant scam affiliate site via domain govgrants411.com. See, it looks almost the same as forgrants.org:

2) Convert2Media actively runs these grant programs as part of their 'portfolio', contributing to the scamming of American and Canadian citizens who are looking for a financial break.

So let's get to Convert2Media.

Convert2media is an affiliate network that was started a little over a year ago by a group of experienced affiliate marketers. Not sure about who all is involved, but the main character behind Convert2Media appears to be president and CEO Ralph "Ruck" Ruckman.

Their 'about us' page touts an image that looks like a freeze-frame from the movie Reservoir Dogs. An image that exudes trust, honesty and professionalism:
Mr. Ruckman seems to have quite a reputation within some of the affiliate marketing community. From the interviews I've watched and listened to, from his blog and forum postings I have read, it appears that Ruck is what you would call a straight shooter.

Apparently, Mr. Ruckman has seen it all, from innocent content writing and SEO to blackhat affiliate marketing tactics, traffic hijacking, 'hacking' (his words), being banned from Google Blogger due to high-volume spam blogging, run-ins with the authorities etc. Some of the affiliate marketer thug wannabees look up to him - and it seems he wants to know about that, appreciating his notoriety.

It appears Ruck's adventures in affiliate marketing have served him and his company well. I found the folllowing video posted on the site of Affiliate Marketer / Blogger Ian Fernando. He visited the Convert2Media headquarters (?) in Florida, and impressed with all that blings ("a huge LCD TV in every room!") dubbed it Gangsterlicious. Mind you, Ian Fernando likes the gangsta theme, as evident from the fact that the team he forms with some other affiliate marketers carries the badass-wannabe name PPC Mafia [source]:





Now I am all for making money and living large, and if that's your thing more power to you.

But doing so by facilitating grant scam operations that target Americans in a time of financial crisis, making hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars through deceptive rebill offers that cheat your fellow countrymen out of the last few dollars they may have, that is repulsive and as far as I am concerned criminal.

And Convert2Media has in the last 10 months run many grant offers besides the ones they are running now. Here's a list compiled from announcements in their forum:

Grant Writing Express 5.59% 2.14 EPC
Grant Funding Express 4.79% $2.01 EPC
Grant Every Day Search 4.59% $1.97 EPC
Every Day Grants - $30.00
Economic Crisis Grants - $30.00
Grant Funding Express - $34.00
Obama Bailout Grant
Grant Solution Center
Grant Funding Place
Grant Every Day (Search Only) $39.00
Grant Research Guide $36.00
Government Funding Solutions $25.25
Earn Cash from Grants $38.00
Grant Connect - Government Grants $32.00
Grant Every Day $32.00

As you can see the conversion rates mentioned are pretty high, and the payout averages around $32 per sign-up. So out of every 100 visitors, 5 sign up and become a victim of these grant scam rebill offers, making the grant scam affiliate marketer $160+ per 100 visitors.

And as Mr. Ruckman describes in his blog post Government Grants - A lesson in Targeted Conversions, millions of dollars changed hands as a result of these grant offers:

"This is for all you government grant publishers. In case you dont know, government grants are an extremely lucrative niche. Ruck knows because he’s been involved with the market for almost two years now. He also knows about the multi million dollar payrolls to networks and affiliates from two of the largest grant advertisers online because he had the pleasure of drinking a beer with both of them at Ad-Tech NYC earlier this month."

(Yes, he is really referring to himself when he says 'Ruck knows...')

Further on in the post, he says:

"My friends there is an entire world of traffic out there you never even knew about and ALL of them are looking for something different. Let me show you who they are and how best to construct your landing pages so that when they read them, they get that tingly feeling in their pants to the point of where $1.95 for that grant cd feels like something they MUST have."

So basically Mr. Ruckman is teaching his flock of sheep the intricacies of getting people to sign up for something he surely knows is not kosher. In one interview I listened to he played the 'rebill offers have always been there' card and compared the grant scam offers to NetFlix trial offers.

Yeah right. Makes you sleep better at night, Ruck, to think that way?

Mr. Ruckman, who never fails to mention how his network is different from others in that his team personally coaches you if you are not a loser, also posted a grant campaign how-to in the Convert2Media forums, where he basically delivers the good and bad of grant offer promotion. If you read the whole thread you'll see how the discussion quickly evolves into a how to market grant offers on Craigslist by posting 'work from home' and 'make money online' ads.

Again, specifically targeting those looking for a job, those in financial distress willing to cling to any possible form of relief. In other words scum of the earth affiliate marketing tactics.

When you see Mr. Ruckman talk you'll notice he tries to be very careful when talking about certain topics such as blackhat Google tactics and things like FTC scrutiny. Apparently he's had 'several run-ins with the BBB and FTC' - I can only guess why. Funny thing is sometimes he appears to have this internal struggle where he wants to be the badass and say certain things but has to refrain from doing it because it may come back to haunt him.

The Click2Marketing team is present at Affiliate Summit East 2009. They arrived in style, true to their gangsta image, in an over the top Hummer limo. They're in booth 1808. Go visit them and ask them about removing all grant offers from their network. Make sure you use expletives, that's how they roll.

And Ruck, if you've managed to read all of this, since you prefer and appreciate in your face no-bullshit straight-talk:

Fuck you and your scampany, and I hope the Feds come raid your 'gangstalicious crib' soon and make an example out of your scam-facilitating money whore of a company that is co-responsible for ripping off financially troubled Americans to the tune of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.