Sound Too Good To Be True?
Written by Michael A. of Captain's Designs
There is an old adage that goes "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." This has never been more true than in the age if the internet. Email forwards, online petitions, groups to join to support causes, offers for jobs to make lots of money with "no skills required" or "minimal computer skills required" are everywhere. Well, the truth is that most of them are scams or at least of no value. The worst of them prey on people in time of worry or need and, perhaps the worst part of it all is they end up getting honest and well meaning people to help spread the word by making them think they are helping their friends or their cause.
Recently a particularly nasty scheme to relieve unsuspecting (or desperate) folks of a bit of their money during times when people can least afford to be scammed has been posted around facebook, particularly the part of facebook that our friends and co-workers frequent. I'm talking about the "Make money from home by posting google links" scam. Don't go anywhere near the thing...here's why.The first thing a suspicious IT worker (that would be me) does when confronted with a site like the one at news2ss . com is run a "Whois" on it to see who is behind it. The domain of news2ss . com is owned by some nice folks out of Beijing, China. Hardly the people I would expect to be promoting a legitimate job opportunity working with a U.S. company. The full whois is in the right column. Good luck if you have to deal directly with these folks.
The next thing I do is look at the code behind the page. Looking at the nice looking page headlined "Florida Financial Journal" and featuring an article about a housewife from Eastpoint, Florida I see that both the "Florida" in the headline and the "Eastpoint, Fl" in the article are generated by a script that looks at the location of the computer reading the page and then inserts a match for their location in those two places. Hmmmm.
The "FLORIDA" and the "Eastpoint, FL" are both generated by a script to match your location!
Then I do what anyone can, and should, do. I read the fine print. On this page they cleverly put the fine print at the top. Nobody would look up there for it, we all know the fine print and disclaimers go at the bottom. In this case, the fine print says this:
Terms and Disclosures. Billing authorization obtained pursuant to the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Transactions Act. By submitting this form, I am ordering GoogleFortune for a 7-day bonus period for $1.97 billed to my credit Card; If you enjoy GoogleFortune, simply do nothing. On the 7th day my credit card will automatically be charged $69.97 and every month, thereafter, unless I cancel by calling 1-877-361-8622 M - F, 8am-8pm PST. I also agree to the 14 day and 21 day bonus trials to Rebate Millionaire™ (1-877-495-1145) and Network Agenda™ (1-800-418-9320) for $19.95 a month and $9.95 a month thereafter, the trial will begin the day I submit this electronic form, should I choose not to cancel. Contact customer support at 1-877-361-8622 M - F, 8am-8pm PST
What that all means to me is that unless you call and cancel within the first seven days you are going to be incurring recurring bills on your credit card to the tune of $100 per month. The methods for stopping them are more confusing than they should be, the numbers you have to call are each different for each of three separate charges that my cynical self tells me are set up that way so more people will miss them since it is not one big charge but three smaller ones.
Don't be taken in by any of this. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is. Google spends a lot of time and money making sure that their various ways of generating income for content providers are not easily circumvented so people can make a good living posting a few links or otherwise bending their own terms of service.
Who Is Behind This Scam?
Here's the whois? information for the domain hosting the "Make money posting google links" scam. Good luck getting any satisfaction out of these folks when you discover they are continuing to use your credit card information should you give it to them. Our advice would be "Just say NO".
Registrars.Domain Name ..................... news2ss.com
Name Server ..................... ns1.28oo2.com
ns2.28oo2.com
Registrant ID ................... hc019591262-cn
Registrant Name ................. SUI MING
Registrant Organization ......... SUI MING
Registrant Address .............. JIEFANGLU268.SHUANGXIAJIUDIAN1003
Registrant City ................. DL
Registrant Province/State ....... LN
Registrant Postal Code .......... 116001
Registrant Country Code ......... CN
Registrant Phone Number ......... +86.041182998803 -
Registrant Fax .................. +86.041182998803 -
Registrant Email ................ daliandm@sina.com
Administrative ID ............... hc019591262-cn
Administrative Name ............. SUI MING
Administrative Organization ..... SUI MING
Administrative Address .......... JIEFANGLU268.SHUANGXIAJIUDIAN1003
Administrative City ............. DL
Administrative Province/State ... LN
Administrative Postal Code ...... 116001
Administrative Country Code ..... CN
Administrative Phone Number ..... +86.041182998803 -
Administrative Fax .............. +86.041182998803 -
Administrative Email ............ daliandm@sina.com
Billing ID ...................... hichina001-cn
Billing Name .................... hichina
Billing Organization ............ HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Billing Address ................. 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Billing City .................... Beijing
Billing Province/State .......... Beijing
Billing Postal Code ............. 100011
Billing Country Code ............ CN
Billing Phone Number ............ +86.01064242299 -
Billing Fax ..................... +86.01064258796 -
Billing Email ................... domainadm@hichina.com
Technical ID .................... hichina001-cn
Technical Name .................. hichina
Technical Organization .......... HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Technical Address ............... 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Technical City .................. Beijing
Technical Province/State ........ Beijing
Technical Postal Code ........... 100011
Technical Country Code .......... CN
Technical Phone Number .......... +86.01064242299 -
Technical Fax ................... +86.01064258796 -
Technical Email ................. domainadm@hichina.com
Expiration Date ................. 2010-10-31 08:33:24
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