Another such affiliate network in the United States that does this is MarketLeverage.com, a Lake Mary, FL based company that manages the advertising and affiliate programs for grantsmoney.com, grants360.com and like their grant scam facilitating brethren at Hydra, a program for JRS Media Solutions, Federal Grant Connection.
In case you did not read my postings about grants360 and grantsmoney.com, these are grant scam sites operated by a company called 'Positive Thinking Management Ltd.' in the United Kingdom. They are particularly devious because, besides providing useless grant related information, they- use a 1-day trial period, after which they bill you $57.61 (recurring)
- also sign you up for their 'work from home guide' for $38.21 (one-time)
And MarketLeverage is OK with that.
It happens to be the case that in recent weeks I have received several inquiries from the media for information about these two grant scam sites, so I decided to investigate a little more and see what MarketLeverage's input on this would be.
So just like I did with my HydraNetwork investigation, I contacted the MarketLeverage Team:
As you see, in particular I asked them about verifiedgrants.com and related sites, a set of grant scam affiliate domains that are complete fakes, as described in my posts Verifiedgrants.com is a Verified Scam Affiliate and More Grant Scam Affiliate Deception - SecureGrants.com.- - - -Hi,
I run a blog called 'freegrantkitscams.com' which deals exclusively with government money grant scams.
I have been investigating and reporting on 'verifiedgrants.com' and its sister sites. This set of sites is built around a complete fake organization (see exposure article on my blog).
The grant programs they 'recommend' all appear to run through your affiliate network, for example via URL:
GET http://users.marketleverage.com/ad/28842/CD3963/&dp=0&l=0&p=0&subid1=81751&subid2=&subid3=&subid4=&subid5= HTTP/1.1
Which 301s to:
http://affiliate.votracking.com/rd/r.php?affid=221010&sid=44&c1=CD3963
So I have a couple of questions:
1. These guys cannot possibly be compliant to your affiliate policies. Their account should be shut down.
2. Why are you running a affiliate programs for Grant Scam Merchants in the first place? You know it's a scam, and you know the FTC is "not happy" with them.
3. Besides "Federal Grant Connection" and "GrantsMoney" programs, what other grant related programs do you run?
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Also note that I may or may not publish this e-mail and / or answers to this e-mail on my blog.
Kind regards,
'Hunter O'Scams'
Blog Admin | FreeGrantKitScams.com
E-mail: freegrantkitscams@gmail.com- - - -
Here is the response I received from the MarketLeverage team (bold / highlights by me):
First of all, it appears that like Hydra, MarketLeverage currently only runs grant related programs that are owned by foreign companies. Again it seems obvious why; these companies are outside of the direct reach of the FTC. The scam is exactly the same though, but MarketLeverage does not care.- - - -Hello ‘Hunter’,
Thank you for contacting the MarketLeverage affiliate network with your concerns.
As you may be aware, the United States federal government, along with attorneys general from several states, recently took aggressive action against several government grant assistance programs in a unified effort to protect consumers from false or misleading government grant opportunities. These efforts targeted specific government grant assistance programs that have falsely implied that consumers could obtain government grants as a direct result of President Obama’s recent economic stimulus package. Additionally, a few specific grant offers also implied that their programs were either affiliated with or sponsored by the U.S. federal government.
For many months prior to the government’s actions to protect consumers, the MarketLeverage network developed its own standards and increased its own scrutiny regarding government grant assistance programs. Because MarketLeverage proactively monitored its own actions, not a single one of the grant assistance programs cited by the federal government was ever listed on, is currently listed on, or ever will be listed on the MarketLeverage affiliate network.
The MarketLeverage network strives to be at the forefront of affiliate marketing compliance. In the rare event an Advertiser or Publisher on the MarketLeverage network violates a federal law or regulation, or violates either the MarketLeverage Advertiser Terms and Conditions or the MarketLeverage Publisher Terms and Conditions (which are more restrictive than federal law), MarketLeverage wants to know about it so that it can take swift and appropriate action.
We reviewed the website which you brought to our attention, verifiedgrants.com, and the government grant assistance programs that are currently listed on the MarketLeverage network reveals none of the above-mentioned issues. While MarketLeverage doesn’t perform independent investigations into the business of each of its advertisers, it appears that the offers listed on verifiedgrants.com provide consumers with legitimate and beneficial services. If you have any specific information that would contradict our current conclusion regarding these programs and verifiedgrants.com, please bring this information to our attention.
If you plan on attending the Affiliate Summit conference next week in New York City, please feel free to introduce yourself and visit us at our booth. We appreciate your vigilance and your efforts, and, again, thank you for contacting the MarketLeverage network.- - - -
They mention the team 'developed their own standards and increased its scrutiny regarding government grant assistance programs'.
Well let me make this really easy for you, MarketLeverage. Here is a quote from the FTC:
"[...] this is a scam as old as the hills. [...] Do not pay a dime to anyone for information about government grants"Go ahead, scrutinize that.
The e-mail also mentions that MarketLeverage 'doesn't perform independent investigations into the business of its advertisers.' Does not just blow your mind? In other words, they apparently do not care what of for whom they run advertising campaigns, as long as the money keeps rolling in. Kinda makes you wonder what else they have in their portfolio.
Furthermore the e-mail states that if any publisher or advertiser violates their terms and conditions to please bring it to their attention. Well did not I just do that in my e-mail? I followed up and let them know that the verifiedgrants.com set of sites clearly and blatantly violates section 4.2(f) of their publisher terms and conditions:
4.2 Prohibited Content. The content of the Publisher Website(s) incorporating any Program(s) may not promote, advocate, facilitate or otherwise include any of the following ("Prohibited Content"):As exposed in my previous posts about verifiedgrants.com, securegrants.com and the other sites mentioned, they are complete frauds claiming to be a grant research company with a team of fake grant researchers, and all they intend to do is push you through their affiliate sales funnel.
(f) Material that impersonates any person or entity;
If that is not impersonating and entity or person in its most blatant form, then I do not know what is.
So why would MarketLeverage's CEO and founder Michael Jenkins allow his company to represent these shady grant kit offers and allow its publishers to generate deceptive sites to push these offers?
Funny thing is if you read this interview with Michael, he seems like a pretty decent guy, and much of what he says seems to contradict MarketLeverage's take on these grant programs, except for the following quote, which may explain the whole thing:
"One of things I always say about affiliate marketing and performance marketing is “he who has the gold makes the rules.” This is really the case with what the CPA industry does.Wow he really said that. 'He who has the gold makes the rules'.
The advertiser is the person with the gold. At the end of the day, they are the ones that get to make the rules. They get to define what it is that they want to pay for and mitigate their risk by doing so.
CPA is the advent of a brand new way of marketing. It’s extremely efficient for the person with the gold, so we believe that that’s the driving force behind this industry. That little saying has really influenced the way that we think about the business."
Well yes if you are a slave to money. And how much gold do you need? Not all gold is equal. Heard of Blood Diamonds? In similar fashion, let's coin the term 'Scammer's Gold'.
You should not want that kind of gold, and should not allow yourself to be ruled by anyone that holds the Scammer's Gold.
In the mean time, MarketLeverage publishes 'good things' in their news section, like how much time and money they donate to Ronald McDonald, etc. It's always nice when well-to-do companies do charitable things, but considering where some of that money may have come from, I ain't applauding it.
MarketLeverage will be attending Affiliate Summit East in NYC from August 9 to 11 where they also will be celebrating all that is gold with a lavish VIP yacht party. If you attend the ASE, please visit their booth and request they remove all their grant related offers from their portfolio.
See you there.
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