Huge Increase In SEO Services Spammers Using Gmail Accounts
There’s been a big increase in the number of people sending spam through Google Gmail accounts lately.
Many of them such as the ones I have listed below are offers for “white hat” SEO services including high pagerank blog links.
The funny thing is that they claim they can help you with SEO and not get you banned. If that were so good at white hat SEO why would they have to send spam to solicit business?
Some of these emails will even ask you to take certain actions to remove yourself from their mailing list. Don’t do it. If you did not sign up for their list then you should not be on their list.
Do not respond to these email messages in any for or fashion.
Online Fact: People who are truly good at what they do don’t have to spam to get business. If they were really good at SEO they could get all the traffic they could handle using legal means.
Here’s is a list of the spam email addresses as well as IP addresses.
Notice that there are many IP addresses grouped together.
name : Bella Garza
email2 : bella2303@gmail.com
122.173.253.16
Karl Lopezkarl780@gmail.com
*****SEND 004899 AS SUBJECT TO REMOVE YOUR EMAIL FROM THE LIST*****
———————————————————–
name : Jack Walker
email2 : Jackwalker.001@gmail.com
122.160.24.94
name : Cecelia Maloney
email2 : cecelia232@gmail.com
122.173.242.125
name : Harold Ellis
email2 : harold3260@gmail.com
122.173.233.151
name : Cecelia Maloney
email2 : cecelia239@gmail.com
122.173.228.94
name : Oscar Anderson
email2 : oscar2305@gmail.com
122.173.224.72
name : Scott Oakley
email2 : scott9288@gmail.com
122.173.252.147
name : Nathan Kyle
email2 : nathan646442@gmail.com
122.161.43.128
name : Cecelia Maloney
email2 : cmaloney681@gmail.com
122.161.43.86
name : Jack Walker
email2 : Jackwalker.002@gmail.com
122.161.42.230
name : Mark Conway
email2 : markconway39@gmail.com
122.161.41.192
Name : Eugene Strickland
email2 : eugene2386@gmail.com
122.173.247.253
name : Austin Salter
email2 : austinsalter124@gmail.com
122.160.24.94
name : Marketing Manager
email2 : web.intermarketing1@gmail.com
59.177.142.145
Michael Smith
michaelsmth891@gmail.com
Mail this post
I did an IP Lookup of the IP address my spam filter gave me for one of these bogus crap emails and they’re coming from India.
I did actually reply to one of the emails and never heard anything back. The emails themselves do not have any sign of a legitimate service such as an actual web address.
I have heard it’s possible that they are probing web contact forms for exploitable vunerabilities.
Now Mark Conway has started to spam forms
Product-Name: Mark Conway
Company: SEO Company
Name: Mark Conway
Address: 224 Lawrence Road
address2: 224 Lawrence Road
City: New YorK
State: New YorK
Zip: 11111
E-mail: mark23004@gmail.com
Comments: Internet Marketing Services
We would like to get your website on first page of Google.
All of our processes use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization techniques that
will not get your website banned or penalize
Please reply and I would be happy to send you a proposal.
Here’s another one, I got it today:
Scottoakley.122@gmail.com
122.160.99.22
Here’s another one, same email different address.
haroldellis21@gmail.com
122.160.99.22
Why is it that Google does not offer a page where we can forward these emails (like spoof at payoal)?
Is there such a mechanism for this on Google – Gmail?
B
I think it’s so easy for anyone to create multiple gmail address that Google doesn’t bother much with people who use them for spam.
Here’ the latest one I’ve received.
========================================================
name : Bella Garza
email2 : bellagarza456@gmail.com
subject : Business Services
comments : Search Engine Optimization We would like to get your website on first page of Google. All of our processes use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized. Please reply and I would be happy to send you a proposal.
IP : 122.161.38.148
Submit : Submit
Our Dutch website received this form 02/12/2010
Dit bericht is verstuurd via het formulier in uw website :
aanhef : Mr.
naam : Jimmy
bedrijfsnaam : SEO Company
adres : 224 Lawrence Road
postcode : 11111
woonplaats : New York
telefoon : 000-000-0000
e-mailadres : jimmypalacios7@gmail.com
bericht : Increase traffic to your website
We would like to get your website on first page of Google.
All of our processes use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized.
Please reply and I would be happy to send you a proposal.
Thank your for warning us!
Hi,
please add my i.d
The comment above was left by Alex.
I guess Alex fancies himself an SEO spammer. He listed some gmail addresses, but I’ll just list his IP address instead.
202.89.79.18
Alex also left a website address that was selling a male enhancement product
I always enjoy reading quality articles by an individual who is definately up to snuff on their chosen subject. I’ll be watching this thread with great interest. Keep up the great work, see you next time
This is one that I received through a contact form. I was typing up a reply and something told me to look into it before sending it. That is when I found this page, so I did not send it, Thank you guys.
From: Harold Ellis
E-mail: haroldellis002@gmail.com
Message: We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Just received another “SEO Services – would like to evaluate and increase traffic on your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail”
sender was harold.ellis020@gmail.com
Glad I checked (something didn’t seem right) and found your info…thanks.
Hi,
I’m glad that everyone is catching these and recognizing them as spam.
I personally do not know of a legitimate SEO company that would not include their website address in their solicitation. IF an SEO ompany knows what it is doing its own website should have an excellent ranking.
Harold ellis is back at it
HaroldEllis024@gmail.com
and yes, you can automate creating gmail accounts.
Thanks for the update, Jason.
Harold Ellis at it again!
Info:
harold.ellis019@gmail.com
NEW DELHI, INDIA
122.163.175.118
Thanks posting the above.
I’ve had 1 end April from Austin Salter (email bounced) and 3 last week: email addresses: robertkarlson2365@gmail.com, martinbabcoak007@gmail.com, kentcornwall88@gmail.com.
All received from my web sites contact form.
Thanks to everyone for the updates.
Also got one on June 25th from robertkarlson2365@gmail.com.
(It came through the Contactform)
————————-
Anrede: Woman
Vorname: Ricky
Nachname: Ricky Dempsey
E-Mail: robertkarlson2365@gmail.com
E-Mail (Kopie an):
robertkarlson2365@gmail.com
Betreff: See you at the top
Nachricht: Do you want to grow your business ? Do you have serious, sales defined goals?
————————-
Regards,
MSI
I got 2 the past week, 1 from paul3205@gmail.com, and one from robertkarlson2365@gmail.com, i knew it’s not legitimate because they didn’t leave a contact phone #, anyway, get rid of these crazy spammers. anyone know why they are doing it?
Harold Ellis again:
From: harold.ellis015@gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:59:34 -0700
>
> name: Henry Hagan
> Question: We are Internet Marketing experts who can help you answer these questions, drive mass traffic to your site, and dramatically increase sales.
and this guy is another one:
Subject: http://www.abetterpoolsupply.com – Contact needed
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:44:16 +0300
From: marcs@mplw.net
I am Dr. Marc Schneider and I work for Multilingual Search Engine Optimization Inc. in Washington DC ( Tel: 1-202-558-2504) – I would like to speak with the person in charge of your international clientele. Who is my contact? Who should I speak to??
google his name!!!
Wish I would have checked this out first!I just got a responce on my contact form from a ceceliamaloney01234@gmail.com offering to get me on the front page of Goggle – I am already there but i answered back out of politness – I have a new site in a legitimate niche market that I hope will be a benifit to the Industry I am serving and would hate to get hooked up with anyone or thing not legit. What should I be aware of with this person – Can they harm me or my site (or its reputation) just by responding to them? please let me know – you have me a little worryed
Thanks
Todd
Hi Todd,
I would be wary of any company that claims to be able to put you on the font page of Google, but does not lis its own website in the offer. A competent SEO firm will be proud to show you their website and the rankings it gets. After all, if an SEO company can’t get ranking for its own website how are they going to be able to help you? There is no website listed in the spam email you receive because these people don’t have a clue about SEO.
By replying to them they now now that they have a working emil address for you and can basically spam you anytime they want.
Don’t do bsiness with these people under any circumstances.
What can you do if your contact form is being spammed?
I’ve gotten two contacts within a week of each other from different people but using variations of markconway.xxx@gmail.com, where the x’s are a number (like an employee number). The first e-mail offered to help with SEO for my company. The second, received last night, is now asking for my help in getting them a better SEO ranking. Both contact were from a contact form, but neither of them specified a web address, company name, or any other identification information.
Hi,
Unfortunately for me I’ve responded to a proposal from bellagarza02[at]gmail.com who contacted me through my contact form in my website, saying that I was not interrested. I had doubts afterwards and made a quick google search on that email and I found this discussion… too late it seems…
I wonder what could be the consequences, besides beeing spamed ?
Sorry for my english, I’m french…
It’s worth just blocking India from accessing as little to no worthwhile traffic comes along. I have rolled this out on one of my 4 servers and spam has dropped.
Hey James,
Sounds like a smart idea. Which IP range did you block?
Hi Alban,
As long as you haven’t sent them any money then that’s good. By replying you acknowledge that your email address is valid so most likely the will continue to spam you.
Hello Karen,
It’s typical for them to not speficy a website because then you could see how they were performng in the search engines. People who know what te are doing would be happy for you to see their company website was ranking high.
Hi Jayne,
You can block the sender’s IP address.
Hi Todd,
Your response simply lets them know that your email address is valid.
Hi,
Apparently Cecelia Maloney has changed addresses a few times this is the address she used to email me. What she did not know is I am the website developer and SEO company that put the site together and still have the contact address going to my email for the companies protection. I almost feel like answering just for kicks, but I do not have time to play. Buyer beware no matter what services or products you buy online do your research because there are a lot of scams out there too.
Just for the record, below is how we sign our correspondence and you can find me on linkedin, facebook etc
Thank You and Have A Great Day
Ron Krause
MMSI Cell 407-443-2369
http://www.mallmediaservices.com/
“At MMSI we do not just build websites we promote them.”
“An SEO company specializing in Exclusive Website Marketing”
Hi Ron,
Nice of you to pop in.
To all who are reading his I just called Ron and left him message. Ron gives us an example of the type of contact information those offering legitimate SEO services will provide.
Thanks, Ron for your comments and have a great day.
Paul
Thank you for this great information. Spammers are truly idiots that aren’t smart enough to figure out there’s a ton of money to be made on the internet by doing it the right way. Go figure!
Either Cecilia Maloney just got her husband in on the scheme or dropped all pretenses of being female. Got one yesterday from Marvin Maloney via a contact form with this address:
miltonlake654@gmail.com
I require a phone number and he politely put “1010101010″…
Doing a search I also found that he and his buddies have been busy on this website: http://www.servtronics.com/ContactInformation/tabid/41/Default.aspx
(I have no association with this site but I do feel bad for them).
James again, since blocking India on the high profile sites, they have since been using proxies and using a firm in India to bypass the capcha. For as long as there are cheap and invaluable employees this will be an ongoing problem. Believe me, I have to work with a few of them and they will do what it takes.
There is no real solution to this…
Sorry to be doom and gloom, I have tried ip range which stemmed the flow, captcha and filters, your best bet is keyword filtering server/client side.
I’ve just had an email with the subject line Free SEO proposal sent by Cecilia Maloney from my contact form on my blog. Her gmail address now is 3333@gmail.
I decided to Google her and found this blog post so thanks for the warning.
Sandy
Just got a new Cecelia Maloney:
Name: Cecelia Maloney
Email: ceceliamaloney789[at]gmail.com
Phone: 0120012001
Message: We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
IP: 122.180.150.18
I always prided myself on having a protected form (I have two layers of security, the first JavaScript layer, then the PHP layer. Both prevent injection.) However, it obviously doesn’t stop something like this. Any ideas?
just got an email from in infamous Cecelia Maloney using ceceliamaloney.002[at]gmail.com
and i got a phone number like kyle’s( a couple of threads above) 0120120120
thanks for the heads up guys
Hi got this today (11th December 2010)…
Email address: ceceliamaloney.3333[at]gmail.com
Subject: Free SEO Proposal
Message: We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
IP. 122.173.194.189
Ironically, this page is the top Google search result for “cecelia.maloney”.
These all came in to the comment form of a website I manage, from the same IP address:
Name: Cecelia Maloney
Email: cecelia.maloney589[at]gmail.com
Comment: We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Name: Randall Tuttle
Email: rachelle258[at]gmail.com
Comment: We noticed that you are not at the top of the search engines for a number of your key terms. We have helped companies similar to yours to achieve top organic rankings. Please reply to this message and we will prepare a special proposal for you, to show you how we can achieve similar results for you.
Name: Brooke Babcock
Email: bellagarza0444[at]gmail.com
Comment: We strongly believe that we have an excellent opportunity to increase the number of visitors to your website through our white-hat SEO services. Please simply reply to this message and we will be delighted to send you further information.
Do not response ceceliamaloney24 [at] gmail.com
they claimed that they can increase traffic to your website.
brown.
Yeah Wayne,
Another bogus claim for the SEO spammers.
If you want ot see what a legitimate SEO companies website looks like here’s one that practices what they preach.
http://www.webuildpages.com/
Thanks for that, Sean
It always looks strange to me when the email address has nothing to do with the name of the sender. Such as Randall Tuttle’s email address being rachelle258 at gmail.com
Thx to have created this blog…
i have receved today a message from Cecelia Maloney…i fw you the Email.
Sincerely.
Vous avez reçu un mail en provenance de la page contact de votre site internet.
Informations expéditeur :
Nom : Cecelia Maloney
Prénom : Maloney
Téléphone : 0120120120
Adresse Email : ceceliamaloney24[at]gmail.com
Le message est le suivant:
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
I got hit with Cecelia Maloney as well. Thank goodness I checked her out here before responding.
First Name: Cecelia Maloney
E-mail: ceceliamaloney.007 [at]gmail.com
Last Name: Cecelia Maloney
AL
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Hi Blake,
Glad you didn’t get caught by the scam.
Hi Aleksandre,
I’m glad that you find this information useful.
Typically people who’s message seems nebulous at best are all a horrible waste of time. I’m certain that many people respond to these bogus emails out of courtesy or curiousity. In either case real businesses don’t send out emails like this.
Yup, yet another one. Ms. Maloney is quite the chameleon. The phone number was the first clue. Thought i’d add this to the bucket list for the record:
First Name: Cecelia
Last Name: Maloney
Company Name: Cecelia Maloney
Number of Employees: 1 to 5
Email Address: ceceliamaloney.002[at]gmail.com Phone Number: 0120120120
Country: United States
Discovery Method: Online Advertisement
Comments/Questions:
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Ditto above…
Name * Cecelia Maloney
Job Title WEABMSTER
Organisation * Internet Marketing Company
Phone Number * 0120120120
Email * ceceliamaloney2407 [at] gmail.com
Your Query * We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
name: Cecelia Maloney
email: ceceliamaloney.002[at]gmail.com
message: We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Sender IP: 122.161.210.80
I have always had a rule that, if you can’t even bother to take the time to have a branded email address instead of a gmail address to not even bother. Its to dark easy to set up your domains email and they just give yourself permission to send it in gmail that it screams to me, fraud.
Hi Chris,
Good point. The quality and professionalism of someone’s initial contact email tells me a lot about the quality of their product or service.
Thanks for your input.
Thanks for that, Bee.
Thanks, JS.
Thanks to everyone for sending your comments. Keep them coming because people need to know they types of people to avoid online like Cecelia Maloney and the other assorted bogus names that seek to separate unsuspecting people from their hard-earned money.
Just received another spam from Cecelia Maloney using our booking form. Obviously ignored
BTW she used my telephone number in the form (very cheeky) and location supposedly is New York – her email address this time is: ceceliamaloney.001{at}gmail.com
Marvin Maloney (miltonlake654[at]gmail.com) SPAM goes like this:
1. Name:: Marvin Maloney
2. Email:: miltonlake654[at]gmail.com
3. Phone:: 555 555-5555
4. Property Type:: Condos
5. Budget for the purchase::
6. Your Comments:: Search Engine Marketing will increase your company’s online presence through comprehensive online marketing campaigns, targeted search engine optimization, and highly managed internet marketing promotions. A search engine marketing campaign will encompass several procedures and factors to make it successful. Please reply to this email so we can send you more details.
Thanks.
Thanks for your input Julie.
Here’s the latest one I have received from the fake SEO experts.
name : Jaime Jack
email2 : jackwalker74[at]gmail.com
subject : Please Select the topic
comments : We noticed that you are not at the top of the search engines for a number of your key terms. We have helped companies similar to yours to achieve top organic rankings. Please reply to this message and we will prepare a special proposal for you, to show you how we can achieve similar results for you.
IP : 122.177.114.78
The funny thing is that I get these emails sent to the contact form on sites that are at the top of the search engines! I would think SEO experts would already know that I was at the top of the search engines.
Anyway, avoid these folks like the plague. Even if by some off chance they could get you to the top of the search engines, I rather doubt if spammers would care if they used unethical methods that would get you into trouble somewhere down the road.
If you happen to know of people who are legitimate SEO service providers please feel free to chime in here with a link to their website. We would love the opportunity to showcase legitimate companies.
Thanks for your comment.
I’ve not seen one like this. Your original comment contained your company’s phone number which I have changed to 555 555-5555 to protect your privacy.
Wow! These guys have been at this a while! They must make some money doing it, but not from me! Thanks for everyone posting this here.
I got this last night through the contact form on my site:
From: Brooke Babcock
Subject: Up to ten times your targeted traffic
Message Body:
We strongly believe that we have an excellent opportunity to increase the number of visitors to your website through our white-hat SEO services. Please simply reply to this message and we will be delighted to send you further information.
Thanks for posting that info.
Looks like the phrase, “white-hat SEO services” is a new addition to their usual spam. Apparently they say that to make people feel more comfortable.
Henry Hagen
harold.ellis028[at]gmail.com
Idea for your website
Seemed strange, thought I would check it out… thanks for the heads up.
Sennder Information:
Cecelia Maloney
ceceliamaloney.001[at]gmail.com
182.68.106.126 – New Deli, India
Message Body:
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
From the comments above, I will not respond.
Hi Poppy,
Glad you avoided wasting your time.
Good call.
If someone soliciting SEO services doesn’t have a website already demonstrating their ability to rank well for chosen keywords, then stay away.
Cecelia Maloney (ceceliamaloney.005[at]gmail) sent this to my site:
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
i got another before and was told to ignore it, then i looked this one up on my own and found this site.
thanks
“Cecelia Maloney” is still at it, spamming my website’s comment form with the same old stuff.
Doesn’t this violate Gmail’s TOS? How do we report them to Google? Sounds like “Cecelia” has been doing this for years. It would be nice to have the big company apply resources or be proactive.
Yes I know it’s just patchwork, since the comment-spam is done via forms not email, but it would be nice to deny spammers the usage of a legitimate-looking gmail address.
Sennder Information:
Cecelia Maloney
ceceliamaloney2222[at]gmail.com
182.64.5.55 – India
“Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.23) Gecko/20110920 Firefox/3.6.23 GTB7.1″
Message Body:
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Hi Barry,
It makes sense that it is against Google’s TOS. The challenge is that gmail addresses can be create by spammers hundreds or even thousands at a time with little or no effort.
That would be tough for Big G to regulate.
Yeah, I know, it’s a tough problem and I’m just whining.
But Google is good at cracking some really hard problems including inventing a pretty good spam filter.
My own stupid-ass solution would be to detect that the first 2,221 versions of “ceceliamaloneyNNNN@gmail.com” were violating the TOS and deny anyone from making the next one.
I guess it’s just too easy for robots to create so many gmail addresses. Maybe Google’s captcha isn’t working as well these days, even though it’s getting harder for *me* to pass the test, lol.
Hi Barry,
Re:”I guess it’s just too easy for robots to create so many gmail addresses”
It certainly looks that way.
I usually get one of these SEO messages every week. And it appears that the spammer always uses the telephone number “0120120120″. I am curious if anyone has simply created and installed code to discard any contact form email that contained that phone number. It seemed too simple but I am curious. I also thought about blocking all IP addresses from India but again it seemed too simple.
I always ignore any SEO offer without a branded email address. I’m not letting someone with no website, market mine.
Cecelia Maloney (ceceliamaloney589[at]gmail.com) on Thursday, November 03, 2011 at 10:51:20
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Looks like they just keep sending and sending.
Hi Joe,
Smart thinking. I received one from someone the other day that looked very legitimate and even had a phone number. Amazingly this person did not have a website to visit and find out more details.
For the record here’s an example of a real SEO company’s website: http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/
Hey Ken,
Thanks for stopping by. I think some people are probably starting to use IP blocking.
This was sent to me: Please note we are an SEO company on page 1 for: seo altamonte and seo lake mary the 2 main cities we serve, though I am way behind on servicing my own site (need to get on page 1 for orlando too)I guess they did not look at my site or any one else’s
Dear Sir/Madam,
Do you want to see your website in Top 10 position in Google or other major search engine?
Do you want more targeted visitors on your website?
If yes, please let us know your domain name which you want to optimize.
We will analysis your website and send full SEO proposal with plan and activity which will implement on your website.
Most firms overseas have achieved a significant amount of savings by outsourcing either complete or part of their SEO Work to us in India. All our work remains in the background and the end client never knows that the work has been outsourced resulting in both savings and brand value for you and your company.
We are looking forward to a long and fruitful business relationship with you and your company.
We are waiting for your positive response.
Kind Regards,
Arvind
Internet Marketing Strategist
I recently received an email from this list. It looked legit – like it came from the sign up on my website. Although I replied to ask what services was of interest, didn’t receive a reply. Thanks for monitoring this type of illegal activity.
Hi Janet,
Glad that you found the informaiton here useful.
Thanks for stopping by.
Paul