Shady web sites

[Chris Smith]

This is a place to inform others about web sites that are on the shady side.

 

I am starting this discussion because of a recent incident.Earlier this week I was informed by a member of this community that one of my pictures was being used without my knowledge or permission. The picture was being used to sell a commercial system for £1,000.00. The site claims that they are "aquaponic experts" but do not have their own pictures to use. Most of their products seen to be more hydro stuff.

The site is also using the BYAP nitrogen cycle diagram. It seems they copied and pasted what ever pictures and images that they wanted off this site and others and used them on their own site. After many nasty emails they took my picture down and replaced it with another one that was likely ripped.

With the explosion in popularity of AP this kind of thing will become more common and there will be more sited out there trying to rip us off. We need to be vigilant and keep a look out for these shady sites and warn others.

[RupertofOZ]

One of the worst sites for blatantly ripping off other peoples material, especially the blatant use of images of other peoples systems... without authorisation...

 

Is the affilate marketing group of "aquaponics4u"... which has bombarded the net with their promotion of a very second rate aquaponics e-book... all done via the pay per click affilate marketing model...

 

I find images of one of my systems constantly being used... and usually attributed as an example of a system that was built using the above dodgey e-book...

 

The head of the organisation, who uses the name Mr. John Fay... not his real name as it turns out... is now bitterly complaining that people are bringing his publication into "disrepute"... and threatening legal action...

 

Bo.. bloody hoo... Mr John Fay...

 

Mr Fay's entire existence is dedicated to publishing a plethora of ebooks... on every subject on earth... all cut and pasted from other peoples works... and then set up under the affilate marketing model... to make Mr. Fay money...

 

In each and every one of the ebooks... Mr. Fay, and associates, who never use their real names.... always claim to have "discovered"... or be an "expert" on the subject in question....

 

Which hardly gives them any credibility... or right to claim some moral indignation... IMO

[TCLynx]

I will recommend that if people want to point out a particular shady web site, please don't post a direct link to them as we don't want to improve their ranking by being linked from here (which this is a very popular web site.)

I would recommend you post like

www.shadyAP DOT com so people can go figure it out and find them to have a look see but without increasing the sites rankings by having good links to them from here.

 

There are many out there with extensive skills at SEO and web site design who really know little about aquaponics and they are simply trying to make a buck off it.  Many of them will skim google images to get pictures for their sites, heck some of them will even try to mimic sites and claim other peoples work as their own to sell e-books.

 

Glad you got them to take down the picture Chris.  Scary that they think they can sell a commercial system for that price when they have probably never actually seen a commercial aquaponic system in person.

[Kobus Jooste]

While I am not too fussed if someone somewhere one day nicks a photo I took of a cabbage and use it without acknowleging me, the case that Chris raises here is quite terrible.  Having your design or work associated by direct implication to someone else is not cool at all.  Is there any way in which we can start embedding aquaponic gardening watermarks in our pictures posted here or will that be too difficult?  Scanning all the aquaponic web sites all the time is going to be very time consuming.  I am not a tech person thus I am wondering what can be done to protect the images posted here.

[Frank De Block-Burij (hygicell)]

absolutely very shady, even scary:

be also warned for aquaponicplans DOT info which is affiliated to aquaponics4you DOT com.

Don't go there, because you will not be able to leave the site without getting bombarded by family discounts and the like.

they even have some movies on Youtube:search for aquaponics4you

all seem intended as smoke screens to lure people to their site

even worse:

exposed-and-reviewed DOT com falsely pretends to review and expose (!!!) several sites, probably all from the same culprits:  exposed-and-reviewed DOT com SLASH go SLASH SOMETHING aquaponics will lead to aquaponics4you

same with aquaponics4youscam DOT org

don't go there

Frank

RupertofOZ said:

One of the worst sites for blatantly ripping off other peoples material, especially the blatant use of images of other peoples systems... without authorisation...

 

Is the affilate marketing group of "aquaponics4u"... which has bombarded the net with their promotion of a very second rate aquaponics e-book... all done via the pay per click affilate marketing model...

 

I find images of one of my systems constantly being used... and usually attributed as an example of a system that was built using the above dodgey e-book...

 

The head of the organisation, who uses the name Mr. John Fay... not his real name as it turns out... is now bitterly complaining that people are bringing his publication into "disrepute"... and threatening legal action...

 

Bo.. bloody hoo... Mr John Fay...

 

Mr Fay's entire existence is dedicated to publishing a plethora of ebooks... on every subject on earth... all cut and pasted from other peoples works... and then set up under the affilate marketing model... to make Mr. Fay money...

 

In each and every one of the ebooks... Mr. Fay, and associates, who never use their real names.... always claim to have "discovered"... or be an "expert" on the subject in question....

 

Which hardly gives them any credibility... or right to claim some moral indignation... IMO

[Chris Smith]

Thanks for the info Rupert. I'm not familiar with that site.

Great suggestion  TCLynx. It would not be good to increase their ranks by linking their sites. The guy who responded to my angry email was surprised by my reaction. He wrote: "We are surely in the same position of promoting this concept. Neeldless to say that far from not being able to sell the product we promote I have taken 3 years of my time to develop it so I am certainly in a position where I can sell it." Sounds like he has researched for a few years and is now an "expert".

I like your idea Kobus. I wonder how hard a site specific watermark would be to add. That would make the images less desirable to rip and if they were the source would be known.

 

[RupertofOZ]

Frank... the aquaponics4u affilate marketing group has gone viral all over the net...

 

I've even seen images of Sylvias systems displayed within web sites/links.... and Will Power's systems....

 

None of them give a damn... although to be fair, and to qualify that... I have found many will respond and remove any images... when requested to do so....

 

The newest trick is to pretend to do a "review"... which basically just leads to a claim that the product is good... and a link, for which the affiliate gets paid...

[RupertofOZ]

And just for reference... apart from about 50 other e-books on every imaginable subject... all affilate marketed...

 

The "registrant" of the above site also has sites that can ... make you lose weight... and tell your how to remove your own moles... for a small fee of course...

[Frank De Block-Burij (hygicell)]

plenty watermark software to be found on the net
freeware at that,

let us review those and find one we can recommend to all

I am starting today

Frank

 

Chris Smith said:

Thanks for the info Rupert. I'm not familiar with that site.

Great suggestion  TCLynx. It would not be good to increase their ranks by linking their sites. The guy who responded to my angry email was surprised by my reaction. He wrote: "We are surely in the same position of promoting this concept. Neeldless to say that far from not being able to sell the product we promote I have taken 3 years of my time to develop it so I am certainly in a position where I can sell it." Sounds like he has researched for a few years and is now an "expert".

I like your idea Kobus. I wonder how hard a site specific watermark would be to add. That would make the images less desirable to rip and if they were the source would be known.

 

[Kobus Jooste]

HA! The man is a tool.  According to him, Aquaponics was "discovered" at UVI and then the secret "started leaking out" in 2006/7.  The man obviously has no handle on scientific publications.  He'll probably sucker quite a few people though.  That is the sad bit.

 

Chris, is it you or the Friendlies that he refers to when he talks about "his recent trip to Hawaii"?

RupertofOZ said:

And just for reference... apart from about 50 other e-books on every imaginable subject... all affilate marketed...

 

The "registrant" of the above site also has sites that can ... make you lose weight... and tell your how to remove your own moles... for a small fee of course...

[Frank De Block-Burij (hygicell)]

here is what I posted on each Youtube video that allowed me to comment:

"it is only fair to warn you that you and your videos and websites are under scrutiny by the aquaponics community with members all over the world
we don't know who you are, nor where you got your experience
as it stands, a whois research shows you hide your identity which seems strange
furthermore on some of your video's you do not allow any comments
please contact us to clear things out"

 

should all but lock the youtube channel to make victims

Frank

[RupertofOZ]

Frank... the registrant of the website can be found...

 

He certainly isn't a "Mr. John Fay" however.... (a pseudonom)... but apparantly a "certified organic gardener"... and a "worldwide aquaponics authority"...

 

Which makes the legal cease and desist letter issued to BYAP somewhat funny... as it lists Mr. John Fay as the complainant...

 

P.S ... a google of the "legal" company that appears to be acting for the non-existant Mr. John Fay.... throws up a plethora of disparaging remarks...

[Kobus Jooste]

Sounds like you guys down in Aus have had a long running battle with him.  I can never understand the mentality of such people.  I'd feel seriously ashamed if I gave poor advice on a topic (which I'm sure does happen sometimes) but to outright swindle is not in my genetic make-up.  Perhaps one of the uses of any international aquaponics association would be to isolate such people in order to allow the genuine service providers to be reached by first time investigators. When did he start though, because when I started looking into AP in 2008, he never got onto my radar.  It was pretty much UVI / Alberta, Nelson and Pade and you guys in Australia.

RupertofOZ said:

Frank... the registrant of the website can be found...

 

He certainly isn't a "Mr. John Fay" however.... (a pseudonom)... but apparantly a "certified organic gardener"... and a "worldwide aquaponics authority"...

 

Which makes the legal cease and desist letter issued to BYAP somewhat funny... as it lists Mr. John Fay as the complainant...

 

P.S ... a google of the "legal" company that appears to be acting for the non-existant Mr. John Fay.... throws up a plethora of disparaging remarks...