Fake PR Agency CEOs Ulyses Osuna, and Gavin Lira, Under Investigation

In the world of Fake PR, maintaining the integrity and coming out clean is no small feat. 

So, major props to Ulyses Osuna for coming clean about paying writers under the table to post featured articles. Not only does this violate journalism ethics, but it’s illegal per FTC disclosure rules.

Then there’s Gavin Lira and Grant Lira of Empathy Firm, who think they’ll never be caught. Just like the Instagram verification scams that finally got busted, the fake PR peddlers like the Empathy Firm are now having to close up shop and sell something else– crypto, perhaps?

In our upcoming investigative report, we will explore the shady underworld of fake PR– with Gavin himself on video confessing how he hires VAs to write articles and pays folks on Fiverr to post.

But remember, not all paid PR is necessarily wrong.

Carson Spitzke is another 20-year-old who also offers services for paid PR work.

But he tells this up-front to clients instead of lying about ROI guarantees or pretending as if it’s a trackable ROI, just like Empathy Firm does on their website. Carson also tells clients that they have to promote those featured articles since they get zero traffic initially. 

Moreover, Carson also doesn’t charge $60,000 as Gavin does, and that too for mere vanity work.

Fake PR
Fake PR Agency

In the same investigation report, you will see how many players (not just the Lira brothers) are selling the “Get featured in Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur” shtick and then deceitfully photoshopping client faces on fake Forbes magazine covers.

Laughing at clients because they said clients would never know.

You will also see how Grant Lira boasts in a podcast about how he got on Forbes to appear credible enough to sell more clients on packages.

Moreover, we will show you that

  • What is the exact process of running a fake PR agency?
  • What does it cost at each step?
  • And how to spot fake PR articles?

For those who will ask, I attempted to convince Gavin to refund four clients about 10% of what they paid him. He partially refunded one but refused to fix the issues. At least six clients have fired him and asked for refunds. And instead of providing an IOU or apology, he decided to fight me as I was exposing his shady, Fake PR antics.

You will see emails from angry clients and weak responses from PR Agencies trying to duck responsibility.

So soon, you will see precisely how fake PR works— so get your popcorn.

And shout out to more people like Rudy Mawer, Carson Spitzke, Jeremy Slate, and Isaac Mashman— who are honest about what they do instead of hiding behind fake guarantees and claiming honesty, transparency, and authenticity.

We hope that our comprehensive report will bring awareness to the issue of fake PR and encourage the industry and potential clients to hold practitioners accountable for their actions.

If you want to hear another story about scammers, check out our post that explains how Andy Davis of Pilot Plumbing & Drain was scammed by an SEO Agency.

Dennis Yu

About the Author

Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads.  He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations.You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel.You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.