LeapFish Caught Red Handed Spamming TechCrunch

By Vlad Zablotskyy November 22, 2008

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Many internet startups find it privileged to be reviewed by TechCrunch. But even if TechCrunch’s verdict for you is a deadpool, although the author did not tagged that post with “deadpool“, it is still an opportunity for dialog. LeapFish’s employees screwed up so badly that opportunity that TechChrunch team had to ban their IPs from posting comments. Here are the snapshots of some parts of that exchange:

LeapFish Spamming TechCrunch

Please note that Robin Wauters is the author of the original article on TechCrunch.

Here is another warning by Robin which LeapFish employees completely ignore:

LeapFish Spamming TechCrunch

Finally TechCrunch blocks the IPs from where the shill comments appear to originate:
LeapFish Spamming TechCrunch

Later the CEO of LeapFish showed up and “apologized” for his employees- you can read the entire exchange on TechCrunch.

Back in May, United Kingdom legislators have made it illegal for businesses to engage in the above described deceptive marketing.

It may not be such a bad idea to prohibit and criminalize such behavior here in the US as well. Don’t you think?

Update: Bellow are the links to more LeapFish reviews.

LeapFish Review by Better Business Bureau. Note that BBB.org rates LeapFish at C- on a A+ to F scale.

A Brief Tale Of Sleaze- LeapFish should take Rob Shore’s advise and never lie to their potential clients.

Three Scams and Rip-Offs to Report – Kit Eliot describes his “encounter” with LeapFish.

Leapfish: Google Competitor or Flash In The Pan?- i think it is rather funny, or insane, to think that LeapFish can actually be viewed as Google’s competitor. But it sure makes a good headline. Well put article, a must read.

LeapFish Affiliate Program. Can Giveaways Keep It Afloat?- a post by yours truly. I thought it was a mistake to link their affiliate program to the basic function of their website- the search function. Their widgets also contain SEO friendly links back to their website- my conclusion their affiliate program is really a linking scheme to gain rankings in search engines.

Leapfish is a scam…maybe?- Patrick Sullivan Jr is offering his opinion about leapfish. The blog have attracted number of comments- well worth reading.

LeapFish Sucks- a take on LeapFish by Cole Pannell- a web designer and a SEO professional.

LeapFish.com advertisers beware – yet another account of dealing with LeapFish sale people.

Leapfish Review – Is LeapFish.com an opportunity, scam, or just another meta search site?- short but to the point rundown about advertising on LeapFish- needless to say the author passes on the opportunity to advertise or invest in LeapFIsh.

Advertising, Deceptive Marketing, Marketing, Real Estate News

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15 Comments

By Dennis_Pease, November 22, 2008 @ 6:01 pm

Spamming comments is how their CEO has handled his marketing for some time.

He said; “I apologize if some of our employees have posted extra comments on here from our office IP” I say BS. This is the standard operating procedure for his past businesses as well. Always anonymous phony praises for his company.
By Vlad Zablotskyy, November 22, 2008 @ 6:50 pm

What a wasted opportunity. Many companies would lover to be reviewed on
TechCrunch.

By the way I thought we were already following each other on Twitter, just
added you back.
By profwebs, November 22, 2008 @ 9:26 pm

I saw this the other day while I was stumbling:) I thought that was him. What an idiot. Better be careful what you say about him, eh?
By Vlad Zablotskyy, November 23, 2008 @ 7:51 am

Brian,

I was embarrassed to see that exchange on TechCrunch. Even if I had to fire all 80 of my employees I would never allow anything .like that to happen. But then I have heard that for the photo opportunities bunch of models are hired and the company is really run by 3 or 4 people.
By Lord Matt, November 23, 2008 @ 10:29 am

Yes catch up you Americans

It was getting a bit cringe worthy in the end. Still he nipped over to one of his loudest critics and give it what but seemed unable to answer my challenge to prove his allegations using a dictionary and external evidences.

My site also seems to cause him some pant wetting or something. Mind you that could be because I love my Disemvowler (that I wrote) and don't get to use it much.
By Vlad Zablotskyy, November 23, 2008 @ 10:47 am

I see they just finally learned how to block IPs, so they are blocking me
know from all their websites. Now the problem with it is that I am on a
shared IP- I hope they are blocking their own clients as well
By loanmods, November 25, 2008 @ 11:53 pm

alltough he was being ethical the ceo shouold have just blanked and denied the issue.
By Vlad Zablotskyy, November 26, 2008 @ 11:12 pm

You meant to write “he was being ethical”? I would rather see him write that every employee involved in that “astroturfing” was fired- that would be ethical as far as I am concerned.
By Ned from Baltimore, November 27, 2008 @ 12:42 am

I checked out tech crunch, that was a fun exchange. He doesn't seem to be learning anything from these experiences.
By Vlad Zablotskyy, November 27, 2008 @ 1:05 am

It's a shame. A smart marketer could have turned that review around and used it as an opportunity. Oh well. Happy Thanksgiving Ned!
By Mike Pannell Fort Worth, December 17, 2008 @ 12:58 pm

They are spamming alot of folks. I have seen this on many blogs
By Vlad Zablotskyy, December 22, 2008 @ 8:08 am

Mike thanks for stopping by. Their business model seams to be based on it…. and cold calling.
By Mike, October 7, 2009 @ 5:11 pm

Leapfish is basically a simple website site where you can search the web and quickly switch between the results from Yahoo, MSN and Google. Leapfish has a cool features just like Bing that loads videos quickly but from what I can tell Bing is much better. Leapfish also pulls data from Yelp, Amazon, Ebay and a few other sites as you search. I cannot see any reason why this website is going to be popular because it just does not have much to offer. Leapfish generates money by selling advertising similar to other search sites. A telemarketer from Leapfish called me and said that Leapfish was partnered up with Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The Leapfish sales person tried to manipulate me into thinking that he could put my company on top of all the search engines. The Leapfish sales people use high pressure techniques over the phone to make you think that you have to buy specific key words before the advertising spots sell out. The sales guy I talked to on the phone claimed that he could not even tell me how many times my key word was actually searched. I looked up the company’s web traffic and quickly realized that Leapfish is a scam. If no one really uses Leapfish, then the keywords are worthless. Please beware, this company sells useless advertising space to unsuspecting business owners.

Take care,

Mike

“Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give.”
W. Edwards Deming