Consumer News: August 2007 Archives

How many flower-buying consumers haven’t heard of 1-800-Flowers or FTD? When they decide to purchase direct from a local florist and skip a middleman, it’s logical a shopper would head to a Local resource to help find a brick and mortar flower shop in the city where their gift is destined.

In our first article about Mapspam on Yahoo Local, we covered an out-of-market ‘order gatherer’ (an affiliate of a national wire service) creating local-sounding company names, using manufactured addresses, spamming user reviews and leaving black hat negative ratings on legitimate local florists.

One of the questions left unanswered was how that set of bogus listings made their way into Yahoo Local in the first place.

In investigating this next set of phony ‘local’ companies, there’s a strong correlation between the florist’s listings in Y Local and those shown in data provider/Y Local marketing partner YellowPages.com (owned by AT&T).

The florist, Exceptional Flowers and Gifts, 2800 N Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL is and member of FTD. (FTD also hosts the florist’s website and keeps a percentage of each order destined back to the city where a shopper thought he/she was purchasing direct from in the first place.) Y Local users’ orders through Exceptional Flowers & Gifts numerous listings will be filtered through their Florida location, then passed though FTD and then relayed back to a real local florist in the community.

Exceptional Flowers & Gifts (EF&G) has acquired remote-call-forwarded local phone numbers in cities across the US, listed the locations of real B&M stores, and is now running what appears to be coordinated banner ad campaigns across Y Local and YellowPages.com. – using the same data and the same tracking code - yp5.

Here's an example from Nashville, TN:

Yellowpages.com listing:

Yahoo Local Nashville banner ad:

Yahoo Local listing of 'Nashville' store:

By adding in a hefty dose of review spam, the team has managed to push some of the faux ‘natural listings’ higher in each city’s results.

Note that some of the reviews were originally written about different fake local listings but have been recycled, redirected and now appear under newer 'local florist' EF&G profiles. Did Y Local have a roll in redirecting the reviews? They sure help give the newer listings instant cred.

What’s to stop any and every other out-of-area flower seller from purchasing RCF and buying ads for the misleading listings? AT&T can sell the RCF, YP.com can sell the ads there and in Y Local, and then 10 of these in each city (plus one cooperative real local florist) could crowd out the other real local florists entirely.

(We note that in claiming physical addresses, companies can trigger requirements in many jurisdictions to hold applicable business licenses, register with the states’ tax boards, and collect & remit appropriate sales taxes.)

Local florists had hoped that sites like Yahoo Local would help cut through the affiliate marketing clutter of FTD, 1-800-Flowers and other ‘order gatherers’ and become reliable sources for consumers seeking to purchase direct from real brick and mortar flower shops. We believe their users expect that, too.

Instead, Y local is starting to look more like yellowpages.com, where real locals get buried deep beneath a layer of affiliate marketers ‘serving your city’.

Are local florists the only people who think florist wire services should stop members that use false addresses or who believe publishers shouldn't monetize their sites if it means selling out their users?

Added: A big thanks to the Understanding Google Maps and Yahoo Local blog for covering Yahoo Local Mapspam and bringing the issue of phony local florist spam to light.

Do you see a flower shop here? Neither do we. But according to Yahoo Local, it's the location of NEW YORK FLORIST (FREE DELIVERY TO ALL ZIP CODES) - 60 Reade St., New York, NY.

Take a few steps east and you can stop into a real local flower shop, Langdon Florist.

Where is NEW YORK FLORIST (FREE DELIVERY TO ALL ZIP CODES) and why does Yahoo Local list them as the #1 result for Florist in New York, NY? First - they're really located at 11411 Jefferson Blvd, about 3000 miles away in Culver City, CA with a local Los Angeles area phone number - (310) 391-3333. To get to the #1 spot for their fake local florists in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Boston and many other major US markets, it appears this local mapspam abuser has used a crafty combination of tactics including:

- Keyword-rich fictitious flower shops names
- Fake addresses that indicate locations at or near the center of each city
- User review spam praising their services with mutiple identities like this, this, this and this. (Note that one of these 'objective reviewers' is the source of the uploaded photo on the New York profile page.)
- In at least a few cases, Black Hat user review ratings that anonymously damaged the star ratings of real local florists who would have been top results. (Thankfully, Yahoo has at least stopped their ability to easily hit competitors with anonymous negative reps although creating mutilpe user logins is still an option.)

Attempts to correct the bogus listings with the proper name, address or phone number via Yahoo's 'update this business' link are futile.

How could Yahoo Local have spotted these phony florists? In Yahoo's case, a 'local listing' without a local phone number should be a big clue. Additionally, none of these addresses appear on the linked website and none of them appear in conjunction with the phony business names on any other credible sources on the web (sounds like Yahoo needs an algo. ;) )

How did the listings make it into Yahoo Local in the first place? None are marked 'Merchant Verified'. Perhaps one of Yahoo's data partners knows.

A few Yahoo users have tried to warn others about these fake florists, but most warnings - like the ones in the fake Boston listing - have been met with yet more five-star reviews from first-time reviewers.

Yesterday, Florida's Attorney General announced a lawsuit against a company that used fictitious local-sounding florist names . The Tampa listing from California-based AAA Flower Mart deserves his attention, too.

AAA Flower Mart is a member of the Floral Source florist wire service.

Let's hope Yahoo Local will quickly clean up this weed patch of fake flower shops and help ensure their users get real local florists when they're looking for them.

Part 2 of this series will address a company that purchases remote call forwarding to make itself appear 'local'.

In a press release today, Florida's Attorney General, Bill McCollum, announced his office has sued New Jersey-based Flowers With Gifted Elegance and the related companies owned by Tom Meola, alleging they "created fictitious florist listings" and "named them so as to lead consumers to believe that the companies were located in Florida cities and towns."

"Meola and his company were investigated by the Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division, which will also litigate the lawsuit. The investigation has been ongoing since December 2005, focusing on violations of Florida Statutes which prohibit individuals from advertising a fictitious business name if the name and context of the advertisement leads consumers to believe the business is located somewhere other than its true location and if calls to the local telephone number are routinely transferred to a business location outside the state. Violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act carry penalties of $10,000 per violation."

Earlier this month, Meola's companies filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7 just days in advance of a scheduled hearing in a Missouri Class Action suit. The Aug. 22 hearing was to discuss sanctions against Meola for failing to appear for deposition.

The Florida AG lists Meola's company as using the following names to do business in Florida:
Florist in Oviedo, Florida’s Florist in Jacksonville TTP, Florida’s Florist in Brooksville TTP, Florida’s Florist in Coral Springs TTP, Florida’s Florist in Daytona Beach TTP, Florida’s Florist in Gainesville TTP, Florida’s Florist in Melbourne TTP, Florida’s Florist in Orange Park TTP, Florida’s Florist in West Palm TTP, Florida’s Florist in Palm Beach, Florida’s Florist in Panama City TTP, Florida’s Florist in Orlando TTP, Florida’s Florist in Boca Raton TTP, Florida’s Florist Cocoa Beach, Florida’s Florist Cooper City, Florida’s Florist Winter Springs, Florist in Hallandale, Florist in Sanford, Carol City Florist, Cutler Ridge Florist, Davie Florist, Deerfield Beach Florist, Ferry Pass Florist, Hallandale Florist, Hollywood Florist, Jupiter Florist, Lauderdale Lakes Florist, Miami Florist, Miami Beach Florist, Norland Florist, North Lauderdale Florist, North Miami Florist, Pensacola Florist, Pompano Beach Florist, Riviera Beach Florist, Florist in Bartow, Bartow Flowers, Florist in Bradenton, Florist in Clearwater, Florist in Dunedin, Florist in Lakeland, Florist in New Port Richey, Florist in Sarasota, Florist in Seminole, Florist in St. Petersburg, Florist in Carrollwood, Lealman Florist, Plant City Florist, Tampa Florist, Tarpon Springs Florist.

More than 20 states have legislation outlawing misleading fictitious florist listings. The California Senate is scheduled to vote on a similar measure this week.

User ratings and reviews can be one of the most useful aspects of sites focused on local businesses and services. CitySearch, InsiderPages, Yelp, Yahoo Local and others have built legions of loyal users who enjoy sharing their experiences and reading the opinions of others.

The future of those sites depends on users' trust - in the sites and in each other.

Savvy businesses know that ratings and reviews can impact both the perception of their companies and the positions of their listings. So it was only a matter of time before unscrupulous elements started exploiting ratings and reviews to improve their visibilities and harm the credibility and reputations of competitors.

Thankfully, Yahoo Local's recent update closed a loophole and changed the way it allows users to rate and review companies. For local businesses like florists, it's a definite step in the right direction.

Prior to the change, Yahoo users with logins were allowed to leave anonymous ratings (without reviews) or to leave written reviews anonymously. On one level, the practice gave users the ability to rate freely - but local businesses, especially those with anonymous, reviewless dings to their reputations, had no way of knowing why they were earning negative marks (unless they accidentally spotted them while viewing a user's profile...which was highly unlikely.)

Yahoo's new review policy should go a long way in preventing the kinds of ratings and reviews seen in this screen shot (taken before Yahoo Local's recent update.)

For the record, all the 5-star ratings are for listings owned by the same company (some employing mapspam techniques by using fake addresses) and all the 1-stars (which appear without attribution in those business' listings) are for their local competitors.

This negative rep abuse of florists was reported to Yahoo Local and it appears at least some of the anonymous slams were reversed (though the large group of phony local florist listings still stands - we'll have more about that soon).

Yahoo Local now requires comments (with only a 50 character minimum) and requires the reviewer to identify his or herself by email address or nickname. While there are still ways to game the ratings system, Yahoo's change goes a long way in stopping review abuse.

An article today from the Star-Ledger details Tom Meola's Chapter 7 filings in Newark NJ. His two companies, TTP, Inc. (the retailer operation under the name Flowers With Gifted Elegance) and Preferred Florist Network (the wire service operation) have long been a source of complaints from both local florists and consumers.

Through a third company, Lower Forty Gardens, Meola purchased local phone numbers and used local city names in the listings of his fictional 'flower shops' across the US. Calls to the numbers were forwarded to his Randolph NJ-based call center.

Reporter Greg Saitz of the Star-Ledger sums up the issue well:

..some florists and consumers complained Meola's business model amounted to deception because people who called his numbers likely believed they were dealing with a local business. In response, 19 states, including New Jersey, passed laws that prohibit misrepresenting one's geographic location, according to the Society of American Florists, a trade group.

In addition, several state attorneys general have investigated or are investigating Meola's practices. He agreed to pay Virginia officials $10,000 in 2005 to settle and $50,000 to Delaware authorities in 2002. He also agreed not to publish phone listings creating the false impression it was for a Delaware business.

Among creditors are hundreds of local florists owed for Spring and Mother's Day orders they filled and delivered through the Preferred Florist Network.

It's unclear as to the status of Lower Forty Gardens and the future for Meola's phony local listings.

Unfortunately, Flowers With Gifted Elegance isn't the only call center operation to use remote call forwarding and local-sounding florist names, but they were the first and largest.

As more states enact legislation (North Carolina just passed a bill and California awaits a final reading and vote in the Senate) real local florists hope this business model will become a thing of the past.