Thesqueakywheel.com - saint or sinner? Does their relentless spamming break the law?
Thesqueakywheel.com states it is a website that is solely for the consumer and helps get money back for bad business dealings. Its main weapon is spamming the supposedly bad business or entity every time a click on a report is generated (even fake clicks (bots) will generate this email stating you have a complaint generated by X and it has been seen Y times. I have a friend that had a completely fraudulant complaint listed against him on the website and he keeps receiving these spam mails repetatively from them - actually squeakywheel is smart (or so they think) so they use the complainants email address and autogenerate these emails so they don't look like they originate from them.
The FCC, FTC and numerous branches of the federal government define spam as any unsolicited email (commercial or not). This obvious misuse is illegal and has been reported to every branch of the feceral government that has authority over spam. Also my friend has stated that every time they get another email from thesqueakywheel.com they forward it to Spamcop which logs the complaints and forwards it to all involved ISP's for blacklisting. According to the fine folks at Spamcop thesqueakywheel will shortly be permanently blacklisted for illegal use of spam.
I don't have anything against a company trying to help consumers, but when there is no safeguard against fraudulant complaints, libel, and then they top it off with illegal spam (which is actually illegal and makes thesqueakywheel.com much worse than any company or individual it carries complaints against). They need to learn it isn't acceptable in this modern age to right a wrong with another, bigger wrong.
My advice to anyone whom has received this illegal spam from websites like thesqueakywheel is to get the full headers version of the email and forward every instance to Spamcop and the FBI and government anti spam sites:
rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
www.ic3.gov/
www.spamcop.net/
Here is an important site which depicts all about spam (which can be commercial or not) and what you can do about it http://www.albury.net.au/www/sktf.html.
Its important to help consumers, but not when you break the law yourself. As Jesus once said, "Let the man whom hasn't sinned through the first stone." By spamming, thequeakywheel.com at best is no better than any of the companies it records complaints against. By that definition they have earned the Bestbraindrain thumbs down award for the month of July.
As always, we await a reply from the website in question as to why it feels such illegal use of spam is warranted and necessary and why they think they are above the law.
Let us know what you the reader think. Is it okay to right a wrong with another wrong? Or should the second wrong be overlooked? What do you think? Leave a comment. This is an important issue.
Update, as of July 11, 2007 there are more than 400 complaints currently filed on Spamcop against thesqueakywheel.com for illegal use of unsolicited spam.
The FCC, FTC and numerous branches of the federal government define spam as any unsolicited email (commercial or not). This obvious misuse is illegal and has been reported to every branch of the feceral government that has authority over spam. Also my friend has stated that every time they get another email from thesqueakywheel.com they forward it to Spamcop which logs the complaints and forwards it to all involved ISP's for blacklisting. According to the fine folks at Spamcop thesqueakywheel will shortly be permanently blacklisted for illegal use of spam.
I don't have anything against a company trying to help consumers, but when there is no safeguard against fraudulant complaints, libel, and then they top it off with illegal spam (which is actually illegal and makes thesqueakywheel.com much worse than any company or individual it carries complaints against). They need to learn it isn't acceptable in this modern age to right a wrong with another, bigger wrong.
My advice to anyone whom has received this illegal spam from websites like thesqueakywheel is to get the full headers version of the email and forward every instance to Spamcop and the FBI and government anti spam sites:
rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
www.ic3.gov/
www.spamcop.net/
Here is an important site which depicts all about spam (which can be commercial or not) and what you can do about it http://www.albury.net.au/www/sktf.html.
Its important to help consumers, but not when you break the law yourself. As Jesus once said, "Let the man whom hasn't sinned through the first stone." By spamming, thequeakywheel.com at best is no better than any of the companies it records complaints against. By that definition they have earned the Bestbraindrain thumbs down award for the month of July.
As always, we await a reply from the website in question as to why it feels such illegal use of spam is warranted and necessary and why they think they are above the law.
Let us know what you the reader think. Is it okay to right a wrong with another wrong? Or should the second wrong be overlooked? What do you think? Leave a comment. This is an important issue.
Update, as of July 11, 2007 there are more than 400 complaints currently filed on Spamcop against thesqueakywheel.com for illegal use of unsolicited spam.
I second the opinion on this squeakywheel website. One of my coworkers wanted to spite me so they slandered me all over their site and made several complaints about me - all of which were completely untrue and libelous. On top of that I have received over 600 spam emails from them for just one of the bogus complaints. And you can't even block their email address or domain as they use some kind of illegal stealth method to hide their true address and IP - scumbags. This is not right and should get their website thesqueakywheel.com blacklisted or banned from Google and others. Thanks for the advice on where to report them. I am going to report them to each of the links above and I will pass the word around about this very helpful article on these squeakywheel bastards.
Squeakywheel.com you are going down!
Butch Johnson
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Upon researching thesqueakywheel.com's IP address with the Spamcop.net blacklist it is now listed. Thesqueakywheel has officially been blacklisted for ongoing serial spamming. I told you I would get thesqueakywheel.com for libeling me and for all their illegal spam. I also reported them to the feds with the above links. To anyone else reading this please report thequeakywheel for spam - the more that do this the better the chance something will be done like Google delisting them. Here is the squeakywheel.com's ip address that they use to send their illegal spam from:
206.223.169.98
Sincerely,
Butch Johnson
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Here's also where to contact to send your spam complaints on thesqueakywheel.com :
abuse@bellnexxia.com
abuse@beanfield.com
Butch Johnson
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Today I got an email from thesqueakywheel that said they would stop spamming me relentlessly - no doubt because their web hosting service told them to stop or they would need to find another hosting service. They still have the fraudulant and libelous complaint on their website, but the funny thing is that this article here and its comments have ranked right next to thesqueakywheel and get as much or even more traffic than their whole website. So now I can laugh when they say that X amount of people will see the complaint about me because 5,000,000X will see this article and how wrong thesqueakywheel is and how to quickly put a stop to their illegal spamming and other illegal activities (just submit every spam email from them to spamcop.net and they will be forced to stop their harrassment).
So there squeakywheel, you've officially been served a good dose of your own medicine.
Butch Johnson
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theSqueakywheel.com needs to be reported so they know and understand that nobody is above the law.
Mary Jane
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I think there is a misunderstanding about our site.
First, we don't send unsolicited mail - unsolicited mail refers to mail sent when there is no relationship between the sender and the recipient. In this case, there is a relationship. Why would it be wrong for a customer to write to a company to complain about a defective product/service?
Second, if a company requests to have notification messages turned off we always comply (as you'll see verified n the postings above).
And last, we don't allow anonymous complaints. Since complaint pages are paid with by credit card it's very easy to determine who posted a complaint if there is a dispute about accuracy.
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Great article. I agree with you that thesqueakywheel.com has the right intentions, but to spam relentlessly is akin to righting a wrong with a worse wrong. Spam is bad and the definition of spam is any undesired and unsolicited email. It doesn't have to have a business purpose at all to be spam. Thesqueakywheel.com needs to stop this spamming before Google or the FBI catch on and end their website and business all together.
Love this blog and your wonderful advice and articles. There is truly something for everyone here. The article on Foreclosuresdaily.com being a complete scam saved me about $5,000 - that's what they wanted to charge me and yes Michael Kane, the CEO of Foreclosuresdaily.com promised that it was easy as pie and there was no way you couldn't get rich from their program. He said it was an amazing investment! - what a sham Foreclosuresdaily.com is. I will report them to the NC attorney generals office so others don't get scammed. Keep up the good work!
Wilbur
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I hate spam. Regardless of the squeakywheel's intent. They spam and that makes them just as bad if not worse. You know what happened to that one guy that was finally caught by Microsoft for sending 75% of the world's spam? A bunch of hackers found his home address and signed him up for so much spam mail that he received 100's of pounds of spam that he had to pick up at his local post office everyday.
Spam Hater
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Well, I noticed that thesqueakywheel site charges but why would anyone pay when there are sites like, iripoff.com and others out there where consumer can post their complaint for free?
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Thesqueakywheel is a copy of several other websites. The owner copied other successful websites in the hope of catching on their money train. Unfortunately he does not do a very good job of it. I don't expect their website to ever amount to anything and doubt the owner makes enough to ever consider quitting his day job. Give them another year and it will drift back into the supplemental index of Google and be gone and forever buried. There are other far better sites out there and Google is removing crappy sites like thesqueakywheel from the top pages and rankings and burying them where they'll never see the light of day.
heainidt
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That little bastard is in Canada (see the Whois for thesqueakywheel) and he thinks he can get away with it. All it takes is for some company to sue his ass here in the states and then enforce the judgement - I looked into it, Canada will entertain and fully enforce any judgement from the U.S. So, whomever is affected by this little punk schmuck from Canada, go get yourself a lawyer and go sue his little ass! You can sue him from your local federal court house and he would have to fly his little ass down to your court to fight the case. Being that he could not win (he would 100% be found guilty of spam by every court in the U.S.) he probably wouldn't even show up. Better yet, as a part of the judgement your attorney can petition the court and ask the judge that they be granted immediate ownership of the little punk's domains as the likely hood of his having any material assets and enough to cover the judgements would be zilch - little punks like the owner of thesqueakywheel are usually 30 to 40 year old losers that still live with their mom and belong on the Jerry Springer show. So, you sue the little punk. Take his domains away and his computer and any other assets if he has any. That's what you should do.
cpwjrcsj
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I fully agree with your statement that you should not right a wrong with another wrong. Spam is illegal. I looked up Thesqueakywheel and, apparently, they are out of Canada. Must be they think they are above American laws. In the american courts they are fully liable for being the instigator of spam. If the folks above are having a problem with them. Then go find a contingency based attorney (there is no shortage of these and if you are a minority there are additional resources and free attorneys for you), find out or research their assets and then go sue them. Being they are a business you can sue them from your own state and local federal courts and Canada will enforce any judgement found in your favor. Being that they would easily be found as an instigator of spam then you could easily ask the court for ownership of their website or for it to be permanently closed down. I have seen this done manytimes before in similar spam cases - it doesn't matter what role you play as long as you were a part of it. Good luck with it - I hate spammers.
rauoktuu
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I have looked at their website and found it to be at a childish level. Probably some teenager running it out of their house as usually is the case. Wher are the parents? Thesqueakywheel is childs play and a waste of time. Use Consumer Reports or other professional services.
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