Tuesday, October 04, 2011

A night of tricks and treats, Part 2. New findings in the Nick Brown case, Consumer Gain site issues and support, misc. freebie proof pics...

New findings in the case of Nick Brown; member issues with Consumer Gain's sites and support; misc. freebie proof pics! Hold on to your flashlights...

Ahhhh, back on the Nick Brown/Bart Brown case. *opening up my file* Alright. There is nothing else on Bart Brown, BUT I have something to share with you all. Read the comment someone left on my blog first.

"I RECEIVE A MESSAGE ON MY PHONE THAT SAYS CONGRADULATION YOU HAVEJUST WON A 1000.00 WALMART GIFT CARD AND ALSO GAVE ME A PASSWORD,BUT I ENDED UP HERE SO WHATS THE DEAL.. I TYPED IN JUST WHAT WAS ON MY PHONE…GIFTCARD 90.COM"

giftcard90.com took me to a blank page. "giftcard90.com" wasn't in my domain list for Nick Brown, so I investigated this further. I entered "gift90.com" into the search bar, which took me to the following gift site...

gift page:





url: http://onlinerewardsclub.com/wm2smilezas/index.php?lid=wm2smilezas_15639_GIFT90&add_offerid=641479&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true

I believe this is a ProductTestPanel site, and has nothing to do with Nick Brown regardless of his domain "gift90.com" directing to it. Anyone can link a site to another, but the question is why? Why wouldn't you link to your own? gift90.com was created on March 18, 2011. It expires March 12, 2012 according to this whois report.

whois info:



Is the gift site above even the real "gift90.com"? Did the owner tear down the original site? If so, did Nick Brown manually redirect his audience to onlinerewardsclub.com, a Product Test Panel site? I fail to understand that because he is giving his business to another company... What if DIY companies are paying textspammers to promote their sites? Now THAT sounds more like it! Next comes the name Nick Pereyra under 'technical contact.' I am lost again. There are two Nicks in this whois report! Two Nicks with completely different last names. We discussed the possibility of fictitious names in September's blog. Usually the person listed as the registrant and administrative contacts are made the 'technical contact.' And that individual would only have one last name in his/her registrant information-- unless there really are two men named Nick, and one was listed under 'technical contact.' Why are there two names on a whois report instead of just one person as the 'registrant', 'administrative' and 'technical contact'?

Something else is wrong with the whois report. In the administrative and technical contact information there are two zip codes for the same address. I will copy and paste the addresses from the whois report for our review.

Administrative Contact:

Nick pereyra (support@gift90.com)
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 fifth avenue
New York, NY 11776
US

Technical Contact:

Nick pereyra (support@gift90.com)
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 fifth avenue
New York, NY 10001
US

When you Google "244 Fifth Avenue New York, NY" it pulls up the following zip codes: 10016, 10001, 10003; the numbers are in the 10000s. That sounds about right for 244 Fifth Avenue. What doesn't sound right is the 11776 zip code, which I researched last night. The 11776 zip code is for Port Jefferson Station in Suffolk County, while zip code 10001 is in New York county...



So why two zip codes for two counties on the same street? And shouldn't this address have an apartment, building, unit, or suite number? Manhattan's 5th Avenue is mostly shops and apartments and condominiums, how can someone find you by the street address alone? lol. *sigh* Do I think Nick Brown/Pereyra? Maybe. I only say maybe because of the 'contact us' page on his businesses' web site: www.bestworldmedia.com -- On that page is a personal e-mail: nick.brown@bestworldmedia.com. Now if it wasn't for that e-mail address, I would say "No." From the whois report, it appears as if both names were made up to register gift90.com. That is what it looks like. I do think Nick Brown/Pereyra IS a textspammer based on my findings. If Nick Brown/Pereyra is in fact a real person, perhaps he just uses names he dreams up to register domains.



Since we know Nick Brown/Pereyra's sites have linked to CRS in the past; and I am pretty sure that onlinerewardsclub.com is PTP; then Nick Brown/Pereyna can't be with CRS or ProductTestPanel. The chances of a connection between two DIY companies and one man is very slim. The only way I see that happening is if DIY companies are paying textspammers to promote their sites. That would explain one man's domains linking to multiple company sites. To be sure onlinerewardsclub.com is ProductTestPanel, I will revisit the site and scrutinize it. No stone is left unturned in my investigations. The evidence before me is examined and analyzed to it's fullest to determine what is real, and to solve the whodunit mystery.

For our next DIY discussion... Consumer Gain. I understand some of you have experienced problems with the company, and I'd like to know exactly what those problems are. I can contact Consumer Gain directly and discuss with them the issues their members are having, and if they'll allow me to, work with them to better service their members. Below are messages between myself and a member who sent Consumer Gain a support ticket. He/she has given me permission to post our exchange.

Member:

i am signed up at a newer consumer gain site (free samples of tide lol) just to check out the offers out there. the offers page is broken. i opened a support ticket and he did get back to me. he took a few days longer than he used to, but he responded to both of my ticket questions. seems OK to me.

Me:

Do you know why some members are having issues with Consumer Gain? Or is that why you were poking around their sites? I am just trying to figure out what happened to make people think that. Would you mind sharing your correspondence with me? It might help people to know that their customer support is actually responsive.

Member:

hold on about that correspondence, i have to login and get it. the offers page is still broken after i asked him to fix it. that is the only thing thats wrong with the site that i can see. and no i poked around on my own i never thought CG would have any problems like acquisis had. i still dont

Member to Consumer Gain:

here is my correspondence, please block out the dates and times

xxxx by Member

The page to complete more offers does not appear to be working.

Consumer Gain to member:

xxxx by Customer Support

Hello,

We are working on your account. We apologize for this inconvenience.

We hope to have this resolved within the next 24-48 hours.

Thank you,

Customer Service

Member to Consumer Gain:

xxxx by Member

It's been a few weeks and it is still not working.

Consumer Gain to member:

xxxx by Customer Support

Hello,

We apologize for this issue. We are currently working on getting this site back up.

Thank you for your continued patience.

Thank you,

Customer Service

Me to member:

Hi again,

If you wouldn't mind, could you check that CG site again to see if they finally got it working properly?? I am writing about Consumer Gain now, and was hoping to see a positive result on your issue with them, so I could report that, too.

Thanks!!

wozniack

Member's reply to me:

hi,

so the offers page works now. i figured it out on my own. my profile under my account was blank. not sure if i erased it, or never filled it out, or its their error. after filling in my profile, the offers page works. the offers are dissappointing. not a lot of new offers. that is what i wanted to know. but they were not the best at updating offers either

sorry there is not much of a story here :(

Do what this member did above if you're having trouble with their sites' pages. It may be that their registration form isn't properly storing the data. If the problem is with Consumer Gain's customer support, or if it's some other technical issue, please contact me: diyfreebies@gmail.com -- Whatever it is, I will try to work with Consumer Gain on how to fix these bugs, and/or what they can do to improve their support.




More loot from MyPoints and two market research panels. It started with a $20.00 check from Toluna, then a $45.00 check from HCD Research... THEN! $200.00 in Target gift cards from MyPoints. So a total of $265.00 for taking surveys and shopping in between my usual freebie pursuits. Not bad I'll say. And you can make money, too!! Drop me an e-mail if you're interested in these marketing research panels and the MyPoints program: diyfreebies@gmail.com -- I will show you the way. If you didn't get an invite for a research company or one to MyPoints, please contact me and I'll work on that. Toluna's referral page had errors, but they may have fixed them.

Alrighty. This concludes our Part 2. of the Halloween blog. I hope you all enjoyed it! Please see, "A night of tricks and treats, Part 1." for our Halloween link list, and for the rest of this month's exciting details!

Please have a safe and enjoyable evening when/if you celebrate Halloween.

Good-bye,

wozniack

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