I don’t know if it’s because I wrote about what I considered a MonaVie scam in the past, but yesterday I had a new scam knock on my door twice. It would be understandable if it was related to juice or multi-level marketing… but it’s not. And sadly, I feel “victim” to it the first time.
What is the Google Work at Home Scam?
You may see an advertisement on a web-page that says, “Google Pays Me $264.71 a day.” I did a search and found such an add at Bucaro tec Help. That site might be a responsible, but the site it leads to A Work From Home Site is not. Open it up in a new window. It looks pretty good, right? Nice information… no sales pitch… nice mother with her child “working” from home… Well, let’s look at the story under that Jodi’s Story. I didn’t read the story too much, but now I see this, “That is the biggest hang up that men have, if they cannot see some tangible evidence then its not real or its a scam.” This is a hint to say to the reader, “You may be thinking this is scam, but since I’m telling you it’s not, it’s not.”
At the end of the article you see a “Get Google Money Master Kit Offer” link. Hmmm, that’s odd, I know Google has a lot of services out there, but I haven’t a Money Master Kit offered by them. Surely Google must offer this though, because otherwise this would be trademark infringement, right? If you click through that, you go to a page on Bskytracking.com – doesn’t sound like Google to me. I encourage to give it a click in a new window. There’s a form there were you can “check availability” of the program. Why would the program not be available, it’s “work from home” after all. They aren’t going to run out of classroom space. They can always print up more books. It’s neither of these, they want you to think you are special when you fill out the form. For “shiggles”, I filled out that form with fake data. For only $1.97 they’d enroll me in some program that’s going to show me how to make money with Google. However, the fine print says they are then going to charge you $60/mo. unless you cancel. Do you think it’s going to be easy to cancel? Oh and as a free gift, you get enrolled in another program that will charge you $20/mo. unless you cancel. I bet that one is not easy to get away from either.
How was I a “Victim” of the scam as I said in the opening paragraph? A legit-looking advertising company Itsperformance.com contacted me about putting an ad up on Lazy Man and Money to “A Work From Home Site.” A couple of months back I took the money and put up the ad. I hadn’t clicked into Jodi’s story and saw that “A Work From Home Site” is just trying look legit to fool people. It certainly worked on me at the time. I took their money and put up the ad for a month. When they came back this time though, I changed my tune.
What tipped me off this time? I saw that the ad promised “$264.71 a Day from Google”… the “A Work From Home Site” doesn’t mention anything about that. So I asked them and they came back with a “Work from Home $264.71 a Day.” That’s better, but I still didn’t see where they were pulling this magic $264.71 a day from. I would expect to see some math or something. At this point, I’m really skeptical. The real clue was looking at their Terms of Service, which included a line of “Before starting any weight loss program, you should consult a physician.” in the opening paragraph. Hmmm, is this work at home or weight loss?
In the opening, I said that the scam knocked on my door twice. Well, I received a Tweet from user “Okgblqk” (obviously computer generated), saying “Have you read about Google hiring people from the net now? I read it at www.ajobwithgoogle.com It’s Very Interesting!” If you check out A Job with Google, you see that it looks like a legit news site. I can’t decide if it looks more like USA Today or New York Times, but I feel I’ve seen the layout before. Give the site a read and see how obvious the lies are to you:
Google has now officially released their new “work from home” system out to the public. There will be thousand of spots available that are expected to go very soon in the next few days.
The way this works is very simple, Google says.
There’s a lot more, but I don’t want to spoil the fun.
Almost everyone who creates content on the Internet is afraid of Google. They can make or break businesses in many ways by just de-listing a site. It certainly takes some nerve to infringe on Google trademark like that. I suppose that if Google tries to come after them, they’ll shut down the site at that domain and pop up another one.
Is it just me or is getting this twice in the same day a sign that it’s going to surpass that Nigerian prince who keeps sending me e-mails about banking transactions?
They can’t even keep that cost straight. In one paragraph, it says $2, then later it says $2.95.
I always wondered what line they would give you once you sent them your credit card payment. I have a visa gift card right now, maybe I’ll spend it down to a few dollars and see what they do when I pay their S&H fee with the remainder of it.
have you seen a tremendous surge in ads saying “as seen on tv”. I don’t watch a lot of tv, but what on earth are they referring to?
& that ‘ajobfromgoogle’ site seems pretty bad. I don’t think you link to it without including the work scam or fraudulent in the anchor text
The websites showing such job opportunities are doing nothing but taking advantages of ingorance of work from home jobs seekers.
One very good thing: Why do I have a mentor and coach?
EVERY Olympic athlete has a coach. The top ones hire their own personal coach.
I’ve had my own mentor-coach in network marketing since 1991. One person actually once told me he thought it was a weakness for “people like you to admit that you need a coach to help you.”
A weakness???
I replied that having a coach was (and is) one of the smartest things I have ever done.
A coach keeps you accountable and focused. There are just soooooo many opportunities in life to get sidetracked.
Pro athletes like Tiger Woods, Bobby Bonds, Peyton Manning, all the big stars, have several coaches. Each coach teaches their own specialty.
Why would “Google” bother to print and mail these kits? It would be much less effort to have people download a PDF. You’d think that fact would tip off a few folks.
Of course, maybe there’s a secret decoder ring with the kit.
Great article! Another way to make HONEST money is to work as an employee at home for a well known corporation. I have been doing it successfully for more than 10 years now. It was the best thing that I ever did.
Big companies are cutting costs by hiring home workers.
Sheesh, you even have some linkbait spam in the comments here. Crazy.
I was contacted by a friend asking me if I had heard of this program and whether he could make money from it. I replied that it was a scam. It’s pretty pervasive; a well-known marketer was talking about it at a recent Internet marketing conference I went to as an example of the shady side of PPC advertising.
-Erica
Erica, I think that’s to be expected when you put “Work at Home” in your title. Probably comes up on Google Blog Search.
Bunch of savages in this town.
Ugh I’ve seen this way too many times. Avoid it!!!
I found the company name in the terms and conditions and if you put their name into google and do a search you get plenty of hits for people complaining about it being a scam.
Its unfortunate that so many work from home programs on the net are just rip off artists. It makes it hard for anyone looking for a legit opportunity.
My post was edited which isn’t very nice.
Another way to make HONEST money is to work as an employee at home for a well known corporation. I have been doing it successfully for more than 10 years now. It was the best thing that I ever did.
Big companies are cutting costs by hiring home workers. Below is a link to a FREE list of hundreds of LEGITIMATE stay at home jobs offered by known companies. These jobs do NOT cost you money. They are employment positions. I hope this helps some of you find success at home.
The page that you were looking to link to wasn’t helpful to readers in my opinion. It’s what Erica was referring to with the linkbait spam. It wasn’t very nice of you to leave it in the first place and it’s even less nice to come back try to leave it again.
Mr Lazy man, i am very glad i found your website, it has answered so many questions and saved me from falling victim to this scam due to myself being naive to this field, thank you.
I am looking to do some work from home, can you please advise what in your opinion is the best and most profitable route to take from the options you have selected to be on your website or otherwise. Thanks again!
Thanks for the info, I new it was a scam all along…………….. Well, after I read your article anyway.
Stevie
I have seen this ad many times before. It’s a different person each time. I got to the website that you did which I first thought it looks a bit like the New York Times. I thought this is too good to be true. If 1 person, for example, pays 1$, then if 1 million people who fell for this would have provided them with 1 million dollars. These scams have been online since the stone age, who knows how many millions people have fallen for them. I just don’t understand why Google would allow such practices, this can really does some damage to the brand.
google work kits are scams.i went to a web site for google money kit.there was a man from jefferson ohio.then when i went back 1 day later.he was from cleveland.then the same day he was from chardon ohio.shocking right do not trust google work kit
I have Gmail as my home base…the sleazy practices of such a profitable, dominate company is actually frightening…I registered for this scam, but thought better and cancelled the transaction….I was phoned up no less than three times a day for about 40 days thereafter…Creepy…greedy…I think I might change my email host, God knows to whom my personal info might be sold to for a dollar or two…How Disappointing!
I wish to repeat an earlier question. What websites are available for finding “real” home based job opportunities with reputable companies?
I fell for the google work from home scam… I’m currently unemployed and thought I had nothing to lose with the $1.97 password and free access for 7 days. I did read the fine print and said I would be charged $69.99 if I decided to stay in the program, NOT SO! they charged my account without my knowledge as soon as I activated the password! in all it was useless info for me, it required you to make a webpage and link to other companies and post ads in forums and blogs to create traffic to your page and your affiliates and that way you would get money from them ( I doubt it). I cancelled twice online, called twice and got a refund. I thought the nightmare was over but one month later I’m checking my account and another phantom company http://www.alterfunds.com charged me $29.95! not even the same company I was dealing with but apparently partners in crime with the other one because they got my bank info. I called and a guy said he could not do anything about a refund and to call the next day and ask for the “customer resolution center” (probably just a recording that will leave me hanging there) so I’m going to close my account at the bank and see if their fraud dept. can do anything about these thiefs.
I would like to see the government post how many people actually click on these bogus emails? Hasn’t everyone already put most of these scammers in their junk email folder? Maybe each laptop sold should have a WARNING: sticker on the top that says “learn about scams in email BEFORE you use it.” If people would stop clicking on the email links, the emails would stop for all of us!
I am amazed that Google allows it’s name to be used in such a scam as http://WWW.BadCustomer.com and Click Money. These people associated with Google are a “Bernie Madoff” scam. I did not “sign up” for any sort of service. I did sign up for $1.95 which was an information brochure.
Google doesn’t allow these people and they are not associated with Google. It’s just difficult impossible for Google to police everyone on the Internet.
I too have been sucked in with this scam, They have gotten me for 99.00 and I guess an associate for 42.90. I made contact with someone in the Phillipenes and was to there are no refunds. I too did the $1.47 kit. Thats where they get hold and don-t turn loose. My wife got the info off the radio for me to contact. May have been the John Tesh radio show. It just made it simpler to suck me in. I am filing with the States Attorney and the Feds. Consumer Affairs.
I saw one such work from home link and happen to the image of a check, which “appears” to be issued from Google, Inc. THe image can be found at this link : http://news11nyc.com/finance/2.php?t202id=11482&t202kw=adsonbiz
Well, personally, I wouldn’t deposit this check into my account even if it was made payable to me. There is more than one thing wrong with the check. The routing number for Citi Bank on the aforementioned check seems invalid. This seems like a classic example of check fraud. To verify the routing numbers of the financial institutions visit:
http://www.fededirectory.frb.org/search.cfm
The first article I’ve seen on your site and I think it’s very good! I love that you admit to being scammed by allowing them to even put the ad on your page.
Just a note – someone asked about legitimate work from home. There is such a thing but you have to apply for a job and be interviewed – just like any other job. And you probably won’t make thousands of dollars a week. And it’s possible you can’t have kids at home while you work, etc. This is not easy to come by or easy to do. I did it for a few years.
Remember: If it seems too good to be true then it probably is!
Think about this.
If you really did find a working formula that made you, say $1,000 a week online on average and it kept producing income no matter what, would you want to sell that idea to a bunch of noobs for $47 a pop and expect to retire on the proceeds? No way, man! It does not compute. It does not add up. And it does not make any sense to do that. I certainly don’t go shouting from the rooftops how I make my money online. Hell, I don’t want the competition taking a slice of my pie and neither would anyone who really does make good cash online.
Wow making money without a job has sometimes really been very hard; most of the time I purchase some books and make money from those. although they are extremely expensive! Trying to make money without any sort of job experience is even harder. Some ebooks usually are so unprofitable, despite that this post really helped. A lot of Thanks! :)