[rmjvol]

TaxBrain staged a PR stunt to have the Taxbrain race car stolen. It's not enough that they got on many major media outlets, now they've got their people spamming blogs and forums to spread the news.

We just caught one of their spammers here at our NASCAR forum.

You can use this info to make sure your blog or forum isn't spammed by these guys who are looking for more free publicity under false pretenses.

[rmjvol]

It's already been admitted that Taxbrain staged the race car theft. Here's an AP story and the Tracey Press has good coverage from Sports Editor Christopher H. Roberts.

From a marketing perspective, this PR stunt was pretty cool. Taxbrain got the clip aired on major media outlets including ESPN and CNN. Both treated the incident as if it were real. Great job, marketing guys!

But that's not enough milage for Taxbrain.

Viral marketing on the web is now a buzzword for many ad agencies looking to promote their clients. So if you're going to get the maximum exposure from your staged publicity stunt, you need to get people on the web talking about it. Taxbrain.com has now got their people canvassing the web for places like our GoTeamsGo.com NASCAR forum to create buzz about the TaxBrain.com NASCAR car getting stolen.

Let's step inside the mind of a blog spammer (forum spammer) to see how they do this.

[rmjvol]

First step, find a busy forum or blog where there's access to interested, internet-savvy people. Check.

2nd, cover your tracks. Signup with an anonymous username so you're more believable. Check. Our very own Taxbrain spammer, 1av8r, signed up with a nondescript user name and used an anonymous email account: 1av8r4u@gmail.com It would have looked too staged if he had made clear that he was here on behalf of Taxbrain.

3rd, start a conversation about the Taxbrain car theft like he did here.

Next, keep the conversation going so that the viral marketing builds upon itself.



Our Taxbrain spammer did pretty well. 1av8r makes sure he signs up from a computer that isn't traced to taxbrain.com: 67.181.27.114

But here's where he made the fatal mistake: 1av8r logged in to make a follow up comment from an IP address (at petzent.com) that belongs to Petz Enterprises Inc (PEI), the parent company of Taxbrain.com.

2000: PEI creates its first internet venture with the launch of the TaxBrain Online Tax Center.

So great job on the publicity stunt! Smart plans to spam forums & blogs with the story. Poor job in covering your tracks

Go away, you taxbrain spammer!

[Team Yates]

I must admit, I'm not very savvy on this spamming thing. Should we have been able to pick up on this as spam!?!? So, will you be deleting that thread, since it's spam? If I've seen it somewhere else, should I make them aware of it, or will they be able to pick up on it? Ross, just trying to learn, and be aware of what's going on!!

[Quality88]

Thanks for the heads up and the info..... I'll keep a closer look on things.

[1av8r]

Originally Posted by rmjvol

First step, find a busy forum or blog where there's access to interested, internet-savvy people. Check.

2nd, cover your tracks. Signup with an anonymous username so you're more believable. Check. Our very own Taxbrain spammer, 1av8r, signed up with a nondescript user name and used an anonymous email account: 1av8r4u@gmail.com It would have looked too staged if he had made clear that he was here on behalf of Taxbrain.

3rd, start a conversation about the Taxbrain car theft like he did here.

Next, keep the conversation going so that the viral marketing builds upon itself.



Our Taxbrain spammer did pretty well. 1av8r makes sure he signs up from a computer that isn't traced to taxbrain.com: 67.181.27.114

But here's where he made the fatal mistake: 1av8r logged in to make a follow up comment from an IP address (at petzent.com) that belongs to Petz Enterprises Inc (PEI), the parent company of Taxbrain.com.


So great job on the publicity stunt! Smart plans to spam forums & blogs with the story. Poor job in covering your tracks

Go away, you taxbrain spammer!

Get a real job man -- I haven't got anything to hide, nor am I pre-disposed to think as deviously as you do! How come you're so paranoid? Let me guess, it had something to do with your upbringing. Did you get beat up as a kid too many times? Incidently, I clicked on a paid search link to find this place, so somebody in here knows the big game. I'm done posting about your crap and I'm surprised your thread actually isn't considered spam -- talk NASCAR like I tried to.

[1av8r]

Remember...he started shooting first and I put him into perspective...so long.

[rmjvol]

Guys, I removed a few of the extra posts but wanted to leave this spammer's stuff in public view for a bit.

I just got off the phone with Chris Roberts of the Tracey Press. That's the newspaper that's in the same town as taxbrain and he's seen some of what these guys are doing. Chris told me how he caught this guy in a lie over at this forum:
http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=77352

The bottom line is this guy broke several of our forum rules and when he got caught, he showed his true colors and started talking about my momma. My Momma! Now that's somebody who knows how to have a high brow debate

It's pretty sad that he's made himself out to look like this when he's trying to recruit webmasters to promote his tax prep software.

I appreciate all you guys keeping up with this and putting this spammer in his place. Fortunately, most of the other forum spammers that we deal with have better things to do as opposed to wasting our time like this.