It looks like i was right

Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 12:07 pm

Remember when I mentioned I was threatened with a lawsuit a few weeks ago? If you don’t you can read the post here.

Well it looks like I was right all along. The website that harrassed to threaten me is now down. I’ve been monitoring their progress since this whole thing started. Now that the sites not available I’ll share what I know about them.

what I know

I shared about another company Superb Media that basically has the same layout and the same setup as Superior Influence. The only difference was the pricing was triple the cost of Superb’s. But you can view the video sharing Superb’s site.

Your probably thinking what does this site have to do with the other. I’m getting to that. I noticed that I had been spammed by Superb media then suddenly this new company Superior Influence started to spam me as well. The emails were even the same up until the middle to late August. They couldn’t even change things up a bit. The only things they charged were the location and the owner/CEO names. But they basically sold a scam.

Superb’s site is at the 5:44 mark as with Superior Influence they are no longer in business either. Oddly enough I they were Superior Influence’s sister site.

What was the scam?

You may be asking what the scam was. The scam was offering verification for Instagram (which is free to everyone) along with a follower boost. Well let’s put it this way. They claimed they would promote you and grow your following for $300. Now that was Superb media.

Superior influence did the same thing yet their promotion services were $1,300 up to $4,000 range. Now from the rather lack luster info the site gave you there was no real info in terms of if it was a one time payment or a recurring payment.

I don’t know about you but I don’t think anyone would give a promotion company that much money with out wanting some guarantee first right?

That post had a large number of views. I guess a number of you wanted to learn more about the company. I seemed to be the only person who posted anything about it.

Well, me being me alerted you dear readers about the possible scam. It took the apparent CEO of Superior Influence a few weeks to notice my post. When it was number 1 in Google search was when I had the first harassing email.

The lawsuit threat

I usually don’t harp about stuff like this but this person got on my last nerve. Before I go on as I said I had one email on a Friday night around 6 pm (PT). The email was simple and straight to the point. The sender asked that I remove my post or they would sue me. No please cease and desist. Just a straight out we’ll sue if you don’t do as we say.

First off it was sent after usual business hours so I knew it wasn’t a real threat. Then it was a Friday. This company claimed ot be based in San Francisco. So I didn’t think much of it until the following week.

The next week the emails kept coming. I was polite and asked the supposed CEO if they could please prove to me that their company did help small or non-influential Instagram profiles. I had this long-winded reply that struck me like a ton of bricks.

Remember the email was coming from someone claiming to be the CEO of the company. They stated they didn’t have to prove a thing to me. (Does that set off any red flags for anyone else?)

Another thing I loved was the more I tried to reason with this person the angrier they got.

By the time it was all said and done they threatened to sue me for defamation and that I had cost them 500 thousand dollars in revenue. Oh and when I posted a standard comment about the brands practices on Trust Pilot I got a wonderful message stating the following:

Glad to see you didn’t learn your lesson.  Here we come full force!

So yeah does that read well to you? I also had another email that said something like because you couldn’t be normal we’ll forced to take action.

what happened?

Absolutely nothing happened. I found out during my research that the company’s URL was purchased from Canada. So I have feeling they weren’t even here in the States.

I also found out that according to the BBB page listing the site was run by one person. So that also made me think. Granted I run my blog but still you’d think a company claiming to promote thousands of people and brands would have a work force not one guy.

I knew when the person sending the emails became hostile I knew it was a scam. Most companies have protocols and would have sent out a cease and desist letter. Or they may have even tried to work with me when I asked if they were willing to show any facts that the brand helped profiles grow.

other info

I also contacted a few brands that Superior Influence claimed to be promoting. I was contacted by two of the three. Both stated they would investigate further. They were all very popular makeup brands.

So basically the CEO was just another person trying to pull a fast one on people. Via the Better Business Bureau, there was one complaint from a person who states they took their money and didn’t do anything for them.

I also had another person contact me to share their story. They told me that Superior Influence had taken their $1,300 dollars and didn’t do a thing for them. They had filed a complaint with their state and attorney general’s office as well.

As I mentioned before I monitored the site off and on. I noticed a few weeks ago they had removed their banner image and their name was on a white background So it was fading into the header section. That was a big giveaway to me that they were getting ready to change names.

For the past few days the site has been down and just shows their hosting companies log in page stating the website has expired.

final thoughts

The reason I’m sharing this is because I probably isn’t the only one who’s gone through this. I think Superior Influence didn’t like that my post had out ranked them. I never did anything to defame the company. I just shared the post.

Let’s be honest there are so many of these social media promotions companies. One thing I’d like all of you to know is that you can verify (blue checkmark) your account via Instagram for free. These sites that offer free verification go against many social media platform’s terms of use.

Was I worried I’d be sued? Yes but you know what as soon as the person claiming to be the CEO started to get angry in the emails and straight out told me they had nothing to prove I knew it was a con. I’ve sat through several chats with scammers over the years and that was a big red flag.

When I had the email after business hours about removing my post on a Friday night I knew it was a scam. Granted websites are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week but most still keep business hours for customer service.

All I wanted to do is help keep you all informed. Because as we know shady sites are out there. It’s not right that people are taken by these types of websites. It also wouldn’t be right if someone lost their social media account for working with such a site as well.