Famepack (genius or ridiculous)?

Before you move on to my post, can you take one second (okay maybe 5 seconds) to check out my poll located in my sidebar to the right?  Your vote would be greatly appreciated!

First, I want to clarify that the following are ONLY my opinions and in no way should be taken as factual data. This is just a collection of thoughts I choose to share.

I received an email last week from this website, Famepack, and I was pretty amazed.  Apparently you can purchase likes, follows, and subscriptions for your social network pages.  Specifically for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  Really?  It's crazy to think you can purchase just about anything these days.  If you need something, I'm sure it's being sold somewhere!  On one side, I think the idea has great potential depending on how it was executed.  On the other side, I'm not quite sure what to make of it.  I can imagine it would appeal to those eager for exposure who can't put in the time to network themselves. Let's face it, we don't always have the time to put in and I'm pretty sure we all know the benefits that social media exposure has on our businesses, communities, organizations, charities, blogs, etc.

I noticed no link was provided to see their followers or views.

A few things came to mind when I read more about them.  Let's see if I can explain this.  The services they offer are called Famepacks.  So let's say someone decides to buy the Facebook Famepack.  They are offering packages starting at $35 for 1000 Facebook likes.  And it's guaranteed!  After reading this, the following questions/concerns came to mind:

1. How do they find people to like their client's page?

Apparently, they have access to a huge database of Facebook users to send invites to.  My first thought, was this sounds a little like spam.  I know I wouldn't want to receive these invites and most definitely wouldn't want people to associate my blog name with annoying invites. 

2. To compile the likes, do they target people with similar businesses, blogs, communities as their clients? 

This would make sense and apparently yes they do.  The orientate and select step will allow you to choose to purchase targeted or untargeted likes.

3. The fact they guarantee the number of likes, follows, and/or subscriptions made me hesitant.  Not only do they guarantee them, but they claim to do it in as little as 1-3 days.  I find that a little hard to believe.  You can't make someone like, follow, and/or subscribe to a page.  Makes me think the only way to guarantee this would be if other methods were used.  

4. Most importantly, do they have business relationships or contracts in place with these social networks that give them permissions to send out invites and access their users? 

The legal fine print at the bottom of their page suggests they don't.

Take Facebook for instance, they have very strict terms and conditions for their site.  Terms such as NO multi level marketing which is defined as (from Wikipedia):

Network marketing and Multi-level marketing have been described by author Dominique Xardel as being synonymous, and as methods of direct selling. According to Xardel, direct selling and network marketing refer to the distribution system, while the term "multi-level marketing" describes the compensation plan. Other terms that are sometimes used to describe multi-level marketing include "word-of-mouth marketing", "interactive distribution", and "relationship marketing". Critics have argued that the use of different terms and "buzzwords" is an effort to distinguish multi-level marketing from illegal Ponzi schemes, chain letters, and consumer fraud scams. Some sources classify multi-level marketing as a form of direct selling rather than being direct selling.

Facebook's guidelines for phishing and spam are: not to contact their members for commercial use without their consent. The definition of commercial use from US Legal is: A commercial use is one which is undertaken for a business purpose, rather than hobby, recreational, educational, or other purposes. 

Terms in general can be very unclear, confusing, but more specifically interpreted differently from person to person.  With that said, I think mass invites may qualify as multi level marketing and since they are being sent for business purposes, I think this would be considered spam also. Of course, this is only my interpretation.  

I would imagine they have these sort of things covered to make certain social network terms are not being breached but then in my research for reviews on their website I was convinced otherwise. Sorry Famepack, but it's not looking good for you guys.

Scam Advisor gave it a low trust rating
Web of Trust (WOT) gave it a poor rating
Webutation gave it a 40 out of 100
ALARMING information from McAfee (the web security software)

McAfee TrustedSource web reputation analysis found potential security risks with this site. Use with extreme caution.

 

On a closing note, I emailed them directly with the above concerns and never received a response.  Hmmmmm.  If you receive this email, proceed with caution and keep in mind it may not be a trusted source.

Any thoughts on this subject?  Feel free to drop me a comment.

If you missed last Friday’s post Spot the Differences (a game for Friday), feel free to check it out and play along!  I also published my first post  as a contributor to The Blog Hangout on Organizational Tips for your Blog, so I hope you’ll take a look!

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