Verify Company Information and Security for Send2Press and Neotrope

April 2013 News

As of April 1 all of our distribution plans now include placement on 100-200 websites automatically at no extra cost. This includes top sites like CBS MoneyWatch, SF Chronicle, Boston.com, Houston Chronicle, SiliconValley.com, etc. A link report is included with all plans.

For up to date 2013 pricing and plan bullet points during our Spring remodeling (moving to a responsive design), please see:
» E-Z View Price/Features

The information on this page, below, helps you to verify our company, as well as security information related to our Web servers and e-commerce system(s) for ordering our services online. Reviewing this information can be important since many companies who sell similar, but not comparable, services online can easily be found — through many research methods — to be providing mis-leading or dishonest information about their business history and capabilities. In contrast, Neotrope/Send2Press believes in providing as much "transparent" information about our business practices as possible.

The security and verification information (below, this page) applies to this Web site (www.Send2Press.com) you are now visiting and viewing, as well as to the company known as NEOTROPE. Send2Press® is a service of Neotrope, and not an independent company. Neotrope® is proud to be a U.S.-based company, established January of 1983, and located in Redondo Beach* / Torrance*, California (Los Angeles County), USA. All our staff are based in the U.S., and our secure Web servers are based in Texas. (*Our physical address is Torrance, while our permanent 25+ year mailing address is in Redondo Beach.)

View our Privacy Policy/Statement

Information Found on This Page

The information on this page may be used to verify:

that we are who we say we are, and to verify you are on the correct Web site for Neotrope/Send2Press
that we are a legitimate U.S. based company (not merely a Web site pretending to be a real company!)
to verify our secure order system for placing orders for our services online
to verify the number of years we have been in business, and other "bona fides" (credentials).

Click subject to "jump" to topics on this page, below:

Who is Neotrope?

Neotrope® is a privately-held company, established January of 1983, in Redondo Beach, California, by creative guru Christopher Laird Simmons. Over its 25+ year history, the company has been actively engaged in advertising, brand identity, content development, direct marketing, e-commerce, graphic design, newswire services, printing (brokerage and in-house offset press), photography, publishing (books, ebooks, posters, etc.), public relations (PR), search engine marketing (SEO/SEM), Web design and hosting, and entertainment ventures (record label, clothing company, online magazines, etc).

This diversity has given us unique insight into the mindset of new business start-ups, entrepreneuers and visionaries seeking to grow awareness about their company, brands, and expertise.

The company was originally known as "Mindset" in the 1980s and mid 1990s (no relationship to any other company past or present with the word "Mindset" in their name), but later became Neotrope, which essentially translates as: neo as in "new" and tropia as in "hyperbole" — or, new hyperbole.

Neotrope is a member of GS1 US (formerly Uniform Code Council), and can generate barcodes; is listed with the RIAA to generate ISRC codes for music identification; is listed with Bowker's and has its own ISBNs for book publishing; is listed with D&B/Dun & Bradstreet (but not rated, as the company is a "cash business" and does not carry balances); and is a member in good standing of the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Neotrope is trademark and service mark, registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Send2Press® was established in 1997 as a "spin off" of the company's "Mindset Media" public relations and news dissemination services, first offered in 1983. The venture, now called Send2Press, was originally known as "Mindset Netwire" (then MindsetNetwire.com and PRnetwire.com) and was initially only offered to our Web design/hosting, e-commerce, and corporate PR clients (on ga-ga.com and MindsetCommunications.com). In 1999, the venture was opened up to the public as the online audience began to grow, and formally became known as "Send2Press." As of 2009, Send2Press Newswire (Send2Press.com) is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a dedicated publicly offered service. Experienced Web surfers can check the "Wayback Machine" (archive.org) to view some of our historical pages, as further verification of our history.

Send2Press is the natural evolution of our traditional public relations and news dissemination business and the migration of the PR business to the Internet. Send2Press is a U.S. registered trademark and service mark of Neotrope.

Verify Company Locale with D&B

For additional verification of our company location in Torrance, Calif., you may visit the D&B Website (Dun & Bradstreet), at http://dnb.com/us/, and in the "Find a Company" box found on right side, enter "Neotrope" in the Company Name box, and "California" in the State box. Press the gold "FIND >" button, and you will see the following record:

HQ NEOTROPE 4332 W 230th St, Torrance, CA

Note: If you are so inclined you can order a basic D&B business report on Neotrope for $10 but since we operate as a cash business and only have an open account with one partner company (generally reflects low technical credit rating when you don't actually use credit), the report would simply provide comparable information that you can find in our BBB report.

When you connect to our Web server to place an order for our services, there are multiple security protocols in place, with the most well-known being the SSL (secure socket layer), which creates a unique connection between your Web browser and our site. When this connection is in place, your browser will identify this connection through a visible "lock" icon or similar identifier (varies by browser, such as Firefox, Safari, etc.).

This SSL connection is "signed" by a third-party who has verified our domain ownership, business name, server location, company location, and other proofs in order to provide a certificate. You may also click the THAWTE logo at right for verification from the certificate authority (CA).

You may click the link below to verify the SSL connection (page will reload in "secure" mode with the page URL/URI changed to https: in place of http:).

Re-load this page with SSL connection

SecurityMetrics for PCI Compliance, QSA, IDS, Penetration Testing, Forensics, and Vulnerability Assessment

Neotrope's Web server and Send2Press.com domain (hosting our secure order system) have been certified as secure by SecurityMetrics®, and meeting the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) requirements enacted by American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa, for secure online order systems. This periodic scan of our system by SecurityMetrics tests for over 4,400 security weaknesses.

Neotrope owns and operates its own secure Web servers, in a Class-A secure datacenter. This means no other companies or individuals own or host domains on the same system, or have access to the system in any way. This ensures no hacker can find an internal flaw by crossing domains or virtual machines within the same box, from their domain/account (a common security issue with hosting providers who put thousands of users and domains on each physical Web server). Our system uses dynamic intrusion detection/blocking, and other methodologies to ensure the system is kept secure.

All credit card orders are verified, approved, and set for end of day batch processing in real-time. No critical personal data such as credit card number, card security code, or expiration date are ever stored on any system owned or operated by Neotrope/Send2Press. Any unforseen breach of our systems either online or offline would still not result in loss of any sensitive customer data.

You may click the link below to learn more at the PCI Security Standards Council Web site:

About the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) [opens new window]

For more than 12 years Neotrope has used Authorize.Net as its secure payment gateway to verify and process credit cards in real time. Send2Press.com is a "verified Authorize.Net merchant" which may be verified by clicking the logo at right.

Authorize.Net is committed to providing its merchant customers with the highest level of transaction processing security, safeguarding customer information and combating fraud. It implements and maintain compliance with industry leading security initiatives such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard. More than 232,000 merchants trust Authorize.Net to process their Internet transactions securely.

Neotrope's secure online order system used for Send2Press.com has been verified by Authorize.Net as compliant with their security requirements and is listed on their schedule of approved ecommerce applications.

VERIFIED BUSINESS
SINCE SEP. 17, 2000

For some Send2Press® services, Neotrope offers the option for U.S. business customers to optionally use PayPal as a payment method, in place of our normal secure order system. This may be helpful for clients who wish to pay by "e-check" or bank deposit instead of using a credit card. PayPal as a payment option can be used in rare cases where a credit/debit card will not properly pass address verification (AVS) through our secure payment gateway.

For existing members, PayPal's Verification System allows you to learn more about users before you pay them through PayPal. Click the "PayPal Verified" logo to confirm verified business status.

Neotrope is PayPal Verified
Status: Verified
Account Creation Date: Sep. 17, 2000

What it Means to be Verified
To become Verified, a PayPal member in the United States must provide us with proof that he or she has opened an account at a bank or other financial institution. Because these institutions are required by law to screen account holders, PayPal's verification process increases security when you pay parties you do not know. Please note that PayPal's verification system does not constitute an endorsement of a member, nor a guarantee of a member's business practices. You should always consider other indicators when evaluating members, including length of PayPal membership and reputation scores.

Calif. State Board of Equalization Tax Permit, and DBA

NEOTROPE has held a valid California State "Sales and Use Tax Permit " since Jan. 1, 1983.
Neotrope has maintained DBA ("doing business as") name statements on file with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County for both Neotrope and Send2Press for more than a decade. Prior to 2000, the company was simply known as "Mindset" and all tax, business, and DBA statements reflected that brand name, which is no longer in use (Neotrope has no relationship to any other company, with the word "Mindset" in their name).

Because Neotrope owns numerous trademarks and service marks, this is one way to verify that Send2Press® and Neotrope® are legitimate brand names, as registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and not simply claimed brands, as are commonly found on most Web sites. Neotrope is also a registered trademark in Europe.

To verify our trademarks with the USPTO:
You will either go to the USPTO.gov Web site, and click the "Trademarks " link on left side or use the link to the Trademarks main page below. Links open new window.

Click here to visit USPTO Trademarks Menu

Click here for direct link to TESS Trademark Search

Once you are in the TESS trademark search system, click the first menu item "NEW USER SEARCH" where you may search for our trademarks under the following names:

Neotrope [5 "live" records, registered]
Send2Press [1 "live" record, registered]
California Newswire [1 "live" record, registered]
Mindstock [1 "live" record, registered]

Note: In viewing the records you will note that they have been registered by Neotrope CEO/president and founder, Christopher Laird Simmons. You can also verify our permanent mailing address (P.O. Box in Redondo Beach, California, USA) is found in the trademark records as our legal business address. Attorney for our trademarks, both registered and pending, is Matthew J. Booth & Associates, PLLC.

Neotrope®, Send2Press®, California Newswire®, and Mindstock® are U.S. registered trademarks and service marks of NEOTROPE, all rights reserved. Neotrope is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries.