topspot-promotions.net a scam?? I think so Need input

Hi Guys and Gals
I got the following email

Dear Webmaster,

My name is Amy, and my company Topspot-Promotions represents online gaming sites in various domains. We are looking at reputable sites to offer them opportunities to help promote some of our clients sites. We primarily seek text advertising and blog posts.

For further details please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best Regards,
Amy Evens
Advertising Consultant
Business Development Department
[email protected]
http://www.topspot-promotions.net

I replied
Hello Amy

I might be interested however I would require a more direct method of contact
Please provide your telephone number so I can call your office

Thanks
Don

She came back with

Hello Don,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry!! But I don’t have authority to reveal anything before we decide about the deal.

So please send me your sites first.

Amy Evens

I believe it to be a scam but I can't figure out the hook

Anyone know what the scam is?

Record expires on 21-Sep-2010.
Record created on 21-Sep-2009.

Building a web presence can be difficult, and we understand that. We have been in the web promotion business for several years, and we have a team of professionals that are dedicated to being the best in their chosen fields.

No postal address or phone numbers on the website, and I can see no reason for such a business to withhold them. A good enough reason not to deal with them, I would say.

I am having trouble seeing where the scam is myself but as Arnold pointed out it does not look like the kind of company I would want to be associated with.

You could continue emailing if you wanted more information but I always think it is best to just ignore them unless you are absolutely sure it is legitimate, you have been through life so far without having their help, I am sure you will continue to

I dont have much time to investigate right now but perhaps somebody else will be able to give you better information.

Hi

Are you familiar with eset, makers of Antivirus Software with Spyware and Malware Protection? They received the same message from the same company as you. You can read their response.

Link removed - You can read it here - Michelle

From: Ann Price [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 7:14 AM
To: AskESET
Subject: Placing advertisements on blog.eset.com

Greetings,

Topspot-Promotions, an established advertising company, would like to pay you for placing a small advertisement on blog.eset.com for one of our customers.
These days we are using a few methods of advertising to guarantee that the ad we choose will fit the site nicely.
After reviewing your website I thought about an advertisement that fits perfectly a few pages on your website.

For full details please contact me at [email protected].

*If you have other websites which I can review for advertising please send me their URLs as well.

Regards,
Ann Price
Advertising Specialist
[email protected]

To permanently delete yourself from our list, simply reply to this with a blank email and you will never receive any communication from us in the future.

But the basic response, is yes, this is a scam.

I just received the same message, but mine also said I needed to respond to their e-mail to get removed from their list. 100% spammer tactic.

I have received legitimate as well as this kind of request before. Every legitimate request for advertising on my site included an address and a phone number of the contact person. Every legitimate request for advertising on my site, was from an individual site that wanted a link, not from an advertising agency.

just my .02

Hi all, new here but want to thank you so much for having this info available. I just received the exact same Ann Price email and was immediately suspicious. I am in Marketing and smelled a rodent, just was not sure what kind, lol! I am not sure of the end game but it is most definitely not a legitimate request for advertising or one that I would ever consider. Perhaps a black hat SEO attempt to gain back links from legit sites?

Thanks again. Knowledge is power!

Karen Swim

Thank you all for this thread!

As of September 19th they are still alive and kickin´... but Ann seems to have left the company, giving room for Sherry, whom mailed me an hour ago;

Dear Webmaster,

My name is Sherry, and my company Topspot-Promotions represents online sport sites in various domains. We are looking at reputable sites to offer them profitable opportunities to help promote some of my clients sites.

We would like to know if you are interested in working with us on this. For further details please don't hesitate to contact me.

Cheers,
Sherry Williams
Advertising Consultant
Business Development Department
[email protected]
http://www.topspot-promotions.net

Once you have a great web site set up, you will need to make sure that people can find it. Our web promotion, marketing, and search engine experts will help you build links to your page, and create a buzz so that people are talking about your product.

This sounds very similar to the company who offered another contributor $9,000 worth of SEO promotion and links that is alleged to have amounted to a hatful of nothing.

It would be wise to take the view that someone selling you something who might hide that aim at the outset, isn't to be trusted. When it comes to any type of promotion, I'd make it pay by performance and not pay a cent without any evidence of their efforts and work making a difference. That's how business operates nowadays, probably even the salary of the person calling you so you'd be foolish to be the mug at the end of the chain paying everyone else's salary and commissions.

I'd hit the caller in the face with the fact that no one pays for links but everybody welcome traffic, though you need to scrutinise anything going onto your site for content and suitability. I suspect it's a gullibility test laying the ground for a sales pitch.

Am I a cynic ?