Christmas gifts: Money Making Websites

It seems a high number of lonely-hearts are becoming the victims of malicious online fraud scams, according to the Guardian 200 000 Brits have been conned by fraudsters who claim to be on the lookout for love. This shocking statistic indicates just how much of a problem online fraud is proving to be. It seems con artists know no limits when it comes to getting their hands on some cash, using dating websites to sweep victims off their feet before asking for money or expensive gifts.

Although the number of people conned is already an eye-opener, it may not actually represent the full extent of the problem as victims of the online dating scam are often reluctant to tell anyone due to embarrassment. The con artists are scarily becoming more cunning and convincing in their methods as they “woo” their victims, declaring their love and making them feel special.

The scams aren’t necessarily a short-term process either; the longest dating scam allegedly lasted for five years. They take time to earn the victims’ trusts to the extent that handing money or presents over may not seem irrational. They forge a relationship with victims, often offering a virtual shoulder to cry on and share problems with. Some of the victims have reportedly even continued to communicate with the scammer after their cover’s been blown due to the “comfort” they’ve provided them.

Dating websites are aware of these scammers who are creating bogus accounts and luring in vulnerable people who are lonely and looking for love. Despite their awareness of the problem, it can take dating websites time to identify a bogus account and by this time the scammer has usually contacted multiple victims and moved them to anonymous messaging services such as Hotmail and Yahoo Messenger where new email addresses can be easily created.

How to Spot an Online Dating Scam

In order to reduce the numbers of online dating scams, it’s important for users of dating sites to be able to identify a scammer and report them to protect themselves and the rest of the online dating community. There are numerous ways to detect a dating scam, and although not all fraudsters are the same, their methods are typically rather similar.

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Vistaprint, the office supply company that caters to very small businesses, will acquire digital marketing company Webs.com for $117.5 million, the companies announced today.

Silver Spring, Maryland-based Webs, founded in 2001, appeared on the Inc. 5000 in 2009.

The company says it has served over 40 million customers globally since its founding, and claims 100,000 paying subscribers. It forecasts $9 million in revenue for calendar year 2011."Webs' suite of products delivers incredible value to micro businesses, helping them to look professional online in order to grow their business," said Robert Keane, chief executive officer of Vistaprint, in a statement.

Vistaprint has "hundreds of thousands of active registered customers," Keane said, and more than $50 million in digital subscription revenues last fiscal year.

"Webs complements this success with a business model based primarily on free products that has achieved impressive customer reach," he said. Webs has free website and free custom Facebook page offerings. Vistaprint is infamous for its offer to design and print 250 business cards for free—an offer Inc., for the record, rated as "don't waste your time."

Brothers Zeki and Haroon Mokhtarzada started Webs—then called Freewebs—while still students at the University of Maryland-College Park. The pair (Zeki, who is older, was studying computer science; Haroon, economics) designed websites for family and friends in their spare time, and quickly realized a website-creation tool would be a lot more efficient. So each invested $1,000, funds they used mostly to buy servers (which were then stored in Zeki's apartment). Their then-14-year-old youngest brother, Idris, did a little PR for the fledgling company, listing it on a web directory.

The brothers' entrepreneurial streak came from their parents, Afghan refugees who arrived in the U.S. in 1983 with virtually nothing and promptly started a visa and passport procurement company. “It exposed us kids at a very young age to two things that are important,” Haroon said in a 2009 interview. “One was entrepreneurship, and the second is we got access to computers really early because they got a computer for the business.”

The trio worked on the company part-time from 2002. Zeki had a job at the National Institutes of Health and Haroon pursued a law degree at Harvard University. (Idris was still in high school.)

When Haroon graduated from Harvard in 2005, Freewebs beckoned.

"[It] was making enough money to pay our salaries, so we said, let's give it some love," he said. In August 2006, the company received $11 million in Series A funding from Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Columbia Capital. Between 2003 and 2007, Freewebs grew 1,704 percent, according to the company history. (It rebranded as Webs in 2008.)

Haroon Mokhtarzada, the company's CEO, said of the Vistaprint deal: "Our companies share a common vision for the future of micro business marketing, and bring complementary products and competencies to the table. Together, we imagine a future in which a micro business will market itself through seamlessly integrated digital and physical marketing media with significant cross-over potential.

Vistaprint will acquire the company for $100 million in cash and $17.5 million in restricted shares "subject to continued employment of the founding shareholders," the company said. The deal is expected to close in January 2012.

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Christmas gifts

Monday, December 26, 2011

Money Making Websites

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