The International Blogging Recognition Council is a SCAM!

This week, I received an email telling me that the “The Fractured Anecdote” had been awarded a “Recognized Blog” status by the "International Blogging Recognition Council." The message read as follows:

During the month of July, the International Blogging Recognition Council (IBRC) had the pleasure of reviewing your blog The Fractured Anecdote. Your blog was referred to IBRC through our Refer-A-Blog program. "Reunion time of year" was the topic that the Council reviewed. Based on the review, the Council has recommended that your blog receive IBRC’s designation of “Recognized Blog”. IBRC reserves this honor to those blogs that effectively connects with the audience and promotes the sharing of ideas and experiences.

We invite you to visit our website at www.ibrcblog.org to learn more about IBRC and our “Recognized Blog” award. Congratulation on your accomplishment.

When I got home from work, I went to the website. There I discovered that in order to get the award logo to post on my blog, I had to register on the site…to the tune of a one-time $45 payment. Having never heard of this organization, and being the jaded and skeptical person I am, I immediately hit Google and started searching. I discovered the following information over the next couple days.

1) Having to pay $45.00 to be recognized has all the elements of a hit and run scam. Real awards programs don't require payments.

2) I was not alone in receiving this e-mail. Thrilled bloggers from all over were posting about this wonderful “award” they had received. This worried me because knowing how few writers out there get any recognition, many would immediately pay the $45 just so they could post their award logo.

3) The domain name, ibrcblog.org, was just recently purchased and it was done in a way that masks the identity of the owners.

4) The website was extremely vague.

5) There was no list of the organizations members, board of directors, management, or credentials.

6) There was no physical contact information…no state, no country.

7) There was no explanation as to how this award might benefit the blogger.

8) When I visited some of the other “awarded” blogs, I had to question just exactly why they had received an award. My only answer was that the IBRC wanted the $45 fee, because some of what I read was not what I would consider award worthy. I even left a comment on one or two, saying I thought it was a scam.

So to all my fellow bloggers out there I say “DON”T GET SUCKED INTO THIS ONE!”