[VolusionSupport]

We have gotten an increasing number of complaints from merchants about unethical/fraudulent companies contacting them and claiming an affiliation with Volusion in order to sell their services.

The usual suspects are SEO companies, companies trying to sell other online marketing services, etc. The most recent SEO company we caught only had a Google Pagerank of 2, which if you understand PR is pretty funny.

They will either claim that they are a partner of Volusion, that Volusion asked them to call you, or that they are in charge of Volusion’s (fill in the blank) services.

Volusion has NEVER sold our clients information to anyone. The only way a legitimate partner can get your information is if you actually give it to them. If you are ever in doubt please contact Volusion.

If you ever get contacted please be sure to get their full name, phone number and company, and send to legal@volusion.com because our legal department goes after every one of them. Also please always do your due diligence in checking out online service companies. A quick Google search can usually reveal the fraud very quickly since it’s hard to hide for long online.

Best Regards,

Volusion MOD

[RAZ]

We get these calls almost everyday for the past 2 years.... only one way to handle....call block list and the ol dependable "CLICK"

RAZ

[ningyoushi]

I tried emailing legal yesterday but got the following error. I think its because we use our isp for outgoing mail. hey I tried at least.

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<legal@volusion.com>:
66.216.121.101 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 5.1.1 <legal@volusion.com>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in relay recipient table Giving up on 66.216.121.101.

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

It says you don't like me.

[PPM....]

Originally Posted by VolusionSupport

We have gotten an increasing number of complaints from merchants about unethical/fraudulent companies contacting them and claiming an affiliation with Volusion in order to sell their services.

The usual suspects are SEO companies, companies trying to sell other online marketing services, etc. The most recent SEO company we caught only had a Google Pagerank of 2, which if you understand PR is pretty funny.

They will either claim that they are a partner of Volusion, that Volusion asked them to call you, or that they are in charge of Volusion’s (fill in the blank) services.

Volusion has NEVER sold our clients information to anyone. The only way a legitimate partner can get your information is if you actually give it to them. If you are ever in doubt please contact Volusion.

If you ever get contacted please be sure to get their full name, phone number and company, and send to legal@volusion.com because our legal department goes after every one of them. Also please always do your due diligence in checking out online service companies. A quick Google search can usually reveal the fraud very quickly since it’s hard to hide for long online.

Best Regards,

Volusion MOD

How about Scan Alert/HackerSafe?? Will you go after them if I get this information?

I get calls from them almost daily - w/different sales people. It's been going on for about 1-1/2 to 2-months.

They try every phone number I have....if one phone's not answered, they call the next. So far, they haven't sent an actual fax on our fax number. They call from toll-free numbers, and from HackerSafe and ScanAlert numbers.


Their claim IS that they are Volusion's partner (evidently they got the initial go-ahead from V because I never contacted them). They say that "Volusion recommends AND endorses their service". They "offer" a good deal because of this.

It's annoying. I'm on the "Do Not Call" list. I've told them "I'm not interested". To "block" their individual phone numbers, it will cost me monthly.

If you Google their numbers, you'll find a whole slew of boards discussing ScanAlert's methods.

What to do?

[piaf]

Originally Posted by PPM....

How about Scan Alert/HackerSafe?? Will you go after them if I get this information?

Their claim IS that they are Volusion's partner (evidently they got the initial go-ahead from V because I never contacted them). They "offer" a good deal because of this.

This is one of the concerns about having the "Hosted by Volusion" at the bottom of all of the stores. It's incredibly easy to do a search using that term or one of the many other phrases V has used over time to identify "their" stores. Then you can pull up a huge list of stores hosted by Volusion and all these companies like Scan Alert or Hackersafe have to do is look up phone numbers listed on the web sites. Easy as pie and V doesn't even have to give out our info. A quick search accomplishes that instead.

[PPM....]

Originally Posted by piaf

This is one of the concerns about having the "Hosted by Volusion" at the bottom of all of the stores. It's incredibly easy to do a search using that term or one of the many other phrases V has used over time to identify "their" stores. Then you can pull up a huge list of stores hosted by Volusion and all these companies like Scan Alert or Hackersafe have to do is look up phone numbers listed on the web sites. Easy as pie and V doesn't even have to give out our info. A quick search accomplishes that instead.

Hi piaf:

So what you're saying is that V more than likely DID NOT "directly" supply them with my info.

Then has anyone here made the complaint to V against HackerSafe, and V in turn put a stop to the annoying phone calls?

It's not that I have anything against the company, but if I want their services....I can contact them.

Originally Posted by piaf

This is one of the concerns about having the "Hosted by Volusion" at the bottom of all of the stores. It's incredibly easy to do a search using that term or one of the many other phrases V has used over time to identify "their" stores.

\

Has anyone here benefited one way or the other by paying the fee, and having the "Hosted by" statement removed?

[ritchey]

One of the SEO companies who contacted me said they were volusion experts... So talked to them for a bit (free consulting when you talk to knowledgeable people is nice if I have the time), unfortunately they were clueless. And their sales ability was poor.

[ritchey]

When I started I was more concerned about it and I took it off for a while, but then thought so what and saved the money.

My convoluted thinking...
There are multiple ways to figure out who my shopping cart is. Whois looking at the DNS is another way. So for the tech. savvy competitors can figure out my site anyway (and already have a great site). And the others are non-tech are too afraid to move from their existing cart. So right now it does not matter. And volusion is not the cheapest around, so for my cheap competitors they will go with another solution anyway.

Originally Posted by PPM....

Hi piaf:
Has anyone here benefited one way or the other by paying the fee, and having the "Hosted by" statement removed?

[danna]

Originally Posted by ritchey

There are multiple ways to figure out who my shopping cart is. Whois looking at the DNS is another way.

I host my domains somewhere other than V. As far as other standard V store tip-offs, I'd really like to see these removed or modified in a way which makes it more difficult to find.