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Investing

The Anatomy of a Web Advertising Scam

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Investigating the people behind those sketchy flat-stomach ads.

By Chadwick Matlin for The Big Money

The Internet wants me to have a flat stomach—and it wants me to have it for free. Over the last few months, those flat stomach ads have followed me around the Internet like a beggar asking for money. On many of my favorite Web sites (including the ones I work for), high-class Internet advertising has been replaced by these low-budget pictures promising a better physical and superficial life.

The ads plead: Wouldn’t I like to click and read a flat-stomach testimonial? And from there, wouldn’t I like to click to see a product that could help me get that flat stomach without even trying? And from there, wouldn’t I like to order that product for free? And wouldn’t I like to give them my credit card info? And wouldn’t I like to investigate a mysterious charge on my credit card bill 30 days after I subscribe to my free product? And wouldn’t I like to hold for two hours while I try to cancel my account after I realize I’ve been had?

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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