Thousands of Dollars a Month Posting Links on Google from Home?

Jun 9, 2009   //   by Hackadelic   //   Blog, Featured  //  16 Comments
This entry is part of a series, The Scam Observatory»

Money at handRecently, I’m increasingly getting spam comments which refer to (yet another) “easy money from home” program. Interestingly, this time the name “Google” is involved. So I just thought I might jot down a bit of rant about it, but this turned out to be an analysis of the “easy money from home” scam pattern. I hope it’s informative, or at least entertaining. And you are welcome to join in.

Let me say it straight away: The “program” is EarnCashFastWithGoogle, and it’s just another scam. Sure, they say it’s not scam. Ironically, they even warn “not to fall for the scams!” Well, don’t fall for this either! It is scam! On Yahoo!Answers you can find the truth about it.»

Apparently, all the “easy ways” of making money from home with no-names are slowly drying out as lucrative income sources for the crooks. This is a good thing, because it’s a sign that people are slowly beginning to “get it”. Unfortunately, involving a big name seems to make enough others fall for it again.»

No matter the names involved, here is the pattern I’m constantly observing with scam “programs” for “easy money from home”.1 I’m providing it in the hope that it will make your scam warning bells ring the next time you encounter it.

  • There is a simple, single-page static web site involved. Nothing fancy. Makes the impression it’s been done by an “average Joe from around the corner”. Purpose: Identification. (Hey, this is just a normal guy. If he could make it, then I can make it, too.)
  • Usually, the page will show one or more pictures of the guy, and/or the guy’s “family”. Despite the huge money they are allegedly earning, they all look pretty average on the pictures. Simply people like you and me, totally “unspoiled” by their success. Purpose: More identification.
  • Often the story on the page involves someone who was unemployed and broke before. Purpose: Even more identification, but – and this is the real shame – identification by people who are in a bad material situation themselves. This is the real target audience of such scam: People who are desperate enough to catch at every straw they see. (Paradoxically, it seems to be much easier to take money from people who don’t have it, than from people who do have it. On the other hand, it does have logic: If it was easy to take money from people who have it, they wouldn’t be people who have it, but who don’t.)
  • Increasingly the case: The guy on the picture will live in a location near you. Purpose: Yet more identification. He doesn’t only look like Joe from around the corner, he actually is Joe from around the corner. (It’s absolutely easy to achieve this automatically. The technology is called geo-location. See below for more on this.)
  • Generally, the pictures will be of quite low quality. Explanation: What do you think why a guy who earns all that money cannot afford a decent digital camera today? Of course he can. Truth is, those pictures are taken from some ancient archives (I’d guess digitalized from photographs taken in the 70’es or 80’es). Old photo albums, digital or not, are a cheap source of pictures that no-one cares about any more. The low quality is just a side effect of this. (Another side effect: The likelihood anyone would recognize the persons on the picture is close to zero.)
  • All of the family will have a super-contented expression on their faces. The kind of expression that you would associate with normal people who just happened to experience success lately. Purpose: Motivation; Creating a sense of Wow! I want to have such a satisfied face one day.
  • Ultimately, the page will show a picture of a cheque with some non-peanuts sum on it, and will claim it’s the payment they’ve really received recently. Sure. Really my ass. Ever heard of counterfeit money? What do you think does it take to fake a picture of a cheque like that? (Hint: All you need is an empty cheque to start with.) Purpose: Create an emotional state of greed, thus inhibiting brain areas responsible for logic and rational thinking.
  • Almost certainly (and ironically), they will rant about “all the scams on the Internet”, and warn you not to fall for them. At the same time, they will provide some pseudo-arguments (that is, arguments you can not verify yourself) which “prove” that they are no scam. Purpose: Create an impression of seriousness, credibility and trustworthiness.
  • Generally, they will sell you the “program” as something that no-one has thought of before. Sometimes it’s a a new “invention”, but more often a new “unique combination” of existing things that you have already heard about. Purpose: Create a sense of plausibility. An innovation element is needed, because if it’s an old system, why haven’t you heard about it? But, there shall also be a great deal of “good old stuff” in it, because people tend to be suspicious about things that are completely new and unknown to them.
  • Ultimately, the program will require you to submit a payment – a “fee” – in order to participate in it. Usually, the amount you need to pay doesn’t seem like anything you couldn’t afford (until you read the small print, at least). Purpose: Create an emotional state where you would feel like a dumb ass if you didn’t invest that dollar to get a thousand out. Ultimate purpose: Move money from your pocket into theirs.

In general, all these “programs” will expect you to take their promises for granted, and make a payment before you could verify their “offer” in any way.

Once you recognize the scam pattern and get suspicious about it, have a closer look at the page, and pay attention to details. In the example I referred to at the beginning of this post, the page said “This is Mike Smithson from Berlin, 16”. Huh, I thought, what a coincidence that the guy lives in Berlin, like me! It looked suspiciously like geo-location, so I had a look at the HTML source code of the page. Guess what I found?

This is Mike Smithson from
<script language="JavaScript">document.write(geoip_city());</script>,
<script language="JavaScript">document.write(geoip_region());</script>

A-ha! Gotcha!

And this is the straightest way to recognize a scam page: If it automates any aspect of personal identity (something that cannot be automated with a real person), it’s scam.2

Live long and prosper, without scam!

  1. And there are others who are observing these patterns. Here is a post with screen shots of some very typical scam sites. []
  2. Or at least it is fake, but be sure it is faked for the purpose of scam. []

If it is too good to be true, then it is probably too good to be true.

Here is an excerpt from one of the pages that describes the program:

“This program is no different from the tons of other rehashed courses claiming to have the latest method for making money online. They’ll show you how to put up advertisements on Google’s AdWords program and show you how to become a reseller of some substandard eBooks.

If you’re lucky you might have several conversions and make a little bit of money but judging by how many people keep buying these programs the majority end up losing their cash. To make matters worse when you sign up to download the “Free” Google Kit, EarnCashFastWithGoogle.com will sign you up for two additional programs with automatic monthly charges.

So instead of getting something for free what you really get is a 7 day trial period after which you will have to pay $11.95 per month for the EarnCashFastWithGoogle.com and an extra $4.95 and $9.95 a month for the stuff you never even asked for.

This would be tolerable ((My personal remark: No! I don’t think anything in this program is “tolerable”. Really!)) if they made these additional charges clear before you subscribe to the free kit but they purposely print them in tiny print which most people skip over. In the end I would avoid this program for their sneaky billing practices and because there’s no reason to pay a monthly fee for the same info that you could download for a onetime charge.”

If you signed up for the program and you want to get out of it, call 1-866-341-0767.

Below are the links that I used in my research.

Source(s):

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The google search for +”Fast Cash with Google” +complain gave me almost 80’000 results. If there are so many complaints now, there must have been a lot who fell for it before.Powered by Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.5

16 Comments

  • There’s a whole new batch of link-posting scams being pushed now – many of them using the same sales page template (and even testimonials) as a 2009 rebate processing scam named in an FTC complaint (Penbrook Productions).

  • I appreciate the heads up. I have been looking online, seems like everywhere for some kind of work i can do from home. I have an illness that prevents me from driving, so i AM at home, and would like something to do besides watch tv…lol if you have any ideas of where or what i should be looking for, i would appreciate it. every time i enter in data entry, or work from home in the search bars, they always take me to a scam.

    thanks

    • If you search for “work from home” on Google, all you’ll find is scam. If you want to find serious work opportunities, you need to change your search patterns.

      Luvsomebody, I don’t know you, so I can only give a general, not a personal advice. But really, there is no chance that an isolated work-from-home “offer” on the internet could be serious. And those are the ones that you find when you search for “work from home” in Google. It’s because the scammers know people would simple search for that phrase, so they put a lot of effort in making sure they come up first in search results.

      People who have real work to outsource post projects on the relevant freelance marketplaces (ex. elance.com). Why not create a profile on one or more of those marketplaces and apply for projects there?

  • The Get Rich Quick scheme has now taking over the internet…. But one thing i believe is that people who fall for the trap are the greedy ones. They don’t wanna work hard. They want quick cash. Until they realize that hardwork and consistency, they will continue to fall prey.

  • As one who has been taken advantage of in these hard economic times let me say thanks for what you are doing.Kind Regards

  • Good explanation of the posting links scam. You can only make money with Google bu using adsense and become involved with Google by having contextual ads placed on your website and articles.

  • There are so many “Make Money” programs online that are scams. Are there any online programs that are Not scams? Most people don’t mind putting in the work if they can at least reap an avarage profit.

    • Hey Twyla, a new post on the topic is coming soon 🙂

  • I will like to know about the posting procedures on Google and How to get paid through it.

    • Abraham, I don’t favor such programs, so I never cared to find out. You’ll have to find out yourself.

  • tks for the effort you put in here I appreciate it!

  • He is spamming my site too so I googled his name that lead me to your site. I’m glad you posted about him being a scammer. Thanks.

  • whenever a site says anything like “a quick and easy way to make money” this should raise suspicions

  • well this is his new website ..

    http://www.mikesmoneysite.com/

    I thought its true ,, then i decide to do a search about him ,, and i opened this page ,, now i know it is a scam =)

    thank you

  • Update: I just got a “comment” from “Mike Smithson”, the alleged “person” behind http://mikesmoney.myvnc.com/, the site I’ve mentioned in my post as a scam example. “Mike” said he subscribed to my blog.

    Aha?!? Didn’t he read what I’ve written about sites like his?

    Well “he” obviously did, because as of today, the mentioned site does not longer exist.

    This seems to be another scam pattern: Once a scam site is publicly unmasked as such, they close it, and probably reopen it (or a similar one) under a different name and URL. But they do the same things all over again, so… scam alarm bell: rrrring! 😉

    Apropos, “Mike’s” comment was correctly filtered out by Akismet as spam.

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