What the heck is Princeton Premier or how Social Media can make or break your company’s internet presence?
So I got this email…
Don Schindler It is my pleasure to inform you that you are being considered for inclusion into the 2008-2009 Princeton Premier Business Leaders and Professionals Honors Edition section of the registry. The 2008-2009 edition of the registry will include biographies of the world’s most accomplished individuals. Recognition of this kind is an honor shared by thousands of executives and professionals throughout the world each year. Inclusion is considered by many as the single highest mark of achievement. You may access our application form using the following link: http://princetonpremierbios.addr2.com/url/416876/2fa84429/ Upon final confirmation, you will be listed among other accomplished individuals in the Princeton Premier Registry. For accuracy and publication deadlines, please complete your application form and return it to us within five business days. There is no cost to be included in the registry. If you’ve already received this email from us, there is no need to respond again. This email serves as our final invitation to potential members who have not yet responded. On behalf of the Executive Publisher, we wish you continued success. Sincerely, Jason Harris Managing Director Princeton Premier
_______________________________________________________
Click the following link to update your information
or stop future mailings.
http://princetonpremierbios.addr2.com/mailprefs/f920fa/2fa84429/
Princeton Premier
23-35 Steinway Street
Astoria, NY 11105
I’ve been on the net working professionally for almost ten years now so this just screams BS. But you never know, so I spent a couple of minutes just to make sure.
Google search…ouch. The first entry isn’t even them. It’s a Yahoo Answers questioning who they are. But the answer isn’t that good so I go back to Google and check out the other links.
The official site is the second link. You never, ever want that to happen. I go to the site. It’s not that professional and looks like a scam.
Then I go back to Google and start checking out the blog entries. There are plenty of them and finally I get to one where they actually dive deep into the site and find out it costs $100 to join and you don’t get the money back if you are unsatisfied with the results. I really appreciate the time I saved by reading instead of filling in the blanks.
Now, this example is easy to show how consumers like myself can find out what is legitimate online pretty easily.
But what if this happened to your small company? What if an upset customer blogged about you and their entry was showing up before yours in a Google search? It’s like your worst customer sitting outside your doorstep telling everyone that you suck and they should not do business with you.
That’s the number one thing I hear about social media and opening your company up to it? What if a customer complains? What if they write bad things about me on the site?
Well, next blog I’ll explain why I see it as a good thing and how to try and drive a bad entry off a Google search.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:03 am
I got the same email from that company last year and instantly deleted it
since I had not heard of them . I never wanted to be listed in their crappy guide event if it was only 10 bucks. lol
October 7th, 2008 at 2:19 am
10 bucks?! try 800 USD for a lifetime listing! Those people are scam artists!
January 8th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hi,
I was scammed by Princeton Premiere Registry for $878.95 on January 5, 2009.
Since then I had to cancel my credit card and register with Identity Theft Insurance. However, I was able to track down the offenders to the following websites and addresses using publicly available information on the web.
Here are the details of the miscreants scammers and their contacts:
http://www.princetonpremier.com/
Owned by:
Princeton Premier
23-35a steinway st
astoria, New York 11105
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: PRINCETONPREMIER.COM
Created on: 11-Feb-07
Expires on: 12-Feb-09
Last Updated on:
Administrative Contact:
nunziato, joseph admin@digitalhighs.com
http://www.digitalhighs.com
Princeton Premier
23-35a steinway st
astoria, New York 11105
United States
7183546893
Technical Contact:
nunziato, joseph admin@digitalhighs.com
Princeton Premier
23-35a steinway st
astoria, New York 11105
United States
7183546893
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SECURESERVERDOT.COM
NS2.SECURESERVERDOT.COM
Please be careful not to fall for the same scam yourselves.
Regards,
Shan
January 14th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Hi,
I received the same email address and thought it was a hox also since there was no contact information below the signature.
This made me search the internet and thank god I did and found this website.
Why cant these people find better things to do with their time instead of ripping people off! Such talent going to waste.
Sincerely,
Joy
January 16th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I received the same email messages followed up by a BOMBARDMENT of phone calls that I was accepted. But where the rubber met the road was when I was asked for a check # or credit card #. I simply told the person on the phone that my principles were NEVER to give out financial information over the phone. I told the person to invoice me where I could pay the bill on my own. They refused and I PROFUSELY REFUSED. They followed up with more and more phone calls until I finally told them I have researched your company. You are clearly a SCAM and to not call me again.
PEOPLE…don’t fall for the BS…and NEVER give your personal financial information to anyone just calling over the phone.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
New domain name is princetonmembers.com but similar email. Jay Harris out of NY is registrant as of Dec 12, 2008. Online form leads to a formdesk.com page and the link that takes you there is http://princetonmembers.com/c/c/2/34/32315
First the link lead to a form here http://fd8.formdesk.com/pgn/form2
It now leads to a new and improved form at http://fd8.formdesk.com/pgn/New
Buyer beware. At it again….
March 20th, 2009 at 8:15 am
I also received that email just a few minutes ago and since I was not sure what they wanted, I googled it. That’s how I came across this site. It was so unfortunate that the first entry was from Yahoo answers. I work on the internet a lot and I know that that is just wrong. They should contact me for some SEO work to ensure that they at least appear before their disgruntled customers. lol
March 20th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
thank you for this information…I just received an e-mail from them and went to do some research and found this link above the Company link. It is human nature to want to be recognized for whatever career path we take and it is so sad that people have to take advantage of other people. Thanks again.
March 28th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Naw, you all are looking at it all wrong. Everybody fill out the app and have them call you. We can eat into their profits even if the phone company is the only one who really wins. We set up a point system where points are scored based on the length of time that we can keep them on the phone with extra points being scored for those people who require them to make overly expensive long distance phone calls.
Scameaters Unite!
Ward Tipton
May 6th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
You mean to tell me that I am not one of the very few prestigious people that deserve to be recognized after paying a fee??? Darn it! I thought I was going to be one of the lucky few that were honored this way. Of course I am kidding.
When I saw that email, I immediately forwarded it to the SCAM email for the US Government. I really hope that they can do something about stuff like this. It’s a shame that so many people are going to fall victim to this type of scam before they are shut down. These scams really chap my hide.
June 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Same story!!! I just got lucky that I didn’t give out my financial information !!
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 am
I just received the email today and did like many of you here I googled the web site and found this one. I glad I did. I agree why can’t people just earn an honest living and work like the rest us. Quit trying to spam everyone and rip them off.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with them and they called me in Australia…I told them I would research them and came across this site… Thank you so much. I appreciate all the comments.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
“It’s like your worst customer sitting outside your doorstep telling everyone that you suck and they should not do business with you.”
Sounds great, that means they’d be easy to reach (right outside your door) and you could help solve what is wrong w/ your company/product and make them happy at the same time. Win/win FTW!
If the person complaining is irrational and just being an ass, people can detect that and not hold it against the company/product and actually tell the complainer to shut up. If they have a “real” gripe, then you should help make it better.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I agree with you, Todd.
You should be able to satisfy your customers and keep them from being right outside your door.
I don’t understand why more companies don’t do that and spend more money chasing after new customers instead of trying to correct what happened to the last one.
August 18th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Hi everyone!
These guys have been resending the same mail to me. I wonder why they can’t get the fact that i already know they are scam artists. I hope they get caught really soon.
But come to think of it: Its amazing that such creative abilities and talents are not put to worthy, just and clean profitable ventures instead of thinking about scamming innocent hard workers.
But how do they update their mailing lists as it looks like they are sending it to every continent: africa, australia, america, asia, europe etc.
God Help Us
August 21st, 2009 at 7:00 am
They’re still at it…I just had my ego stroked, but decided to check them out. Thanks to you folks, you saved my hard-earned bacon! DELETE.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Well, I just received the email today and now that I’ve read this, I will NOT proceed when they call. I did submit the initial page, but I won’t answer any calls from them. Thanks for the info. I don’t have any money to do this anyway, so they wouldn’t have gotten anything out of me
December 10th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Just had a conversation with them, they had
a newbie on the phone asking questions, put her
through the ringer, and her boss got on the phone
and started to try and make a deal with me.
I explained that if they sent me the materials
I would discuss it further with my wife….He
took offense that it was something he wouldn’t do
and that spending a hundred dollars should be well within my rights and should be able to make that decision for myself. He asked would I discuss spending money for lunch with my wife, and I said yes we discuss issues and make plans appropriately. He said he was turning down my application and I said have a great holiday season.