In the past few days, BizSummits and Michael Price have the very dubious distinction of being listed in the Spamhaus ROKSO list of what they consider to be the worst spammers worldwide.
So what happened next?
Well, basically most of the domains listed here have suddenly changed registrar and IP address, and the WHOIS details have been changed to something that looks rather fake (in my opinion). For example, the domain BizSummits.org has the WHOIS details changed from:
Registrant ID:CR38175629
Registrant Name:DNS Administrator
Registrant Organization:BizSummits
Registrant Street: 1200 Abernathy Rd, 17th Floor
Registrant City:Atlanta
Registrant State/Province:Georgia
Registrant Postal Code:30328
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.8006003389
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:dnsadmin@bizsummits.org
to
Registrant ID:NS-b48b7b229f5dc
Registrant Name:Michael Loeloff
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 8380 Lagos De Campo Blvd
Registrant City:Tamarac
Registrant State/Province:FL
Registrant Postal Code:33321
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2025688305
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:dnsadmin@bizsummits.org
..which is an anonymous-looking apartment in Florida. Most of the other domains have been geographically scattered to different addresses and names. Strangely none of the registrants seem to have a web footprint. In my personal opinion, these addresses are deliberately fake, and they have been changed by someone working for BizSummits.
It isn't just the WHOIS details that changed, the registrar in the case of BizSummits.org has changed from GoDaddy to NameSilo for unknown reasons. And also the IP address has changed from 184.168.221.27 (GoDaddy) to 198.199.112.47 (Digital Ocean). To me that looks like GoDaddy booted them off their network, although there could be other explanations I suppose.
Conversely, most of the domains used in the spam run listed here appear to have been deleted, either by the registrar or by the owner. It doesn't really matter as far as evidence is concerned because services such as DomainTools maintain historical WHOIS records.
Overall, there seems to be a great deal of scurrying around as the spotlight has been shone on their activities.
I'm curious as to whether or not Michael Price or BizSummits think that the spam run sent from their servers was legitimate and legal, and as to whether or not they believe that the use of the images from other companies is justified.
It does appear that someone using Michael Price's photograph and name tried to post a comment, and then thought better of it. Hmmm.
1 comment:
Hi Conrad, it is Michael Price (posting again here just in case). As you probably know if you googled I have invested in many companies but do keep track of BizSummits as that one is near and dear to me since I helped them originally found it back in 2004. First, thank you for your alert about the inappropriate unlicensed images where shortcuts were obviously taken. I followed up yesterday with their marketing manager and she has quickly attended to and corrected that if you wish to now verify. I have also asked them to review their marketing practices to at least verify CAN SPAM Opt Out compliance (opt-in is probably the most ideal to your point but they will certainly review it). They also offered a year's membership in your choice of Summits if that would have any value to you, just choose one and in the comments mark "per Michael Price" and Kristin Mathias who heads their customer service will set you up (ie maybe the CIO Summit might best suit you)? The downside is that they do send a lot of emails to their members which you are not fond of (monthly meeting invite, monthly meeting summary, monthly articles, monthly book summary etc) out of disclosure. btw I like your blog (to my detriment this time as spamhaus's human pinata last week for two of the many companies I invested in--showed the posting to my wife that I finally reached the pinnacle of something :) but oh well, I still like your site. If there are any questions you may reach me directly at 770-998-9999 x.9 (easy one to remember). Thanks again for pointing out the above (appreciated) and cheers! -Michael Price
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