Important Notice:

It is more than one year since this blog has been published. Scammers were desperate to put it down they sent a number of nasty e-mails even some with threats.

Finally they opted for different approach. They decided to change the skin like a sneak sheds its old skin and unveil the new one.

They changed logo on some of websites and changed pictures in attempt to make this blog look unrelated.

This blog will stay unchanged to show interested viewers the whole story.

After all a sneak even if change its skin it is still the same snake which bites in the same way.

Also they started a vigorous campaign of collecting positive opinions on the Web of Trust page.

In the whole year 2015 on the WOT page was only one positive opinion published next day after this blog went on-line! Suddenly only in two months from 15 March to 16 May 2016 they were able to generate fourteen testimonials.

Even child would know that this is an artificially pumped scam.    

 Please see for yourself: https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/eclicksoftwares.com

SUMMARY

From the beginning they provide fairly good service, then politely ask the client for a testimony, after which the client cannot contradict him/herself by complaining that they were robed in every possible way.

The Indian Scammers eClick Technologies or eClick Softwares and Solutions developed special tactics to lure victims into their web. Their playground is Website Development & SEO.

Firstly they installed a very large number of websites with names like ‘eclick technologies’ and ‘eclick softwares’ in order to create an impressive and deceptive image. Then they are sending e-mails to small businesses and companies saying that their websites though impressive – still deserve improvement, recoding and to be mobile friendly.

In fact my website www.innovativetools.com.au was made by myself (not skilled) in 2010 based on program called ‘Joomla V.1.5’ which ended its live in September 2012. I thought it is time for upgrade so when I received an offer from e Click Technologies Pvt Ltd with office address in Sydney I decided to try. The initial payment plan in the offer was:

PAYMENT PLAN

Upfront $300 Aud

Demo Approval $300 Aud

Programming $200 Aud

Live $200 Aud

Thanks and best regards, 

Azam

Process Manager | e Click Softwares & Solutions Pvt Ltd

Pretty good – right? Yeah I thought so. Later I received the detailed payment plan which included Domain Registration and Website Hosting cost. My domain was registered and I subscribed to Hosting Company, my website was on line all the time. After I questioned this cost Azam replayed:

“This feature of Hosting and Domain Registration is a BY DEFAULT feature that we include for all customers and that is complimentary for the 1st 12 months for clients who are getting the website designed for the first time and have neither Hosting nor Domain and its optional for customers who already have it…

As in your case since you already have a domain and hosting we will make the website live in your existing domain and host it in your existing server after taking a back up of all your website content so that at any point of time you want hosting to be done at our end you can avail it FREE OF COST for the first 12 months. “

Fair enough, I let them proceed and paid the initial instalments.  After four weeks Azam (Process Manger) asked if I would like a feature called ‘Dynamic Mobile Website’ for a couple of hundred – to my surprise it was not obvious when he gave me the quote.

In a couple of weeks they showed me the demo installed on the eClick’s server, I sent my payment and the programmers started their job.  Later as I was sending my instalments I needed to pay extra for Visitors Counter, Gallery Management, etc.  The total cost was almost the same as it would have cost in Australia, but in Australia these charges would have been made clear from the start.

Finally my website was ready to be uploaded onto my server.  Azam still tried to convince me that I should switch my Hosting Company for Eclick Hosting Service.  He did not remember what he said earlier about “…Cost Free for the first 12 months.”

Up to this point our conversation via Skype or e-mails where very polite and courteous.  Azam’s theatrical sweetness in tone annoyed me a bit, but I thought it must be the nature of Indian people.  Later I realised how wrong I was, when we had a real discussion without the theatrical ingredient.  However it did not resolve the problem, instead my project landed in hands of Pamela (Sale Manager), a sweet talking woman who told me that there is no problem uploading my website on my server but she would advice that a brochure about my business would add value to the website and they would like to do it before making my website live.  I agreed to pay extra again, and in a week the brochure in PDF format was attached to my website and Pamela showed me how it works (on eClick server).

I asked Pamela when we can arrange the transfer of all files and the data base to my server.  Suddenly the problem reincarnated.  Just because I was courteous with Pamela, she assumed that she had built a good enough relationship with me, that she could convince me to switch to theirs hosting service.

 I told her I would rather lose all the money I have paid them and keep my old website then make the switch.  Also I explained to her that it is unusual to have a business in Australia and a Web Hosting Company in another country.   My Australian Hosting Company also hosts my internet connection, emails, phone/mobile and it is important to me to have one bill for all my internet services from one place.

Not to mention that in Australia it cost $160 per year NOT as Pamela asked $170 per month!

    In the next couple of days Azam (Process Manager) uploaded my website to the server of my Web Hosting Company.  I thought I could breathe easy, I was wrong again.  Eclick does not give up easily.

Pamela offered that they will manage Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for $250/month. Good price – you would think. Yeah I thought so also. I made a deal with Pamela, I will try the SEO service for three months to see what they can do.  From the beginning things were looking promising. Google search engine started indexing my 20 pages, viewer counter started to show that traffic is increasing, and my page ranking was improving gradually.  I was happy to pay for the service.

At this stage Pamela asked me if I could give them a testimony and she would especially appreciate a video testimony.

    I explained to her that it is too early for a testimony, their job was not finish yet and I am willing to express my opinion about their service, but only after they finish doing what I am asking for.  I thought Pamela accepted my explanation and she did, but scammers have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.

The following week she tried to convince me again about a testimony, this time just a written one so they could publish it on their website.

I told her that the three months SEO trial period is nearly finished and she should be patient, so far I am satisfied and she will receive a positive testimony from me.

But she knew somehow that after three months will pass, I will change my passwords and cut them off from my website.

When nearly three months of SEO trial period was over, I received an alarming e-mail from Azam that my website has been hacked and is going down and all SEO work will be lost and I must immediately switch my Hosting Company because the server is not secure and allow for hackers to access my website. At this stage I started to be suspicious and smelled scam.

This time I was right. It was cunningly and carefully planned SCAM!!!

I have mentioned earlier I am not skilled in this kind of knowledge. However at this point I started to familiarize myself with the subject. Among others scammers techniques like Black Head SEO, bulk back links etc., I have learned for example how my viewers counter was spoofed by robots run by advertising companies, which are scanning the internet 24/7 looking for websites they could use for theirs adds. Normally the counter should be set in a way that it would only count individual genuine viewers, and visitors to the website.  My counter was counting every page opened by a visitor and scanned by a robot. Pamela wonted to show me how good they are with increasing the website traffic.  Also I have learned that google-site-verification code implemented in my website was Eclick’s code not mine.  After I corrected this I could see the difference between what the viewers counter showed and what actually was real traffic as counted by Google Web Master Tools.  Big difference!!!

Automatically I understood haw spoofed the Pamela’s monthly SEO Report was.

    Then I received this (above mentioned) e-mail from Azam that my website was hacked; for me this meant that someone will lose money, someone’s identity will be stolen, or someone will buy a fake medicines.  It pressed my panic button.  I could not allow this to happen and I deleted immediately the whole website form my server, in order to stop the crime.

The next day I found out that my action caused Pamela a panic attack, her milk cow turned back on her. After lengthily discussions, she told me that they are sorry for what happened and that they would like to reinstall a clean website on my server for just $100.  Because client satisfaction is very important to them and they would like to cooperate with me in the future.  Sweet talk, also effective since I paid $100 and the website was reinstalled.

By this time I came to the realisation that they have done very little with my website. The core program was still the out of date Joomla V1.5, very vulnerable with a wide open back door.

All they did was changed the decoration on the same old dress.

Also I have learned from my Hosting Company that actually my website was not hacked, it was only blocked by Website Developers. Hence it was just Eclick Softwares and Solution scare tactics.

I told them that I am not going to pay again for the SEO work which was gone.  My website is in danger not because of my server but because of their unprofessional work.  I have changed all passwords and cut them off from my website.  But sneaky scammers have so many tricks up their sleeves.  They knew that I knew nothing about SEO, my website ranking was very low and practically the whole exercise was fruitless.

In a couple of weeks Pamela rung and as usual with sweet prattling told me that if I like to do the SEO myself, they can install on my a special program which would help to do my SEO work.  An attractive proposition one could say. All they needed was the password to FTP and $200.  And I naively gave them all they needed; IT WAS A FATAL MISTAKE.  The new program allowed me to change page titles, descriptions, key words etc.  However all my efforts were for nothing, as all my pages except my Home Page, were blocked for google search engine with a special code.

It was worthless to fix this problem as the whole website was built on the old Joomla V.1.5. The present version is 3.4.

Later I decided to tell the word about these scammers, such as Eclick Softwares or Eclick Technologies and have published this blog.  Azam wrote on 27/04/2015 among other rubbish:

“If we find that you’re not stopping this heinous act of yours I’ll be compelled to take strict action against you and your business…”

                     My reply was, it will give both of us a great publicity and that he should go for it.

SO IF YOU SPOT SOME PASQUIL ABOUT MY BUSINESS OR ME – YOU WILL KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM.