Is that a Legitimate Online Business Opportunity?
I received a note from my friend Jennifer that included a website URL and the question “Have you heard of this – is it legit?“
After a brief look at the site which is promoting a product called “Easy Google Profit”, I could tell why she thought it might have been a legitimate online business opportunity. The site looks very professional. With the title Canada Job Journal and a newpaper-like appearance (see screenshot below), most business opportunity seekers would want to trust that the information is both authoritative and objective.
Unfortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth, in this particular case.
To weed out legitimate online business opportunities from scams, you need to fortify yourself with a healthy dose of skepticism and be prepared to dig deeper to discover the truth before you lay out your hard-earned money on such offers.
In cases such as this one – you’ll quickly discover that the writer is less than honest.
Immediately below the article title “Jobs: Is Working Online At Home The Next Gold Rush?” was a line that read “Posted by Anthony on March 15th, 2009 and filed under Finance“, yet there are no links to this supposed journal’s categories, Finance or otherwise.
The next item is a graphic stating “As seen on ABC, AOL, CNN, MSNBC and USA Today”, along with each of those companies logos. You might think “WOW! This must REALLY be good if CNN is endorsing it“, however, if you do a search for the product name and any one of those company names, you’ll come up with a bunch of Google search results about what a scam this product is.
My B.S. meter went into High Alert while reading the second line of the first paragraph, “Mary, a mother from Penticton, BC is thriving…“
ANY time you see the name of your hometown on a business opportunity website, you should be alert to the fact that the webmaster is probably using a little programming trick.
Sure enough, when I used WorldProxy202 to see what surfers from both the U.S. and the U.K. would see when reading the same page, the sentence changed to “Mary, a mother from ,is thriving…“
If that isn’t sufficient proof, do a View > Page Source on the page and you’ll see the javascipt coding as follows:
<code><script src=”http://j.maxmind.com/app/geoip.js”></script><script type=”text/javascript”><!–
document.write(geoip_city());
// –></script>, <script type=”text/javascript”><!–
document.write(geoip_region());
// –></script></code>
If that little bit of trickery doesn’t convince you to close the page, then this next discovery definitely should have you running away.
You’ve seen ads on websites thousands of times, right?
Normally, clicking on the different headlines will take you to DIFFERENT sites. Well, in this case, they AREN’T ads. It’s a picture that leads to only ONE link which is easy enough to discern if you see the ‘hand’ come up on your cursor everywhere within the ad area, and not just when you cursor over a link.
As a matter of fact, if you take the time to cursor over every link on the page, you would notice that each one is exactly the same – and they all go to the same offer.
If you need MORE incentive to reject the offer, take a look at what appear to be comments from site visitors.
Each one is either favorable to the offer, or there is a question that someone answers with a ‘proof of earnings’ graphic – because of course a professional journal wouldn’t be posting images from inside someone’s Google account.
Moreover, the comments are always ‘closed due to spam’, (see bottom of the screenshot) because the webmaster wouldn’t want REAL visitors posting REAL comments or asking REAL questions.
To up the ante, the webmaster adds an article from the Vancouver Sun (CanWest Publishing) about the current state of the economy as it relates to employment. Of course, the news is pretty dire and therefore gives visitors incentive to WANT to make ‘Easy Google Profit’ working from home on their computers.
However, the Copyright Permission and Rules on Canada.com pertaining to Canwest newspaper Web sites clearly specify that “commercial uses including publication, retransmission, broadcast, posting to newsgroups, mail lists or electronic bulletin boards, circulation, selling, reproduction or redistribution in any medium are prohibited, except with the prior written approval of the copyright owner“.
Here’s what Google actually had to say about these systems…:
Of late, we’ve received a few emails from new AdSense applicants about not being accepted into the program despite paying a specific amount of money or buying a CD package.
We’d like to take this opportunity to state that we’re not affiliated with any third-parties that solicit payment to join the AdSense program or that sell CDs with money-back guarantee offers. AdSense is a free product offered to publishers by Google Inc., and there’s no cost or obligation involved. As a result, we recommend that prospective publishers exercise caution when presented with such offers.
Bottom line – scammers exist only because there are legions of people who still believe in “overnight riches” with no work involved – aka “suckers”.
Don’t be a sucker – do your homework!
While Google Adsense is one way to make money online, you’ll earn only pennies for each person that clicks on those links. To make dollars instead, learn how to sell real products and services from your website as an affiliate marketer – read the Super Affiliate Handbook – a real step-by-step guide that teaches you how to build a real and sustainable online business in affiliate marketing.
Want more info?
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant.
If you enjoyed this article and want to be notified the next time Rosalind writes something, subscribe to her RSS feed or the No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Thanks for visiting!
Related Posts
- What Help Do You Need with Your Online Business?
- How Common Courtesy Benefits Your Online Business
- How do I Start an Online Business with a Bad Credit Rating?
- How Much Does it Cost to Start an Online Business?
- How Much Money Can I Make Online?
What are normal people to do these days? There is no way that any normal online surfer would ever notice these things. Heck I’m not even sure I would have noticed them. I’m not for Internet policing but stopping these things will require something to change…
Mikael
Google emplyee says…
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AppSecurity/thread?tid=6a3f72dff51354af&hl=en
These bogus ads are all over the internet. I’ve even seen some experienced marketers posting in forums who have almost fallen for this scam thinking the ads are from real newspapers. The “newspapers” always have names like the Missouri Sun or some other traditional newspaper name. What’s really sad is that these ads are appearing on sites like Yahoo! and MSN. This seems to me to be a variation on the old “earn thousands of dollars for typing ads at home” scams. It’s in a prettier package this time but it’s the same tired old con.
You have definitely pointed out some fine points that I had not thought of in terms of doing my due diligence when reviewing business opportunity offers. The points about looking at the source code, and being skeptical about my home town appearing in a business opportunity ad really hit home. These are two more tools in my arsenal for spotting a scam.
Lots of obvious signs of a crappy business opportunity (or all out scam) when you are looking at it from the eyes of seasoned internet marketers like us. However, the average person would easily fall for it and that’s what they are banking on. The scams are always evolving and it really sucks for several reasons, including the fact that it gives us legitimate online business people a bad name because everyone lumps us in with the scammers.
Yes, we all knew that there are a lot of scammers out there but you can trust your six sense before you join, and there are a lot of people who are earning thousands of dollars every day through white hat marketing and not scammers ablsolutely.
I just saw that same ad (with the name of a “Mary” in my city) but a different publication name (World News something). It’s tedious, but I ALWAYS read the TOS. In this case, in the small print they tell you that your kit costs $1 for shipping & handling, but they will charge your credit card $77.82/mo. for your “membership”. This scam is also known as the “Google Money Tree”, which falsely states that it’s free – unless you read the small print, of course. I hate these scammers!
Ros,
I am SICK of people trying to sell me the next “get rich quick on the internet” scheme… Is ethical business dead? I hope not! Don’t these people have better things to do?
Thanks for listening…
I have little to ZERO sympathy on any member of the public who gets stung by ads like this (this being one of the very worst!)
Its really C-O-M-M-O-N-S-E-N-S-E…
1. if it is seen by AOL, CNN, MSN-NBC, USA Today, like, CONTACT THE NEWSBOARDS/NEWSPAPER DIRECT! People, we all know you need cash in this recession, but still, a little bit of time spent on simple Q&A investigation will not harm you…its your wallet after all
2. the interface and format of http://canadajobjournal.com/ content pages alone will tell you there ads do not correspond with the format of their main interface
3. let me even help you all. would you really want a clickthrough rate of 12% paying pennies per click or a 12% clickthrough rate paying anything from £10 bucks + per affiliate-based product?? get Rosalind Gardners Super Affiliate Handbook and suck up ALL her information on her blog and articles
If people are ‘nailed’ by these types of ads…its because they “really” do NOT want to (as a basic standard!) create original content, provide a service, generate and feed a customer base; its called good honest days work…stop thinking about having an ‘autopilot business’ where you can sit on your backside and push out money at a click of a button on some ‘automated plug and play website’ (live in a dreamworld if you really want to!)
These things will NEVER give affiliate marketing a bad name…ever, so people please don’t be concerned about this; its not really hard to make people see that being a ‘legitimate’ affiliate is an honest business to run and be part of
“Easy Google Profit”…shame on you all!
Hi Michael,
Thanks much for your kind endorsement of the Super Affiliate Handbook and especially your good advice re doing a ‘good honest days work’. So VERY true.
Autopilot comes AFTER you’ve done the work.
Cheers,
Ros
Thanks Ros
also, can someone say LAWSUIT to Google Money Tree?
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/tx_googlemoney.html
i would not have noticed the extra details that Rosalind did, because as soon as I had seen the trumpeting AS SEEN ON copy i’d have known that i was looking at a highly suspicious offer. but the javascript that pulls the location of the surfer into the ad copy is interesting. i am sure that kind of functionality can be used in legitimate ways to increase the appeal of offers. – Stephen
Like Rosalind says, its better to sell real products, that you stand behind
Rosalind what great information and insider tips that can help us all to become more aware and not get scammed. Desperate people or impatient and don’t want to do their homework. None of us want to believe the old adage, “If it looks to good to be true, it usually is.” In these challenging economic times it’s easy to let our guards down and ignore signs of a scam or deals that offer quick and easy money. Thanks for reminding us to be cauctious and aware of all “deals” that may come our way.
Hi Dennis,
I like that you mentioned “Desperate people or impatient and don’t want to do their homework“.
Perhaps it’s the ex air traffic controller in me, but it would seem that when times get incredibly tough (or stressful) that’s when we MOST need to take a deep breath and focus harder on making sound decisions — less emotion (certainly no feelings of desperation allowed), more thought.
Cheers,
Ros
Most internet ads are bogus, lets all be wary because getting easy money is very enticing but working hard for money is more long term and it poses more opportunity to grow than making an easy buck but you’ll be stuck in a rut.
Ros-
Thanks for pointing out your thought process in uncovering what this person is up to. You describe several things to look for that I would have never noticed.
Unfortunately, scams are as plentiful as ever and the scammers are getting ever more sophisticated.
I’ve been following up on several internet offers in the green business sector so that I can write about legitimate ones. I’ve managed to get a few of the people responsible for questionable offers on the phone. It’s amazing how they scramble once they face a few simple questions regarding track record and experience. I’ve had two hang up on me when I asked if it would be possible to interview current clients.
Be careful out there!
Dave
Hi Dave,
Thanks kindly for your comment. I really appreciate your mention of the example of really doing your due diligence with merchants… get them on the phone. Yes!
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Ros,
Here’s a GREAT idea…why don’t you create a SPECIAL REPORT to go alongside your SAH or use it as a PRE-SELL item with small, bum marketing headstart tips before anyone purchasing SAH
Great work Ros as ever, I think this type of scam-ads have really burned on people minds and you done a great job bring more awareness for more online ethical W@H practices.
I think your message is not get rich quick…its get rich with ‘ethical dilligence’.
Many thanks,
Michael
I read about “Easy Google Profit” product in a newspaper article. But after a simple search on Google found that it is a completely scam. People complain and that said that you just will lose your money. They even charge their cards without permission.
Hi Arjan,
Doing a search on the product name like you did is probably the best way to quickly determine the validity of a product. Thanks for your comment!
Cheers,
Ros
Thankyou for the extra tips an inexperienced person can be on the look-out for in ads such as these. Having fallen once for this type of thing, and realizing 5 minutes later too late that it appeared I had just locked myself into a huge subscription payment for the rest of my life, I can only tell you the advice I got from my credit card company.
I received a confirmation email of which I was to reply, and this looked to me like it would trigger “something.” The credit card company told me to not open that email. Always create a new one if you wish to correspond with the company you have just signed up for. In my case, this company gave me 5 days from acceptance of their product (and I am assuming opening the email would have triggered that officially) to back out. I was advised, in the newly created email, to repeat those terms back to them as you decline membership.
Send them a newly created email every day, and title it “notice #2″, “notice #3″ and so on, and clearly repeat the terms right back at them. Clearly state that as per “their terms” you are exercising your right to back out.
Print your emails and keep them. If you can get in touch with them by phone, do it and talk like you mean business. If they tell you “ok, you are un-subscribed,” demand an email to that effect. When you get it, copy it and keep it. Send an email verifying that you have received their notice. I put on the bottom of all of my emails to them, that it appeared that copies of these emails were always going to my financial institution as well.
You are building, if nothing else, documented efforts to challenge future credit card billings. And though I demanded my credit card number be cancelled and changed, (which the bank did not want to do at first, until I begged and pleaded repeatedly), be aware that charges can still be made on the old number and applied to the new card. Still, it made me feel better.
And as per the advice of my credit card company, I had sufficient documentation to show that at least I made every effort to cancel. And that’s what counts…my credit card. What they told me to do, I did.
So, I lost 6 dollars because of my stupidity, and for not doing my homework, but that’s ok. My credit card company is happy, and that’s the main thing.
I hope this helps someone.
Reminds of the ad.. Christian mom makes $5400 in 60 days, learn how..blah, blah, blah… very similar to this scam. Actually, might be same one just a different ad ploy to it. This is one time i dont mind the FTC involvement.
Van
Nice and very useful article for the people who are beginner or who wants to start the business.
Yep! And you’d be surprised who’s posting these all over the place. It’s advertising fraud. However, this is a great trick because you could spin this in a “truthful” way and make it work. For example, take any testimonial from a program and create the page about that person if you can find details.. You can take this newspaper example and make it your own and make it truthful and it could generate affiliate commissions.
Funny. I wrote about the exact same scam in my blog, except in my example its called The Daily Herald. Pretty funny. Greats stuff
ya, u pointed out really an important issue. I also once came across such fraud, a company which sold me CD package on the name of Google ad sense program. thank for posting such a informative blog and making people aware. i have also visited Super Affiliate Handbook site which contains lots of information. thank you very much!
What a great post. Even I also got that website once and looking website only I came to know it’s a GREAT SCAM. lol..They are showing as it is very easy to make money through Google and anybody can become rich overnight..
I learned few new tips to find a SCAM site. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Rosalind, thanks for posting this. I’m from the Philippines and been living in Singapore since 2000.
I read the article and just reading the first paragraph sounded like a scam. The sentence is already a scam alert – “Jennifer, a mother from Singapore, 00 is thriving”. This looked like a product of an article writing software. There is no such thing like “Singapore, 00″. The software may have taken a city and a state (e.g. CA, NY, etc) from a database. In this case, there is no state for Singapore, obviously so a default value of “00″ appeared.
If the article is talking about Singapore – the city-state in Southeast Asia – then, Jennifer Pallin is an expatriate (on Employment Pass or as a Permanent Resident). If Jennifer lost her job, her Employment Pass should have been cancelled and she cannot stay in Singapore as a self-employed mother. One cannot work here (self-employed or employee) in Singapore without a legal Employment Pass or a Dependant’s Pass.
Jennifer may have a Dependant’s Pass, through her husband’s Employment Pass. However, the image caption that says “Jennifer Pallin worked 4 years as a manager in the local hardware store”, tells us that she was on Employment Pass. Managerial jobs are not for Dependant’s Pass holders.
Again, the article says she worked as a “manager in the local hardware store” is a joke. This is a job that a local Singaporean can do. Just looking at the picture, Jennifer is 99.9% non-Singaporean.
Oh well, this is not the first article that I have read about many online Job Opportunities with a testimonial from someone who doesn’t look like they are from the place they said they were.
Nice post!
It took me a while to understand what Geo-targeting means. I used a Thai proxy server and it displayed “Mary, a mother from Bangkok, Thailand”.
My bad!
Hi Rosalind,
Help!! After looking at countless online businesses, I found your name on a scam review site. They spoke very highly of you. So, here I am, with no experience, and having no idea how to get started. I purchased your handbook gold.
I’m a salesman that drives about 200 miles a day covering a 14 county area in Illinois. Things aren’t going so well and I want to work for myself. I’m hoping and praying this is the one.
Actually there is a get-rich-quick scheme that works. These scammers prove that every day with this stuff. I almost fell for this one as I’m unemployed and out of money. But I have always have read the privacy policy, the TOS and everything else on the website BEFORE I spend anything.
I so desperately need to buy your handbook to guide my way because I’m in information melt-down trying to learn my through the affiliate maze but for right now I just can’t afford it.
Anyways I want to thank you for the information you do post for free. Wish me luck, I think I need it.
Hi Nancy,
You are most welcome, my pleasure indeed and I wish you much success!
As to the scammers, if everyone were as thorough as you (and they should be!) then there wouldn’t be any get-rich-quick schemes at all!
Cheers,
Ros
Thanks Rosalind, finally SOMEONE has commented about how UNlegit that site/product is!! I’ve seen that Google product being offered on all kinds of sites via banners or links: blogs, Google, Myspace, Facebook, etc… except the format & the name of the girl in the picture is ALWAYS different & the “news publication” is always different too, so I knew there was something off about it!!
I’m a young mom of 2, so I definitely see how other girls/ women in my position or even just a stay at home mom would fall victim to something like that; they play on your emotions & the fact that money’s tight in my type of position. I think that’s just wrong to do though. It’s kind of like all those Acai pill websites out there that talk about Oprah endorsing their product when she really doesn’t; apparently she’s taking legal action now if she finds out about any sites using her name unethically… I wonder if the girl in that picture even knows her image is being used to promote a scam… I feel bad for her!!
The new FTC rules that went into effect Dec 1 should help put an end to these scams. Everyone promoting affiliate sites should become familiar with these new guidelines.
Thanks for the great content and information on legitimate online businesses. I search the net looking for this type of content to give me ideas on future articles that I am going to write on this same general subject. Appreciate reading your article and information on this particular subject.
I have no affiliation with this company other than being a user that thinks this is a wonderful product. Hope you don’t mind me sharing this with your readers Rosalind.
Here’s an add-on I found that might help you decide if it’s legitimate or not. In one of the many newsletters I’m subscribed to the author wrote about a Firefox/Internet Explorer (Windows XP/2000) add-on called Netcraft. http://toolbar.netcraft.com/
Once you install it, not only will it give you a risk rating, it tells you when the domain name inception was, their current rank, has a link to a site report for this domain and tells you who their host is.
I’m more apt to trust a site that’s been consistently around for a while than one created a month ago. That’s not my only criteria these days…but its a big one in my book.