UPDATE May13, 2010: Things pertaining to LeapFish.com, their founders and management, along with related startups are no longer of interest to me, therefore no further comments are allowed on this post. There are also more reliable sources out there (such as Better Business Bureau) to help you make an informed decision about LeapFish.
***You may also want to know that the Law Firm of Daniel Bakondi, in San Francisco, CA, is investigating a possible Class Action Law Suit Against LeapFish.
Ben Behrouzi, the CEO of dying ePerks and LeapFish has registered VladZablotskyy.org domain:
UPDATE: Thanks to a tip from the regular reader I have learned that ePerks and LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi has also registered VladZablotskyy.net:
So what does Behrouzi plans to do with these domains? Probably nothing befitting a CEO of a company. I am curious nevertheless.
In the comments below Behrouzi indicated that he purchased domains to document the “real Vlad Zablotskyy”- smells like cybersquatting to me.
This is not the first time Mr. Behrouzi threatened to ruin some one’s reputation. Back when he worked at at Reply.com, Mr Behrouzi left this message on the phone of his employee:
[audio:benscott.mp3]
Update: Bellow are the links to more LeapFish reviews.
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 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.
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.com advertisers beware – yet another account of dealing with LeapFish sale people.
huh, that is quite curious to be sure Vlad.
Chris thanks for stopping by. Hope everything is well by you.
I really think it was not the most intelligent move on his part. If he wanted to do any real damage to me, he should have at least gone with a "private" domain registration. Or could have have it registered by some one else. But then looking at LeapFIsh and other ventures of his, I wonder if he realizes what is "private domain registration"….
And the saga goes on… 🙂
benny is cyber squatting. ICANN have rules regarding that sort of thing you know.
This is getting very interesting.
Ben, I don't know you and I cannot say I know Vlad extremely well, but when you buy the URL containing someone's name, such as Vlad Zablotskyy, you do nothing to instill confidence in people that your plans are upright.
If you have a beef with someone, why not settle amongst yourselves? I can't see how this move benefits anyone.
UPDATE: This comment was left from IP address 76.206.0.166
Dear Vlad,
Its very interesting to me that you have blocked our office IP, making it difficult for me to reply, and yet you call yourself a journalist and/or blogger. I'm quite sure that a true journalist and upright blogger would allow for the other party to defend themselves when they post an article about someone. But by another clear example, obviously your intent is not journalism, it continues to be a smear campaign against me.
I think its time that people learn about the real Vlad Zablotskyy. The hate emails, the racist remarks, the screen shots and the list of hundreds of posts, articles, comments, bookmarks and links that you have and continue to create to attack me as you have for the last year. I needed a place to document the truth for everyone to see what you are really about and what you have been so busy doing.
Unlike someone such as yourself, I will not attack you. But I will publicize what you are working so hard to do to me.
I wish you much individual growth this year.
kind regards,
Ben Behrouzi
Ben,
I hope Mr. Cook can explain to you what cyber-squatting is. I have forwarded him the copy of this post. I also encourage you to make sure your so called evidence is forensically verified.
Can't wait to start learning about real Vlad Zablotskyy. Are you using the Reply.com shares/dividends to pay for it?
So you are denying registering VladZablotskyy.org and VladZablotskyy.net???
Ben,
Here is my response to the threats you sent to my counsel.
Please stop threatening lawsuits, I know you are capable of those.
My post about ePerks filing for bankruptcy was just repeating the experience expressed by Amanda Seidel – http://camorealtor.featuredblog.com/?p=10Are you planing to sue her as well? Since my post is based on what Amanda wrote, I will not post a retraction until I see one on her blog.
Many of the posts listed in your letter existed at the time of the settlement.
Lastly it is not a healthy discussion when you are planing to engage in cybersuqatting- you and your company has at least 2 blogs where you can dispute my statements. Eve though you claim I have blocked you, you know well that I always allowed your comments on my blog no matter how insulting they are.
I also challenge you to release every hate latter you claim I wrote. Let the experts look at those and if I did write them let me leave with the consequences.
The threats you sent to my attorney deserve a posts on their own. Please stop threatening me.
Vlad, your blog is requiring me to split my post into 2 pieces. So here they are below.
Vlad,
I have asked you now several times to stop attacking us online. I have communicated to your lawyer my course of action if you do not stop from inflicting harm as you continue to do. There is a difference between healthy debate and a pattern of attack. You have gone to nearly every known blog, post and/or article that has been written about our services in order to bash and defame us. This is a pattern of attack, not blogging. You have attacked me with accusations such as spammer, scammer and others. That is not blogging that is character/brand assassination. I have communicated to you already the inaccuracy of your posts, yet your posts remain. This is not journalism or blogging. You are out to get us by keeping false information online.
** here is the second piece.
I know you want to be perceived as a victim, so I'll leave you with a comment you left on my blog that sums up your entire agenda, your bulliness and level of professionalism.
"Just so you know every attempt to call me “predator” on your blogs will be met with a fierce return- as you can tell by a post on my blog today. I have many things I can write about. But you really don’t want to go that way, do you?"
I have never attacked you. I ask you again, to stop the bullying and the attacking. Thanks for finally unblocking our IP.
Best regards,
Ben Behrouzi
Ben,
I think I am reading you correctly. There is no further comment needed.
Mr. Cook knows the ropes. Goodbye, you are no longer allowed to comment on my blog.
Just in case you are wondering why I blocked you. I asked you if you are planing to sue the agent who wrote this post:
http://camorealtor.featuredblog.com/?p=10
Once again you have chosen to attack me instead.
Also, my challenge to make public all the hate e-mails you claim I sent you went unanswered. Again I challenge you to make those e-mails public why waste the domain?
Ben,
You know this is getting interesting and weird with every passing moment. Does Trace Richardson know you bought tracerichardson.net and tracerichardson.org? I guess he will know now…. Hmmm this reminds me. I saw something interesting in my statistics on the day I defended Trace in view of the the Ripoff report page. I know people came to see the website searching his name… I thought it was strange but I think it is starting to make sense. Need to see those IPs first before jumping to any hasty conclusions.
Hey Vlad,
Been offline for a bit and I see I missed a lot. I thought things were all smoothed over with this. Good to see you are not backing down though, take care:)
Brian,
Nice to see you around! Did you go to Vegas for ASW09? I could not make it, but I am glad to see that ASE will be in NYC.
This thing has gotten beyond ridiculous. Considering the fact the one of the press releases by the above mentioned CEO was titled “CEO Is Sold on Social Media”…. Or something to that effect. The bottom line is that he has no clue how the social media works.
No ASW for me. I'm trying to get my head back into the game though. Hopefully I will be able to attend East this year.
Hey benny post you home IP and favorite proxies and I’ll ban those for you in few places too.
@Matt
Not sure they have learned about proxies yet…
@Every one who might be following this threat…
Mr. Behrouzi issued another law suit threat claiming I am anonymously e-mail LeapFish clients asking them to stop their advertisements and to demand refunds. I hope by now he would learn that I am not shy to put my name when I voice my opinion about his business practices. I will update as things unfold. Thanks for your support. Stay tuned.
….Ben Behrouzi has purchased domain names that related directly to the name of a person he sued. Ben, it seems, purchased vladzablotskyy.org Vlad being one of his strongest critics. If it looks like cyber squat, smells like cyber squat then by jove I think it may be cyber squat…