Complaint Review: Black Widow Internet run by Scott Smith and Richard Short - Chester Nationwide

Notice to all concerned from the Black Widow Victims Support Group.

This morning the message below was posted on the Black Widow Internet site and there for all to see if you clicked the following URL http://www.blackwidowinternet.com/. However, later today the message was shortened and changed only to include Black Widow Internets appointed liquidators details  M/s Parkin S Booth and Co.

We the group thought it would be only right to for you the public and interested parties to know the real reason behind the demise of Black Widow Internet AKA Crystal Clear Digital / Global Solutions AKA Digispike.

Its interesting that Scott Smith seems to want to blame everyone else expect himself and his partner Richard Short for this demise.

 In his statement below Scott blames ex-employees and a group of people spreading malicious lies that has resulted in affecting his cash flow and ultimately his company.

Its quite simple, if you provide a good service where you deliver what you say you will when you take someones money up front then you dont end up having to liquidate your company in a hurry to get rid of people chasing you for their deposits back. This is exactly what has happened to Scott Smith where his companies are concerned.

How is it that Black Widow Internet AKA Crystal Clear Digital/Global Solutions have over 42 documented cases of ripping or conning innocent people and their businesses by promising to deliver websites and then taking monies upfront only to then use delay tactics which last years.

These innocent victims get fed up and go elsewhere and many of us had to pay again to have our sites up and running through other web developers.

Whats even worse is despite taking fifty percent of your project fees upfront they then have the audacity to ask for the remaining fifty percent having delivered zero. In some cases where they have delivered sites the sites are riddled with bugs and dont function properly.

Many who have been bitten by Black Widow experience almost identical problems such as a string of project managers and lack of continuity. Many victims dont even have a site completed to their original brief. Yet, Scott proclaims that he has won two cases in court. We the group can confirm otherwise.

Further he speaks of being investigated and having been cleared by Trading Standards. This is really interesting as Trading Standards have advised us otherwise.

All we can say is that Scott Smith and Richard Short are excellent at selling and use powerful reassuring techniques to make you part with your money.

As one victims says be careful if you shake Scott Smiths hand as you may find that you are short a few fingers.

We the Victims Support Group will fight tooth and claw to seek justice for all the innocent businesses that have been conned by Black Widow Internet, Scott Smith and Richard Short.

If you have been affected by them please get in touch by emailing [email protected] 

By calling the liquidators Scott Smith and Richard Short are simply planning to get out of this without reimbursing what they have taken from these victim businesses.

Ofcourse we have a very strong plan of action and we will work together through the legal system and governing bodies to see that these two serial con artists are never allowed to set up another business and trade again under new name only to carry out a replica con as they have with Black Widow Internet .

Below the message that was posted this morning. Again, please note that this message has now been replaced by Scott with just his liquidators contact details.

Again we the Group would like to stress that ex-employees have not caused the demise of Black Widow or their group of companies. If you are as good as you say you are Scott then why would any of your customers have to complain or leave your services to use other people.

Secondly, the ex-employee story is just a red herring as its pretty obvious that if you keep up a con too long you will get burnt by it. Over Forty Two documented cases of people being conned in exactly the same way cant be imagined or down to ex employees.

It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Limited (previously Crystal Clear Global Solutions Limited) and its brands:  Black Widow Internet / DigiSpike have now ceased trading and will be liquidated on the 25^th May 2010.

All correspondents must be dealt with via the appointed liquidators below:

Judith Pryer
Parkin S. Booth & Co.
2 City Road
Chester
CH1 3AE

Tel: 01244 340129
Email: [email protected]

If you are interested in knowing why we have ceased trading there is an explanation letter below.


*****

How did this happen ?

We realise that many clients will want to know why this has happened so we have outlined the series of events that lead to the end of the company below.

A major role in the company was the ?account manager? position. This position was designed to be a concierge type of service between the client and various departments such as coders, visuals, animators etc. This role structure proved very successful however in October 2009, three account managers left our company and we later discovered that they had set up their own limited company whilst working with us some months prior.

Two of the account managers that formed the new company then started to telephone a lot of our clients telling lies about the company and its affairs and trying to tempt them to leave us and join their company. At this point we started to receive a lot of negative posts online from old and existing clients who had been managed by the ex-employees and a group was formed online, which we believe are being lead by these ex-account managers to discredit us and cause worry for existing clients so they are more likely to leave us and join their company.

This ?dirty tricks group? includes two past clients that we went to court with and a court of law ruled in our favour yet they are online trying to state we were a fraudulent company. Another member in the group informed trading standards that we have no staff and never had any intention of building a website, ie we simply took the deposits. Trading standards rightfully visited us where they were welcomed in and we spent several hours discussing how we ran our business and showed them sign off files and other important documents on members of the dirty tricks group. Trading standards left our offices very happy with how we ran our business and also offered us some great advice in dealing with these people.

We tried to make contact with the group on several occasions however they were not interested in trying to resolve any issues, if indeed there were any real issues with these people.  Multiple requests for them to contact us with their project, list of issues were never replied to and as of this day we have received nothing at all from the group despite their continuous efforts in posting negative reviews online.

We also have multiple evidence, that the police are dealing with, that shows the ex-employees stole data from our offices that includes our clients contact details database (which the data protection agency are now involved in as this is an offense under section 55 of the data protection act)which has and is still being used to try to gain business and the dirty tricks group are also using this database to try and gain further ?recruits?. 

The ex-employees also called clients who owe the final 50%, offering to do the work cheaper and we believe on some occasions also provide them with a copy of the code built by ourselves as a number of websites that we have not given out to the client are now live on the internet, and every line of code is the same. The ex-employees were the account managers of these clients and the clients will not communicate with us regarding their final outstanding bills.

We are well aware of most of the members in the group and we would like to thank those clients who have been contacted by the group who have and still are, helping us with the criminal investigation side of this situation with the Cheshire police. If you have any information that may help us please let us know, we would be most grateful.

Because of the above, the company?s cash flow ground to a halt as new business could not be gained due to lies on the internet and final 50%?s were reduced because of the actions of these people. The directors downsized the company several times in a big to reduce costs to enable their only remaining focus to succeed, which was to complete the remaining legitimate client?s websites so the actions of these people did not negatively affect innocent clients.

We know that several people will be very happy that they have managed to destroy the company with no remorse over the damage they have caused to innocent clients who will have been greatly affected by this situation. 

To those that set out to destroy us, well done, you won, you must be very proud. We hope you can sleep at night.

To everyone else, we would like to send our heartfelt apologies for this situation. There was nothing more we could humanely do to save the company and to help everyone that was going to be affected by this. We tried every strategy we could to avoid any single client being negatively affected by this, yet those involved in killing the company were relentless and we ultimately lost the battle.

The company will go into liquidation on the 25^th May 2010. All correspondents must be dealt with via the appointed liquidators below:

Judith Pryer
Parkin S. Booth & Co.
2 City Road
Chester
CH1 3AE

Tel: 01244 340129
Email: [email protected]

Yours sincerely.

Scott Smith,
Director.