TIB Ltd – (Was that Teenage Information Bureau… or Bollox?)
This morning I received a call from an organisation called TIB-Ltd. Apparently I pledged to donate money for school books of some description a few months back. Sounds like a pretty noble cause right? I thought so and being the soft touch that I am, my initial response was “oh right, well if I said that then obviously I don’t want to let you down…”
Fortunately, however, my bullshit detector soon began to bleep as the lady from TIB Limited (yes, a ‘Limited Charity’) harped on about stuff I was absolutely certain I have never discussed before in my life. That conversation we’d had a few months back… well it just never happened!
Having looked at their website it’s quite clear this is a ridiculous attempt at scamming small businesses out of cash (TIB-ltd.co.uk – don’t worry you seo’ers, the link is nofollow!).
First thoughts? Hmm, I have to say I don’t know of too many charitable websites with the opening image being that of a group of teens with their tongues down each others’ throats! I understand the connection with STI’s but I think TIB Ltd’s online marketing may need some work…
A few minutes research on the internet revealed that huge numbers of other businesses had fallen pray to TIB Ltd, many of whom had been talked into parting with quite serious sums of cash. TIB Ltd’s scam has been going on for years and by the number of posts made by angry victims in the last six months, it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down!
I appreciate this kind of thing is not limited to TIB Ltd. From my research it is clearly a tactic used by morally bankrupt chumps everywhere. However, it is these particular morally bankrupt chumps that have my blood boiling, so it occurred to me it might be kinda fun to try and rank for their name (TIB Ltd) online, so that when future victims receive a call and type in the name to verify the legitimacy of the cause, rather than finding their embarrassing excuse for a website, they instead find this post!
If you’d like to help stop this scam then please link to this page from your website or blog using the HTML code below. Alternatively, send out a Tweet to this page by clicking the button beneath the code!
<a href="http://www.smemarketing.com/blogs/dan/tib-ltd" title="TIB Ltd">TIB Ltd</a>
By linking and Tweeting, you will help this blog post to rank higher than their very own TIB-Ltd website! So when people search for ‘TIB Ltd’ they’ll be presented with scam warnings instead of the ‘official’ website.
Thanks for your help. The initial rage has now subsided but it would be great to blow these muppets out the water altogether.
Cheers,
Dan
