It has been some time since we have heard anything regarding Traffic Power, a Nevada based “SEO” company that was responsible for offering shady marketing practices that eventually got thousands of their customers banned from Google.
Since then, they went through a few name changes, attempted to sue SEOBook’s Aaron Wall and essentially faded away after that lawsuit was dismissed. That is until recently when Search Engine Watch broke the story (at least in our industry) that Traffic Power CEO, Matt Marlon, has been arrested and jailed, not related to anything regarding search, but rather accused of a foreclosure scam in Nevada.
From KVBC in Las Vegas:
At least sixty valley homeowners thought Marlon could help them. He offered to save them from foreclosure. “He would locate victims by doing a search of the public records on the Recorder’s Office (website) for notice of default that are recorded then contact the victims saying he was interested in purchasing your home,” Ellsworth explains.
“He’d come to the house with a notary in tow,” Ellsworth continues. “He’d give them documents saying he’d take care of everything. Take care of the payment, take care of paying off the mortgage and I’ll pay you some cash too. He’d have them sign a contract of sale.”
Despite how official the forms signed by the homeowners might look, Marlon didn’t really buy the house and he didn’t pay off the mortgage. “After he would get the rightful owners out of the house under false pretenses, he would put renters in the houses in many cases. And those people… my investigators talked to one renter who felt they were leasing to own,” Ellsworth said.
While the actions Mr. Marlon’s company took in getting so many unsuspecting victim’s banned from Google a few years back was not necessarily criminal, the current charges he is accused of are and hopefully will land him in prison for some time.
David Wallace, co-founder and CEO of SearchRank, is a recognized expert in the industry of search and social media marketing. Since 1997, David has been involved in developing successful search engine and social media marketing campaigns for large and small businesses.
