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Topic: Who is usavoice.org?
| Author | Message |
| flipflap | Posted – 8/9/2006 10:12:22 PM | show profile actually if you just google "usavoice.org," this thread is also the third hit. they can't be too happy about that... |
| sno02 | Posted – 8/9/2006 11:48:18 PM | show profile | email poster Calls To flipflap, those last 4 posters aren't fake...considering I did the conference call/phone interview thing on Tuesday as well and got that same e-mail. After the conference call, I started doing research on the company through Google and whatnot, and saw the word "scam" everwhere. What upsets me is why would they (usavoice) waste their time with hour-long conference calls? Oh well. |
| keegansch | Posted – 8/10/2006 2:07:15 PM | show profile | email poster conference calls joelwnelson, if you will allow a reply via email we could send questions. Email is not a public forum. Thanks |
| biscuit630 | Posted – 8/10/2006 4:41:05 PM | show profile | email poster Just finished the conference call. Hey. I didn't realize this was bogus until some guy from Boston asked, "So, how do you respond to people who are saying this is a scam?" The lady (Debbie Girk) didn't know how to respond, saying only that one person was accusing this of being a scam. She also responded to a question about attribution in articles that made my mouth drop. Basically, you don't have to research anything if you don't want to, and, if you're a journalist, you will know that the first damned thing you learn in your ethics classes is that everything must be attributed. I feel as though Boston was on the call to wake everyone up. Hopefully I'm not the ONLY one who decided to check into this after the call. She also wouldn't disclose the "private company" that is behind USA Voice. She said that they prefer to remain anonymous. WHAT?? Are you kidding me? I also found it strange that Debbie Girk's email address is questions@usavoice.org. Hmmmm..... |
| biscuit630 | Posted – 8/10/2006 4:53:10 PM | show profile At the end of the call.... HERE IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO "DIGITALLY SIGN" WHEN THE CALL IS FINISHED: [first name] [last name], hereinafter referred to as [first name], is being offered a position as a Reporter with USAVoice.org, with it?s principle headquarters in Washington, D.C., hereinafter referred to as USAVoice. USAVoice?s principle address is 1425 K Street Northwest Ste 350, Washington, D.C. 20005. The offer is being made under the following terms and conditions. [first name] is an independent contractor working from a home office. [first name]?s responsibility is to investigate and write relevant media stories to be posted and review on the USAVoice.org website and to build and maintain a mailing list of preferred readers to market and advertise their posted work on USAVoice.org. USAVoice.org?s responsibilities as described within the training manual posted on this website is to provide a stable and reliable support role to the reporter including website presence, ongoing training, help desk support and an environment to publicly but professionally state the reporters unbiased and unfiltered opinion. [first name] shall be compensated as detailed in the Reporter Compensation section posted on this website. [first name] agrees to abide by the following terms and conditions: I agree to only submit legitimate and previously unpublished articles. I agree not to disclose or share any training and marketing material provided to me by USAVoice with any outside individuals. I agree not to solicit individuals for purposes of increasing my mailing list. I agree to USAVoice?s Pay Procedures. (Pay checks are monthly on the 10th of each month for the previous month?s activity.) I agree to be truthful in all business dealings on behalf of USAVoice. I understand that being truthful also includes not omitting relevant information. I agree not to make any statements to the press, in any blog, or on any internet or public forum about USAVoice except as specifically authorized by USAVoice in writing. I understand that should I do so it will be grounds for immediate termination and that USAVoice has the right to seek damages. I further understand that this term will stay in force for one year after my voluntary or involuntary termination. I understand that should I be convicted of any crime (felony) during my tenure at USAVoice it would constitute grounds for termination. I further understand that conviction of a crime of violence (misdemeanor or felony) will result in an automatic dismissal. If you agree to the terms and condition, type in your information in the following digital signature and click the ?I Agree? button. AND THIS IS HOW THEY EXPLAIN PAYMENT: Reporters at USAVoice will receive 40% of income generated by advertising on USAVoice. Each reporter will earn a percentage of that revenue equivalent to the percentage of total ?page views? generated by his/her stories appearing on USAVoice. Example: Total revenue - $850,000 this month Total page views on ALL stories ? 2,500,000 Each page view worth 14¢ Reporter A generated 15,000 page views on all stories Reporter ?A? income this month - $2,100 You're not getting paid by "page view." You're getting paid by how many people click on an ad that is on the page that your article is on. They are misleading you here. Am I correct? |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 8/10/2006 5:26:35 PM | show profile These USA Voice people should be run out of town!!!! I certainly hope no one is planning on getting involved. Isn't it great to not know the name of the organization one works for? Science fiction... |
| jaymolloy23 | Posted – 8/10/2006 6:09:05 PM | show profile my post was real. i do believe the whole thing is a scam, but i really want to know what the scam is. |
| biscuit630 | Posted – 8/10/2006 8:26:54 PM | show profile According to http://www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/k-files/talentrock/alec_defrawy_difrawi_defrawi_phishing_scam.htm: But what's the scam? Basically the different variations of Defrawy's "business models" are using two main elements: First, getting very cheap (or even free) labor by raising false hopes on interesting well-paid jobs. Second, selling practically worthless, at its best very low chance "opportunities" to aspiring wannabe's. The 'money making angle' varies per scam, see the currently running scams specific pages about that. I'm sure there is more to it though. Some sort of advertising, money scam has to be involved. |
| baddreamr | Posted – 8/14/2006 1:10:27 PM | show profile | email poster Notes after the interview You get a share of some google ad revenue if you write for them. That's the deal. To help generate readership, you're required to, in their words "Create Mailing List of people you know to build traffic to your stories" The other way you're employed to generate readership, and thus the chances of revenue, is to post your "articles" or links to them on any/all of a huge list of forums that the company has collected. So, you spam the forums basically. You're not paid by the hour, or paid by the word, or compensated for any of your expenses, or your time, and your "press pass" is understandably worthless -- so what's the incentive?! I suppose I could just get a google ad account and put ads on my blog. That way, at least, I'd get the entire profits. Feedback on the line was so awful that the question and answer portion of the teleconference was promptly cut short. I stayed through the whole thing though, and read the contract afterwards. I believe someone already posted that contract here. |
| mailbag | Posted – 8/14/2006 3:48:54 PM | show profile | email poster "baddream --- ....I suppose I could just get a google ad account and put ads on my blog. That way, at least, I'd get the entire profits." You are correct. Does google offer this same program for blogs? They call me quarterly for a business news website, but continue to decline that invitation - would take away from my current advertisers. |
| shri_fisher | Posted – 8/15/2006 5:18:24 AM | show profile USA Voice After weeks of trying to communicate with USAVoice following my initial application to be a reporter, I too believe this is a hoax. They sent me the same e-mail letter back from "careers@usavoice.org" that everyone describes, making it sound like you're so great you walk on water, and asked me to sign into their website to answer more questions. This was signed by "Kyle Stone". That was the level where they ask why you want to be a reporter and what subjects. I did so, and a few days later got a note that they had lost my 2nd level info, please sign back on. This time, I had to enable the highest level of cookies (guess what THAT means!) to get in with the "sign-on" they gave me. Then it wouldn't let me go all the way in the process. I wrote back and about 10 days later they sent a letter saying "sorry you had problems, we are sure you would be an excellent reporter, please go here and pick a conference call time" signed by someone else.."Hugh Richards, CEO". I got to the "select a time for the Conference call" and again couldn't go any further. I attempted to find a phone number but there is none anywhere. I began searching the web and that's when I found this blog, and THANK YOU FOR IT!!!! In my attempts to do more freelance writing and reporting, I can't believe I fell for this. I'm going to report it to the "www.truthorfiction" website. You can also see more evidence of how fraudulent it appears at http://nocategories.net/journal/an-interview-with-usavoice/ |
| flipflap | Posted – 8/15/2006 9:35:03 AM | show profile hello to all the newbies who obviously found this thread, and MB, by googling "usavoice.org" sorry for doubting that you were "real" people. I was skeptical because the content of the posts was unbelievable. It seemed to me that anyone who had a journalist's sensibility (or is radar?) wouldn't have been taken in for a minute by the scam. Perhaps that comes with experience? or perhaps that's just an old-timer's perspective. Anyway, it's great that some of you investigated further in order to post the info here. If you want a real journalism job, I suggest you hang around, check the archives, MB toolbox etc. |
| baddreamr | Posted – 8/15/2006 11:44:55 AM | show profile | email poster google ads @ mailbag google's adsense will allow you to put ads on your blog. |
| chrltt03 | Posted – 8/15/2006 2:48:18 PM | show profile oops Allright, so I have gone through all of the applications, conference call, etc. with usavoice.org in hopes that they were real, and was suggested to look them up before i took the final step. First off, i went back and googled Debbie Girks name. If she were in the journalism field really, her name would have come up to several links about her previous stories and works. The only thing that came up was this website. Also, if you look at USAVoices "stories" on their page, they either DONT have names on the articles OR they are all done by Jameson Reed. If you have "employees" from all over, wouldnt you want to start posting their works? Also, one of the things they mention is that readers can respond to works and whatnot, and yet, there is no place for your average reader to respond. I am sorry that I fell for such a scam, I have looked up names of organizations before, and should have this time. I guess I fell for what was too good to be true. For all those that are smart, dont go through with it. It is a scam, and they want you to invest a lot of money into a job that isnt all that hassle full. I am just glad that I looked up this jobsite before something REALLY bad did happen. Better luck next time... |
| baddreamr | Posted – 8/15/2006 2:51:38 PM | show profile | email poster USA Voice.org Plagiarizes CNN! This just in: USA Voice.org Plagiarizes CNN! |
| sno02 | Posted – 8/16/2006 3:17:01 AM | show profile | email poster Hello flipflap, Even the most discerning minds can be fooled every once in a while. Thankfully I (and it seems other people) started to do the math and realize that things didn't add up. |
| zacinidaho | Posted – 8/16/2006 4:57:34 PM | show profile | email poster Search Engine Optimization I am sure this is a general Internet Marketing scam like Articleinsider.com, which is a scam based on Search Engine Optimization. The trick is to write "articles" laden with common relevant search terms so that Google and the like rank them higher on result pages. This leads to increased traffic at those pages and if some poor fool happens to click on the ad the author of the article gets a percentage of USAvoice's take. Most companies that do this kind of thing pay something like $10-12 a page, with about 250-400 words per page, but USAvoice seems to be trying to do it on the cheap with this set-up. |
| kmalston | Posted – 8/17/2006 4:00:08 AM | show profile Who is usavoice.org? I also have an interview with this "company" today (8/17 @ 10 AM). I am actually going to do an investigative story on their website. But I will have a lot of questions to ask them during the interview. If you have been involved in this reporter position scam, please email me your information @ kmalston@hotmail.com. I am going to have a local newscast do an investigative story on this "organization", so the more people's info I can have, the better. Let's put a stop to the bogus scam immediately. Thanks for all of your help. |
| dave_brewster | Posted – 8/17/2006 7:52:04 PM | show profile | email poster The Sad Info On USA Voice!!! This phishing group has already been checked out by someone else. The address to copy and paste is: http//:www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/k-files/talentrock/usa_voice_usavoice_org.htm I got the same email and filled out the initial info, but it didn't go through because of technical problems. Fine with me! |
| keltoi2 | Posted – 8/18/2006 12:03:45 PM | show profile And kmalston, whom do your write for and what local media will be doing this coverage? Or is this part of the scam? And what are you doing online at 4 AM? |
| kmalston | Posted – 8/21/2006 12:34:26 AM | show profile | email poster Reply to keltoi2 I was preparing for the phone conference interview and doing extensive research on this "organization"..I have contacted a local news station here and will follow up with them for updates. |
| jpjg1213 | Posted – 8/22/2006 10:44:32 AM | show profile | email poster Debbie Gerk email goes through instanthumanresources.com I received the following email from Debbie Gerk at USAVoice. The info on where the email comes from is instanthumanresources.com which has been associated with several other fake jobs and missuse of email addresses. Received: from mail.instanthumanresources.com ([72.32.58.227]) by rwcrmxc14.comcast.net (rwcrmxc14) with ESMTP id <20060817184103r1400so7mme>; Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:41:04 +0000 X-Originating-IP: [72.32.58.227] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=----_SmarterMail_NextPart_4720188764217432 Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:40:35 -0400 Received: from [205.188.116.197] by mail.instanthumanresources.com via HTTP; Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:40:35 -0400 Subject: editor interview From: "debbie@usavoice.org" Reply-To: debbie@usavoice.org Message-ID: <41ba0d32e9fa42dd8b64ebdebed54792@usavoice.org> I would like to speak with you regarding the editor position in Indianapolis. Please let me know what time below is best for you. Also indicate the phone number for contact. The call will take about 15 minutes. All times are EASTERN. Friday Aug 18 @ 11: 45 AM EST Monday Aug 21 @ 3PM EST Thanks, Debbie Gerk Managing Editor USA Voice.org The phone number where the call came from is an orlando land line but there is no other info. She said that there would be multiple editors in each major city and each editor would have 30 reporters. The delay in setting everyone up is supposed to be due to the fact that the system was not originally set up to handle multiple editors for each city. She claims that they already have over 60,000 reporters interested and so it has been a much larger response than what they expected and that's the reason for all of the delays. |
| yasminduran | Posted – 8/22/2006 10:52:45 AM | show profile | email poster got contacted last week about the editor position This is basically the e-mail I was sent last week. ------------------------------- Hi Megan, I would like to speak with you regarding the editor position in Las Vegas-Paradise, NV. Please let me know what time is best for you. Also, indicate the phone number for contact. The call will take about 15 minutes. All times are EASTERN. Tuesday, August 22nd at 10:15am Thursday, August 24th at 3:30pm Thanks, Heather Holloway USAVoice.org ---------------------------------- I'd heard about the scam after I completed all the conference calls recently and pretty much wrote this off my plate. Then I get this e-mail last week, so I figured "eh, why not" and e-mailed back for the call for today at 7:15 my time. Well it's now 7:52 a.m., and I haven't heard squat from them, which pretty much confirms it for me now, if there'd been any doubts before. |
| yasminduran | Posted – 8/22/2006 10:58:07 AM | show profile | email poster forgot to post the header information in my e-mail Return-Path: Received: from fed1rmimpi01.cox.net ([70.169.32.68]) by fed1rmmtai05.cox.net (InterMail vM.6.01.06.01 201-2131-130-101-20060113) with ESMTP id <20060817224846.NUZI21372.fed1rmmtai05.cox.net@fed1rmimpi01.cox.net> for Received: from p1-vmsrvr-06.prismone.net ([67.108.161.20]) by fed1rmimpi01.cox.net with IMP id BAgb1V01Z0SiRNB0000000 Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:40:37 -0400 Received: from acer2e68c49b20 ([10.0.32.17]) by p1-vmsrvr-06.prismone.net (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k7IKCqPP009145 for From: "H" To: Subject: Editor Interview Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:48:19 -0400 Message-ID: <004b01c6c318$6971e0a0$1120000a@acer2e68c49b20> X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4024 Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2962 X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV version 0.88.2, clamav-milter version 0.88.2 on p1-vmsrvr-06.prismone.net X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Step2-Anti-Virus: No Virus Detected X-Step2-Spam-Score: 0.152 () HTML_70_80,HTML_MESSAGE X-Step2-Spam-Report: X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.56 on 10.33.15.35 X-Antivirus: AVG for E-mail 7.1.405 [268.11.1/421] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=======AVGMAIL-44E507576044=======" |
| jpjg1213 | Posted – 8/22/2006 12:12:43 PM | show profile | email poster Email from USAVoice.org As part of the website, you can get on an email mailing list so that whenever a particular writer posts a story, you will get an email. So far, the only writer is Jameson Reed. He has posted at least 6 stories today alone based on the emails that I receivedv alrting me of his latest story. Every article is directly from the news wires and is the exact opposite of what Debbie Gerk indicated the stories were going to be like. She said that it would all be opinion oriented (editorial) stories to generate responses like a giant blog. When you try to enter a quetion to any of the stories, nothing happens to your question when you hit enter.  Dear , One of your favorite reporters, Jameson Reed, has recently added a new story to USAVoice.org. This story can be found by visiting USAVoice.org or by simply following this link: http://www.usavoice.org/SPORTS/?ID=176 Thanks, USAVoice Staff ** If you do not wish to receive any more new story alerts from USAvoice.org, please go to: http://www.usavoice.org/MailingListOptOut.cfm? |
