Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Britt Santowski
I’m Allowed.com
5/27/2009
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
Just recently, I fell for a scam. I’m pretty web savvy, and a part of my “job” is to check out
opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. So I sign up for a lot of stuff. Here’s what happened
to me, and it is my hope that you can benefit from my “growth opportunity”!
C ONTENTS
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
Even though I have just STARTED this report, and only a split second had
passed in real time, THREE key psychological things have already
happened:
I’m a bit of a web geek, so the first thing I did was glance at the URL. It
read:
Miamigazettenews .com/business/2009/feature.php?t202id
=13389&t202kw=300
So, in other words, many mental checks had been passed the split second
that it took to see the ad, perceive it, and click through.
1
This scam, as I later found out, also masquerades on the following sites:
· nyguardian .com (New York Guardian)
· theatlantatribune .com (The Atlanta Tribune)
· detroittribunenews .com/homejobs (Detroit Tribune News)
· detroittribunenews .com/myspace-jobs (Myspace Job Scam)
· philadelphia-herald .com (Philadelphia Herald News)
· fresh-off-the-press .com/featured/jobs-working-online-home-gold-rush/
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
Under the last line (where I was about to leave my own reply), there was
this notice that said “Comments Closed Due To Spam (back soon)”
Very official indeed!
The article was current (Published May 25, 2009) 2, and the comments
were from that same day.
2
It is currently being RE-RUN with a new date of publication of Friday, June 5, 2009, and
th th th th
the SAME comments are now dated on June 5 , 6 , 7 and 8 .
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
As I went through the sign-up process, there were a few times that my
inside voice was saying “NO! Don’t do it!”
For instance, when I first hit the link from the Newspaper article, I landed
at this “securecartcenter.com”page that promoted Easy Google Profit.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
That’s when I got this prompt, asking me if I was sure I wanted to walk
away from this opportunity.
Just as I had impulsively clicked the Newspaper link, and just as I had
impulsively attended to my inner voice and opted to walk away, this time
I impulsively decided to stick around to see what would happen.
3
AFGO is an acronym I learned from a dear friend of mine: Another Freakin Growth
Opportunity — the language has been cleaned up, of course, for publication purposes.
Grin.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
That’s when I met Kelly, the real live agent who could (and would) help
me.
Here’s what happened next: After “hearing” from Kelly that I could
indeed earn up to $945 a day, I decided to go through with it. And, added
bonus, the shipping price of the original software they were going to mail
me “SHOT” down from $1.97 to $0.99. Wow!
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
4
“Weird links” in and over themselves are nothing unusual, and are NOT to be feared!
Newspapers use them, as do many legitimate affiliate marketers. See the section on
Legitimate Online ways of making money, on page 21 for some examples. But do check
them out!
5
Washdebtaway .com is a weird site! I went there yesterday and there was a YouTube
music video on it; today, it merely said “Hi”. It was created on May 12, 2008. It seems to
be just a re-direct site of sorts. Based on Alexa trends, it has 4,646 U.S. visitors per
month. I KNOW they’re not all coming here to see “Hi”.
6
Pinnacledream .com is an online media marketing company of sorts, who has been
around since 2006 — in Internet terms, it’s a dinosaur and checks out to be legitimate.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
Notice how the URLs get more and more suspicious! Next time, I swear
I’ll pay more attention to that! 7
7
Again, not all “veils” are evil. For instance, I have an account on Twitter
(“confidentwomen”) and we’re only allowed 140 characters per comment. So I
abbreviate all my LONG urls using what’s known as “TinyURL,” (http://tinyurl.com/) a
program which shortens and veils the link. In most cases, TinyURLs are used for good
and not evil.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
F ROM
EMAIL TO
MEMBERSHIP SITE
So, I went ahead and
logged on and checked it
out. Okay, so it was
basically an information
site on how to use
Google’s adwords to make
money.
8
Which by the way I still haven’t received! Almost a month later…
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
D O DEEP RESEARCH
Here’s what I did AFTER I purchases (and what I recommend you do
BEFORE you purchase):
1. Check out who owns the URL, and how long the “business” has been
in existence. I use http://whois.domaintools.com but any whois tool
will get you the information you want.
a. Miamigazettenews .com was created: May 17, 2009 9
b. blazingkeywords .com was created: April 21, 2009
c. Washdeptaway .com is just a plain bogus site
d. “Easy Google Profit”, while supposedly “seen and trusted” by
Google, NBC, USA Today, ABC, CNN and Yahoo!, has no
domain of it’s own. The “Newspaper” article links directly to
the Shopping Cart https://www.securecartcenter.com, which
by-the-way was created on April 1st 2008 and is registered
through GoDaddy, a do-it-yourself domain hosting
organization (and the owners are veiled, but this doesn’t
necessarily mean much in this world of privacy vs. piracy)
2. Visit some really useful scam sites
a. The Electron Plumber at http://electronplumber.com/ is
incredibly useful. Their mandate is to “report on many sketchy
make money online programs ... [to] save some of you from
getting scammed by the many wolves out there trying to trick
you into giving them your money.”
b. Google forum is a good place to find out if something is
actually sponsored by Google. See
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/threa
d?tid=4916603b45154eb4&hl=en for the comments on the
Miami Gazette News
9
Compared this with usatoday which was founded in April 29, 1994 — a bit more
realistic for a newspaper!!!
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
That’s when I realized that the follow-up phone call was NOT to confirm
my application for the Easy Google Profits that I applied for yesterday,
but to sign me up for this option!
It’s funny, because I did ask the question if they were affiliated in anyway
with Google, and they hesitatingly said “ye—ess”. Again! I should have
listened to my gut instinct.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
9. You might consider keeping a LOW account credit card (eg $500 max)
for online purchases, that is paid off in full monthly. This way, you will
monitor it closely be default, and the maximum that you can ever
loose is $500 — although credit cards are pretty GREAT at identifying
bogus purchases, IF you are on top of your game.
10. Remember that in a very weird way, credit card companies are your
friends. They can be an excellent source of information. Contact them
for full advice on what you should do next.
The steps I took worked, as the so-called trial period was to end on May
31st, and billing was to begin on June 1st, 2009.
Here’s yet another curious thing: I was billed TWICE: once for 0.99USD
and another time for 1.97USD, both on May 28th.
And even more curious is this: This first billing went to a company or
organization registered under A1 MEMBER 866-200-5473 - 866-200-5473,
and the second (full) billing went to KEYWORD MONSTER CARE - 888-
2032241 UT.
I kept my account open long enough to track this, and I wanted to see if
the above steps would be affective. In my case, they were. And then I
cancelled my card! This is a pretty shifty (yep, that’s a f not a second “t”)
organization, and not to be trusted with your credit card and security
number and expiration date!
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
As you can see, the steps that I took (listed previously) were pretty
effective. I never got billed the recurring charge. And I cancelled my card.
If you too were scammed, you need to contact your credit card company
right away!
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
M ONEY M INDSET
First and foremost, I recommend you find out about your OWN money
blueprint. And if you don’t know what I mean by that, then you
DEFINITELY owe it to yourself to check this out! Begin by reading T. Harv
Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Or, listen to the Millionaire Mind
Tele-class. Both of these links have incredible free offers that you really
should check out.
W RITING
If you can write 7-15 page reports, then you can make a living online
working just a few hours each week — from the comfort of your home!
Find out how in this free report. The Small Reports Fortune is a 6 phase
system that will teach anyone how to create a 6 figure business by
writing 7-15 page reports.
I NTERNET M ARKETING
Jimmy D. Brown runs an amazing blog, The Internet Marketing Centre:
Practical Tips for Running and Internet Business. Once on his blog, you
can subscribe to the free Revenue Newsletter: “Each Weekly Issue Is Jam-
Packed With Tips To Help You Increase Your Revenue”.
I currently pay less than $1/page for awesome articles, wallpapers and
free reports that I use to expand my website, create ebooks, and to use
as sales bonuses.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
to let me give this killer report away for the next 7 day only (normally he
sells it for $17)! 10
Right now, the World Wide Web is available to entrepreneurs for the
taking. It is the new frontier. And while there will be those who act
without integrity in the hopes of making some easy (and probably illegal)
money, there are also organizations out there that are honorable and act
with integrity!
10
Ronnie is giving away a FREE PLR 12-pack that includes samples of articles, wallpapers,
affirmations and PDFs. It even includes a 10-page report and worksheet! Grab it now!
It’s free after all!
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
If you have a Facebook account, put your story up there. Twitter it. Add it
to the growing number of blogs that are tracking this kind of information.
Post it on your own blog. TELL THE WORLD (wide web).
Initially I was a bit embarrassed that I got conned. And, I consider myself
an Internet expert. Yet there I was, scammed. Taken. Tricked. And
embarrassed.
And so it’s gone from being a shameful event to benefitting anyone and
everyone who reads this report! Truly a success story after all.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/
“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It
FAKE N EW SP AP ER S , S C AM W EB SI T E ( FO R Y O UR R E F ER E N C E O N L Y !
D O NOT P UR C HA S E A N Y T HI N G FR O M T H E SE P AG E S …)
· miamigazettenews .com (Miami Gazette News)
· nyguardian .com (New York Guardian)
· theatlantatribune .com (The Atlanta Tribune)
· detroittribunenews .com/homejobs (Detroit Tribune News)
· detroittribunenews .com/myspace-jobs (Myspace Job Scam)
· philadelphia-herald .com (Philadelphia Herald News)
· fresh-off-the-press .com/featured/jobs-working-online-home-
gold-rush/
· washdebtaway .com (just a plain bogus site)
R E S EA R C H T O O LS
· http://whois.domaintools.com/
· http://electronplumber.com/
· http://www.search4scams.com/
· http://www.workathometruth.com/blog/2009/04/17/make-
money-posting-links-on-google-scam/
· http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/workathome.htm
A F E W P L A C ES T O S T A RT W I T H LEGITIMATE W AY S T O M AK E
M O N E Y O N LI N E
· T. Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (with free seminar).
· Millionaire Mind Tele-class (free)
· Small Reports Fortune is a 6 phase system that will teach anyone
how to create a 6 figure business by writing 7-15 page reports.
· Internet Marketing Centre: Practical Tips for Running and Internet
Business.
· An excellent report on everything you need to know about PLR
· A FREE PLR 12-pack that includes samples of articles, wallpapers,
affirmations and PDFs
· Nicole Dean PLR e-Course
· One month free coaching with I’m Allowed.com, where “Minding
the Success of the New Entrepreneur” is our main mission.
HTTP://WWW.IMALLOWED.COM/OFFER/