Facebook scammers are once again trying to take advantage of curious users who want to see a juicy video. This time it’s a woman who apparently did something unheard of on a beach. This is a scam. There is no video. Don’t click it, don’t Like it, and don’t Share it.

This particular scam says something along the lines of “[Video] – Look what this girl is wearing at the beach in front of thousands of people!” followed by a fraudulent link. It also has the following description: “During the summer holidays, this girl took the opportunity to do something unheard of! I bet no one can do the same.”

The link takes you to what appears to be a video embedded on what looks like a Facebook webpage. Both are fake. The scammers’ goal is to drive more traffic towards certain sites. This is how the scammer earns his or her money: a commission for every survey completed, every product purchased, and/or every account compromised. You’re also told to share the link with all of your Facebook friends, as well as add a comment. The next webpage urges you to sign up for a premium rate mobile phone service, complete an online survey, and/or buy some pills. Last but not least, they also use the scams to spread malware and obtain personal information.

As a general word of caution, don’t click on everything your Facebook friends share on the social network. If you see a scam like this one, report it. Then go check your Messages and Wall to make sure you’re not spreading the scam; the sooner you clean it up, Unlike all relevant Pages, and uninstall all relevant Apps, the better. You can also contact Facebook Security if you’d like to.

In a campaign called “Every Door Direct Mail,” the Postal Service is touting a year-old online tool to help small businesses micro-target direct mail. The Web tool allows firms to tap customers by neighborhood or zip code without names or addresses.

The cost to small businesses is 14.5 cents per mail piece. The Postal Service spent virtually nothing to create the online service, tapping existing staff and resources to pull it together, said Paul Vogel, president and chief marketing officer for the Postal Service, at a presentation Tuesday

“We believe it could be a billion-dollar product for the Postal Service by 2016,” Vogel said.

The online direct mail program has been in existence since last April, generating $153 million in revenue through December. The Postal Service estimates the direct mail program will bring the struggling agency some $750 to $800 million in 2012.

The Postal Service reported a $5.1 billion loss for the year ended Sept. 30. The loss was caused by an ongoing decline in its core revenue driver, regular letters and bills known as first-class mail, as well as a legal mandate that the agency prefund health care benefits for a legion of future retirees.

The Postal Service has made headlines recently with cost-cutting moves to get out of the red over the next few years. The agency is working to close more than 200 postal plants that may cost 32,000 jobs, to cut Saturday service,and to delay delivery of some first-class mail .Separately, officials may also consider a hike in the price of a first-class stamp by a nickel to 50 cents.

No closures will happen until a self-imposed deadline of May 15, when a moratorium on postal service facility closures expires. Postal advocates for are pushing Democrats and Republicans to come up with a bipartisan plan to prevent the closures, but so far little progress has been made.

In the meantime, the Postal Service is looking to expand other revenue streams, including this direct mail program.

The Postal Service has weathered criticism for keeping the price of advertising mail low while raising the price of first class mail, when direct mail volume outnumbers first-class mail. In 2011, advertising mail volume was 84.7 billion pieces of mail and total first-class mail was 73.5 billion.

To promote the direct mail, the Postal Service unveiled three new television commercials — one features a dancer in a chicken costume that will air on CNN, local news, CBS’ “60 Minutes” and some sporting events, postal officials said. The commercials will start appearing this week.

Not only can it be expensive to execute a complete rebrand (is this really the best use of IICRC money?), but it can also be risky. Sometimes consumers won’t accept a rebranding. Netflix “Quickster” is the most recent example.

There is only so much that you can do with a new brand when the underlying product has problems. There’s an old saw about putting lipstick on a certain barnyard animal.

Brands can be turned around without walking away from their name recognition. Apple was an also-ran in the computer business in the 1990s. When Steve Jobs returned as CEO in 1997, should he have renamed it? Of course not. You cannot build brand equity by renaming your brand.

On the positive side, this rebranding should be the signal of major change and that change should be evidenced throughout the organization and conveyed through every touchpoint. The entire organization has to be aligned to deliver on the promises implied in the rebranding. This isn’t the place for puffery. Merely claiming to be improved is meaningless — and using words like “trust” do nothing but heighten skepticism.

I’m anxious to see the changes in the organization, not sure about the new name though. Maybe it will grow on me, but my first impression is not favorable.

The Clean Trust Certified Master Textile Cleaner just doesn’t sound right.

What do you think about the IICRC rebranding as “The Clean Trust”?

Rebranding of AT&T by Stephen Colbert

Make sure to join us for an hour or two session learning about  the latest
and greatest ways to keep up your customer retention.

You most likely paid a steep price to get your customers, DON’T let them
slip away unnoticed or feeling unloved.

Tonight Wednesday, October 12th @ 6PM PST @ CleanersChat.com

The Carpet Cleaners Class Room is a live, real time text, talk, and video. You can participate if you only have a keyboard, or step up to the microphone and tell us what you think if you’re not shy, and if you have a web camera you can even show us your professional spotting kit and accessories if you like!
Talk Dirt with Tom Cermak
Monday nights @ 9pm EST in the Carpet Cleaners Classroom @ CleanersChat.com
Got Questions? Get Answers!!

Odor removal or as some will tell you, odor management can be a frustrating and evasive issue both for the cleaner and the customer.

Join Craig Jasper on Wednesday night 9-21-2011 in the CLEANERS CLASSROOM where you can learn of some recent new developments in odor location and new tools for this.

9PM Eastern / 6PM Pacific time @ http://carpet.cleanerschat.com/

Here are some of the topics that will be discussed in the class:

The newest advance in evolution of Low Moisture Cleaning Science with APE Cleaning Solution, APE Cleaning Catalyst and the Pro Sorb Bonnet

Get rid of Traffic Lane Gray with Dinge-Away, the Carpet Saver

How to locate urine spots with the Forensic Kit and Inspection Tunnel and how to remove odor with OSR XG, X-Cide for Smoke and the Ozone

The easier way to re-color bleach spots with Color Modifying Cosmetics (CMC’s)

The topic will be hard surface cleaning, and he has a lot to offer on this subject! This is live real time chat… so if you have questions get some answers tonight.

Join Bryan Thomson of Sapphire Scientific who teaches hard surface cleaning to the profession.

Bryan’s been pulling his hair out to take what he normally does with two days of classroom training and condense them into real solid usable “bankable” information about hard surface cleaning.

He will lay out your road map to how you can realize greater profit by integrating hard surface cleaning into your customer base as well as develop new customers.

New chemicals will be discussed in detail as well has where and how to use them.

He will cover inspection, application, the tools and one really interesting topic even to those who are not currently hard surface cleaning and that is the new Sapphire Scientific Truckmounts.

The have units that will deliver over 3000 psi pressure AND AT THAT PRESSURE also maintain high heat. Many claim heat but not at that high of a pressure and he will lay it out in detail how Sapphire Scientific have accomplished this. So you TM guys with the Sapphire TM questions – BRING THEM!

And to top it off everyone knows that the good folks at Sapphire has been generous with the free product. Well,………… if you aren’t there you ain’t getting any!

9PM Eastern / 6 PM Pacific in the Carpet Cleaners Classroom

http://CleanersChat.com/

Carpet Cleaners Class Schedule

• August 31, 2011
  – Hard Surface Cleaning – Bryan Thomson from Sapphire Scientific
  9:00 pm, EST
• September 7, 2011
  – Spot Dyeing w/ Tom Cermak
  9:00 pm, EST
• September 14, 2011
  – The importance of pH & buffering – Mike Kerner & Joe Domin  
  9:00 pm, EST
• September 21, 2011
  – Advanced Odor Location Techniques and Tools – CTI
  9:00 pm, EST
• September 28, 2011
  – Oriental Rug Cleaning – Aaron Groseclose
  9:00 pm, EST
• October 5, 2011
  – Rotary Tools with Steve Poulos – Sapphire
  9:00 pm, EST
• October 12, 2011
  – Customer retention – Service Monster
  9:00 pm, EST
• October 19, 2011
  – Stone and Tile Maintenance – CTI
  9:00 pm, EST
• October 26, 2011
  – Marketing w/ Tom Cermak
  9:00 pm, EST
• November 9, 2011
  – Cleaning with Portables –  Mike Ellis     
  9:00 pm, EST

No postage necessary, just click the stamp to RSVP via Facebook.

Date: July 20-24 2011
Where: Hartford CT (Norwich)
Host: Al Sims

Education @ SummerFest
This years IICRC certification course will be 3 day Water Damage Restoration, instructor Dennis Klager. This will be one of the first IICRC WRT courses with the new manuals based on the new / updated S500 standard for professional water damage restoration.
Thank you Bridgepoint for offering us a great deal on these fresh new text books for the SummerFest class! RSVP on Facebook for the WRT SummerFest class, click here!

Friday Banquet Dinner July. 22, 2011
On Friday evening we have our annual banquet / awards dinner at TBA. We hope you will attend, as it is always great fun for all.

Saturday Demos
On Saturday July 23, 2011 we will be holding our yearly demos at TBA. There will be truckmounts, low moisture equipment and more. Be sure to attend this ‘hands on’ part of our event. There will be competitions, prizes, raffle and more.

SummerFest Hotel

Comfort Suites Norwich – 275 Otrobando Ave Norwich CT 06360 (860)892-9292
$99 King or Double – Must mention SUMMERFEST to get special rate.

Also planning trips to the casino, buffet and ocean fishing. More details to come, stay tuned.

Tentative schedule , check back for updates / changes
SummerFest WebSite – www.GoToSummerFest.com

“I looked at the envelope and my jaw dropped,” Rug Suckers manager Pepper Powell.

Rug Suckers is a family-owned carpet cleaning business based out of Rome. Last month, the business received official forms from the Georgia Department of Labor sent in an envelope with an official seal.

“Our company name is Rug Suckers and there was a foul word in place of the Suckers,” Powell said. “I’m upset. One, my kids saw it. Two, the state of Georgia is not going to issue a business license like that, and three, that she tried to blame it on me,” Powell said.

The Department of Labor employee who addressed the envelope left Powell a voicemail blaming the error on miscommunication.

“I understood you to say that the company’s name was rug *uckers,” the employee said. “I asked you twice and you replied, ‘yes it was.’ I don’t talk like that, but I am apologizing if I got that wrong.”

Powell disputes the employee’s story.

“I did not say it and even if I did, she should have gotten a second opinion from someone,”Powell said.

The Department of Labor is investigating this situation and has suspended the worker involved. An official said they take the issue very seriously.“It went through post office people’s hands and others saw it. It was kind of an embarrassment,” Powell said.

Rug Suckers management told Philips they don’t necessarily want to see the state worker lose her job. Department of Labor officials said they’ll take whatever action they deem necessary at the end of their investigation. In the meantime, they’ve apologized to Rug Suckers at least twice.