I sat down to write this email a few minutes ago, but I’m siting in an “airspace” cafe. It’s loud and busy, I got distracted. Instead of focusing, I checked my inbox. “Thank God,” I said, “somebody’s writing to me.”
The subject line read, “Piracy on Copy Riddles.” And the body:
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Hello John,
My name is Danica and I’m with Acme Dead Pirates Corp, a copyright protection service. We find and pursue takedowns of pirated copies of digital content on the Internet.
While we were searching for piracy for another client, we noticed infringement on Copy Riddles. I just thought you should know that your content is on many pirate websites. Here’s a sample:
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What followed was a list of sites that apparently have my retired Copy Riddles program at a steeply discounted price. The email ended with Danica’s offer to partner with me and “help you keep your hard earned revenue.”
Since I’m no longer selling Copy Riddles, there’s no hard-earned revenue to protect. And based on what I saw of the pages that claimed to have a map to where the Copy Riddles treasure might be buried (“Call 1.mp3”), I suspect they might be just lying.
But if you’re willing to give it a go, google Copy Riddles, hand over your doubloons to one of these pirate sites and you might be able to get a copy of Copy Riddles, which used to sell for $400, for as little as $70. Dead men tell no tales.
But back to that email I just got:
I don’t know Danica from Eve. It’s possible she represents a legit business. By the way, that business is not really called Acme Dead Pirates Corp. I changed the name because of what I will say next:
Danica’s email reminded me of an earlier email I had written, about online reputation management companies. These companies offer to take down slanderous or embarrassing posts that might have appeared about you on sites like bustedcheaters.com or worsthomewrecker.com.
An investigative journalist named Aaron Krolik found out that a dozen of those reputation management companies pointed to the same 2-3 people. And those 2-3 people were the same ones hosting hundreds of slanderous and embarrassing cheater sites.
In other words, the same people were posting nasty things about you online, then contacting you and helpfully offering to partner with you to take those nasty things down, for a fee of a few hundred dollars.
So consider this a public service announcement about “copyright protection service” cold emails.
Or consider it an example of fraudulent behavior that you might nonetheless want to integrate into your business. I’m not talking about actually scamming people. But the concept of creating your own demand is sound, and it can be done legally and even ethically.
But more on that another time.
For now, if you’d like to get my Most Valuable Email course, before it becomes pirated to oblivion or before I decide to make it walk the plank, look ye here: