Shock and Awe Marketing Tutorials in Plain English

Karma's a Bitch, especially when you get the blogosphere involved. So, here is a beautiful little story about a company, ePerks, that didn't quite like what one blogger did (Vlad Zablotskyy), so they are suspected of having attacked him personally all over the Internet (some NASTY stuff detailed below) and then sued him when he started talking about it and saying he suspected as much (IP addresses from ePerks and employee names have been linked to certian attacks as detailed below). Well, this is a blogger we are talking about and he would not take it laying down. So, he wrote all about it on his blog and next thing you know you have:

• My favorite blogroll hating SEO devil, Andy Beard chronicling the story
• The silver tongued wordsmith himself, Greg Swann starting up a fund to help the blogger (Vlad)
• That ever so handsome Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson calling them out as EJerks
• And many many more bloggers standing up to ePerks in blog posts, including Inman News which covered Vlad's legal problems in March.

The funniest thing about this is that ePerks is suspected of having set out to damage Vlad's reputation, but in the end it is theirs that is getting destroyed. They are one, we are many and we are indignant that a large corporation thinks it can wield it's weight to censor or personally destroyany of us. The more posts out there about this situation, the more negative information filters up the engines and the more information we are able to learn from people that also had dealings with them. So, while this singular post may not help with the legal matter- the collective of all these posts just may quicken the fall from Google, investor, consumer, etc grace for ePerks and finally land them in what Hoovers so kindly terms, "the Business Boneyard."

Please note: this post is not meant to be slanderous, I am reposting information gathered from other sources about this case and adding my own commentary.  Becasue of so many posts about this case, many former employees of Reply.com and ePerks have come forward to speak about how they were treated by Ben B (ePerks CEO) confirming he has a long history of online and legal bullying.  Many former customers and real estate professionals that had contact with ePerks have also stepped up and posted nasty emails they received from ePerks employees. (Dennis Pease is called an idiot by an ePerks employee in an email).

Read also: Reputation Management: Using the best tools to build and monitor your online identity

Snapshot of the ePerks vs Real Estate Blogger Tale

The following is the torrid tale of eParks and how they solicited editorial advertising from real estate bloggers and when they didn't like the result of one blogger's pieces they attacked him personally and are now suing him. It's disgraceful. For those of you not yet in the know, ePerks, a service that allows Realtors to offer incentives back to consumers, has recently taken legal action against a fellow real estate blogger, Vlad Zablotskyy.

These are the facts, as reported by Andy Beard and Greg Swann

1. ePerks solicited editorial advertising (blog posts recommending their service) on real estate blogs

2. Vlad wrote such a post and was complimentary

3. Commenters on the post came in and talked about how bad the ePerks service was and how they felt they were swindled

4. Vlad writes a response piece to acknowledge reader comments: Is ePerks a gem or a Scam?

5. Comment frenzy ensues on this post. At some point the comments turn into a battle between a number of anonymous commenters plus one person who claims to be an employee of Eperks. The suspicious part is that all these commenters seem to come from the same block of IP addresses (76.206.0.161 - do a trace route on this ip) that when traced lead you back to the San Jose area (where ePerks lives). This IP block has been verified as coming from ePerks in many posts where people published images of emails with header details from ePerks and this is this same IP was used in stalth marketing tactics where employees of ePerks would comment on various forums positively about the company with multiple identities (image of ePerks stealth marketing below).

If you want to learn why it is highly suspected an ePerks employee is the one who created the negative campaign against Vlad, please read the following:

The following screenshot is from Any Beard's post showing the same ips coming in commenting as various people:

Just in case you don't know how I feel about anonymous commenters from the same ip:

Read also: Is Mary McKnight a Black Hat SEO?

6. ePerks slaps Vlad with cease and desist letters and legal threats

7. Now, it gets NASTY. This same IP block has been traced to personal attacks on Vlad himself in various comments and blogs. When I say personal, I mean they have created blogs about how bad Vlad is, and someone related to ePerks is suspected of posting a Yahoo Answer questions asking about alleged sexual felonies, etc. The following screenshot again is from Andy's post showing how Vlad has been maligned across the Internet:

Read also: ePerks IP Address Link to Vlad Zablotzkyy: When the Hunter Becomes the Prey (MUSTREAD )

EXAMPLE: affar Sadighi maligning Vlad's character has been linked to the ePerks IP range

Read also: ePerks makes voicemail threats (you have to hear these- this Ben guy is off his rocker - It's like Dr. Evil in real life - please note)

8. ePerks sues Vlad and is looking for punitive damages and claiming malice, and they have confined the case to the way Vlad defended his family name when he was attacked quite viciously on multiple websites suggesting he is/was a paedophile.  Even though there is pretty incriminating evidence that

Help Vlad Out by contributing to the donation fund

Support Vlad Zablotskyy's Defense Fund
Defend your own right to free speech!

For a complete chronicle of the whole story:

Read also: Eperks: How to kill a startup

Read also: ePerks & iHype - Legal Kneejerk - Sues Blogger

For the ever irreverent Greg Swan's take on the issue:

Read also: Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend your reputation - such as it is...

From Vlad (the blogger being sued's) own blog:

Read also: Am I Being Sued By ePerks?

Read also: ePerks.com: A Case Study in Greed and Self-Imposed Brand Destruction

The really interesting stuff!

Chronicle of another blogger being viciously attacked by an ePerks employee The comments are the most interesting part- where a whole bunch of anonymous people come in to defend the ePerks name and attack the blogger for posting about his experience with ePerks.

Inman story where ePerks representitive calls bloggers supporting Vlad "minions" Seriously, their attorney called bloggers like us "minions" - Hmm... if that's the way they feel, perhaps they never should have started iHype - a pay per post compnay that relys on bloggers for content.  Wise business move, offend the very people you would need to rely on to make your new business successful.

Ben Behrouzi Updates Company "Values" and "Culture" Web Pages. Only One Problem: They're Stolen. Just in case you thought this was all a fluke- these people ripped off their "values" pages from Mervyns.  Wow, the irony makes me giggle.  Of course they changed it once they got caught, but screenshots are available all over the Internet from people who independently grabbed them and in the article I linked to. I guess ethics are optional at ePerks.

Here's My Contribution: You Write a Post Supporting Vlad, I will Give You a Blog

Please read the rules before publishing your post.

Related Posts