how i got scammed, and what you can learn from it

2009

Britt Santowski

I’m Allowed.com

5/27/2009

“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and

What YOU Can Learn from It

“Easy Google Profits” How I Got Scammed and What YOU Can Learn from It

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DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL NOTICE The author (Britt Santowski) and Publisher (Mystery Solved Café Publishers) have strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this report. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication is accurate, the Author and Publisher assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional.

This report contains common information on how to avoid scams when you are setting out as an entrepreneur. In practical advice reports, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of scam-free living. Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their individual circumstances to act accordingly.

This report is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or financial advice. All entrepreneurs are advised to seek services of competent professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.

I’m Allowed, its employees, associates, distributors, agents and affiliates, and Mystery Solved Café Publishers shall not be liable for any losses or damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, consequential loss or damage) directly or indirectly arising from the use of this product.

This manual can be copied, reproduced, digitally transferred in any matter. Copyright laws protect this manual, its intellectual property and the information provided. The author has done her best to provide accurate information.

You are encouraged to print this report for your personal use and for easy reading. Please Distribute it Widely!

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© 2009. Britt Santowski. All Rights Reserved.

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Easy Google Profits: How I Got Scammed, and What You Can Learn From It!

Just recently, I fell for a scam. I’m pretty web savvy, and a part of my “job” is to check out

opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. So I sign up for a lot of stuff. Here’s what happened

to me, and it is my hope that you can benefit from my “growth opportunity”!

CONTENTS

Verify the basics ................................................................................... 4

Trust Your Instinct ................................................................................ 8

Look for weird links ............................................................................ 11

Follow the bouncing ball ..................................................................... 12

From sign-up to email ........................................................................... 12

From email to membership site ........................................................... 13

From membership site to the phone call the next day ........................ 14

From phone call to that LITTLE LOUD VOICE inside of my head .......... 14

Do DEEP research ............................................................................... 15

What to do if you have paid & need to cancel ..................................... 18

My Credit Card Statement .................................................................. 19

Are there any Legitimate Online Money Making Resources? ............... 21

Who are the Legitimate Operators? .................................................... 22

Hey ... that reminds me .... Where can I share my story? ..................... 24

Thank you for taking the time to read my story! ................................. 25

Appendix: Resources Referenced ........................................................ 26




VERIFY THE BASICS

I was recently scammed.

Here’s my “excuse”: I am in the business of helping new entrepreneurs,

and I am always on the lookout for new on- and off-line business

opportunities.

I was attracted to this particular (an incredibly popular AND effective)

scam through a “newspaper” ad running on a reliable site. In this case, it

was on Alexa.com, and I have seen it elsewhere.

The heading fit my particular search parameters: work from home,

online, and investigative.




When I clicked through the ad excerpt, I landed on a pretty official-

looking newspaper page contained in the Miami Gazette News

(miamigazettenews. com — see image on the next page) 1

1. I was on a reliable site (alexa.com — and Alexa IS reputable!).

.

Even though I have just STARTED this report, and only a split second had

passed in real time, THREE key psychological things have already

happened:

2. I saw what I assumed was a reliable ad (investigative trend

reporting) on this reliable site.

3. I clicked through and landed on the Miami Gazette News.

I’m a bit of a web geek, so the first thing I did was glance at the URL. It

read:

Miamigazettenews .com/business/2009/feature.php?t202id

=13389&t202kw=300

which said to me that it was in the 2009 business section , generated

automatically (that’s what “.php” does) as a feature article.

So add to the list above as item:

4. It fit my mental paradigm of how newspapers generate articles.

So, in other words, many mental checks had been passed the split second

that it took to see the ad, perceive it, and click through.

I then landed on this particular Newspaper page:

1 This scam, as I later found out, also masquerades on the following sites: · nyguardian .com (New York Guardian) · theatlantatribune .com (The Atlanta Tribune) · detroittribunenews .com/homejobs (Detroit Tribune News) · detroittribunenews .com/myspace-jobs (Myspace Job Scam) · philadelphia-herald .com (Philadelphia Herald News) · fresh-off-the-press .com/featured/jobs-working-online-home-gold-rush/




The by-line read:

Pretty official looking, I thought to myself!

It even included reader responses

As part of our ongoing series: "JOBS AND THE RECESSION:

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW" we examine an industry that,

despite the recession, seems to be booming




Under the last line (where I was about to leave my own reply), there was

this notice that said “Comments Closed Due To Spam (back soon)”

Very official indeed!

The article was current (Published May 25, 2009)2

2 It is currently being RE-RUN with a new date of publication of Friday, June 5, 2009, and the SAME comments are now dated on June 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th.

, and the comments

were from that same day.




TRUST YOUR INSTINCT It all seemed to check out, so I went ahead and applied online. After all, it

was being promoted by an American Newspaper (capital “N” here!), and

my clients could always use alternate ways of making money. Besides, it

wasn’t boasting get rich nonsense, but a practical down-to-earth small

sum that could grow with time and commitment.

As I went through the sign-up process, there were a few times that my

inside voice was saying “NO! Don’t do it!”

For instance, when I first hit the link from the Newspaper article, I landed

at this “securecartcenter.com”page that promoted Easy Google Profit.

Oddly enough, I vaguely remembered encountering something similar

and when to close the window.




That’s when I got this prompt, asking me if I was sure I wanted to walk

away from this opportunity.

Like many people, I am impulsive. It has served me well, and continues to

teach me through these AFGO’s3

Just as I had impulsively clicked the Newspaper link, and just as I had

impulsively attended to my inner voice and opted to walk away, this time

I impulsively decided to stick around to see what would happen.

After all, I decided, it was referenced from a (what I believed to be)

legitimate Newspaper article and as was visible on this page, it was

legitimized by Google, NBC, USA Today, ABC, CNN and Yahoo!.

The Guarantee was an added bonus.

I clicked Cancel to stay on the current page.

3 AFGO is an acronym I learned from a dear friend of mine: Another Freakin Growth Opportunity — the language has been cleaned up, of course, for publication purposes. Grin.




That’s when I met Kelly, the real live agent who could (and would) help

me.

Here’s what happened next: After “hearing” from Kelly that I could

indeed earn up to $945 a day, I decided to go through with it. And, added

bonus, the shipping price of the original software they were going to mail

me “SHOT” down from $1.97 to $0.99. Wow!

Could life be any better?




LOOK FOR WEIRD LINKS Looking back, beyond noticing my initial hype and excitement about how

easy this could be for me AND my students, there were a few other signs.

I almost wrote obvious, but actually they were quite subtle and many to

most people wouldn’t even notice. I know I didn’t until I went back and

repeated the process to write this report.4

· http: //miamigazettenews .com/ visit/easy-google-profits.php

When I did a “mouse-over” on the Newspaper link, it referenced:

This looked pretty harmless

When I clicked on the link, it went through:

· http: //tracking.washdebtaway5 .com/ tracking202/redirect/cl2.php?q= http%3A%2F%2Ftracking. pinnacledream.com6

and landed on

%2Fclick.php%3 Fsi%3D1049%26so%3D1057%26s%3D1062149

· https: //www.securecartcenter .com/ Nzg3OHwxOTUyfDI3N DM4OHx2Mg==/mtesm4b9/g

4 “Weird links” in and over themselves are nothing unusual, and are NOT to be feared! Newspapers use them, as do many legitimate affiliate marketers. See the section on Legitimate Online ways of making money, on page 21 for some examples. But do check them out! 5 Washdebtaway .com is a weird site! I went there yesterday and there was a YouTube music video on it; today, it merely said “Hi”. It was created on May 12, 2008. It seems to be just a re-direct site of sorts. Based on Alexa trends, it has 4,646 U.S. visitors per month. I KNOW they’re not all coming here to see “Hi”. 6 Pinnacledream .com is an online media marketing company of sorts, who has been around since 2006 — in Internet terms, it’s a dinosaur and checks out to be legitimate.




Notice how the URLs get more and more suspicious! Next time, I swear

I’ll pay more attention to that!7

FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL

FROM SIGN-UP TO EMAIL I went ahead and signed up, and received my Welcome email to an

organization called Blazing Keywords.

7 Again, not all “veils” are evil. For instance, I have an account on Twitter (“confidentwomen”) and we’re only allowed 140 characters per comment. So I abbreviate all my LONG urls using what’s known as “TinyURL,” (http://tinyurl.com/) a program which shortens and veils the link. In most cases, TinyURLs are used for good and not evil.


http://tinyurl.com/v�



FROM EMAIL TO MEMBERSHIP SITE So, I went ahead and

logged on and checked it

out. Okay, so it was

basically an information

site on how to use

Google’s adwords to make

money.

I was still unsure how the

“apply >> watch the

money roll in” part

worked, but hey, it was a

trial membership and they

were mailing me the FREE

software8

I work from home. I have

time. I can wait.

.

8 Which by the way I still haven’t received! Almost a month later…




FROM MEMBERSHIP SITE TO THE PHONE CALL THE NEXT DAY The next day, I get a call from Easy Google Profit aka Blazingkeywords.

They received my application and wanted to send out my software.

Strange — as I completed the entire form yesterday — but okay. I was,

after all, obliged to check this out on behalf of my clients.

So, I proceeded to give them my address. And my credit card information.

(Again, my inside voice was screaming NO NO NO don’t do it, but I did it

anyway. Sheesh! A perfectly good intuitive moment wasted! Ahhh, but

the outcome is this report, so it can’t be all that bad, now can it?)

FROM PHONE CALL TO THAT LITTLE LOUD VOICE INSIDE OF MY HEAD Then, there was this LITTLE VOICE inside of my thick skulled noggin kept

on saying, Okay, something’s off here. So I went and did a bit of research.




DO DEEP RESEARCH Here’s what I did AFTER I purchases (and what I recommend you do

BEFORE you purchase):

1. Check out who owns the URL, and how long the “business” has been in existence. I use http://whois.domaintools.com but any whois tool will get you the information you want.

a. Miamigazettenews .com was created: May 17, 20099

b. blazingkeywords .com was created: April 21, 2009

c. Washdeptaway .com is just a plain bogus site d. “Easy Google Profit”, while supposedly “seen and trusted” by

Google, NBC, USA Today, ABC, CNN and Yahoo!, has no domain of it’s own. The “Newspaper” article links directly to the Shopping Cart https://www.securecartcenter.com, which by-the-way was created on April 1st 2008 and is registered through GoDaddy, a do-it-yourself domain hosting organization (and the owners are veiled, but this doesn’t necessarily mean much in this world of privacy vs. piracy)

2. Visit some really useful scam sites a. The Electron Plumber at http://electronplumber.com/ is

incredibly useful. Their mandate is to “report on many sketchy make money online programs ... [to] save some of you from getting scammed by the many wolves out there trying to trick you into giving them your money.”

b. Google forum is a good place to find out if something is actually sponsored by Google. See http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=4916603b45154eb4&hl=en for the comments on the Miami Gazette News

9 Compared this with usatoday which was founded in April 29, 1994 — a bit more realistic for a newspaper!!!


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c. http://www.search4scams.com/ will let you search through blogs for scams. I searched the terms “Easy Google Profit” and returned over 100 pages. “Blazing keywords” also returned over 80 pages.

d. There’s also an AMAZING list of scams at http://www.workathometruth.com/blog/2009/04/17/make-money-posting-links-on-google-scam/ ... truly this is one blog to follow!

3. Fraud.org has some excellent tips on recognizing work at home scams http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/workathome.htm ... check it out!

4. Google it! a. Google Forums clearly state that Google has no affiliation with

this product b. Scam alerts abound

Back on the Blazingkeywords trial membership website, I noticed a “sign

up” page and I went and checked it out.


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That’s when I realized that the follow-up phone call was NOT to confirm

my application for the Easy Google Profits that I applied for yesterday,

but to sign me up for this option!

It’s funny, because I did ask the question if they were affiliated in anyway

with Google, and they hesitatingly said “ye—ess”. Again! I should have

listened to my gut instinct.




WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE PAID & NEED TO CANCEL Okay, so if you did what I did and went ahead and subscribed, you now

need to cancel, ASAP.

Here’s what I did:

1. I called their “support” number (1-888-248-9285). 2. I told them I wanted to cancel my subscription. They took down my

phone number and said okay, and got ready to hang up. 3. I then asked for a cancellation number and told them I wanted to

cancel my re-occurring subscription. That got noticed. 4. My support person, “Marianne” at extension 110 (always ask for this

information!) put me on hold and theoretically processed my cancellation. I did get a cancellation number.

5. I emailed that cancellation number to their own “customer service department” with an inclusion saying that I was copying this info to my credit card company.

6. I then called my credit card company and ask them for assistance. They said they couldn’t do anything until a charge actually went through, but they suggested I keep all correspondence (even just the email I sent containing my cancellation number) so that I could dispute the charge, should it go through. They also took down the cancellation number and added it to their electronic records on my account.

7. The Electron Plumber (see the Appendix), a spam-watch blog committed to “Exposing the Bullsh*t Of Internet Money Making”, suggests that you cancel your credit card by reporting it stolen. Remember, you have just given ALL your pertinent credit card information to some rather shady characters. This is GOOD advice.

8. If you chose to keep your credit card (and I DON’T RECOMMEND THIS!!!!), monitor it DAILY for the first month, and MONTHLY always forever thereafter!




9. You might consider keeping a LOW account credit card (eg $500 max) for online purchases, that is paid off in full monthly. This way, you will monitor it closely be default, and the maximum that you can ever loose is $500 — although credit cards are pretty GREAT at identifying bogus purchases, IF you are on top of your game.

10. Remember that in a very weird way, credit card companies are your friends. They can be an excellent source of information. Contact them for full advice on what you should do next.

MY CREDIT CARD STATEMENT In case you’re interested, I’ve tracked my credit card statement.

The steps I took worked, as the so-called trial period was to end on May

31st, and billing was to begin on June 1st, 2009.

I’ve continually checked my credit card account online.

Here’s yet another curious thing: I was billed TWICE: once for 0.99USD

and another time for 1.97USD, both on May 28th.

And even more curious is this: This first billing went to a company or

organization registered under A1 MEMBER 866-200-5473 - 866-200-5473,

and the second (full) billing went to KEYWORD MONSTER CARE - 888-

2032241 UT.

I kept my account open long enough to track this, and I wanted to see if

the above steps would be affective. In my case, they were. And then I

cancelled my card! This is a pretty shifty (yep, that’s a f not a second “t”)

organization, and not to be trusted with your credit card and security

number and expiration date!

Here’s what my statement looked like.




As you can see, the steps that I took (listed previously) were pretty

effective. I never got billed the recurring charge. And I cancelled my card.

If you too were scammed, you need to contact your credit card company

right away!




ARE THERE ANY LEGITIMATE ONLINE MONEY MAKING RESOURCES? You bet! But my recommendations are as follows:

· The number one way to ensure the product your getting is real is through word-of-mouth from someone that you know and trust. Having said that, it’s not always possible (or practical) to run all online purchases past your good friends.

· Listen to your “Inside voice”. Trust your intuition. I sure wish I did, and looking back, my inside voice told me a few times to WALK AWAY.

· Ensure there’s accountability. See how long the URL has been in existence (and do keep in mind that there are legitimate start-ups that can be only a month or two old). Look for contact information that includes a name.

· Ensure there’s an actual website or business behind the product you are purchasing.

· Do a basic Google search of the product. The top 50 items will tell you what you need to know.

· Get to know a few reliable bloggers who spend their time researching this. They are out there. And there’s no reason you need to do the ground work that someone else has already done.




WHO ARE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATORS? Yes! I’m so glad you asked. Grin.

MONEY MINDSET First and foremost, I recommend you find out about your OWN money

blueprint. And if you don’t know what I mean by that, then you

DEFINITELY owe it to yourself to check this out! Begin by reading T. Harv

Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Or, listen to the Millionaire Mind

Tele-class. Both of these links have incredible free offers that you really

should check out.

WRITING If you can write 7-15 page reports, then you can make a living online

working just a few hours each week — from the comfort of your home!

Find out how in this free report. The Small Reports Fortune is a 6 phase

system that will teach anyone how to create a 6 figure business by

writing 7-15 page reports.

INTERNET MARKETING Jimmy D. Brown runs an amazing blog, The Internet Marketing Centre:

Practical Tips for Running and Internet Business. Once on his blog, you

can subscribe to the free Revenue Newsletter: “Each Weekly Issue Is Jam-

Packed With Tips To Help You Increase Your Revenue”.

PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS (PLR) PLR stands for "private label rights," and it's web content that someone

else creates for you (like hiring a writer, only you don’t need staff), then

you can use it as your own any way you please.

I currently pay less than $1/page for awesome articles, wallpapers and

free reports that I use to expand my website, create ebooks, and to use

as sales bonuses.

One of my friends, Ronnie Nijmeh, put together an excellent report that

explains everything you need to know about PLR content and he's agreed


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to let me give this killer report away for the next 7 day only (normally he

sells it for $17)! 10

PLR AND BLOGS

Then there’s Nicole Dean, who also creates PLR Content used by

hundreds of people to help their blogs become profitable. She has this

incredible e-Course that you can use to show your clients how to use PLR

in their own business. They'll love you for it!

NEW ENTREPRENEUR MINDSET TRAINING Finally, I’m offering readers of this report, and new entrepreneurs in

general, an opportunity to receive one month free coaching with I’m

Allowed.com, where “Minding the Success of the New Entrepreneur” is

our main mission.

That only begins to touch upon the opportunities — the LEGITIMATE

opportunities — that are out there!

Right now, the World Wide Web is available to entrepreneurs for the

taking. It is the new frontier. And while there will be those who act

without integrity in the hopes of making some easy (and probably illegal)

money, there are also organizations out there that are honorable and act

with integrity!

10 Ronnie is giving away a FREE PLR 12-pack that includes samples of articles, wallpapers, affirmations and PDFs. It even includes a 10-page report and worksheet! Grab it now! It’s free after all!


http://www.imallowed.com/offer/nicole-ecourse.html�


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HEY ... THAT REMINDS ME ... . WHERE CAN I SHARE MY STORY? EVERYWHERE!

If you have a Facebook account, put your story up there. Twitter it. Add it

to the growing number of blogs that are tracking this kind of information.

Post it on your own blog. TELL THE WORLD (wide web).

One of the TOP SECRETS of being an Entrepreneur is charging forward in

the face of failure.

Initially I was a bit embarrassed that I got conned. And, I consider myself

an Internet expert. Yet there I was, scammed. Taken. Tricked. And

embarrassed.

But, instead of hiding my head in a hole, I decided to blow my experience

out FOR THE WORLD TO SEE. Why? I trust that answer is quite obvious by

now: to prevent others from falling victim to the same (or any similar)

ruse.

And so it’s gone from being a shameful event to benefitting anyone and

everyone who reads this report! Truly a success story after all.

So, if this or something similar has happened to you, in the pursuit of

integrity and all things good, you owe it to your friends and followers to

let them know!

Knowledge is power! Empower yourself, and empower others!




THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ MY STORY! I am still waiting to see what will happen with the credit card company.

June 1st is the “end” of the 7-day trial, and everything I’ve researched on

Google tells me that it’s incredibly difficult to get out of this one.

However, I have filed the information with my credit card company, and

trust that good will ultimately prevail.

If you have experienced something similar, I encourage you to speak up.

So-called “failure” is truly a great teacher, for both our own selves as well

as for the people around us.

To your ultimate success, my friend!




APPENDIX: RESOURCES REFERENCED

FAKE NEW SP AP ER S, SCAM WEB SIT E (FO R YO UR R EFER ENCE ON LY! DO NOT P UR CHA S E A N YTHI NG FR OM T HESE P AG ES…)

· miamigazettenews .com (Miami Gazette News) · nyguardian .com (New York Guardian) · theatlantatribune .com (The Atlanta Tribune) · detroittribunenews .com/homejobs (Detroit Tribune News) · detroittribunenews .com/myspace-jobs (Myspace Job Scam) · philadelphia-herald .com (Philadelphia Herald News) · fresh-off-the-press .com/featured/jobs-working-online-home-

gold-rush/ · washdebtaway .com (just a plain bogus site)

RES EA R CH TOO LS · http://whois.domaintools.com/ · http://electronplumber.com/

· http://www.search4scams.com/

· http://www.workathometruth.com/blog/2009/04/17/make-

money-posting-links-on-google-scam/

· http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/workathome.htm

A FEW PLA CES TO ST A RT WIT H LEGITIMATE WAY S TO MAK E MONEY ON LIN E

· T. Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (with free seminar).

· Millionaire Mind Tele-class (free)

· Small Reports Fortune is a 6 phase system that will teach anyone

how to create a 6 figure business by writing 7-15 page reports.

· Internet Marketing Centre: Practical Tips for Running and Internet

Business.

· An excellent report on everything you need to know about PLR

· A FREE PLR 12-pack that includes samples of articles, wallpapers,

affirmations and PDFs

· Nicole Dean PLR e-Course

· One month free coaching with I’m Allowed.com, where “Minding

the Success of the New Entrepreneur” is our main mission.


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