I was surprised to come across two websites still featuring Kevin Hoeffer and his make money posting links on Google kits.  Websites like www.kevinsmoney-tree.com and www.kevins-money-tree.com were rampant in 2009 until the authorities caught on and launched massive investigations into these fraudulent businesses.

Google itself stepped in and banned the advertising accounts of anyone promoting anything that had to do with make money on Google kits.  These actions seemed to work as these programs disappeared, which makes the reemergence of Kevins Money Tree all the more puzzling, as the owner must know it’s only a matter of time till the sites gets flagged.

Why are The Kevin Hoeffer Money Tree Sites a Scam?

For those who don’t know the back story to this and aren’t sure why these sites are so dangerous let me explain.  Literally everything that has to do with these sites is deceptive in nature: the blog is fake, there is no Kevin Hoeffer, the entire system of getting paid to post links does not exist, and the kits that are sold through these Kevins Money Tree Sites come with hidden monthly charges.

This is why when these sites were in their heyday they generated hundreds of thousands of complaints from customers who got taken into this fabricated story. Ultimately they ended up taking millions of dollars from hard working people just looking to make some extra money.

Realistically the only way to get paid by Google, outside of actually working for the company, is to use the Google AdSense program which pays webmasters for hosting Google Ads on their site.  These can be seen everywhere online from major news sites to popular blogs under the title Ads by Google.  When website visitors click those links the owner of the site gets paid.

On these “Kevins Money Tree” sites the pictures of people holding checks are from this AdSense program, and are used to sell you on the idea that you can make money posting links.  Obviously this is not the case and they’re simply using the pictures to fool you.

Some other deceptive tactics that they use are geographically targeted sales pitches based on your IP Address.  For instance if you visit the site from Alabama it will say Hi I’m Kevin Hoeffer from, closest town to you, Alabama.  I haven’t seen this script installed on these two newest sites, www.kevinsmoney-tree.com and www.kevins-money-tree.com but I know it’s a tactic they used in the past.

Bottom line is stay away from Kevin Hoeffer and whatever Kit of the week is being pushed through his site as you’ll only end up regretting it.

The BlackBelt Profit System is the latest work at home kit to hit the internet.  This program is being aggressively advertised through many online mediums with highly enticing tag lines, all promising work at home riches.

The website, tryblackbeltprofits.com, uses the standard Google kit template and business model.  This translates to a website that doesn’t tell you much about what you’re investing in, only that you’ll be joining other successful people and that it’s been advertised on CNN.

The other more alarming characteristic that the Black Belt Profit System picks up from the Google kits is the deceptive billing practice.  If you don’t carefully read the fine print before ordering this product you’ll be very unpleasantly surprised.

Here’s what they hope you don’t see:

By placing my order, I agree to the Terms of Offer, which explain that I must cancel within 10 days of today to avoid annual membership fee of $149.95 and enrollment in monthly delivery program. Delivery program ships fresh supply and charges $12.95 monthly. All charges will be charged to same card provided today. To cancel anytime call: 866-445-4241.

They market the kit for a trial period for just $3.95, but based on past reviews of similar products I can tell you that the majority of people who sign up never read the fine print.  In fact by the time most folks notice the monthly billings and large fees they’ve already been charged multiple times.

Even if you do read the fine print and understand the additional charges that are forthcoming the other thing that you need to be aware of is that they start counting your trial from the day you purchase not from the day that you receive your kit.  This basically means that your 10 day trial is really 10 days minus delivery time.

The fact that the BlackBelt Profit System has to resort to this sneaky billing method to extract as much money from their customers as possible is very telling of their product’s quality.  If they had a solid training course of real value then they wouldn’t have to rely on these types of tactics to make money.

These kinds of kits have been exposed numerous times here and on many other websites.  There are always tons of customer complaints ranging from difficulty in obtaining refunds to unhappiness with the actual product.

Bottom line is that courses like the BlackBelt Profit System take basic internet marketing information, like how to be an affiliate marketer and how to post ads on Google for profit and weave them into this messy billing scheme.

The owners of the kit do this for as long as people keep buying their product.  When the inevitable bad press catches up with them all they do is change the name of the program, swap out some graphics, and reinvent the company under a different name.

This is why the BlackBelt Profit System is probably the one hundredth reincarnation of the original Google kit scam.  Since then the only things that have changed is that Google has sued to keep its name out of their advertisements and the FTC has added their own additional regulations.

The only affect that this has had on proponents of these types of scams is that their sales pitch is now even vaguer then it’s ever been.  Again, if you signed up for the BlackBelt Profit System and need to cancel use this number 866-445-4241, if that fails report the charges to your credit card or bank as fraudulent.

I just ran across an ad for Quick Profit Kit (quickprofitkit.com) and I must say that as far as make money from Google kits go this one stands alone.  It’s clear that the owners of the site have heeded FTC and Google warnings to restrain claims and associations made in their sales pitch, but is that really enough to separate them from the rest of the Google scams?

These so called Google kits have inflicted so much damage on the public that the FTC had to issue new guidelines for all internet marketers to follow.  And because these scammers were using Google’s name to deceive consumers the search engine giant was forced to step in with a lawsuit of their own.

So where and how does the Quick Profit Kit fit in?  For starters,  they’re using the exact same template to sell their information product as the hundreds of scammers who were breaking the law.  The only difference being some minor changes in wording for compliance purposes.

For instance instead of saying “as seen on NBC, CNN, and Yahoo!…” they’re saying “This type of product has been featured on NBC, CNN, and Yahoo!…” also to avoid complications from Google they say “Quick Profit Kit using Google as opposed to implying that they’re offering a job working for Google.

In addition to these minor changes, which some might argue is just an exercise in semantics; they cite a long list of infractions perpetrated by their scammy competitors which they abstain from.  Ironically, the Quick Profit Kit is just as guilty as the companies they lambaste.

So is the Quick Profit Kit Different or a Scam like the Rest?

While they do make an effort to comply with new internet marketing regulations and even set strict guidelines for their affiliates it’s hard to commend them for these actions.  Rest assured everything that they do is for their own benefit not yours.

The reason they want to restrain their affiliates from making outlandish claims about their product is not to protect the consumer but simply because as part of the new FTC guidelines they can be held accountable for the actions of their affiliates.

Likewise they don’t care about making sure that you don’t get the wrong idea about their product, all the changes they’ve made to the wording in their pitch are done simply to keep them from being sued for false advertising.

The real reason why I don’t think the Quick Profit Kit is any different from their scam competitors is because despite all the “good faith” changes they didn’t address the main problem with these Google kits, and that’s the negative option billing practice.

They offer you the kit for a $2.95 trial but if you read the fine print you’ll see that you have only 2 days to decide if you want to keep it.  Afterwards you’ll be charged a whopping $79.86 for every month that you don’t cancel.

Considering that they’re selling information on how to use Google which can be found for much cheaper if not for free this is a huge rip-off.  Moreover, if they were as confident in their product as they claim to be then they’d let you try it out for more than just the unreasonable two days before charging you the full amount.

If you signed up for the kit without reading the fine print you can call this number to cancel, (866)-451-4235.

Another red flag that I noticed is that there seems to be a discrepancy of where the company behind the Quick Profit Kit is located. The domain, quickprofitkit.com is registered to:

but on their contact page they list the address a:

which is fine except that on their false advertising page they list the address as:

Which is very worrisome as some of the most notorious scams have come out of the country of Cyprus, it also means greater difficulty in getting your money back.

Google Profusion has been advertising their work at home kit worldwide for several months now.  They use highly enticing ads like, “Make $5,000 a Month Posting Links on Google,” to get people’s attention. Moreover, this company uses focused advertising to target single parents, the recently unemployed, and those desperate for additional money.

This may be news to some people but the truth is that Google Profusion is not offering a new concept or opportunity.  In fact they’re simply trying to cash in on the latest work at home craze by offering their own Google Kit.

For the past several years law enforcement, government authorities, and most recently even Google themselves have been battling a plague of scammers using the Google name to rip-off the public.  This is not just a simple scam but a complex web of lies that’s been used to fleece millions of dollars from honest people.

The Google Profusion scam works is in two separate stages.  In the first you are sold the idea that this is an amazing product that can make you thousands of dollars with very little effort.  Now this is done via one of two methods, in the first the ad you click takes you to a fake blog that details how a person from your hometown has been using this product to make money.

In the second method the ad you click takes you to a fake news article that profiles a work at home parent who’s been using Google Profusion to make a full time income from home.  In both scenarios this company makes use of bogus testimonials, fake positive comments, unauthorized use of trademarked logos, and other tactics of deception.

Now keep in mind this is all done just to get you to the order page, once there things get even worse for you.  The way that companies like Google Profusion make their money is not by adhering to traditional business models, i.e. create a good product and earn income from satisfied customers.

No, they’ve figured out that it’s much easier to make money by taking advantage of people’s trust and negligence.  Basically, if you don’t read the fine print you’re going to be out a lot of cash.  At the bottom of GoogleProfusion.com in their terms and conditions you’ll find this paragraph…

The initial handling charge of three dollars and eighty eight cents, includes the Google profusion kit as well as three days worth of access to the profitprofusion.com website. After three days, if you choose not to cancel, your first monthly membership fee of fifty nine dollars and ninety five cents will not be refunded. Membership fees will be charged to the credit card used by you to complete the transaction. Prior charges for all programs are non-refundable but bonus subscriptions can be cancelled and future charges stopped at any time by calling toll-free 800-934-0785 Anytime.

If you choose to sign up for this product and pay the recurring monthly charges using a debit card you hereby provide pre-authorization and consent that profitprofusion.com may charge sixty dollars on a monthly basis.

You will also receive a free 7-day trial to Rebate Millionaire and a free 14-day trial to Network Agenda. After the trial period, you will be charged $19.95 and $9.95 a month thereafter, if you choose not to cancel. Cancel any time by calling 800-934-0785.

Note how they purposely write out the numbers instead of printing them as numerals, another deceptive tactic to get you to overlook how much this is actually going to cost you.  Oh, and they also take the liberty of signing you up for additional programs with monthly charges.  If you signed up and need to cancel use the numbers above to do so, make sure to cancel everything.

Again this is nothing new and in fact Google Profusion is late in the game because these deceptive “negative option” offers are now under heavy fire in the US and Google is currently suing the creators of a similar site.  However, these people are still finding plenty of targets outside the US.

As far as the actual course material is concerned the info that they sell is readily available for free online.  They simply instruct you on how to use Google Adwords to advertise products, using tutorials which can be found in Google’s own help pages and forums for free.

Bottom line is that companies like Profusion are clearly in this to make money from people who agree to terms that they never would have if not for the deception and highly exaggerated profit claims.  Beware this scam also goes by the name of “Profit Profusion.”

The release of the Google Home Income Kit signifies one thing and that’s that new laws and regulations will do little to deter misleading and fraudulent business practices.  These so called Google kits have been plaguing the internet for over a year now and it’s clear that they’re not slowing down.

Several months ago the FTC issued new guidelines for the internet marketing industry yet their affect seems minuscule.  It does seem that proponents of these Google Kits are more careful these days, in the past they made outrageous claims like, “Make $500 – $1,000 a Day Posting links on Google.” Now their subdued pitch simply reads, “You Could Make a Lot of Money Working With Google,” sadly this seems to be the only evidence of increased legal compliance.

You See There are 2 Major Problems with How Google Home Income kit is Marketed…

First off, more likely than not you came across it through a misleading “newspaper” article, basically an ad that is made to look like an online newspaper featuring a story about a successful work at home Mom/Dad who’ve been using Google Home Income to make a fortune.

These fake sites use a host of tricks to make their cheap site look completely legitimate.  They add weather reports, fake comments, advertisements, and most deceptively an IP reading script that customizes the newspaper based on your location.

Here’s an example of one of these fake sites…

The article is very misleading and does not explain with any accuracy what you’re really buying into.  When you sign up for these kits you’ll get access to a website that features internet marketing information, specifically showing you how to use Google AdWords to sell products for a commission.

They never tell you that you need to have money to invest as Google’s ad system operates on a pay per click basis, and they don’t tell you that you can easily lose money with this system.

The second problem with Google Home Income is in their billing process.  They advertise the kit for 1 dollar, but if you read the fine print you’ll see that it actually costs much more than that.

By submitting this form you are ordering Creative Synergy Training and the trial membership for $1.00 Instant Access. If you do not cancel within the 3-day trial period, you will be charged a one-time amount of $129.95. In addition, you will be provided access to an online Learning Center which will bill at $39.98, unless you cancel, 30-days from the date of enrollment and you will be re-billed every 30 days at $39.98 per month until cancelled. To cancel call 877-557-5473 M-F, 7am-5pm, MST within 3 days of the date you ordered. As special bonus gifts, you will also receive a Risk Free 14-day Trial membership to Home Source. You may cancel anytime during the trial period by calling 1-800-537-0984 M-F, 8am-5pm, MDT. If membership is continued you will automatically be charged $29.95 a month.

There’s nothing wrong with having a program that charges a monthly fee for its continual use but as you can see here, Google Home Income is simply out to rob their customers.  If they really were sincere about offering a trial of their product they would allow you more than 3 days to do so.  They also wouldn’t sign you up for all the additional monthly programs that you need to cancel.

If you ordered Google Home Income, without reading their terms and conditions, you can cancel buy calling the phone numbers above.  Remember to call both numbers and cancel each program separately to avoid any extra charges.

So is Google Home Income a Scam?

I think it’s pretty clear that these are not people you want to do business with.  I can’t think of any legitimate company on or offline that I’ve ever done business with that uses this type of misleading billing practice.

It’s clear that the way they make their money is by running up the bill on people who, in their desperate need for money and work, failed to read the fine print.  I’d recommend staying far away from Google Home Income as they’ll leave you with nothing but a headache and an empty wallet.