$4,500 for an ODP/Dmoz listing????

I found this thread at the resource-zone recently where someone apparently paid 20% of $4,500 for a Dmoz listing. Poor sap! Here's brief summary of the conversation.

Poor sap: Why isn't my site listed? I was charged a management fee of $4,500 with 20% upfront to have my website reviewed and it's been two weeks already and still nothing. This is too much for a "management" fee and too long to wait for a review. How can I get a refund, and is it possible to get a refund after my site has been reviewed? In fact, I'd like my money back and my site reviewed for free since I've waited so long. I was also told that I'd get a few million hits from the directory within the first month. How can/will this happen? Also, the Dmoz guidelines states that inclusion is FREE, so why am I being charged this exorbitant "management" fee?

Editor 1: You're such a fool. You've just been scammed! We don't offer a paid listing service. Good luck getting your money back.

Non-editor: Looks like you've been scammed by someone who's not an editor.

Editor 2: You're such a fool. You've just been scammed! But, just in case this person is an editor why don't you fill out an abuse report and give us all the information you have so we can look into this and remove this person if s/he is an editor. While your at it, include the website that you paid to get listed so we can make sure it's banned for trying to pay for inclusion.

Me again, okay, I'm alway taken aback by those who are desperate enough to pay for a FREE Dmoz listing. The first question in my mind is 'who in their right mind thinks Dmoz is worth a freakin' $4,500!!!!!' You can buy a listing in the Yahoo! directory for 15 years for that amount of money. Or, you can buy a years worth of listings for 15 of your sites in the Yahoo! directory. At least with the Yahoo! directory you might get some hits and some conversions. With Dmoz, you're lucky if you get one hit a year - and hope it's not from one of its link checking bots or an editor checking current listings, haha.

The guy completely missed the obvious, maybe out of desperation to get listed. Hint #1: A Dmoz listing is NOT worth $4,500! Hint #2: If the Dmoz official documentations tell you that a listing is FREE, but someone wants to charge you to be listed, then it's most likely someone looking to part a fool with his money - the fool being you and the money being yours! Hint #3: If it sounds too good to be true then it is! The guy is now asking how Dmoz will generate one million hits for him within the first month? Um, isn't this something he should have asked when this deal was first initiated by he or the "editor?" I don't know of any website that can generate a million hits in a month via referrer. That notion alone should have made him think twice and run the other way!

Why do I think this guy has been scammed by someone who's not an editor? Well, lets see, an editor who's trying to make a part-time job out of scamming gullible Dmoz submitters AND keep his editing position would take the money and list the site, because not listing the site would bring unwanted attention to himself when the scammed speaks up. A corrupt editor would have to list the site if he doesn't want to get caught and removed from Dmoz for breaking the editing guidelines, thus relinquishing his part-time job of scamming desperate people. Once the site gets listed then the webmaster most likely won't say anything because then he risks his site being removed for paying for a listing, and, he probably wants to stay quiet so he can pay to have other sites listed in the future by the same corrupt editor. This is just my presuming what a corrupt editor would do, as I don't know any. Also, most editors are probably decent and won't accept bribes or try to scam you out of your money. You're more likely to get your site banned for trying to bribe an editor than actually finding a corrupt editor.

The poor sap's initial post at the resource-zone should have went something like this:

Poor Sap: OMG! I've been scammed by someone pretending to be an editor! I paid $900 to be listed in the Dmoz.....even though the Dmoz documentation says it's a FREE listing; even though he promised me that I'd get at least one million hits during the first month; even though this is an exorbitant amount for a Dmoz listing; even though this deal is too good to be true.....I was still foolish enough to put down 20% of $4,500 for the listing! Now, I'm out of $900 and my website is still not listed. I'm not posting at the resource-zone to bitch and complain about corrupt editors for my foolish mistake of believing anyone who tells me he's an editor and will list my site for some money. A word to other webmasters - DON'T BE A FOOL LIKE ME!

Source: http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52582