Deceptive Advertising?

"The Internet's just a big bluff"

So stated David Carter, website entreprenuer. He followed this statement with "If you can make a site look pretty and sound credible, you can pullinquiries in for just about anything and turn the Internet into one greatsales-generation machine". Carter was talking to Business 2.0 magazine Editor, Paul Sloan. Sloan reports that Carter did just that: launched professional looking and sounding websites to advertise a service. The problem is, the service did not exist at the time.

Misdirection Means Money

Carter reportedly creates websites with generic names realted to a business or topic he knows nothing about. For example, his site AsbestosSurveys.com. He writes a few articles (after educating himself first) and lists a few local phone numbers with an answering service. On getting tons of calls for a fake business he states, "I told them there was a big backlog...Then I said, 'Oh, God. What do I do now?" Once he gets the people to commit and call in for the service, he establishes the businesses himself or subcontracts to others.

Crossing the Line?

Although reporter Paul Sloan does not take a stance himself, he does question the ethics of Carter's tactics (barely). Carter set up the site above as an experiment. He is now using it and others to make money. He thinks its a great opportunity for local businesses to build a customer base. He reccomends others first find an overlooked service, create a professional website and then create a business or subcontract. I understand the idea of establishing a need first. Is advertising the service under a name that is not actually the provider a little too misleading? People might think they are getting one serivice and then be subcontracted to a service they swore not to use. The line is thin indeed.

Sloan's full article can be found on www.cnn.com.