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[mandy]

Propelled by the idea that user rating systems like those on eBay and Amazon.com can benefit all businesses, a Florida start-up has launched a reputation management service that any website can use.

iKarma's new service allows any website owner to add user, reader or customer-created ratings to their site. That, said iKarma CEO Paul Williams, can significantly increase business...

The idea boils down to letting any website user leave a rating for any transaction or interaction they've had with the site or business. But because reputation is so important, iKarma also allows site owners to challenge bad ratings...

full article: http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39156942,00.htm

[edited by Amy to change the thread title after being spammed multiple times in one day by penny stock promoters pushing iKarma's stock]

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[valleygirl]

If you want a company with a proven track record of providing ratings and reviews that buyers are familiar with use BizRate/Shopzilla http://merchant.shopzilla.com/oa/registration/

[bargainbloodhound]

If you want a company with a proven track record of providing ratings and reviews that buyers are familiar with use BizRate/Shopzilla http://merchant.shopzilla.com/oa/registration/

BizRate is widely known, it's free, and any online store can add the survey to their site and have their customers rate them, but in order for the 'Biz Rate Certified Medal' logo to appear on your site's home page you have to meet certain requirements:

In order to achieve Customer Certified status, the following criteria must be met:

    * Serve the Point-Of-Sale survey and have issued at least 30 invites in the last 7 days.
    * Have 20 fulfillment surveys over a rolling 90-day period.
    * Maintain scores of at least 6.0 in all attributes.

If you do not meet survey or invite volume, the Medal will appear as "Click here to rate this store". If your scores fall below 6.0 in any of the attributes, the Medal will be replaced with a single pixel transparent image. The Medal will dynamically change based on the requirements above.

The BizRate survey invitations are only shown on the sales receipt page so you need at least 30 sales every 7 days to achieve 'Customer Certified' status.  You can gain insight into your customers from the survey data though, and you can put a survey on your receipt page even if you have 0 sales.

iKarma might be good for lower volume sites but I think customers would trust BizRate more because it has been around forever (forever in Internet time is equivalent to 9 years  )

[valleygirl]

iKarma might be good for lower volume sites but I think customers would trust BizRate more

If shoppers don't recognize iKarma they won't trust its ratings.

[bargainbloodhound]

I remembered the name of the other new reputation service. 

http://www.opinity.com/

Here's a sample of their ratings (feel free to give this person a bad rating because she called me an idiot earlier today  )

http://www.opinity.com/reputation/reputationProfile.php?siteid=637155&siteuserid=regic


I'm not impressed by Opinity either. 

[valleygirl]

You could skew Opinity's results by telling your friends to write good reviews.  You can't do that with BizRate.

[amy]

Our mailboxes were spammed multiple times by iKarma's stock promoters today.  Ironic that this company is offering a reputation service for buyers/sellers at the same time it has hired a stock promoter who is sending out penny stock spam emails. 

I will be avoiding this company's "reputation" service because I'm not fond of being spammed.

Copy of their spammed message.  Cute trick they use a .gif to avoid spam filters.

EDIT: complaints filed with UCE@FTC.gov, Spamcop, and a few other places.

[rose]

Spamming Maggot Sucking Boinktards

ikma ick!

[bargainbloodhound]

Checking Technorati, Amy's post isn't the only one there complaining about being spammed today.  Several other people also had complaints. 

Penny Stock Scams and Spams

...One such example is a company called iKarma, ticker symbol IKMA. ...Now I received the "touting" email just today, after the 500% move. How many saps ran out there today and bought some stock and said "well it's only 31 cents, how much can I lose?" Rule of thumb...don't buy stocks that an email spammer recommends!

full blog post: http://icomplain.blogspot.com/2006/04/penny-stock-scams-and-spams.html

Stock Market Schemes and Penny Stock Offers
IKMA: iKarma Incorporated (2006)

The message below one of a collection of get-rich-quick penny stock market offers received as unsolicited junk mail.

http://rjohara.net/money/stocks/2006-ikma-ikarma-incorporated

[mandy]

The classic pump and dump penny stock promotion. 

EDIT- The 2 principles in the company's first Internet venture was stock-talk.com in '97/'98. 

[bargainbloodhound]

Promotion...hmmm...promotion like issuing 8 press releases in 1 week?

We've received more SPAMs promoting their stock today.  I was kind enough to forward the crap I received today to the SEC's Enforcement Division

[bargainbloodhound]

iKarma now has a message on their web site's front page claiming they aren't responsible for the stock promotion spam:

- It has come to our attention that certain individuals or entities have been distributing unsolicited spam materials regarding iKarma.com.
Click here to find out more if you have been affected.

iKarma's response to the iKarma stock spam: http://www.ikarma.com/legal/spam-response.asp

[iron_chick]

I got a bunch of these spams today as well. 

Not a great idea for a reputation service.

P.S.  Somebody needs to give the folks at Opinity a grammar guide.