Tales of the New Media: Is USAVoice.org Real?

 
There’s a new wanna-be news organization supposedly ready to burst onto the scene that claims it will be to the Internet what CNN was 20 years ago to broadcasting. In fact, it intends to displace CNN and other major news organizations in the hearts and minds of average readers and viewers. Or so it says.

Well, maybe … that is, if the organization in question really exists and if news gathering, rather than marketing or something else more nefarious in media clothing, is its real motive. There seems to be considerable room for doubt. But one thing is certain: you don’t advertise for 1,200 positions in online job sites like Careerbuilder or Yahoo! HotJobs without having some big bucks to throw around.

The enterprise calls itself USAVoice, and it’s had a lot of journalists wondering just what’s going on. The new (fake?) news venue was supposed to start business on July 4th but put that off until month’s end. It’s been advertising since late June for editors and writers en masse in the states, possibly internationally — but it isn’t really interested in applicants with legitimate journalism backgrounds or experience. Moreover, nobody seems to know who’s behind this effort or where they came from, let alone where they’re really located, and they appear to be connected to at least one possible con artist.

If it’s a scam, it’s a pretty expensive one for the perpetrators, unless they expect to be able to make money somehow from mining and/or selling the job applicants’ information. And if it’s legitimate attempt to form a new news outlet, why all the secrecy?

Billing its product as “honest and unfiltered” (shades of Fox News?), USAVoice portrays itself on its home page and in its marketing as the populist answer to CNN and other establishment news organizations worldwide:

“ … USA Voice is poised to become the largest peer-to-peer news organization in the world. USA Voice is to the news industry what CNN once was, namely:
We are independent
We are not governed by corporate politics
We are international ...
“The power and reach of the Internet allows USA Voice to be the largest, truly unfiltered news organization. Currently USA Voice is hiring reporters in over 2,500 markets around the world. …
“ … CNN gave us the closest thing to independent press in Iraq 1; USA Voice is stepping up to fill the void CNN left when they went corporate during Iraq 2.”

The first red flag is in the phrase ‘peer-to-peer news organization’ — one immediately wonders what the hell that is and whether it's supposed to work like Napster or an RSS feed, but let’s set that aside for a moment.

Here’s what USAVoice.org has to say for itself on its political news page:

“ … USAvoice.org will report news and information from the local, national, and international viewpoint but, unlike almost any other news source, our reporters and editors will be Mr. and Ms. Everyday Citizen, not the traditionally trained journalism school product. It’s what you see and how you think that will make the content of USA Voice. People who have never had a chance to show what they can do in reporting will be paid to post their stories and the world will reply with their thoughts and comments. It really IS the ‘voice of the people.’”

Uh-huh. Sure. Setting aside the fact that the above copy is self-serving merchandising hype, let’s consider what else it might say about the alleged organization. In reading the excerpt above, one is immediately struck by the need for a copy editor and by the lack of professionalism (not to mention credibility) that this indicates; but I digress. The group’s hype essentially boasts that it will put reporting in the hands of amateurs and implies that this is a good thing.

Here’s an excerpt from its jobs page:

“Not wanting to give another outlet to the journalism factories that exist all around us today, USA Voice will hire average people to write and report news and features for our online publication. These will be paid positions for those who can find a story and tell it in an interesting and concise way that informs the world, not tries to influence it. Here’s the place where you, your friends, and your neighbors will place your own comments about what you read … any and all of it. And it is now and will always be 100% absolutely free to participate.” Huh?? You mean there’s some news outlet for which reader/viewer feedback isn’t free? Or does it mean the folks at USAVoice considered charging for feedback and then dropped the idea? Either alternative would be disturbing. Even more disturbing is the implication that nobody will get paid for the reporting.

Further down the home page is this revealing tidbit:

“Paid staffers update the news and information you want to hear about. You can look for show schedules and dining tips and reviews … and perhaps earn some significant money for yourself while you do it. Wouldn’t it be great if the networks paid YOU to check out their presentations?”

Now that sounds more like a marketing scheme than journalism. Then there’s this from the home page: “Reporters are judged based on their feedback and traffic of their stories. … USA Voice allows the readers to vote with their eyes, and with their keyboard.” Uh, does that mean that news about developments people don’t like won’t get read and reporters will be penalized for that? Sounds an awful lot like shooting the messenger. Even worse: it really sounds like only the staffers will be paid for cetain, not the 'average people' who will be reporters.

None of this bodes well. What happened to informing the citizenry so that voters can make informed decisions, and self-government might really mean something? Aren’t we undermining democracy by reporting only what people want to read, not what they need to know? Well of course we are. Duh!

Then there’s the matter of how USAVoice will hire. They’re conventional about advertising open positions, using the usual online classified ads. What appeared to be legitimate employment ads showed up in late June on Careerbuilder, Monster, Yahoo! HotJobs, and other online job listings sites. What soon followed were questions in chat rooms and on bulletin boards as to just who is behind USAVoice. The questions were triggered by the remarkable lack of any information about this potential employer and by the fact that most people interested in applying are themselves journalists or journalism students, who are (unsurprisingly) usually a skeptical lot.

Bear in mind that this is happening during a bad six-year hiring stretch for journalists across the country. The dot-com bust at the turn of the century triggered falling advertising sales and job losses in other fields, journalism included. Many experienced mid-career journalists have been unceremoniously dumped from the ranks of our profession while their younger colleagues have been pushed to the point of burnout. The web site IWantMedia.com tracks the continuing job cuts in journalism resulting from closures, consolidations, mergers and acquisitions, and general downsizings:

“Media companies are continuing to tighten their belts and, sadly, cut jobs. Many cutbacks are attributed to the slowing economy and advertising market, disappointing results at online units, restructurings in the aftermath of mergers, and business shutdowns (Remember APBNews.com? Talk magazine?).

“This tabulation of news reports of U.S. media layoffs, begun shortly after the start of the dot-com bust, has recorded nearly 72,000 job cuts since June 2000.” [Note: that was back during the early 2000s. It's at least 1-1/2 times that at this writing, and IWantMedia itself isn't around anymore.]

Layoffs on this scale mean that not everyone can make a living freelancing – it’s a buyer’s market. Consequently, there are way too many unemployed and underemployed journalists out there still hoping to be rehired for legitimate positions in media companies, as well as young, inexperienced journalists who are having a difficult time starting out. That makes many of us willing to entertain employment at less-than-traditional media outlets, which in turn leaves some of us (yes, even journalists) vulnerable to employment scams.

The desultory and secretive applications process at USAVoice.org merely raised more eyebrows. Applicants were first directed to the group’s web site, then asked about only the sketchiest of information through an online fill-in-the-blanks form, after which they were assured that a reply would be forthcoming in a few days; but no further information was provided. Applicants then received an e-mail response a few days later, providing them with a username and password to a protected section of the web site and inviting them to submit more information for further consideration. However, applicants who did so were asked for only slightly more data than before, none of it job specific — the online form only included questions about why applicants thought they could do the job and their educational backgrounds — and were given no opportunity to provide any information about job experience or to submit a cover letter, resume, clips, or any other supporting material that might testify to an applicant’s suitability for a reporting or editing position.

Again, during and after the application process, no information was provided to applicants about the company, its corporate or editorial managers, its location, or even its phone or fax numbers. Likewise, there is no masthead on the site and no information on editorial policies, target audiences, advertising or other financial support, or employee benefits. Moreover, contact names given in the ads and initial e-mail response form letters appear fictional (see more on that below).

I applied myself before July 4th, just to see what would happen. I got the customary form-letter e-mail thanking me for applying and assuring me that they’d get back to me in a few days, followed by one that led me to their online application page and the sparse questions. Then, after a few weeks of hearing nothing more, I received the following e-mail on July 14th:

“Dear XXXXX,
“Recently you applied to fill the position of Editor with USA Voice. Due to unforeseeable technical difficulties, an e-mail left our server with incorrect information and some applicant information was deleted. Please disregard the previous e-mail and accept my apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

“I am still very interested in considering you for this position. Please log into your account at www.usavoice.org and complete the final application. (If you have already done so, please go back and resubmit your information.)

“Username: XXXXXXX
Password: XXXXXXX

“I apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to speaking with you soon.

“Kind Regards,
Hugh Richards, CEO
USA Voice 'Honest and Unfiltered'
www.USAVoice.org"

One absolutely marvels at the sheer chutzpah of that motto 'honest and unfiltered.' Like hell.

What technical difficulties could there be that a) they couldn’t specify, and b) would require another mass e-mailing to applicants? (Other journalists and writers report on various bulletin board discussion threads that they received the same ‘please resubmit’ e-mail.) How do we know this isn’t an attempt to form a huge mailing list for marketing purposes? And what company wouldn’t be willing to tell you at the very least where they’re located?

Needless to say, despite the shadowy Mr. Richards’s assurances that he wanted to speak with me (if he even exists, which is doubtful), I never got a phone call — and when I tried to log in again to resubmit my information, the group’s server kept throwing me back to the site’s home page. Today, however (July 28), when I tried to log in again, I got to a page that merely thanked me for submitting information — without actually letting me submit any. Nice touch. Is it any wonder that applicants feel like they’re getting the run-around?

As of July 28, there’s no phone listing or any other directory listing for either a Hugh Richards or USAVoice in Las Vegas or the surrounding area. At least, not that I could find under those names. There may be a listing if the organization has a corporate parent with a different name; no clue there.

If there is a real would-be media or other organization behind USAVoice.org, there is no evidence of it, nor are there any clues to what financing or editorial management, if any, is behind it. It’s understandable that applicants would be concerned; they provided a certain amount of personal information in the applications process, and they rightfully want to know who has it and how it’s going to be used: if not for real jobs at a real news organization, then how? And by whom? For that matter, how does a seemingly phantom organization with no visible financial backing intend to pay salaries to its reporters and editors?

The thing that’s both scary and thought provoking is that whoever is behind USAVoice.org advertised in many cities simultaneously — and there has to be some serious money involved, given that advertising on the likes of Careerbuilder, HotJobs and Monster doesn’t come cheap. If this were really just satire like The Onion or farce like Candid Camera and its many imitators, nobody would have spent that kind of money on the online job listings; so clearly, somebody thought there would be profit of one sort or another. So what’s the source? Once again, Deep Throat’s advice appears prudent: Follow the money.

A listing of most of the cities in which the ads ran is available on Indeed.com at:
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Editor&as_ettl=Entry+Level+Reporter&start=20

The Indeed.com links lead, however, to the hotjobs.yahoo.com site, wherein we find what is possibly the most (yet not very) complete profile of the company — which, according to that information, is allegedly based in Las Vegas and supposedly has a mere 25 employees, none of whom are named. Neither are the executives, nor any contacts whatsoever, let alone an address or phone number. The company’s profile on HotJobs is an almost word-for-word copy of the organization’s promotional text on its own site:

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/Company-Profiles/U/USA-Voice_55422

Please note: HotJobs listed 1,200 positions advertised for USAVoice, the earliest of them posted on June 28, 2006 — and the outfit was still posting jobs in different cities as of July 12, 2006. In other words, they were still advertising on HotJobs, even though their ads had been pulled from Careerbuilder and other sites. How many more hopeful writers and editors were drawn in by this? And what’s going to happen to the personal information they submitted? Interestingly, all those listings had been pulled by July 28, which could indicate either that the positions had been filled or that the company simply didn’t need to run those ads anymore for other reasons. At this writing, we don’t know which is the case. Yet a visit to Indeed.com that same day showed many listings that appeared to be current as of the day before, including the following:

Entry Level Reporter
USA Voice - Augusta, GA
usavoice.org/Careers Once we receive your application
we will have our local Editor contact you for an interview.
ONLY APPLICATIONS THROUGH THE WEBSITE LISTED...
From HotJobs - 1 day 6 hours ago

I’m not surprised to learn that the firm is supposedly based in Las Vegas, given my own research when I first saw the ad on Careerbuilder: when I went to the company’s web site, I noticed in the upper right-hand corner a box from AccuWeather.com giving the current temperature for Las Vegas. How appropriate, I thought, given that the only contact names I had at that point were also the names of porn stars (see explanation below). Only in Las Vegas would someone think that was either funny or appropriate — and what an appropriate town in which to originate a scam. However, when I tried to use search engines and directory services to locate a phone number or address for USAVoice in the Las Vegas area, I came up with nothing. Big surprise, eh?

In the Chicago-area ads, the name Heather Hunter was used for the contact person; in the initial replies to applicants, the name of sender given was Kyle Stone. Both are names of porn stars, as one discovers by using search engines such as Google or Dogpile.com. With USAVoice being so elusive but possibly having a home base in Las Vegas, one immediately wonders if some money laundering is going on, by either mob sources, drug cartels, political or religious fringe groups, or some part of the porn industry. Speculation isn’t proof, of course, but there are just too many questions here with no answers for one not to wonder about the money source. Especially with those contact names — it’s just too weird a coincidence. Meaning: it's not a coincidence.

The other name that comes up on letters in other markets (including some ‘cold-call’ solicitation letters to young writers, students, and other who have their resumes posted online at sites like Monster.com, inviting them to apply for reporting or marketing jobs) is Klaas de Vries — which is the name of, depending on the context, either a Dutch composer, a Dutch politician, or a Dutch con artist/wanna-be artists’ rep for entertainment clients, possibly working out of Africa or Europe. Scam territory.

Other sites note that the registrant for the USAVoice.org web site seems to be in Herndon, VA; but that, too, could have easily been faked. Moreover, there’s no solid information on the listed registrants, either. A simple whois.com search likewise produced nothing useful.

Klaas de Vries (or someone claiming to be him) shows up June 28th on a discussion thread on SportsJournalists.com, which seems to have the most substantial information about this elusive organization (if, indeed, USAVoice IS an organization and not a one-man front for who knows what):

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/index.php/topic,28181.0.html

In this exchange, the participant claiming to be de Vries also claims to work for USAVoice but offers no details or facts about the organization; he also claims to be an “internationally recognized investigative reporter” but offers no substantiation of that, either (in fact, he asserts that “A simple Google search will confirm my standing,” whereas all that a search on either Google or Dogpile produces are links to sites that mention de Vries in connection to frauds or scams or his allegations of such regarding others, not to any media outlets whatsoever). Moreover, there is no evidence so far that anyone named Klaas de Vries works or has worked for any legitimate news organization. Is his involvement with USAVoice.org — an outfit that says it’s looking for “fresh and edgy voices, not reporters who have been through the ‘establishment’ news organizations” — perhaps a sign of journalism envy? More likely, that's just another alias behind a phishing scheme.

More questions than answers appear on a discussion thread at Mediabistro, a community, industry news, and jobs site for all segments of the media industry:

http://www.mediabistro.com/bbs/cache/t27432_1.asp

and at MediaLine, a site for journalists in the TV business:

http://www.medialine.com/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=049064

One interesting discussion thread elsewhere raises the question of whether de Vries is also an extortionist by way of making unsubstantiated allegations of fraud against others that end up with no known victims. But it also results in de Vries and one of his apparently favorite targets, one Alec Defrawy, taking long-winded, meaningless potshots at one another online; and the more one reads of this, the more questionable and irritating it gets for readers. For all we know, this is a fake exchange written by a single person and part of the overall scam.

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=9289

At least one site, Scam-o-rama, lists de Vries’s site under “Funny Links,” apparently considering his site to be more ludicrous or spoof-like than fraudulent:

http://www.scamorama.com/

There are even sites wherein someone claiming to be de Vries insists that someone else has been impersonating him in various posts on different sites (again, no substantiation is offered). The sheer frequency of this dubious debate between de Vries and his possibly fictional ‘evil’ alter ego on a number of different sites over at least two years’ time tells one right away that something stinks here, and neither claimant — if indeed they are two different people and not a single, pathological scammer — is to be trusted. Additional sites mentioning either de Vries by name or the USAVoice.org hiring scam are:

Scam Fraud Alert
http://www.scamfraudalert.com/showthread.php?t=1873

Scam.com
http://www.scam.com/archive/index.php/f-10 and http://www.scam.com/archive/index.php/t-13849

Rip-Off Report
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff146732.htm

what seems to be de Vries’s own site, but who knows?
http://www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/k-files/talentrock/usa_voice_usavoice_org.htm
http://www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/k-files/talentrock/alec_defrawy_difrawi_defrawi_phishing_scam.htm
http://www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/

Now I ask you: what kind of news organization would hire a guy with such a seemingly dicey background, or without at least vetting his credentials? As newbies on the block, the folks at USAVoice have no reputation yet and can’t afford to lose any credibility this early in the game. Then again, a phishing scam doesn't really need credibility for very long, and certainly not after it gets the info it wants, job applicants be damned.

The latest notice on USAVoice’s home page touts that they’ll be premiering on July 31st; the opening date has already been pushed back once. I guess we’ll all see on the 31st whether this venture is real or not — don't hold your breath, folks — but even if it’s up and running by then, I'll still have questions about whether the operators are legitimate.

You know that old Chicago saying: If your mother says she loves you, check it out.* And I highly recommend that anyone hoping to work for USAVoice will do exactly that.

*City News Bureau, rest in peace: your motto survives you, and we miss you terribly in this town.

UPDATE: Further domain name research seemed to indicate a Las Vegas source, but the USAVoice website vanished after a while (not soon enough, however: see the next two blog posts for details).