Internet Scams

Internet Cash Machine Reviews – Legit or Scam?

May 19th, 2010  |  Published in Internet Scams

Several people have been asking about a make money online scheme called internet cash machine. Unfortunately no one has provided a link to this program so it’s been hard for me to track it down. An online search didn’t reveal the actual website for Internet Cash Machine which is definitely not a good sign as far as it being legit.

The search did reveal a bunch of complaints against this program which mostly likely means that they’ve taken down the offer or are only promoting it through email. From the nature of the complaints this seems to be a website that utilizes ‘negative option billing’, not one of my favorite things…..

This means they offer it as a trial for a low fee then continue to bill you a monthly charge until you cancel. There’s nothing wrong with trial offers, but these guys tend to hide the monthly payment part deep in the terms and conditions and most people skim over that part and never cancel in time to avoid the extra charges. Some companies also make it very hard to cancel by completely ignoring you once they have your credit card number.

I would say that if you are looking to make some money online then internet cash machine is probably not going to be your answer. I’m still looking for more information on this though, so if you come across this offer then post a link in the comment section below.

If you're at Reviewopedia.com because you're looking for a way to make money online then check out our article "7 Ways to Make Money Online" - methods that anyone can use to earn an income from home.

 

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Giveaway Recruiters Reviews
Is GiveawayRecruiters.com Legit or a Scam?

April 14th, 2010  |  Published in Internet Scams

Giveaway recruiters is a new product that claims to teach people how to make money by giving away free samples.  This concept is relatively new and the information that they’re selling has never been marketed from this angle.

They claim that thousands of companies need people like you to help give away their products everyday online.  Thus, giveaway recruiters is here to show you how you can get started in this supposedly lucrative field.

At first glance this opportunity seems legit and even worthy of an endorsement since they take a solid marketing concept and combine it with a home business model; however when you take time to thoroughly examine GiveawayRecruiters.com and all their claims the story takes a turn for the worse.

What is the Giveaway Recruiters Coaching Program All About?

Basically what they teach you is internet marketing, the method of promoting products online through websites, paid advertising, and search engines.  Companies provide you with special tracking links to be used in your promotions and when an online user follows your link and completes a purchase you get credited with the sale and earn yourself a nice commission.

This in itself is a great way to make money online but requires a lot of dedication and should be treated with the same seriousness as any offline business.  Now, the idea with Giveaway Recruiters is that they provide you with a list of companies who offer products for “free.”

These products are much easier to promote and have high commissions, obviously a person is much more willing to sign up for something that’s free rather than pay money upfront.

So is Giveaway Recruiters Legit or a Scam?

While they do make a very believable case for their program there are tons or red flags that someone inexperienced in internet marketing is simply unable to see.  First off, from the blurry pictures on their site you can barely make out which products they want you to promote and they’re definitely not good.

The products are sold through “free” trials; initially a customer only pays for shipping and handling however after they submit their billing info the company proceeds to charge them high monthly fees as part of their continuity programs.  These additional fees are hidden in fine print and buried in the terms and condition pages where customers have a hard time finding them.

This is how these companies can pay you commissions of $40 – $60 for each “free” product that you give away.  In the long run they make much more off the customer then what they pay you to sucker them into this billing nightmare.

These types of products have scammed hundreds of thousands of people in a variety of categories, everything from Google Kit Scams to Acai Berry Diet Scams.  And Giveaway Recruiters is here to teach you how to get in on this illicit action.

I can only assume that Giveaway Recruiters is offered at such a low price because they’ve worked out deals with the companies they want you to promote to get a piece of every sale you make for them.

Finally, the last red flag for GiveawayRecruiters.com is that the website is owned by a company doing business out of Cyprus, a region notorious for producing some of the worst internet scams to date.  It should be pretty clear that this program is not recommended since they essentially train you how to become a pseudo-scammer yourself.

If you're at Reviewopedia.com because you're looking for a way to make money online then check out our article "7 Ways to Make Money Online" - methods that anyone can use to earn an income from home.

 

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Ultimate Home Based Wealth Reviews – Legit or Scam?

March 23rd, 2010  |  Published in Google Kit Scams, Internet Scams

The latest installment in a series of work at home kits, Ultimate Home Based Wealth (www.ultimatehomebasedwealth.com) makes its debut. As with the majority of these kits the promoters will claim that you don’t need any experience to start and that you’ll learn how to work with leading search engines and social media networks.

What these kits consist of are courses and tutorials in internet marketing. They’ll show you how to promote other peoples’ products through various online mediums. They don’t tell you much information upfront but currently this is the most prevalent method of making money online.

Now there’s nothing wrong with internet marketing, it’s a legitimate method for earning a living and is the farthest thing from a scam. However, the reason that programs like “Ultimate Home Based Wealth” get torn apart by customers is twofold.

First off they never give you the full story of what this opportunity entails and often promote it through misleading ads. They’ll say things like, “get paid to post links on Google” and other misconceptions that convince people this is a traditional job or a series of simple tasks they can do for money.

In reality when it comes to internet marketing you work for yourself and only get paid when your marketing efforts generate enough internet traffic that you start seeing some sales. You only get paid when people buy the products that you’re promoting.

Now the second reason that kits like Ultimate Home Based Wealth get riddled with negative customer complaints is because of their billing practices. In this case they advertise Ultimate Home Based Wealth for an initial trial fee of $2.97. However there’s much more to that than meets the eye

This one takes the cake when it comes to hidden charges and deceptive billing. After you fill in your personal info you’ll be taken to an order screen that looks like this.

Underneath the itemized cost you’ll see some small print which states,

See the full terms of this offer for full details as they explain that if you take advantage of the trial you only pay $2.97 today instead of the regular monthly membership price of $19.71 and the one time join fee of $129.96. If you enjoy the trial please call customer service to provide feedback of purchase at a special discount of 10%, or call the same number to let us know if you do not want to continue or be billed for the program after the trial. Call 1-877-456-2472.

The wording is purposefully vague, not to mention hard to read. If you’re not careful you might get the impression that you’re only paying the $2.97 but if you keep reading and check out their full terms and conditions you’ll find out the truth.

Once you submit your payment information your trial will begin, after which you have 2 days to decide if you want to keep the product. If you don’t cancel within that time then they’ll bill you a nonrefundable fee of $129.96 and will begin monthly charges of $19.71 and a monthly account maintenance fee of $3.85 until you tell them to stop.

Now I hope you’re starting to see why there’s never anything good said about programs like Ultimate Home Based Wealth. Tons of people fall for these without ever seeing these added charges, in this case they’ve made their offer even more sinister by including the nonrefundable clause for the main fee.

It’s clear that they’re simply trying to catch people sleeping at the wheel, realistically even if you did read the terms and conditions how could 2 days possibly be enough time to review all the materials and decide if it’s worth the high cost.

If you did fall for this and want to cancel call their customer service number, 1-877-456-2472, from the looks of things it seems like getting that $129 charge reversed will be a real problem, your best bet will be to report the charges as fraudulent to your bank or credit card company.

If you're at Reviewopedia.com because you're looking for a way to make money online then check out our article "7 Ways to Make Money Online" - methods that anyone can use to earn an income from home.

 

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Kevin Hoeffer Strikes Again
Kevin’s Money Tree Scam Still Operating

March 10th, 2010  |  Published in Google Kit Scams, Internet Scams

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.

If you're at Reviewopedia.com because you're looking for a way to make money online then check out our article "7 Ways to Make Money Online" - methods that anyone can use to earn an income from home.

 

Acai Optimum Reviews
Is AcaiOptimum.com Legit or a Scam?

March 4th, 2010  |  Published in Internet Scams

Acai Optimum is a website that offers acai weight loss supplements through a free trial offer.  It is also one of the last acai websites still allowing its affiliates to market their product through deceptive advertising.  If you heard about this company chances are it was through one of the many advertisements plastered all over the internet.

The ad that you probably saw is one of the sneakiest marketing strategies developed to date, and frankly I would not be surprised to find out if it was technically illegal.  When you click the advertisement you’re taken to what looks like a newspaper article profiling the Acai berry and making it out to be the miracle cure of the future.

The site is designed to look like a professional news outlet using everything from weather charts to videos and other tricks to make you feel like you’re at a legitimate news source.  However this is not the case; the site has only one page on it and contains no real reports or articles, it’s strictly created to sell you Acai Optimum.

Click the image on the right to see an example of such an article.  You can see that at the very top it even says “Advertorial” and you can be sure that none of the links work, they simply take you to the acai trial offer.

So is Acai Optimum a Scam?

The claim made by Acai Optimum is that taking their supplement will help you increase stamina and help your body minimize fat storage of foods that you eat.  They imply that this will help you lose weight, but at the bottom of the page they do stipulate that none of the claims they make are evaluated by the FDA.

Now, I’m not a dietitian that has studied the acai berry, so it’s not my place to debate the health benefits of these products.  I can tell you my opinion is that the whole Acai berry craze has been completely blown out of proportion with so many baseless claims being made you’d think it’s the next miracle cure.  It may very well be healthy for you but I can almost assure you it’s no miracle cure-all.

The other aspect to Acai Optimum that causes many people to call it a scam is in their business model.  Their whole purposes is to get you signed up for the trial period, however the trials is immediately followed by continual monthly billing.

It’s called a “negative option billing”, meaning you have to take action to stop being charged, and it’s pretty heavily frowned upon by the FTC.  If you don’t read the terms and conditions you might miss this information which states that,

If you do not cancel your order within the 14 Day Trial Period and return the Product to us within 30 days after you cancel your order, your credit card on file will be charged $79.98. If after your 14 Day Trial Period you wish to continue to receive AcaiOptimum, simply do nothing, and in approximately 30 days and continuing every 60 days thereafter (a Recurring Order), you’ll be shipped out a fresh new 60 day supply of AcaiOptimum for the low price of just $49.00 per bottle with FREE shipping. For your convenience, we will bill the credit card you provided us for your initial order.” Remember, you can cancel at any time by contacting our Customer Care Department at 1-877-825-1528 or online at acoptimumcs.com.

From what people are saying, canceling the Acai Optimum trial seems like a nightmarish headache since they want you to first contact them for a Return Merchandise Authorization RMA number and then ship the product back to them.  Many customers have complained of telephone numbers not working and staff being unresponsive.  If you need more canceling instructions call them at the above number.

Acai berry products are in really high demand right now and their price reflects that.  No one is giving them away for free and if you have signed up for a seemingly “free trial” I can assure you that you’ve just signed up for an overpriced continual billing plan and that you will have a heck of a time trying to cancel it.

After doing a fair bit of research, I’ve found only one legitimate business that sells acai supplements online.  They’re certified by the BBB with zero complaints, sell 100% pure freeze dried Acai (highest form available), and offer their products cheaper than the scam sites and with no sneaky re-bills.

AcaiBerrySite.com is by far the most reputable retailer of Acai products so if you do decide to try it, I would definitely advise you to purchase it there.


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