I did start this as a place to talk business and here is a perfect thing to discuss... If you have the word marketing in your title, beware!I received this email today at my business email address:
From: Matthew T. Keener [mailto:matthew@cmo-summit.org] Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 7:33 AM To: Talia Davis Subject: Talia, let me know if you can participateHi Talia, hope you are well. On behalf of our Board, I wanted to personally invite you into The CMO Summits because of your key role and experience.The CMO Summits is an invitation-only group comprised of the very best CMOs and Marketing executives and visionaries. We meet monthly by teleconference to exchange what is working, what is not, strategies and ideas. It is a confidential forum with dedicated groups of other successful CMOs and Marketing leaders whose only agenda is to help each other outperform. Our meeting schedule is at cmo-summit.orgI am certain you will find the experience both enjoyable and useful in your efforts. Please take a look and let me know of your decision or relay if you think another is more appropriate. Thanks Talia.Truly, Matthew T. Keener CMO Summits The Organization of CMOs and Marketing Executives cmo-summit.orgThis message is confidential and intended only for the original recipient. If you have received this message in error, please delete it or mail us back if you no longer wish to receive further email. If any follow-up is needed I show your contact information as: Talia Davis, ******@*******.org Allied Jewish Federation ***-***-**** and you may also reach us at 1200 Abernathy Rd, Atlanta Georgia 30328 or through the contact page of our site.
Wow... sounds cool, right? Well, when you click on the link you are taken to a URL parking lot.
Well, being the inquisitive person I am... I started google-ing. Turns out, there may have actually been a real CMO Summit in 2010. It's website is here - www.cmosummit.org and they list Accenture, Jigsaw, Denny's, Farmer's Insurance, Jeep, Motorola, Nokia, Orbits, Subway, Wells Fargo, AAA, ADP... I am listing these all here in the hopes that these brands monitor their brand and see this blog and that they know that this other website is using their name.
So CMO Summit sounded kinda cool. I wrote the Matthew back and told him that his links were bunk and to provide more information if he wants me to be interested... Then I dug some more...
Here is the WhoIs listing for CMO-Summit.org:
Continuing to google, I find this website - altlink.org/cmosummit/main.htm - hum, altlink is not a very reassuring start to a web address. They seem to use quotes from famous people (Bill Gates for example) but there is no evidence that they are members... oh yeah, I didn't mention... they want you to join for $1250 a year to access their conference calls and networking. Well, since it took me nearly an hour to unearth this website (by searching the addresses provided) I don't know how extensive their networking is. It appears to be a part www.bizsummits.org which has a list of 3,500 orgs that they say work with them. Again, extensive and 'impressive' but the website is generic and really provides little information.
However, I have found these blogs saying the whole process is a scam:
- http://jessicawarrens.blogspot.com/2008/01/beware-email-scam-from-chris-jameson.html
- http://blog.badera.us/2008/01/cio-summit-phishing-scam.html
- http://www.joewein.net/blog/2011/11/24/summit-spam-from-atlanta-georgia/
- http://spam-ip.com/lookup-341187-69.65.12.64.html
- And from Email-Report.com:
- matthew@cmo-summit.orgName: Matt T. KeenerLocation:UnknownAn unsolicited or spam email has been received from this address with the title Scooter, interesting speaker. Because this was a spam message, it is recommended not to trust the content of any emails that you are receiving from this matthew@cmo-summit.org.
- He uses these emails: matthew@cmo-summit.org, matthew@cmosummits.org, matthew@thepublicrelationssummit.net
PLEASE NOTE: I am presenting information here. Information that I feel is pertinent to my fellow marketers. Some of these may be legit businesses but there are practices that I feel are spammy or scammy and make them suspect to me. These are my own opinions.