SEO Spam Email: Globex Outreach – Guest Post Spam

This is one in a series of posts reviewing and looking at how some of the SEO companies which use bulk emails/spam with ‘we can help your terrible site’ type emails really can (and actually mostly can’t!) help your site.

Read some simple explanations of some of the SEO terms used on this post…

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This is a bit different to my normal SEO spammers. It’s from a Guest Post Spammer. I’ve done one of these before. I’ve been quite a lot of guest post spams in the last couple of weeks, so I thought it would be good to look at these types of spammers again…

The email came from a ‘Hazel’ who was using a bestcustomoutreach.com email. This domain was only registered in November 2020 (just over two months ago) and there’s no site on it. It’s clearly simply been registered to send spam from… The spam email subject was “Paid Guest Posting” and the email went:

Hi,

I hope you’re enjoying good health.

We’re professional Blogger Outreach and content marketing agency. We provide long term relationships with our clients.

We provide articles and non-promotional content to blogger relevant to their website niche.

You can help us by placing an article with a do-follow link on your site. If you’re interested, then tell me the price to publish my article.

We make payments through PayPal or Payoneer (Totally Your Choice).

We’ll be happy to hear from you soon.

I’ve had several identical emails to this. I don’t know if many different guest post spammers are using this same template or if Globex Outreach just send A LOT of spam – probably both!

Anyway, as the email basically told me nothing about who they are I asked…

Hi Hazel,

Please can you tell me more about your agency? What company are you with? Do you have a website?

Thanks,

James

And I got this reply:

We are an SEO agency and provide links building service to our clients and for that, we first make a deal with bloggers.

So, we have a deal with thousands of bloggers and providing them a long-term business.
For more details kindly visit our website www.globexoutreach.com
thanks

Looking for your reply.

So now we have a company name! And… they also claim to be an SEO company, OK then. So I replied to Hazel explaining who I am and what I do, as we as asking a few questions about why they sent spam…

Hi Hazel,

I’ve been a web designer and developer for 20 years. I like to reply to SEO & other spammers to see what ‘services’ they offer and the things they say and use to get clients.

If you’d have actually bothered to visit my site, you would have seen that it clearly says “Please don’t ask if I have guest posts, this site is just for my rambles!”

So why did you then spam me (breaking several international laws in the process…)?

Also, why did you spam me from a different domain (registered only two months ago) rather than your main business one? Is it because you know you’re spamming and don’t want to get your main domain into trouble for spamming? hmmmm…

Also why do you claim to be based in New York on your site, when you’re clearly based in Lahore?

None of that is very trustworthy or professional is it?

James

Well, this got a one line reply:

No, we did not spam you

Well, yes they did. So I tried to explain this to them:

You did spam me. I live in the UK. We have a law called PECR which states what marketing emails can be sent. (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/)

I am a ‘Sole Trader’ so count as an individual. As it clearly states in PECR “You can email or text an individual if they have specifically consented to receiving emails or texts from you”.

I HAVE NOT given you consent to contact me. Thus your emails are spam.

You also didn’t answer why you’re not using your real email to email people from or why you claim to be based in the USA when you aren’t…

This time I got two replies, within the space of two minutes:

I did not understand what are you saying…

and

If you don’t want to make a deal with us.

It’s okay
Otherwise we want a long-term business relationship with you.

Bye

Oh dear. They don’t seem to understand what spam actually is! So I did my best to explain things again, very simply…

OK, I will try and explain things very simply.

No, I DO NOT want to work with you.

You are spammers.

The original email you sent me broke several different anti-spam laws from around the world, including: PECR (UK) / CAN-SPAM (USA) / CASL (Canada) / Spam Act (Australia).

It’s that simple. Please do some research on the above laws and you will find that your emails break all of the laws above.

But I’ve had no reply to that email. It really does seem that spammers don’t like it when you call them spammers!

[Update – 26th January 2022!] Over a year later, I had a reply!!! It went:

Hi,

Respected Sir,

We are not spammers. We humbly and heartily request you Please remove this article from your website.

We are serving hundreds of clients at this time. It is not ethically right to spread negative information about us.

We have several offices around the globe. We just outreach sites on behalf of our clients’ requirements.

So I request you to remove this article.

SEO Spam Email: Globex Outreach – Guest Post Spam

Ooooh, they found this post – and they’re not happy with it!

So I replied pointing out that they are indeed spammers and are breaking all four of the pieces of anti-spam legislation I listed:

Hi Hazel,

You ARE spammers. As I explained in my previous emails, from over a year ago, your emails are IN BREACH OF ALL the pieces of anti-spam legislation I previously listed.

For the UK (where I live) you are not allowed to sent marketing emails to an individual without their permission – you did this: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/

For the USA, you are breaking several of these guidelines for CAN-SPAM: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

For CASL in Canada, you need consent to send electronic marketing – which you did not have: https://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/00008.html (You also need other business identifiers in the emails, which your emails do not have.)

The Anti Spam Act in Australia has similar conditions for consent and identity, which your emails also met none of: https://www.acma.gov.au/avoid-sending-spam

So you ARE spamming people as you do not comply with at least four pieces of international anti-spam legislation.

You have sent me other unsolicited marketing emails – without my consent – in the last couple of weeks. Which shows you are still spamming people!

I happily stand by everything on my post.

I’ll let you know if I get any response to that…

[Update – 27th January 2022!] I had another reply:

Hi,

Respected Team,

Okay, I will discuss all this with the team and we assure you we will take precautions and follow these rules.

But please remove this article first: https://seospam.xyz/2021/01/12/seo-email-globex-outreach-guest-post-spam/

We heartily and humbly request you.

Hoping for a nice response from you.

It’s a good thing that they’re now looking at following the law and good privacy practices! So I replied:

Hi Hazel,

Your company should be following the law, and best privacy practices, as a matter of course.  

A post on a random blog, like mine, should not be the reason why any company would start doing so!

I will keep the post up but I will add on it that you said your company will now follow the law.

That will show people that Globex Outreach want to follow the law – so that’s a good thing!

Let’s hope that, although I’m not taking this post down, Globex Outreach will follow anti-spam legislation.

[Update – 1st August 2022!] It’s six months on and I’ve had some more spam from them. This time from a Frank who was using an @globexoutreach.net email. The spam was titled “Links for Content Marketing Agencies” and went:

Hello,

My name is Frank [name removed for privacy], Sales & Marketing Executive at Globex Outreach.

Globex Outreach is one of the biggest link-building agencies that is specialized in guest posting and blogger outreach services. We have worked with 1000+ Agencies.

Here is what we offer to you:

·        Over 20 thousand high-quality websites in 200+ niches.

·        Sites with monthly traffic of 1 thousand – 1 million.

·        Geo-specific websites from over 100+ countries.

·        You choose publishers of any DA ranging from 20 – 90.

With all of this, we promise:

·        Fastest Turnaround Time

·        Most Competitive Prices

·        Quick Customer Service 24/7

We are also offering a 20% discount to all our new clients.

Regards,

So it would seem that sadly Hazel might not have been truthful in her claim that they were now following the rules. So I’ve pointed them out to Frank (again).

Hi Frank,

I had an email discussion with Hazel [name removed for privacy] from Globex back in January of this year.

I explained the basics of international anti spam laws in the discussion.  Hazel said (and I quote):

“I will discuss all this with the team and we assure you we will take precautions and follow these rules.”

But it seems that you’ve decided not to follow the rules as hear you are again, spamming me.

I’ll explain what international laws you’ve broken again:

For the UK (where I live) you are not allowed to sent marketing emails to an individual without their permission – you did this: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/

For the USA, you are breaking several of these guidelines for CAN-SPAM: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

For CASL in Canada, you need consent to send electronic marketing – which you did not have: https://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/00008.html (You also need other business identifiers in the emails, which your emails do not have.)

The Anti Spam Act in Australia has similar conditions for consent and identity, which your emails also met none of: https://www.acma.gov.au/avoid-sending-spam

In South Africa there is the Protection of Personal Information Act, which says you have to have consent to send people marketing emails, which you did not have: https://ispa.org.za/spam/

Please stop sending out unsolicited emails, which break multiple pieces of international law.

Thank you.

I’ll see what response I’ll get to that…

[Update – 15th August 2022!] Well, you know what response I got? MORE SPAM FROM FRANK!

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Looking at Their Site

With SEO spammers, I also like to look at their sites, to see if they practice what they preach (I mean would you trust a plumber who had leaking and rusty pipes all over their own house?!); and also to compare their site with a site they say they can help…

Their site is www.globexoutreach.com

Their site has 20 errors and 5 warnings. Not a great start.

Using the ‘WAVE’ Accessibility Testing Tool, their site has 13 errors and 29 contrast errors.

Using the GTmetix Tool their site gets:

Overall Grade: F
Performance 25%
Structure 85%

That’s really not good at all. You’d have thought that an SEO company who know that things like HTML validation, accessibility and site optimisation would be important – but apparently not!

And looking on their site, things only get worse.

There’s no privacy policy on the site – that’s not good.

On their site they list their company as being based in central New York. Only they’re not. If you Google the address they give, the first several entries are for ‘virtual offices’ where you rent an address and sometimes and phone number as well – you don’t actually have any ‘real’ presence there.

However, their Facebook page lists an address in Lahore, Pakistan! The ‘bestcustomoutreach.com’ domain was registered in Pakistan. The time when Hazel first spammed me would have been 4.30am in New York but would have been 2pm in Lahore…

Looking on their LinkedIn page, they claim to be based in the USA. However, if I google the name of their CEO, guess what, his profile (on several different social media platforms) lists him as being Lahore. What are the chances!?

There also seems to be a sister company ‘Globex IT Solutions’ and guess where that’s located – LAHORE!

So I think it’s safe to say that Globex Outreach/Globex IT Solutions are really in Pakistan.

Also, rather worryingly, Globex don’t seem to know when they started business. On some sites/profiles it says 2005 and on some 2010. But the domain ‘globexoutreach.com’ was registered in November 2015 and ‘globexitsolutions.com.pk’ in May 2016; so frankly who knows!

All of the above doesn’t exactly inspire confidence…

[Update January 26th 2022!] I thought I’d have a quick look at their site again, a year later. It’s now got MORE HTML errors and warnings, there are less overall Accessibility Errors but more contrast errors… On GTmetrix, it’s now upto a B – so that’s better!

There’s also now a Privacy Policy page on the site. However, there’s so little on the page that it’s basically useless and doesn’t actually tell you anything.

There’s still the (virtual) address in New York as well as an additional address – in Lahore!

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Conclusion

Globex Outreach/Globex IT Solutions are happy to hide behind fake domains when spamming people.

Globex Outreach/Globex IT Solutions also don’t actually seem to understand what spam is (or SEO or how to set-up a website properly).

So if Globex Outreach/Globex IT Solutions want to offer guest posting services to you. I’d think twice (or just hit the delete button).

But the choice, as ever, is yours.

[Update – August 2022!] Globex Outreach, from their actions, are spammers and liars – plain and simple.