One Of These Things Is Not Like The OthersI have been writing my Collector Strategies newsletter for almost four years now. (The first issue was mailed in late Feb. 2002.) In that time, I have followed a policy of ignoring eBay teachers who do not provide value. You see, while I do recommend resources created by others, I judge their merits with an eye to how it will help you, and only how it will help you. If I don't think something will help you, I ignore it altogether. Today, for the first time, I am going to break my rule and expose a scammer who is out to steal from you. Before I start outing this scammer, let me explain exactly why I am doing this. . . On Wednesday January 25, I participated in a roundtable discussion of eBay teachers led by James Jones. During the session we talked about running a successful eBay business. Everyone on the call demonstrated a deep understanding of eBay gained from years of experience. While each participant had a different background, and a different specialty, there was no doubt in my mind that I was among experts. I bring this up because if you hang out with people who know what they are talking about, you quickly learn to spot fakers. Later that day, I happened across a post on Tony Blake's Discussion board by someone who had his ebook ripped off. I started wondering if anyone had ripped me off. So I went and did a quick check on Google. I found a Yahoo who had taken the sales letter for my best selling Auction Revolution eBay Course, and was using it to sell an ebook about eBay. An aside here - I am using the word Yahoo as Jonathon Swift used it in his novel Gulliver's Travels in order to keep this a family friendly website. This Yahoo had lifted entire passages from my website and pasted them into his page. I am not going to document all of them as it isn't important to the topic at hand. Remember, my goal here is not to rant about this Yahoo - it's to teach you how to spot these scammers in the future. What is important is the Yahoo's response to my email telling him to remove my material from his website. Here's his response:
I checked his site to see if he had removed all instances of my work. He had removed a few paragraphs, but left much of my other material. He didn't apologize or even offer a lame excuse like he paid someone to write the letter and was unaware it was copied from my site. Also note this person is hiding behind "Auction xFactor Support." His real name is Simon Slade and the address he used to register the site is 45 Major Hornbrook Road, Mt Pleasant, Christchurch,8008 NZ Tel. +1.006433847580 As an aside, I found a webpage claiming Simon Slade had ripped off a collector of a number of Coke cans. The collector shipped the cans to Simon Slade 29 Belleview Tce, Mt Pleasant, Christchurch 8008, New Zealand. A coincidence? Or an early example of this Yahoo? Anyway, a second email telling him he needed to remove all material copied from my site resulted in this email from Simon Slade:
After a almost a week of bringing this matter to the attention of the right people, I got this email from Simon Slade:
Simon Slade is asking me to acknowledge I have received his email. This is my acknowledgment. After almost a week of dealing with this criminal, and the intervention of the credit card processor - Clickbank he's stopped using my material on his website. Did I tell you I bought a copy of his book? I wanted to find out if Simon Slade had also copied from my book. This is getting long so I will split it here. On the next page I will review his ebook. To read a more detailed review of his book go to Review of Simon Slades' AuctionXfactor eBook on Salehoo Sucks Simon is the owner of a wholesale list site called Salehoo. There is a Salehoo Review I wrote on Salehoo Sucks.
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