A few of you may have heard of this guy… those of you that haven’t, you’re very fortunate. First off, let me make this post clear – Mike Smith from Blog Theme Machine is a scammer.
A few months ago, I wanted to get Wordpress themes done – I wanted to brand them and give them away for free to increase the backlinks to this blog, as link building is pretty important or so they say. Now, I wasn’t expecting master pieces, however I did occasionally find them, either from a designer that was starting out and wanted to work for cheap to build up a solid reputation, or by designers that had created themes for clients but had them not wanted so sold them at an affordable rate. I set myself a budget of $50/theme, and again, I was not expecting anything premium but took a few that looked fairly decent (see my WP Themes page) and even picked up a premium one for just $40 (the one at Vuxt.com, which I’ll be rebranding and giving away to y’all soon enough 
).
Now, I regarded Mike as a friend at the time, which is why this is a pain – I’ve found out he’s scammed multiple people, all of whom were honest people looking to get themes done, and most of them for several hundred dollars. I myself lost $200.00 – not a small sum, especially when you’re starting off as a web entrepreneur.
One day he came to me, almost begging, saying he needed to make $300.00 before noon for ‘his girlfriend’ – tried to palm off an adult eBook to me that I wasn’t really interested in as it was low quality so I politely declined. He did run a company (and still does) called Blog Theme Machine, which offered custom Wordpress themes – I bought one from him for $40 that I was relatively happy with, and he promised me four more as well as the eBook thrown in, delivered within a week along with the eBook for $200. He sent the eBook website immediately, however I wanted the themes, as $200 for four themes fit my budget and so I agreed and promptly sent the funds.
At that point, he went offline and despite being online (albeit away) several times and me constantly IMing him, he never replied – I gave him a week, no luck; I gave him a month, nothing; the themes were ordered on December 19th, 2007 – as you can see, it’s now March and more than three months, and I’ve got nothing to show for it except a dent in my Paypal balance. I wrote the money off as being scammed, thinking there was nothing I could do as he never replied and stopped updating his websites too.
I write this post as I see he’s back, and scamming other people too. You can also read the comments section of this review, now if it was just me, fine; but so many people cannot be wrong. The thing that shocks me is the audacity of the douchebag, even posting up his earning statistics on his website – how much of that was gained through cheating people?
I saw that he was back, scamming others and promptly sent him a very angry email, promising hell to him and his websites if he did not refund – I know people that are very capable of making someone’s life a living hell on the Internet… I decided not to do so because he’s not worth it. Scum will always be scum, and the only thing different about this one is that he’s now fairly loaded.
Anyways, here’s his details – if he contacts you, do not purchase from him as you will lose your money.
Name: Mike Smith
Email Addresses: staff@blogthememachine.com, paypal@blogthememachine.com, freefallcreative@gmail.com
Websites: BlogThemeMachine.com, FreeFallCreative.com, PSDHut.com, WordpressHut.com, KicksJunkie.com, BootstrappingBlog.com
The funny thing is that when I emailed him, he said he could not remember ever agreeing to a deal – pretty easy to say, huh? Luckily, my MSN addon automatically keeps chat logs.
As you can see, it was HIM who offered up the deal, not me. I was promised four, high quality Wordpress themes, and so far I haven’t gotten any. I do not care what he thinks his themes are worth – if you agree to a price, you go through with it or you return the money. Funnily enough, after sending him that screenshot, I’ve not heard anything from the f**kwit. I gave him till March 7th to refund me or this post was going live – it’s March 7th, and I’ve not heard anything from him so he can burn in hell.
Note, I was originally going to title this post something like ‘Douchebag of the Day or something similar, however this will help better for ranking in the search engines. If you’d like to help innocent people being saved from losing their money, help me spread the word… and link to this post with the anchor text ‘blog theme machine’.
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March 7th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
just file a complaint and get your money back easily from PayPal.
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March 7th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Paypal doesn’t allow you to file disputes after two months, i think.
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March 7th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Disputes don’t go fell for the buyer if the products are electronic, so filing a complaint probably wouldn’t do much good.
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March 7th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
That Sucks! I hate it when people rip you off. Hopefully he gets what he deserves from this..
Thomas Sinfield’s last blog post..It’s Time To Go Back To The Basics!
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March 8th, 2008 at 12:35 am
That sucks!
thanks for the warning, let´s see if we can get it on SU front page
Mirjam’s last blog post..Dilemma of a Blogger Follow Up
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March 8th, 2008 at 2:05 am
really sucks, will post about this for shure
Kirushanth’s last blog post..Samsung 2 Unveal 2 G00Gle Android Phones
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March 8th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Why do you think your money is gone?
GO through your Paypal history and make a chargeback.
Hopefully in a few months you will have your money
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March 8th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Guess his mother did not teach him decency ……
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March 8th, 2008 at 6:50 am
I just got one word RAT.maybe that is an insult to the rat.
Jason why dont you call up paypal and explain the situation. who knows
they might do something about it. You can also inform his isp.
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March 8th, 2008 at 7:26 am
@ Trevomanut, you cannot file a dispute after sixty days, which was a while ago.
@ Chenzen, I think it’s the year of the rat in China, maybe that’s why
Paypal are useless for services.
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March 8th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Yeah paypal seems to lean more towards sellers on dispute resolutions. Why wouldn’t they, if they force the seller to give the money back then they are losing their cut as well!
Reading around the web it looks like he has scammed quite a few people. He is also now banned at DP, but who knows if that is related to his scams.
What a loser, scammers suck.
egk’s last blog post..Mercedes-Benz News :: 2008 Mercedes CLK 63 AMG Black Series Pictures
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March 8th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Agreed, scammers suck. Ah well, i can put it down as a bad learning experience.
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March 8th, 2008 at 9:27 am
really sorry to hear that.
Jim Karter’s last blog post..Why Did You Get Started Making Money Online?
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March 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Well, you can always earn that money back, but he cannot earn the respect he once had again.
Gian Paolo’s last blog post..Thoughts on Gambling
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March 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Really sorry to hear you get cheated out of cash I know you’ve worked hard towards. I’m sure I’ve seen his website before, and it looked like a perfectly ethical operation! If I didn’t hear this, I’m sure he’s one of the people I would contact for my website in the next few months for themes, so thanks heaps Jason.
Hope this is your first(?) and last time.
Desirée Ha’s last blog post..When Does the Bow Get Too Big?
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March 8th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thank you very much for this post. I was about to order some wordpress theme from him for the new blog I’m starting. I did a little research and I ended up in your post.
I’m sorry about what happened. I’d still say you try to contact Paypal. I’m sure Paypal will do something. Suspend his account or something…
Thanks for the heads up.
BloggingMix’s last blog post..Blogging Tips To Effectively Increase Your Inbound Links
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March 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Learn something, forget it, and move ahead.
Aleks’s last blog post..Hello world!
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March 8th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Thanks for posting this jason i been scammed by this bullsh*t also. And he still cleaning his filthy hands by lying in his comments here http://www.easywordpress.com/labs/custom-designed-wordpress-theme/
Kojak’s last blog post..Diamond Engagement Rings
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March 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Just file a PayPal claim. Even if you don’t get the money back (you should) you’ll put some flags on his account.
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March 9th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Scammers are idiots. I was scammed for $1500 once… :OOO
Mayank Rocks’s last blog post..Giving Too Much Importance To Having A Unique Forum Design?
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March 9th, 2008 at 9:44 am
@ Aleks
Well said. I did the same.
Mayank Rocks’s last blog post..Giving Too Much Importance To Having A Unique Forum Design?
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March 9th, 2008 at 10:06 am
[...] WARNING! Mike Smith of BlogThemeMachine is a SCAMMER. Jason of TheUniversityKid shared his unpleasant experience after he ordered 4 Wordpress themes from Mike. Read his post and be forewarned! [...]
March 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
[...] thing that I like about The University Kid blog is that he tells you about the bad guys. He was scammed once and is not shy about getting the word out so the rest of us don’t waste our money on things [...]
March 9th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
“Anyways, here’s his details – if he contacts you, do not purchase from him as you will lose your money.”
Congratulations, you are the first blogger I’ve EVER run across that has spelled “lose” correctly. For some reason, it is usually spelled “loosed” and it drives me crazy!
That deserves a stumble.
unTECHy’s last blog post..Review: ZenniOptical’s $8 eyeglasses
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March 9th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Guess a lot of them just loosed their writing skills, eh.
Oops!
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March 10th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Mike has scammed me as well and has the nerve to write in one of his comment at a blog that I was a good client- If he treats good clients that way, how does he treat bad ones..He gets away with it by saying if you cancel the paypal dispute he will do the work. You think he’s a pretty nice okay I’ll give him another chance and then he just never contacts you again because paypal won’t help- I’m still in paypal disputes with the guy- Paypal doesn’t help but if enough of us talk about him on the blogosphere then at least others will be warned!
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March 10th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Not suprised! I have been scammed quite a few times through the year as well. Most was from an affiliate who owed me $4500. But they went bankrupt so I guess it’s a bit more understanding. However accountability is something quite dicey online. People can change nickname and identity and you should always make sure you do your research before buying from someone and don’t hesitate to report them like you have done here if they don’t deliver.
ForexTrader’s last blog post..Trading Foreign Currency Online
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March 11th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Thats really bad. File a chargeback from paypal, and provide the proof the paypal. You will get your refunds, provided, he had not use the money u send him. Thats damn unentical of him. I HATE SCAMMERS
Derek’s last blog post..New look on Derek-ang.com and updates ( new version)
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March 11th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
2 months cross. No chargeback now
Mayank Rocks’s last blog post..My Blog Isn’t Just Another Make Money Online Blog
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March 13th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Dang! You should have just bought wordpress themes from me. lol.
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March 13th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Dang! You should have just bought wordpress themes from me. lol. coz for $200 i can give you a Premium Magazine Style Wordpress Theme that gets downloaded aaaa LOT and way more than the total downloads you will get for 4 Wp themes at $50. :p
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March 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am
[...] Blog Theme Machine is a Scammer at The University Kid. [...]
March 17th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Ask for your money.
David Chew’s last blog post..The New Proton Gen 2
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March 29th, 2008 at 6:44 am
I recently ordered a theme from Mike for my blog and I gotta say I’m shocked. I gave him a few details, told him to run with it and he did. I didn’t care for the first mock up so he redesigned it for me happily. Then I wanted some things changed on the second mock up, again happily he did it. Same with the third mock up. Heck even after he did the design for me, I had a couple little issues down the road, nothing that he did, my own stuff that I just wanted tweaked for different reasons, and every time he has been glad to help.
I honestly couldn’t be happier and more thrilled with the service, without a second thought I would easily give him a 10/10 for customer service and a 8/10 for design and a 10/10 for pricing compared to quality.
Just my thoughts and I feel bad for those that are saying they got scammed, however, I just felt like I should post because I feel that this guy would do a great job for you, maybe ask to not send payment till he sends you work or something….I dunno…
Learn Affiliate Marketing’s last blog post..What Are You Waiting For?
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April 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[...] Blog Theme Machine is a Scammer at The University Kid. [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I recently found wordpresshut, and I have to admit that I was impressed with the tutorials that it provided, and I subscribed to is feed.
I knew nothing about any of these problems, which I am really sorry about, but I came across this post by searching for ‘what happened to wordpresshut’ because it is displaying an account suspended page after I saw that the feed failed to load…
Most of the other sites you list above have the same thing, either that or nothing is found at all…
Maybe he has been properly rumbled…?
Hope you get this resolved
Alex
Epic Alex :: Web Design’s last blog post..WordPress 2.5 Plugin Style Guide
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May 31st, 2008 at 9:04 am
I just got scammed!!! I wish I had found this site before I hired this scammer.
I had a very time sensitive project that I hired the blogthememachine (Mike Smith) for. My business partners trusted me to find the designer and I chose Mike. Big Mistake!!!!
Mike constantly sets deadlines for presenting work to you then breaks those deadlines. He always has an excuse of some kind and is extremely unprofessional.
When he finally missed the last deadline my partners were fed up and told me to get a refund. One of them contracted another designer he knew from college to do the blog for us right away.
Now Mike won’t give me back the $300.00 deposit I gave him. He has admitted that he missed his promised delivery times but still won’t refund my money. What a scammer!!!
I’m filing a dispute with paypal and rounding up everyone else who has been scammed by this loser to officialy have him black-listed from paypal. I want to make sure he can never scam someone again. Paypal has his ssn and url’s. Once he’s blacklisted he won’t be able to open a new paypal account. The system will shut him down.
I’ve already contacted a few people and have theme on board. If you’d like to be involved just send me a message or reply to this post. Thanks!
Stay far away from Mike Smith and the BlogThemeMachine
Oh by the way – “LearnAffiliateMarketing” and Mike Smith are one in the same.
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May 31st, 2008 at 9:13 am
@ Kirk… I do not think LAM and Mike Smith are one and the same. However, I see the douchebag is back in the blogosphere (Mike Smith) – contact me… I’d love to help take him down.
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August 5th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
[...] I’m pissed off enough, I’ll blog about it (see Blog Theme Machine or The Rating Blog) and this has done more than enough damage with SE rankings and in the [...]
November 8th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
He scammed me too!
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November 24th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I paid alot more……F**k Say its not so……..he had alot of good customers on his blog he was charging $800.000
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November 24th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I run Fuel Your Creativity (http://fuelyourcreativity.com) and I have to say I have worked with Mike in the past and recently on some projects. It’s not a secret that there is a interview with him on my blog. It is also not a secret that someone has commented leading me to this article. I will not publish it as I do not agree with this post. A lot of people have gotten scammed before and I’m not saying you or someone else hasn’t gotten scammed by Mike as I can only speak for myself. However I will not bring this into my site by publishing the comment. I don’t get into this back and forth crap nor will I ever but I felt it needed to be said that I have worked on 3 projects with him so far and every deadline/payment etc has been met on both ends. I would think that if you had a problem you would have a contract to back this stuff up. IF you got scammed AND had a contract to prove it then that is a different story. Do business the right way when outsourcing a project and you won’t get burned. Just a friendly tip.
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November 25th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
He is a scammer. No doubt. He scammed me pretty good. He keeps you hanging on till it’s too late to file a complaint and then he disapears.
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April 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
This bottom-feeder (Mike Smith) also scammed me! PayPal were useless in the whole affair. In the dispute, they asked him for tracking details, which he responded, “intangible product”! He has obviously done this many times before!!
Well, PayPal denied my claim, quoting, “intangible product” as they do not cover buyer or seller protection for intangible products. Surprise, surprise! What a waste of time.
Mike Smith has a long history of scamming people and I have notified PayPal of this germ’s history, providing them with links to posts like this. I will not stop until I have his PayPal account shut down.
Blogthememachine.com and Mike Smith need to be shut down to stop people falling into his web of deceit and scams.
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Jon (4 comments) Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 10:59 pm
PEOPLE BEWARE! He brings you in by answering emails fast and then soon as he gets paid he disappears.
Mike Smith is for sure a scammer. He did the same thing to me as he did to Maxx. You think your safe with Paypal but your not. I don’t see why Paypal hasn’t shut down this jerks account down. Also he’s trying to rebrand as Made by Guerrilla now. I think we should all work together on getting this guy shut down.
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Maxx (3 comments) Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
The only way to get this idiot’s account shut down, is by people actually complaining directly to PayPal.
When I last talked to PayPal, they said that they had flagged his account and were watching him.
Spend 5 minutes talking or emailing PayPal about this cretin, because the more that do, in a short space of time, will get him shut down. If he has no PayPal account, it will certainly make things difficult for this guy.
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October 4th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
MIke Smith is at it again with Made by Guerrilla (http://www.madebyguerrilla.com/) — we’ve paid $1000 for a premium theme for one of our projects and have little to speak for it.
Mike Smith’s scamming will end soon after our attorney’s are done with him.
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October 5th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Justin and Jason. Mike Smith made my emotional and financial life a living nightmare and wasted my time as owner of the company and my staff’s time last October and November where we dedicated 2 months of time and wages to upload content for 2 of our wesbites and a new blog, needless to say during the time we would nto hear from him for 2-3 weeks at a time and finally late November he was nowhere to eb found to finish the projects. I do admit I was asking for some additiosn and changes to the work he did but was not pushy and these were all things that was up front with and detailed when I presented the projects. I am a small business and all that time and wages added up to over $4000 and opportunity cost that I have still not had time or $$$ to hire someone else till now who is a real live person and firned where i live as last time the online option and not a real person did not work.
Please tell me who at paypal and email address or phone # to talk to and will report him ASAP
Thanks
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October 5th, 2009 at 4:29 am
@Jorge,
You can contact PayPal from within your account, by clicking contact at the top right corner. If you have a business account, you can contact them through that link to call them.
I hope this helps.
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October 27th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Since we posted our comment, Mike has come through 100% and provided what we were asking for.
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October 30th, 2009 at 3:50 am
I wish I had thought to Google Mike Smith and Blog Theme Machine / Made By Guerilla in order to find this site before sending him $800!
Like many of you he’s sent me a theme that didn’t work at all when installed on the latest version of Wordpress and hasn’t responded to any of my emails asking what’s up.
If anyone has any advice on recovering money’s paid (via PayPal) I’d love to hear from you. I tried dispute resolution but I’m a week or two too late. I’ll try calling tomorrow as I have a business account.
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January 13th, 2010 at 12:35 am
Jason or anybody else…..Can you give me any contact details that you may have for our Mike?
Is that his real name? If not what is it?
Street address
Home Town
School/s
Relatives
Other companies that he may work for or use as a front?
I Just want to get to the bottom of all this and expose this thief for who he really is!
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February 28th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Well, guys, it is now 2010 and this moron still continues to scam people unpunished.
I was just scammed for $200. so everyone be aware that this Mike Smith is an absolute 100% scammer and these are his sites:
http://www.madebyguerrilla.com/
http://www.giantthemes.com/
http://blogthememachine.com/
probably few more…
File claims with Paypal and chargebacks with your credit card company
I will be happy to provide any details to whoever would like. I will also be submitting all I know about this moron to every where I can, police, online FBI department, his local police department in Knowxville TN. Everybody do the same and lets hope he ends up in jail
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May 26th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Wow, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and actual effort to make a great post… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and in no way seem to get something done.
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July 22nd, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Hi I have a quick question. in the ask Mike blog? What are birds and bees. "This ain't no laughing place. There ain't nothing in here!?
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