Proof that Mark from GTS scams and steals from clients.

[Diomed]

Summary,

my buddy who had purchased traffic from GTS in the past approached Mark for advice on how well a couple of streams of traffic from GTS would work with his new website.

Mark gave his advice, said that he agreed with which traffic streams he thought would work best and he personally thought the site was killer and would convert well with that traffic.

Cut to a week later, my buddy finds an exact carbon copy of his website registered to Mark via GTS. He confronts Mark on icq about it and this is what follows:

https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1045076&page=7

Give props to Dom for being the whistle blower, as my buddy wouldn't have let this info out if it weren't for him.

[georgeyw]

Originally Posted by Diomed

Me ?(8:04 PM):
Mark,

just came across one of your websites right now.
Has some pretty large implications.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:04 PM):
ok
what's up?
Me ?(8:04 PM):
www.copiedwebsite.com
Me ?(8:05 PM):
i'm shocked really
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:05 PM):
we're running it on our network to test conversions?
Me ?(8:05 PM):
www.mysitethatwascopied.com
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:06 PM):
we're running it on our own network, with a different sponsor
Me ?(8:06 PM):
it's an exact duplicate.
my exact text, that i created.. my concept, even my graphics .. you turned around and copied it exactly?
Me ?(8:08 PM):
Should try to be diplomatic about it, what do you think?
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:09 PM):
sure what would you like to do
or me to do for that matter
Me ?(8:09 PM):
i think that's a question for you to answer mark, i just want you to know i'm a very nice person, and very reasonable. ethics and reputation are a big deal to me.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:12 PM):
Well i can tell you from our end we are trying a whole bunch of different moneitzation methods on our IM ads
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:13 PM):
this is one of the ones we are trying out
it's been up for about a week from what i understand
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:14 PM):
it was not supposed to be an exact carbon copy...
Me ?(8:14 PM):
i think it's a big deal when someone comes to you for traffic, wants to do business with you, shows you a site in cofidence, and you copy it exactly to the "t", stealing my exact text.. and duplicating it.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:14 PM):
i'll e-mail my ad guy to remove the ad tonite
Me ?(8:14 PM):
not a very admirable attribute.
Me ?(8:15 PM):
and it's you mark.. it's you.
you who i talked to, and showed my site to
which i have older sites with that exact text years old as well
Me ?(8:16 PM):
i have our chats logged, and i must say buddy.. i'm pissed off, just as you would be i'm sure.
it wasn't supposed to be an exact carbon copy? man that's tough.
Me ?(8:17 PM):
we can do this a few different ways mark, your choice.
Me ?(8:19 PM):
before you start ducking out on me, leaving me to take action.. you should let me know how you tend to handle this and rectify what you've done.
Me ?(8:25 PM):
i have plenty of ammunition mark, i'd prefer to be diplomatic.

if not, i can only do my best to explain your own practices and ethics and how you treat your customers and yes i have purchased traffic from you before.

i'm sitting here telling you i want to be diplomatic, but your silence is a slap in the face.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:27 PM):
i've e-mailed my guy to take the ad down
Me ?(8:30 PM):
you think that's an acceptable resolution to blatantly stealing from your customers? word for word? people who comes to you with there websites to do business and buy traffic from you? what about ethics? this is how you treat your customers?
Me ?(8:31 PM):
i'm sure gfy would get a kick out of it.
Me ?(8:32 PM):
thank GOD i save all my chat logs for things just like this. if you think i lack the ammunition please try me. I've got friends too.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:32 PM):
hey well at the end of the day it's your call
i have offered to take down the ad
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:33 PM):
i already e-mailed my guy
Me ?(8:33 PM):
mark, you haven't even apologized.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:33 PM):
it wasn't supposed to be a carbon copy
Me ?(8:33 PM):
all bullshit aside man, like for real person to person
how would you feel?
i'm not a bad guy man
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:33 PM):
i get my ads stolen all the time
ALL the time
Me ?(8:33 PM):
not quite the same thing, your in a different position.
you can't fuck over your customers like this and not except some sort of reaction?
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:34 PM):
ask xxx, he gets his stuff stolen all the time also
it's a part of the business
we try different forms of monetization
if we see something that we think will work well with our own stuff we try it
just like all the paysites out there
Me ?(8:34 PM):
yes mark, but you provide traffic to hundreds of valuable webmasters
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:35 PM):
one guy releases xxxyyy.com website the one day and the next day another guy releases xxxyyz.com
Me ?(8:35 PM):
how would they feel knowing THE company they buy traffic from, rips off there concepts completely word for word, and tries to cut them out
all for trying to do more business with you.
not cool.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:35 PM):
this traffic was from our own internal sites, it was not on any of our publisher sites
Me ?(8:35 PM):
people will understand, it's CLEAR as day, and I have all I need to prove it.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:35 PM):
it was promoting a different sponsor
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:36 PM):
so as i said before i am happy to remove the ad
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:37 PM):
and i apologize for the inconvenience
Me ?(8:37 PM):
not good enough. that's what you call diplomacy?
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:37 PM):
ok well what do you want then?
Me ?(8:37 PM):
you changing some text a bit?
i have an iq.
what do you suggest.. sorry, not used to deception on this kind of level.
Me ?(8:38 PM):
i know i can make it a very costly mistake for you.. and again, i'm not a bad person or unreasonable, i dont want to start problems.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:38 PM):
well what do you feel is fair compensation
Me ?(8:39 PM):
if it wasn't you, in your position, with your customers, you'd be much better off.
Me ?(8:40 PM):
it's got to be worth it to me, that's all i know.
simply taking the site down isn't enough, i'm sorry
again, i'm not unreasonable.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:41 PM):
well what if i leave it up and i cut you in on a percentage of whatever sales we get from it
and past sales that have been made thus far
Me ?(8:41 PM):
well mark, you could say that.. then turn around and open a new one up and change the text, cut me out entirely.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:42 PM):
well let me get some metrics on what we have made so far
and we can go from there
Me ?(8:42 PM):
how long will that take
Me ?(8:43 PM):
mark, dont kid me. i know you wont have a long term campaign with me getting a percentage of the sales.. you'll cut me out first chance you get.
Mark -GTS (DH) ?(8:43 PM):
should not be long, just have to figure out how many sales we have pushed in the last week
Me ?(8:44 PM):
i dont want to give you that much time for damage control.

[Fletch XXX]

always good when icq logs posted

[edgeprod]

I knew he was a bad apple, but THIS bad? Shit. Anyone doing business with GTS from today forward deserves any fucking over they get.

[Diomed]

The bottom line,

Mark directly stole from his customers.

As soon as the conversation ended with Mark, he ordered that the website be copied immediately and put up for business. It was an exact carbon copy, not a single letter of text was changed, same graphics, a complete and blatant rip off.

Mark is a liar, a con artist, and a thief. If you do business with him you are likely to get fucked.

Imagine what damage a crooked traffic broker could do to all his clients. This has huge implications. Any one who has a successful or high converting website running along side with GTSads, I would PULL IT IMMEDIATELY.

The guy got caught red handed sticking his hand in the cookie jar, and will do anything for money and profit he pleases, including fucking over and laughing at any one of his customers.

I hope this guys ego takes a major fucking hit.. and some of his ex employees come out about his underhanded business tactics and his willingness to lie, cheat, and steal.. even if it's from his own CUSTOMERS.

[Darkhorse]

Thats pretty fucked up for sure.

[marlboroack]

Why does everyone have to fuck everyone else?

[Diomed]

Originally Posted by marlboroack

Why does everyone have to fuck everyone else?

Good question.. but it ALWAYS seems the case.

There are a few people though, that really benefit from a good reputation. Trust is hard sought in this business, and that is sad.

[DTK]

Even 8 years ago I knew this guy had had ethical bypass surgery. I actually warned Stuart (who i think is a good guy) about going to work for him. Well a man's gotta eat, but we know how that turned out for him.

Credit where it's due, Hurson's stepped up his game a bit. It used to be that anyone who called him on his shit was a jealous broke 'hater' (god, i love that term). Now they're delusional on top of that.

[The Heron]

It's pretty funny

[machinegunkelly]

Originally Posted by Diomed

Mark is a liar, a con artist, and a thief. If you do business with him you are likely to get fucked.

All this is much worse than I expected.... I honestly got burned lightly compared to Dom, and you guys.

I was basically promised the world as a graphic designer, and ended up living 500 miles from home in a situation where my landlord was also my boss (on exclusive contract), who knew I wasn't making enough to pay the rent....
When pressed for raises, or to initiate the design business we planned, I Learned basically his plan was to take MY business and run it, while paying me 25% - I left a 60k a year non-exclusive position for this BS?

I'm not retarded, and no contract was ever signed that said this was the plan ( ie: turn over my brand and customer list etc ) so I basically refused to do it, and worked on the side outside my exclusive contract.

I was fired for insubordination and breach of non compete which was never signed on the advice of another GTS worker.

The whole thing was just a giant fuckin mess, but the things I heard in that office made me sure this day would come.. I heard Mark say more than a few things that led me to believe all was not as it seemed at GTS and he was too dumb to know not to talk about it infront of a guy that completely hated him.. "Fudge" Any numbers lately Mark?

Good luck with this, Diomed.

I honestly hope it's the nail in his coffin... Finally.

[Fat Panda]

what an asshole

[raymor]

Mark from GTS doesn't seen to deny that he straight up stole the site. His response is "hey people steal from me too." I'm sure they do, because birds of a feather flock together. If he's a thief, he'll attract other thieves who steal from him.

[BIGTYMER]

Not cool...

[Fletch XXX]

ive had to read and sign quite a few NDA when being contacted regarding doing designs for clients and privacy for between client and those providing a service should be priority.

Its crucial to long-lasting business relationships in this type of business.

[Jakez]

Not finished reading but, is this about stealing ad IMAGES or complete websites?

Edit: nevermind.

[georgeyw]

Originally Posted by Jakez

Not finished reading but, is this about stealing ad IMAGES or complete websites?

complete websites

[Spunky]

Not sure who to believe anymore.

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by machinegunkelly

"Fudge" Any numbers lately Mark?

Ah, he was "fudging" on customers even back then? I thought it was a more recent thing. Shit, if they ever got together and hardcore audited him, he'd probably go bankrupt AND to jail.

Originally Posted by raymor

Mark from GTS doesn't seen to deny that he straight up stole the site. His response is "hey people steal from me too." I'm sure they do, because birds of a feather flock together. If he's a thief, he'll attract other thieves who steal from him.

Exactly -- he doesn't deny ANY of the horrible shit he does, he just says "LOL" and pops up again six months later.

[SwirlsGirl]

Well God damn.............not a good look...just like they do on that football show...

COME ON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As one who has spent good money in the past with them, sure hope that traffic was chock full of integrity

[Diomed]

Originally Posted by raymor

Mark from GTS doesn't seen to deny that he straight up stole the site. His response is "hey people steal from me too." I'm sure they do, because birds of a feather flock together. If he's a thief, he'll attract other thieves who steal from him.

No,

he didn't deny it.. he didn't even try to cover up a single thing. He openly admitted to his guilt and laughed about it.

Good old Mark.

His ads are all over this place. What a shame.

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by SwirlsGirl

As one who has spent good money in the past with them, sure hope that traffic was chock full of integrity

Chocked full as could be. And at the bargain price of 1500 hits for $9000 dollars, that's only $6 per integrity-filled click!

[Diomed]

Originally Posted by SwirlsGirl

Well God damn.............not a good look...just like they do on that football show...

COME ON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As one who has spent good money in the past with them, sure hope that traffic was chock full of integrity

Traffic is only part of your worry.

If Mark see's something he likes on your sites.. or thinks that you might be "on to something", then you will get fucked.

I'm sure he's running a much cleaner theft game now than his was then, and makes it even more difficult to find out. He regged the exact carbon copy of the website he completely stole in GTS's name.. what an idiot.

[Wagerboy]

</business> Like no one saw this years ago? This place cracks me up....seriously.

[Diomed]

Originally Posted by Spunky

Not sure who to believe anymore.

Not sure how you make that assessment. The guy blatantly stole his customers website and admitted it.. What's not to believe?

[Spunky]

Adult was never known for it's business ethics and morals

[GonZo]

Makes you wonder when the "full scale investigation" will be launched with the results published soon . . .

[rowan]

...just seeing if the word "cunt" is still blackbanned here...

...I expect it's going to be mentioned a few times in this thread...

edit: woo, it's not.

[Diomed]

Originally Posted by Spunky

Adult was never known for it's business ethics and morals

"Business" was never known for it's ethics and morals, period.

Regardless, there are people out there who choose to earn a good name the right way.

[Just Alex]

New low even for that guy.

[Matyko]

Now this is Instant Ban Mark... Bye bye you piece of ant-shit!

[iMind]

unreal.

[stocktrader23]

Originally Posted by machinegunkelly

All this is much worse than I expected.... I honestly got burned lightly compared to Dom, and you guys.

I was basically promised the world as a graphic designer, and ended up living 500 miles from home in a situation where my landlord was also my boss (on exclusive contract), who knew I wasn't making enough to pay the rent....
When pressed for raises, or to initiate the design business we planned, I Learned basically his plan was to take MY business and run it, while paying me 25% - I left a 60k a year non-exclusive position for this BS?

I'm not retarded, and no contract was ever signed that said this was the plan ( ie: turn over my brand and customer list etc ) so I basically refused to do it, and worked on the side outside my exclusive contract.

I was fired for insubordination and breach of non compete which was never signed on the advice of another GTS worker.

The whole thing was just a giant fuckin mess, but the things I heard in that office made me sure this day would come.. I heard Mark say more than a few things that led me to believe all was not as it seemed at GTS and he was too dumb to know not to talk about it infront of a guy that completely hated him.. "Fudge" Any numbers lately Mark?

Good luck with this, Diomed.

I honestly hope it's the nail in his coffin... Finally.

Damn dude, I was so happy to see you in the other thread I wasn't even thinking about why you were interested in it. I had forgotten all about this and hope you've gotten things back in order.

Cheers man

[machinegunkelly]

Originally Posted by stocktrader23

Damn dude, I was so happy to see you in the other thread I wasn't even thinking about why you were interested in it. I had forgotten all about this and hope you've gotten things back in order.

Cheers man

Yeah dude,

Back in order for sure, I work with a great mainstream company who appreciates my designs, pays me well, and has never tried to pull a fast one on me.

Glad to be out of adult for the most part and away from shady fucks like Mark.

( Did you get my reply email? no reply from you since )

[stocktrader23]

Originally Posted by machinegunkelly

Yeah dude,

Back in order for sure, I work with a great mainstream company who appreciates my designs, pays me well, and has never tried to pull a fast one on me.

Glad to be out of adult for the most part and away from shady fucks like Mark.

( Did you get my reply email? no reply from you since )

I did, and thank you. I jumped back into a few things over here and they took off faster than expected. I was deciding on which one you could help me with and I'll send a followup with details soon, hopefully today.

Mainstream should be nice with your shiny designs, lots of market out there.

[VikingMan]

damn and I thought I was a sociopath

[DarkJedi]

parking my sig right here

[DaddyHalbucks]

Wow, what a way to kill a business.

[Harmon]

What a shame. Sad to hear this about Mark.

[DVTimes]

what are the 2 sites?

[WebCashMaker]

Originally Posted by DVTimes

what are the 2 sites?

Yeah... what are the 2 sites ?

So other people can copy them....LOL

[u-Bob]

<--- not surprised.

[wehateporn]

Just rubbernecking

[JFK]

Originally Posted by DaddyHalbucks

Wow, what a way to kill a business.

seems like it

[wehateporn]

"Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals." Fulton J. Sheen

"In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes." John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic.

"Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States.

[CaptainHowdy]

Lil' late sig spot ...

[GTS Mark]

Wow hater week continues LOL!

I guess at this rate I will probably be condemned for the 911 attacks, aliens landing at roswell and where Jimmy Hoffa is buried? In all seriousness these are serious allegations and if any clients or vendors we work with have any concerns about addressing these allegations I'm happy to do so. However i'm not going to hold court here on GFY and turn this into a circus. As you know there are always 2 sides to a story. and this is one...

[iMind]

Originally Posted by GTS Mark

As you know there are always 2 sides to a story. and this is one...

Both sides do seem pretty clear from the logs posted above.
1) Client asks you to review a site, offer information as to a potential traffic buy
2) You Steal said design, populate it with your own ads and start campaign across it
3) you get caught, don't deny it, however remove the site immediately, to remove proof.


What did I miss?

[GTS Mark]

Originally Posted by iMind

Both sides do seem pretty clear from the logs posted above.
1) Client asks you to review a site, offer information as to a potential traffic buy
2) You Steal said design, populate it with your own ads and start campaign across it
3) you get caught, don't deny it, however remove the site immediately, to remove proof.

What did I miss?

Logs can be altered and a huge part of this conversation is bullshit lol! It's always interesting what Information people leave out when it suits them.

[stocktrader23]

Originally Posted by GTS Mark

Logs can be altered and a huge part of this conversation is bullshit lol! It's always interesting what Information people leave out when it suits them.

Mark, I don't really care if you listen or not but you claim altered logs whenever someone posts them in regards to a dispute with you. Nobody that is reading this conversation will ever buy that the logs were altered because you say so. Of course you could just be playing semantics and mean that he took out a lot of the unnecessary stuff, but that would be equally stupid.

I know the bro club was strong long ago and I also know that happy clients will usually ignore others that are pissed at you but 2011 is a lot different than 1999 - 2008. Saying "LOL they are lying" when multiple respected people accuse you of something is not going to save your reputation at this point. I hope your savings account is filled to the brim.