This one is a bit different than normal. We’re not looking at a spam from an SEO company, but rather the multiple pieces of spam I’ve had, through the contact form on my Christmas site, from a company that buys and sells businesses.
Spam me once, I’ll ask nicely for you to stop and will ignore. Spam me again, I’ll get a big grumpy – but will still ask you again not to email me anymore. Keep on spamming me and you get called out!
This all started back on the 11th March 2022. Through my contact form (so sent by a real person, it’s got bot protection) came some spam with the subject “Avoid the Capital Gains Tax Increase Quagmire – Sell your enterprise with ProNova Partners – NOW”.
It came from a ‘Rick’ who’s the CEO of the company. The email given on the spam was an @pronovapartners.com one, with his first name and a few numbers in it (numbers in an email are generally never a good sign if coming from a business). It was pretty long and went (with some bits edited so as not to give them more publicity):
ProNova Partners would like to collaborate with you on the sale of your business ASAP. Buyer demand is sky-high for our offerings – we closed ALMOST ALL of the new engagements we were hired for nationwide in 2021 despite the pandemic. Valuations are ridiculous {STILL}, our closing timeframes are short, and the good times I’m afraid won’t last forever. Interest rates will rise eventually, which will make it increasingly harder for Buyers to leverage up & pay 4-9x (PLUS) NET income on the best opportunities, plus there lies the possiblity of long term capital gains taxes on the sale of your business nearly doubling in 2023 potentially….The time is now!
If you’re interested in selling or just checking in on the valuation of your enterprise, please feel free to reach out to me directly to book an appointment {CONFIDENTIALLY} to explore further: [link to a booking calendar in Rick’s name had been removed]
On our end – we had 33 closings in 2021, with a dozen more (ranging from $225k to $15MM all-cash) closings scheduled by June 1st and we’re running low on salable inventory again. M&A marches onward despite these uncertain times!!
I’d ideally like to take some time to begin a discussion on the sale of your Company & we can commence ‘packaging’ this opportunity together so we can hopefully go to market and close by year-end. If you disagree, for whatever reason, hopefully just give me a follow up date that you think makes sense and I can circle back with you at that time.
But why ProNova Partners?
We have plenty of cash buyers that are active & decisive acquirers for good inventory.
We possess the network and the experiences to orchestrate virtually any transaction from initial consultation to the close of escrow in a timely manner.
We pay for upgraded advertising which in turn ensures maximum exposure to your business far beyond our company database of 32,411+ buyers looking for interesting targets.
We specialize in highly-sensitive and confidential sales and recognize its importance, therefore all buyers have an NDA on file with us.
We work together with our highly skilled team to produce top-tier marketing materials and pitch books that impel buyers to write offers.
We are experts in valuation – by applying the correct valuation strategy to your firm, we can therefore negotiate the highest possible price for your business.
We understand the importance of time to close, and considering all of the above we also have an average 90 days to close for our buyers / sellers.
We are a success fee firm, unless we close the transaction for you, there is no charge to you.
Is your legacy something you want to procrastinate with?
Or take some baby steps, 76% of business owners regret their exit after just one year. That shouldn’t happen to you. Secure your free PREScore™ to see if regret is in your horizon by answering 12 simple questions: pronovapartners.com
What’s your magic #? What’s your exit plan strategy? What are you waiting for?
IF YOU’RE A BUYER –
Some of our recent new engagements just listed from ‘Q4 include:
[Several links to their site have been removed]
Or check out one of our other 105+ active engagements across all SIC codes / geographies / valuations! You can also bookmark our website, pronovpartners.com/engagements to check in on future deals anytime.
Cheers,
-Rick.
[The footer with his full name and the company details have been removed]
So a pretty hard sell “we can do everything for you” type spam. But my Christmas site isn’t a business and I’m not in the USA. So I replied to Rick asking him explaining and asking him not to spam me again.
Hi Rick,
1. My business is NOT for sale.
2. As it’s very clear on my site, I’m in the UK, so your offer is meaningless to me.
3. Your spam is in clear breach of CAN-SPAM on at least one of these points: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business (There’s no instructions on stopping you contacting me again)
So, with all of the above covered, please DO NOT contact me again.
On the 5th June 2022, I got another message from Rick through my contact form! It had the subject “ProNova Partners = Sold Companies. High Closing Rate AND High Valuations. 115+ Current ‘Q2 2022 Targets for Sale!”
The message part on the contact form was blank apart from an footer bit with all the same info on it…
So, I replied again:
Hi Rick,
You spammed me via my contact form in March. I sent the following reply back then. It still stands. You actions also confirm that you are a spammer and in breach of CAN-SPAM.
Hi Rick,
1. My business is NOT for sale.
2. As it’s very clear on my site, I’m in the UK, so your offer is meaningless to me.
3. Your spam is in clear breach of CAN-SPAM on at least one of these points: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business (There’s no instructions on stopping you contacting me again)
So, with all of the above covered, please DO NOT contact me again.
Now it’s the 12th August 2022 and guess what, I’ve had another contact form from Rick!
The subject was “ProNova Partners = Sold Companies. 115+ Current ‘Q3 2022 Targets for Sale!”
How interesting that in both June and now they’ve got 115+ targets for sale – it’s almost like it’s a spammy script…
The main contents of the email was very similar to the first spam – so I won’t repost it all again!
I’ve also replied again, using the same reply template. But I did add an extra para:
So, with all of the above covered, please DO NOT contact me again. Although I suspect this won’t make a bit of difference as you’re clearly a spammer who doesn’t care about such thing as the CAN-SPAM act.
What Else?
I wanted to see how many other people Rick and ProNova Partners have been spamming, so I did a Google for the first line of the first spam they sent me “ProNova Partners would like to collaborate with you”.
Well, it turns out that they spam A LOT. There’s identical spam, to the one I’ve got, on lots of places like blog comments, guestbooks, reviews, contact forms and even on a prayer wall (classy).
So we known that ProNova Partners are HUGE spammers.
On their Privacy Policy page, they have a section all about the CAN-SPAM Act in which they state:
To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:
• Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
• Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
• Include the physical address of our business or site headquarters.
• Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
• Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
• Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
Only most of that appears to be untrue.
- They have spammed me three times with misleading subjects.
- The message was not identified as an advertisement, it just spouted marketing rubbish.
- They did include their physical address, I’ll give them that one.
- If they are using a third party for their email marketing, they’re clearing not monitoring them as they’ve been spamming people for MONTHS. (Checking on who’s doing what for you is a requirement of CAN-SPAM.)
- They HAVE NOT honoured my multiple requests for them stop contacting me – in fact they, or someone on their behalf, has visited my site to send the contact form – ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS. Under CAN-SPAM you get 30 days to process opt-out requests and then 10 business days to actually do it.
- There is no unsubscribe mechanism on the bottom of their emails – because they came through a contact form. There was also no information about stopping getting mails from them on the email (which in itself in in breach of CAN-SPAM).
Out of those six items, five of them are not happening with their marketing emails (and other spam comments being left on things) and so are in breach of CAN-SPAM.
On their site, there are three social media links in the footer, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ (you know, the service that CLOSED YEARS AGO…).
Interestingly both the Twitter and LinkedIn links go to profiles for ‘Ace Business Brokers’ which seems to have been Rick’s previous business (it changed to ProNova in 2017/2018). The website for Ace is also still up.
ProNova has been in business for over five years and yet they haven’t updated the social media links on their own website. Hmmm.
ProNova Partners and Rick might do a great job at buying and selling businesses. I honestly have no idea.
The things I do know about them are:
- They are apparently willing to spam seemingly all over the place to try and get business.
- If they’re using a third-party for their marketing, they’re not managing them properly.
- They claim to follow the CAN-SPAM guidelines but don’t actually seem to be doing so.
And I only know these things about them BECAUSE THEY’VE SPAMMED ME ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS.
Rick, If you’re reading this, please leave me a comment as to why you think all of this is ok.