“Clarke Duncan sold my daughter viagra”: BBC Reports
Quick Question: Does everyone who reads this blog understand what spam is? In a nutshell, it’s unsolicited email - junk emails that you haven’t asked for from people and websites you haven’t signed up to receive emails from. It’s the scourge of the Internet, and all spammers should be lined up against a wall and shot. Now, I thought pretty much everyone knew that these days, but it appears not.
I was amazed to watch a BBC Report on spam that was so scandalous it could have been written by a Daily Mail reporter - The video report can be found here and would have you believe that just by surfing the net and clicking on a link will result in your children receiving pornographic emails pushing drugs and penis extensions on them. Which of course is complete twaddle. But hey, don’t let the facts get in the way of a nice shocking story about how the Internet will kill your children. But the BBC don’t stop there - They delve into the source of all this “spam” to find out who’s behind it. And the “research” they did led them to believe that the chief peddler of viagra and xxx videos online is none other than Clarke Duncan via his website Free UK Stuff.
The evidence? Well, when the woman conducting the “experiment” searched Google for “free stuff”, Clarke site was one of the sites listed by Google. Convinced yet? No? how about this then - The woman clicked on the link to join Free UK Stuff, and was sent an email asking her to confirm she wanted to join and receive the weekly newsletter. She then clicked on the “confirm” link, and then.. guess what? She started receiving the weekly newsletter she had asked for. Or as she called it - spam.
She also did the same thing with UK Classified website Gumtree, and the report was summed up by the scandalous tone she uses to say “I clicked on ‘receive daily emails’ and they started emailing me every single day!” Clearly, this woman does not understand what spam is - And it’s unbelievable that the BBC would parade this clueless woman in front of their cameras with the clear aim of shocking people into not joining websites such as Clarkes (even going so far as to name his site as a “spam-sender”).
It’s all part of an “experiment” from McAfee, no doubt to stir up scare stories such as these in order to sell their latest anti-spam product. Looking at one of the many blogs detailing their actions here (apologies it’s in Portuguese), it looks like they’ve also targeted my old site Net Free Stuff as a “potential spammer” because it also appears in the Google results for “free stuff” - yup, if Google ranks you, you’re obviously a spammer.
Now, anyone who knows Clarke will be aware that he takes spam as seriously as anyone, and that’s why he’s got such a strict double opt-in policy on Free UK Stuff. He’s certainly not a spammer, and the fact that the BBC can effectively label him as such without any recourse, which could of course kill a small business with such negative (if false) publicity is unbelievable. We’re all used to AOL users idiots who sign up for your newsletter and then report it as spam the minute you start sending them what they’ve asked for, but I believe this is the first time any of them have gone onto National Television and accused us of selling their details to porn merchants and drug dealers.
If you’re as shocked as I was about this scare-tactics excuse for journalism that could have put smaller affiliates than Clarke out of business without any justification, then you should complain to the BBC. And try and educate idiots like the woman who did this experiment as to what spam actually is.
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Hmm, the video seems to have disappeared from the BBC News website
Actually it is still there just not on the page you linked to : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7483523.stm
Clarke Duncan you should sue the bbc asap get a top london lawyer for blacking your name and business with false info, the bbc staff who collected this info should have signup to his site to confirm what the women was saying was 100% true, just look at jordan and peter sued News of the World over nanny’s bad parenting claims etc
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=41126&c=1
If you have a copy of the video thats a plus but i think you lawyer can get a copy of the video from the bbc.
[...] “Clarke Duncan sold my daughter viagra”: BBC Reports [...]
“I clicked on ‘receive daily emails’ and they stared emailing me every single day!” - classic.
Almost as good as the spam emails offering anti-spam software.
Great case for Clarke to press the issue in the courts here. The BBC rely on the power of their legal teams to fend of any criticism/action.
How many upstanding and successful members of the business (including affiliate) community would be willing to put pen to paper to state that the BBC, as is very often the case, are just plain wrong in this instance and that the man, and his business model has suffered because of irresponsible and erroneous reporting - thousands I reckon.
If Clarke turned up with 30 business associates willing to give verbal support and stood on the steps of the libel court on the morning of a court case. The BBC wouldn’t be able to get the cheque book out fast enough - and would they be bothered at having to spend? Nah, they’ve already filled the telly with half an hour of bulls@#t and that’s all that drives them.
Were it me, I’d have been down at my briefs office the next morning with an expert on the ins and outs of opt in opt out in tow and would have a court date fixed by now. As Clarke is one of the leading lights of this industry and, I believe, could stand up to any scrutiny, he should go for it - for himself, and the rest of the affiliate/marketing community.