WOW!  I've sometimes wondered if "business ethics" is an oxymoron, and in this case, it is.  If you've received an email from ePerks.com (similar to what I show here, I get these about 6 times per month), it would be in your best interest to Google ePerks and read up on their lawsuit against Vlad Zablotskyy from and decide if you REALLY want to do business with a company that employs the unimaginable business tactics they have.  I was never inclined to, but now I know I absolutely will never do business with ePerks, period.

EXCERT FROM ePerks SPAM/OFFER: "I need to establish a relationship with a reliable buyers agent that my broker can work with to close transactions for our clients and who are open to paying us a 19% referral fee after closing a transaction with the buyers.  This is not a lead generation program. I will not send you lists or ask you to cold call customers or charge you per-lead fees. Our clients come to you when they are prepared to buy or sell their home because they are using our program to get a significant amount of cash back from us when they close escrow with one of our partnered agents."

My understanding of the case is that ePerks.com CEO Ben Behrouzi originally hired blogger Vlad Zablotzkyy (from Go-Beyond-MLS.com) to write a paid review of ePerks.com.  Comments from Vlad's post poured in with disgruntled, angry and flat out p***ed off agents and brokers who felt they had been duped by the company.

Needless to say, ePerks didn't expect the result and wanted the comments and negative press removed.  The served Vlad with a Cease and Desist order to remove the comments.  Around the same time as all of this, false child molestation charges started popping up on the web against Vlad.  Vlad put together anecdotal evidence that these charges were coming directly from ePerks!  Because of the anecdotal evidence he posted, Vlad is being sued by eperks.  The complaint states that Vlad incorrectly accused ePerks of making the false child molestation claims against him. The truth is that he simply provided anecdotal evidence.

• Andy Beard's detailed chronicle of the entire story: http://andybeard.eu/2008/06/ihype-eperks.html
• Dennis Pease, an agent in Florence Oregon believes ePerks is the worst company he has ever seen (take a look at the email correspondence, amazing!) http://activerain.com/blogsview/310746/Beware-of-eperks-com
• Vlad's account as to why he finally had to remove the comments from dissatisfied ePerks subscribers http://www.go-beyond-mls.com/eperks/

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