Is Colon Cleansing a Scam?

Tell you what, YOU try it and let us know. I’m not gonna be trying that anytime soon.

Never heard of colon cleansing? You’re in for a treat. It can make you younger! Give you energy! Improve your health! You see, apparently, your colon becomes coated with gunk that it can’t get rid of through normal processes. When your insides are covered with this nasty layer, vitamins and nutrients can’t get through, and it throws your whole body out of whack. In fact, you have no chance in hell of being normal if you allow your colon to keep its impacted layer of unpoopable sediment. You’re doing a great disservice to your body and should be ashamed of yourself.

Fortunately, there is a solution, which can be yours for a low, low price from the online affiliate marketer of your choice. The solution is amazingly simple. You take these pills or drink a mixture for a few days to loosen that evil coating. At the end of the treatment, you… expel the rope-like contents of your colon—that coating that was keeing you from a fulfilled life. Your entire colon. You’ll almost literally poop your guts out. There it is in the toilet bowl to amaze and astound your friends.

But that’s only half the story

It’s not enough to take the treatment and fill your toilet bowl with what never should have seen the light of day. You are now obliged to (I’m not making this up) fish it out and take a picture of it! You have now entered the Twilight Zone, where Internet scams meet medical quackery and closet fetishism.

You will not only take a picture of it, but you’ll distribute that picture to the blogs, bulletin boards, and purveyors of MagicColon all over the Net. You’ll have discussions about it, compare it to others’, and will be judged by the quality of your deposit. “It looks short. What is it, one meter?”
“1.2”
“Nice form…you can actually see the polyps and diverticula. It’s a near perfect mold. How was the bouquet?”
“Oh, it smelled like shit!”
“I’ll bet. Good thing you caught it when you did.”
Seriously, folks, it’s unbeLIEVEable. Google “colon cleansing” and see for yourself.

But Joe, heart surgery is gross and that has health benefits!
True, but most people don’t distribute photos of their aortic plaque. Still, might there be some truth to the dirty colon claims? In a word, No. The pills you take and the stuff you drink leaves lots of undigestible fiber in your colon and your body naturally gets rid of it in a few days. It’s not cleansing something unhealthy that was already there.

Here’s some more.

He has created a cleansing product that produces what the product is claimed to cleanse. I’m tempted to call it a brilliant scam, but I’ll leave that decision up to the courts, in case (hopefully) he ever gets sued by those who decide to do so. He’s earned millions by marketing this false idea, and the spreading of false ideas should be punished.

Here’s how this possible scam works:

Sell people a product that creates a condition, then claim that the product is curing the condition, without any proof that the condition was there before taking the product. (Mucus only becomes “plaque” *after* using his product.)

For even more thorough discussion and documentation of the bogus claims, check this out.

On second thought, if you’ve tried it, don’t tell us. We don’t wanna know. And we really don’t want to see the pictures!

Global Trade Company is a Scam

Oh, what a surprise. The opportunity that landed in my email yesterday turns out to be an elaborate fake check scam. Richard Williams received the following response to his note yesterday:

Hello!
Thank you for your reply. We need more employees at this time in United States and other countries for
part time job from your home.
For more information please visit our web site http://www.global-trade-company.net
Once you register in our web site, you will get automated reply with instruction about how to get
started.
Work activation takes 2 days.
Sincerely,
Global Trade Company
http://www.global-trade-company.net

If alarms aren’t going off in your head already, you haven’t been paying attention! The language errors are a dead giveaway that this “company” is not based in Texas, as it claims. These scammers have gone to great lengths to make themselves look like a legitimate international business. Stupidly, those lengths don’t include a proofread by a native English speaker. Well, we never claimed they were smart. Only that they were criminals.

If you go to the website and look at the “jobs” they’re hiring for, you’ll see where it’s leading:

Cheques Processing Manager is responsible for receiving and processing of cheques from participants of deals and further transfer of money in accordance with the specified method. The detailed operational scheme is available at request.

Requirements:
Competent management of payments and transfers between the company and our clients;
Knowledge of the main payment systems;
Working schedule optimization skills;
Commit to be available to work 3-4 hours per day ;
PC, Internet, E-mail advanced skills;
Maturity age.

Richard Williams applied, and as you might imagine, is very excited! But oddly, the site still accepted his application, even when he filled out only 2 of the 10 (or so) “required” fields: email and name. Red flags are popping up all over the place. Anyone who falls for this has to be color blind.

The “job”
So here’s what you’ll do as a “Checques Processing Manager” for Global Trade Company.

  1. Receive a cashier’s check in the mail.
  2. Cash it through your bank.
  3. Wire the cash to Global Trade Company.
  4. Keep a 10% commission for your trouble. If you cash, say a $10,000 check, you keep $1,000.

Not bad, eh? Run a couple of errands, make a cool Grand. Then repeat the process. You could make as much as $37,000 per month, like the “Leaders” listed on their site.

The catch
But your bank will soon notice that the checks you’re cashing are fake. They’ll hold you liable for ALL of the money from every check you’ve cashed. “Mark Hillard,” from the “Leaders” list, is looking at $373,000 he will have to pay back to his bank. That’s not just the end of your financial life. That’s prison time.

We’re on the case
I’ve Tried That is doing some more sleuthing. We have the Whois data, the email address and phone number of the domain name’s owner. Maybe Richard Williams, intrepid go-getter that he is, will contact the owner and cut out the middle man. Whatever happens, we’ll keep you posted.

What YOU can do
Scams like this one thrive on ignorance and emotional appeal. You can help put these guys out of business by spreading the word about this post and the dirty tricks of scammers that want to kick you when you’re down. Help us get the word out:

  1. Share this post by clicking on the “Share This” link below
  2. Learn more about this and other online scams by reading the Related Posts below
  3. Report fraudulent activity at Scam Victims United and to your local police

Snoskred on Fake Check Scams and Scambaiting

They say if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. For those of us who want to work from home for family, health or other reasons the available REAL jobs are few and far between. However, there’s plenty of scammers out there who will prey on your situation and take advantage of you.

Money Laundering

Any kind of job which requires you to

– receive checks and deposit them in your personal bank account.
– receive money orders and cash them
– receive goods
– receive funds into your bank account

and then to

– forward goods on to somebody else
– forward money on to somebody else
– send money via Western Union or Moneygram

is not any kind of legitimate job. It has to be some kind of scam. It is highly illegal. You have no idea where those funds have originated from.

It might be drug money. It could belong to terrorists. It could have been given to you by another scam victim in order to make it more difficult to trace where the money went. The goods may have been purchased with a stolen credit card. But you need money, so you might not think about it too deeply. Believe me, going ahead with a “job” like this this will end in tears.

An important note about checks

Checks can bounce up to a year to two years after you deposit them. The reason for this is because the scammer may have stolen the bank information of a legitimate company and the company may not realise funds have been disappearing until the accountant looks at their books—sometimes this happens only once a year.

If you do bank checks which are stolen or fake, you can be arrested and sent to jail. You will also be held responsible to pay the funds back to the bank. You will have no way of getting the money back from the scammers.

If you think your financial situation is bad now, wait until you’re having to pay money back to the bank for a job you thought was legitimate.

The Tellers Don’t Know

You might even ask the teller, “Has this check cleared?” And you would usually be told YES, absolutely it has, just like most check scam victims this has already happened to. If you ask a teller has this check cleared, you might as well ask your postman the same question. Do you want to place your entire financial future into the hands of that bank teller?

Tellers are generally not trained about clearance procedures. Some bank managers are even unaware that checks can bounce so much later. Until it happens to a customer of theirs, they don’t know about it.

Get It In Writing

Even if you said to your bank, “I want you to put it in writing that this check has cleared,” that will not protect you at all when the check bounces. Try asking them to put it in writing and you’ll find most of them will not agree to do it. I know a scam victim who did get a written letter from the bank manager. When the check bounced, he still had to pay the full amount back. The bank took NO responsibility for the situation.

You Are Unprotected

Credit card fraud used to be a major problem for the banks, but because they are held responsible for charges made on stolen credit cards they have put a lot of work and effort into solving the problem. They are doing absolutely nothing about check fraud because they do not have to pay. The person who banked the fraudulent or stolen check has to pay.

So How Do These Fake Check Scams Work?

I’ve baited a lot of these scammers—so many in fact that I have collected over 5 million dollars worth of fake checks, money orders and travellers checks from them. Here is an example of what the scammers say.

The Scammer Emails Me

Date: 15 June 2007
From: ES Oil and Gas Ltd (google results do not show a company with this name, and scam results)
Reply To: bluegassltd@yahoo.com.hk (note the yahoo.com.hk email address)
Subject: Company Commission Agent Required (there is no such job, unless you are actually selling things)
(this section below is to make it look more legitimate but note the scammer has messed it up and given two street addresses)
From The Desk Of
Mr. Larry James
ES Oil and Gas Ltd
2711 Metrople Square
2 On Yiu Street
Hong Kong.
Tel/Fax: +852-301-71646. (googling the telephone number brings up 3 different names – larry james, carol harvey, george martin lee using this telephone number, all scams)
15/06/2007.

I am Mr.Dannie Wang (sorry, I thought you said you were Larry James?) of ES Oil and Gas Ltd. We are an OPEC members that deals on crude oil, raw materials and export to Canada, America, Europe and Asia. Our company is also into promotions and entertainments. We are looking for a reliable commission agent who can help us receive payments from customers that our company supplies Goods to in Canada, America, Europe and Asia as well as making Payments through you to us. Please if you are reliable and Interested in been a commission agent with our company we will be glad but you have to be an honest and a trustworthy person. Note that, as our commission agent, you will receive some percentage and motivations on whatever amount that is paid by our debtors through you to us. Be informed that THERE IS NO FINANCIAL OBLIGATION AT YOUR END as a commission agent. Please, to facilitate and proceed if accepted, do send your information to the Chief Executive Officer:Name Mr.Dannie Wang.Email:( bluegassltd@yahoo.com.hk ) Thank you for your time as we are looking forward to working With you as you send your response back to us.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Dannie Wang

I Reply –

Good afternoon,

Do you have the requirement of hiring someone in Australia?

Cristhin

He replies

(with another name change – this time back to front)

Dear Cristhin,

Thanks a lot for your swift response to our proposition. We are prepared to employ your services as our Representative for CANADA & UNITED STATES as well as EUROPEAN continent, after putting things in place with you and we are also ready to follow every applicable law of CANADA & UNITED STATES as well as European continent. We would be glad to transact with you and having you as our representative for these region.

Before I proceed further let me start by Introducing myself. My name is Wang Dannie, Personel Manager of Blue Gas Ltd In Thailand and Hong Kong. We need a reliable and competent representative to make direct collection on our behalf and acting under the full approval of our firm after all necessary modalities have being put in place between you and the company, Blue Gas Ltd and after entering into an agreement confirming this deal.

We are currently having problems between our local staffs over here in Thailand and Hong Kong and also customers from these regions as a result of language barrier and different cultural backgrounds thereby causing delays in payments from our propespective customers from this region and also as a result of the delays it takes for these checks to get cleared over here in Thailand thereby causing delays in our supply channel.

On the advice of an expert we started making necessary contact, recently, to prospective candidate that will make direct collections on our behalf for a commission of 10% and remitting the balance Of 90% into our account via electronic transfer, so that we can serve our customers in these region more efficiently as a result of the fast means of picking up our cash thereby allowing for a constant cash inflow as well as outflows and making business more profitable and beneficial for all parties involved.

Clients normally make payment to us via Companies check and or Western Union Money transfer, depending on the amount of goods in question which we would instruct them to issue in your favour in the capacity of our representative for this region.

This is exactly how our transaction will hold and We will send you MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING, MOU, which shall make us Legal binding in our transaction with you as SOON as when transaction from our customer commences.
We are very confident to work with you and employing your services as our representative for both Canada / United States . On agreement, You shall be collecting payments on our behalf depending on the client we have at hand and as well as the volume of transaction involved, We normally handles transaction for now to a maximum of USD$700,000.00 and below as the case may be and your 10% will be applicable for any amount of funds collected on our behalf after signing the Legal MOU, attached below and remitting the balance of 90% into an account to be provided for you by the firm via electronic wire transfer.

On the receipt of this mail and the conclusion of these modalities, I shall give further instruction on how to contact one of our clients who is readily available to make payment to us as soon as we are able to attach him to any of our representatives.

Thanking you both for accepting this offer as we send our greetings from our entire staffs as we also await your timely responses.

Regards,
Wang Dannie
Personel Manager
Blue Gas Ltd.

NB: Please fill out this form and return back to us
NAME…………………………………
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS……………………
AGE:…………………………………
STATUS:………………………………
STATE/COUNTRY…………………………
TEL/FAX………………………………
NUMBERS………………………………
COMPANY NAME………………………….
OCCUPATION……………………………

Please for your information make sure that the address that you filled out in the form that was sent to you is a valid and correct address in which my customer can contact you for immediate payment and document through to you as our company representative, Please you are to resend us you correct address in which contact can be made to you as soon as payment is ready from our customers as both party as discussed

Inaccurate Information

Did you note the company name has changed too? These scammers use so many scammer and company names, they can’t keep it straight. This is one clue things might not be legitimate. Usually people know the name of the company they work for—and their own names!

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I am using a special tool to bait these scammers, and from this point on a computer is writing the emails for me. So it won’t always do exactly what the scammer wants it to do. Like fill in silly little forms like you see above. It does pick up on certain words and responds to them, but from here on in, the computer is in charge and the scammer is along for the ride.

The Computer Replies –

Hello Mr Dannie,

Please clarificationize precisely what this position requires of myself in your next communique and then if I am excited to continue I will provide what you are asking for. I don’t understand what you want me to do with this memorandum of understanding?

I will be jumping with joy to hear from you. Your emails have delighted me so far. Are you single and looking for a wife? Maybe your ship has finally come in, and mine too! Can we share a cabin on the sea of life?

I Hope To Receive News From You Soon,
Cristhin

The Scammer Responds –

Dear Cristhin,

With the receipt of your email. Please kindly note that the MOU ( Memorandum of Understanding is serving as a legal aid for both party involve in this transaction and also serve as terms and condition for this great company.

Please you are therefore advice to send to us your full details so that we can proceed further on this transaction.

We await your immediate response ASAP today.

Best Regards,
Dannie Wang

Hmm, looks like he is not interested in sharing a cabin with me. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

The Computer Replies –

G’day Mr Wang,

Thanks for your email. It is a gracious pleasure to communicate with someone as beautiful and pretty as yourself. I look forward to your emails as much as I look forward to any pleasure in life. Please explain this memorandum of understanding as I am unable to understand your understanding of it? Do you understand it?

Here are my details as requested.

I am Cristhin Rosamund
I am 42. I am single. Are you Single?
I work as a customer service manager.
Telephone number = (telephone number removed)
I bank with St George Bank.

Mail can be sent to me as follows:

Cristhin
(PO Box address removed; it is a safe mail address)

If you need further details let me know.

Hope To Hear From You Soon,
Cristhin

The scammer goes quiet for about two weeks, and then sends this:

Dear Cristhin,

Please kindly update us on payment made to you by our customer and the said amount is $ 32,565.10 USD.

Please update us immediately today on how you will proceed with company funds and also with all necessary information how you will disburse the money.

The Board of Trustee will look forward to your immediate email today in this regards.

Best Regards,
Dannie Wang

I’ve Got Mail –

The next time I went to my PO box, I found this:

Note the check is not for the same amount he told me it would be for, either: 32,565.10 vs. 35,565.10.

How YOU can help!

If you own a blog yourself, mention this blog post on YOUR blog so all the readers of your blog can be educated on this important topic. Feel free to link to this post.
– Link to this article in my internet safety series which speaks about these scams.
– If you know anyone who has any questions about these scams I am only an email away. However there are some great websites on the internet that try to help as well:

  • Fraudwatchers
  • Scam Victims United
  • Fraud Aid
  • Stumble this blog post with Stumbleupon, if you are a member.
  • Digg this blog post.
  • Email a link to today’s blog post to your friends and family.
  • Now you know about this scam – there are so many others out there. Always ask if you’re not sure. The Fraudwatchers forum “Is this a Scam” is a good place to post a question you might have.
  • Let your friends and family know about the Scam-O-Matic, a Web form that can look at an email and tell you if the email looks like a known scam. Is this email a scam? Ask the Scam-O-Matic.

Please note this quote in the above article by the executive vice-president of the American Banking Association: “Federal law requires banks to make the funds you deposit available quickly, but it’s important for consumers to know that just because you can withdraw the money doesn’t mean the check is good,” said Edward Yingling, executive vice president for ABA.”

Overdue final update: Financial Peace University Review

Hi, my name is Joe and I’m a slacker. I promised regular updates to my review of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (FPU), in which I am enrolled, but have failed to deliver.

I am ashamed.

To make it up to you, I’m offering a bonus: until the end of July, all new RSS subscriptions are free. That’s right, free, as in zilch. Sign up quick and take advantage of my remorse. Subscriptions after the bonus period will be at least triple the bonus price!

If you found us through a search engine and are looking for the full Monty on Ramsey’s FPU, you’ll want to start here. The 13-week course is almost half over and I can say with a straight face that I’m happy with the content and the price we paid. I’d do it again, and recommend it to others. In fact, I will do it again because my membership fee entitles me to attend refresher courses anywhere, anytime, at no additional charge. It will be good to go back again later and brush up on the things I’m less interested in right now, such as college and estate planning.

My interest wanes
The first few weeks of FPU courses were very good for me: the importance of saving, how men and women think about money differently, how to plan cash flow (or how to make a budget that works), the evil of debt and how to get out of it (not necessarily in that order). But now that we’re moving on to more advanced topics, such as insurance, investments, and estate planning, I am less engaged in the content. Don’t get me wrong—the information is just as good and just as well presented, but my personal investment in it (my motivation) is smaller. There are reasons for this, and I understand the reasons, and it’s not a fault in the course itself.

The members areaFPU members area
I should have mentioned in an earlier post about the Members Area that those enrolled in FPU get access to (image used with permission). It’s full of good resources to supplement your reading and course content, such as budget spreadsheets, debt reduction calculators, discussion forums, and so on. There is a downside: you only have access to it for as long as your course lasts and then you have to convert to a paid membership if you want to keep getting in. It would suck to do all of your budgeting and debt-reduction planning online, only to lose that work when your free access is cut.

I recommend it
My results have not been as dramatic as those in FPU’s marketing, but they are positive results. We are saving money now (weren’t before) and have a workable plan to get out of debt. No magic unicorns that poop $100 bills, but good information that will serve us well for a lifetime. In my opinion, you can head over to Financial Peace University and sign up with confidence that you’ll get your money’s worth.

Got Independence? 3 things you should do this July 4th

Ahh, summertime! Watermelon, cherries, peaches, apricots, diarrhea. Long days at the lake, backyard grilling. And of course, the 4th of July-the only holiday to break up summer monotony between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Here are three things I’ve tried and recommend to you to enrich your July 4th experience.

1. Read the Declaration of Independence. In it, Thomas Jefferson lays out for all the world to see the colonists’ gripes with King George III that made them want to pick up their toys and go home. The guy was always drinking the beer in the fridge, but never bought beer, apparently. He laughed at his own jokes, and was always leaving the damn toilet seat up (according to Betsy Ross). But more importantly, Jefferson crystallized the vision for a new age and a new way of looking at ourselves as humans:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Read it. Get inspired.


Luke and Maya, prior to today’s cotton candy dose.

2. Eat some cotton candy. The stuff is vile. I mean, can you believe we liked that junk as kids? I need to take an insulin shot just thinking about it! I used to smash it into little balls and chew it. The thought of it hurts my teeth. It seemed to last longer that way, but then I had sticky hands and no way to clean them. Licking them didn’t work so well cause my tongue was sticky and my hands tasted like a subway hand rail. I was a sickly child. But eat some anyway because it will prepare you for number 3.

3. Go see fireworks with a child. If you’re like me, you figure, “I’ve seen one fireworks show, I’ve seen them all.” And that’s probably true…unless you watch it through the eyes of a child. Preferably one between 1.5 and 8 years old. You’ll have more fun watching them than you’ve had at a fireworks show for a long time (not counting that one year you took a joint along). I remember taking our first daughter, Dani, to the fireworks one 4th of July when she was 2. It was 10:00, past her bedtime, and she lay quietly in the stroller not quite asleep. The show started and we tipped her back so she wouldn’t have to hold her head up, and I watched the fireworks reflected in her eyes. No “oohs” or “ahhs” from her, just quiet absorption. I have it, the secret to immortality: it’s the capacity for wonder that keeps us young. Lose it, and we’re toast.

Happy 4th, y’all. Happy Birthday, Idealism.

CashCrate.com Review: It’s a really small crate!

I’ve Tried That reader Alfa, who recently profiled our site on her blog, Flood of Dollars, suggested that we take a look at Cash Crate, another site claiming to pay you for trying companies’ products and services. I signed up. Here’s what I found out.

Cashcrate.com functions on the same premise as Inbox Dollars and Fusion Cash: sign up for promotional memberships and offers and get paid a small fee per sign-up. It also has a referral program so that you can get paid for the offers and memberships of people who sign up “under” you.

Cash Crate shotI like cashcrate better than Fusion Cash just because it is less obnoxious in its promotional graphics and text and because the site is faster loading. You go to the members area and can choose from offers using simple text, not full-on logos like Fusion Cash uses. The screen shot shows only the first nine of many, many offers. The site also warns you which offers require a credit card to sign up for, a nice feature.

I spent an hour taking surveys and signing up for offers at Cash Crate and have earned about $3.50. At that rate, it would take me a lifetime to earn a crate full of cash unless it’s the size of a Tic-Tac box. Cash Crate pays out at $10, so I’m sure someone with more time and patience for advertising than I have could make some pizza money. Good for students, maybe? It could definitely supplement the Taco Bell fund. If you spent enough time with it, you could probably learn to work its system faster than I did and therefore make more than $3.50/hour. If you’re looking to make more than just pocket change, though, I suggest spending your time elsewhere.

How Does Cash Crate Compare?

I did a review of a program called SwagBucks a few months back and just wanted to give you guys a little update on my progress, show you how much I’ve actually made with the program, and give some tips on how to quickly start making some money with them.

A quick overview: the concept behind SwagBucks is that they’d pay you for using their search page to browse the web. They make money through Google’s sponsored results and then pass some of their earnings on to you in the form of SwagBucks. You can also make money by filling out surveys, shopping online, watching videos, and many many more ways.

All you have to do is use their search page and every so often, you’ll be awarded SwagBucks which you can redeem for cash or gift cards.

The best part is the SwagBucks search bar uses Google, so you’ll get the same results you’re used to, but now you have a chance to make some extra money. It takes no extra effort on your part either. It’s a fun way to make some extra money each month.

And you can join today and see for yourself why I rate this program so highly, absolutely for free. Plus, you get a free $5 bonus just for signing up.

There are a lot more ways to earn, but searching is by far the easiest and the quickest. You’ll see the other ways in just a minute, but first…

Proof SwagBucks Actually Pays

Here’s an inside look at most of the orders that I’ve placed with SwagBucks since I’ve joined. This is a look inside my own personal account. I’ve cashed out and received $890.00 worth of gift cards so far.

Now, there are thousands of items you can spend your SwagBucks on or you can even redeem them for cash. I chose the giftcards because they’re a little bit cheaper than the cash redemption so you get more value for your SwagBuck, so to speak. Plus, I shop at Amazon often and this really helped cut down on costs.

Here’s a look at my total earnings so far: SB earnings

1 SwagBuck roughly equals 1 penny. So I’ve made approximately $928.78 since joining!

And here’s a look at just some of my rewards so far!

SB Cashed Out

Oh, and did I mention this was all free?

The Bottom Line

SwagBucks is a scam free way to make extra money online. It’s an excellent alternative to Cash Crate and you’ll make money much faster. I’ve been a member for about six months now and I’ve been paid over $890. It’s completely free to join and will help you bring in some extra cash by doing things you already do online. What more could you want from a program?!

SwagBucks is awesome and I highly recommend you click here an create an account right now. You get a $5 bonus offer just for signing up.

Data entry jobs: Stay Away from Dataentrybusiness.com

Want to get regular scambusting updates? Sign up for e-mail or RSS updates.

Another one bites the dust. I keep hoping for a legitimate data entry job, but this one is not it. Dataentrybusiness.com cannot possibly fulfill its promises. It’s heavily promoted by top-paying-online-jobs.com, which should be ashamed of itself. It won’t, of course, because such people have no shame.

The long review: What are the claims?
Dataentrybusiness.com and its promoters claim it leads you to legitimate data entry jobs. All you have to do is pay the $49.00 “membership fee,” and you’ll get access to the “Members’ Area” containing all the secrets you need to rake in $200 per day or more for 45 minutes of daily work. Data entry jobs like this, and specifically dataentrybusiness.com either directly claim or imply the following:

  • Companies pay you for filling out forms; this outfit even lists specific numbers:

    If you complete 2 forms a day = $448 per week! (thats $1792/Month and $21,503 a Year!)
    If you complete 4 forms a day = $896 per week! (thats $3584/Month and $43,008 a Year!)
    If you complete 8 forms a day = $1792 per week! (thats $7168/Month and $86,016 a Year!)

  • You do the work in some sort of proprietary system, which you gain access to by paying your membership fee
  • “We provide an online catalog of companies, organised into relevant categories (health, money, employment etc).

What is the truth?
Don’t be fooled by the hype, the testimonials, the pictures of cash, or the yellow highlighter. Here is the truth about those claims:

  • This is a lie. Companies don’t pay you to fill out forms (at least not in this scenario.) They pay you IF someone clicks an ad you create AND THEN buys the product your ad is selling. Whether the clicker buys or not, YOU PAY a fee to Google for the click, if the ad is based in Google Adwords.
  • You are not using a system that the company has hooked you up with. You’re using Google’s Adwords system and choosing companies from Clickbank, both of which everyone has access to for free.
  • This is another lie. They don’t provide you anything except for instructions on how to set yourself up with clickbank and Adwords accounts—information freely available if you know where to look.

Here’s what’s really going on: You are filling out Google Adwords forms or affiliate links for businesses listed in Clickbank. There’s a lot the program promoters don’t tell you:

  • If it’s based in Google Adwords, you’ll have to PAY for each form you fill out because you’re creating an ad to go in Google’s database. You pay Google to list your ad on sites like this one, in search results (that’s what “sponsored links” are), in Gmail screens, and elsewhere.
  • You pay a per-click fee every time someone clicks on your ad.
  • You only get paid if someone makes a purchase after clicking on your ad.

How many times have you clicked on an ad and not made a purchase? Yeah, me too. So now you can see how this “data entry job” is going to suck money from your wallet faster than you can say, “I want my money back.”

“But Joe, look at all the news outlets that have done stories on them. It must be legitimate if MSNBC is reporting on it.” See, the promoters are hoping you’ll see those news logos and think that. They think you’re as dumb as a box of rocks. I did detailed searches at 4/5 of the news organizations listed, NONE OF THEM did stories on this outfit. More about that later.

Numbers don’t prove anything
The part of this page that really gets my goat is the image claiming to show “how much you can earn completing forms.” Fill out 2 forms per day and make $448 per week? The world just doesn’t work that way. Maybe you could make that much with two forms, IF a given number of people clicked on it each day that week AND purchased whatever that ad is selling. And even then, it depends on you choosing the right company to create ads for. Make ads for strawberry-scented butt-rash cream and you might be stuck with a 10-cent commission per sale. How many tubes of cream do you have to sell to make $448 per week at that rate?

I’m so disgusted by these guys that I felt I had to take action. I wrote to the legal departments of cnn.com, msnbc.com, Wired News, and the New York Times online and gave them a heads-up that someone is using their logos as endorsements. It felt really good, too.

You know what felt even better? Finding the dirt on them at the Better Business Bureau. Read the whole report; I can’t do it justice here:

Complainants allege false or deceptive advertising practices, dissatisfaction with the offer which resulted in refund requests, or failure to honor their money back guarantee. Some buyers complain the company misrepresents the income potential, or fails to disclose that there are additional costs after the membership is purchased. All complainants claim they experience difficulty contacting the company in regards to their refunds.

Were you considering Dataentrybusiness.com and read this review as part of your research? Have I saved you from flushing $50 down the loo? If so, we’d love to hear from you in the comments. Come to think of it, we’d love to hear from you in the comments, anyway.

Looking for a real way to make money online?
Then purchase our book. We break down the steps you need to take to find a real, paying job that you can do from the comfort of your home. Best of all, you set the price you can afford to pay. Stop dealing with scams and find the best way to legitimately work from home. Click here to learn more about our book.

What YOU can do
Scams like this one thrive on ignorance and emotional appeal. You can help put these guys out of business by spreading the word about this post and the dirty tricks of scammers that want to kick you when you’re down. Help us get the word out:

  1. Share this post by clicking on the “Share This” link below
  2. Learn more about this and other online scams by reading the Related Posts below
  3. Report fraudulent activity at Scam Victims United and to your local police

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (Update 2)

Financial Peace University’s promotional website claims that its participants have on average saved $2700 and paid off $5300 in debt by the end of the 3-month course. Having nothing to lose (except money, and I lose that all the time), I paid my $90 to enroll in Financial Peace University and will tell you all about it here at I’ve Tried That. To read prior posts and updates in the Financial Peace University review, click here.

The second class last night covered cash flow planning. It’s budgeting, but Ramsey calls it “cash flow planning” to give the process a business flavor so that people will take it more seriously. For people like me, that slight change in mindset makes a big difference. Dave Ramsey puts it bluntly:

If you were in charge of managing the finances for the Corporation of You, and you managed money for the Corporation of You like you do for you, would you fire you?

I have to say that I would fire me. It’s the same idea Sabrinasmoneymatters was getting at when she said, “You are the CFO of your Household Corporation.” So, yeah, little shifts.

Last night’s lesson included something that is as close as I ever expect to get to a magic elixir for those with chronic diarrhea of the wallet: a practical system for tracking and controlling money. A way to actually make the budget work, and maybe even to get me to stick to it (the jury’s still out on that one). It’s not a new plan, and it may be a no-brainer for folks who already discipline their money (rather than it disciplining them). The super secret anti-diarrhea system? Envelopes.

It’s simple, really. At the beginning of every month, you plan out when money comes in and give every dollar a name by deciding beforehand where it will go. Straightforward budgeting stuff so far, right? But here’s the magic part: when the money comes in, you take the cash out of the bank and put it in envelopes labeled with your budget categories. The FPU kit included a booklet with envelopes, and my household budget has enough categories that we needed to use some regular ones from our closet. The effect is, for me, magical because it takes the budget out of the realm of the abstract and theoretical and puts it in the realm of the real and practical: I have envelopes and cash in my hands. I can smell it and touch it and watch it as it flows out of the envelopes in the directions we have designated. We no longer wonder where the money went; we now tell it where to go. And that’s a powerful difference. I’m optimistic about the prospects. If we can get this system to work for us, that alone will have been worth the $90. As always, I’ll keep you posted.

Update 1 | Update 2 | Final update

InboxDollars Review: A Scam? Can you get paid to read emails?

Before I start this InboxDollars review, let’s put the facts on the table:

  • We all read emails.
  • We all love money.
  • It would be really awesome to get paid to read emails.

InboxDollars promises just that and they even go as far as to make the claim that ‘Money really does grow on trees.’ But just how accurate are these claims? Can you really get paid to just read emails? We wouldn’t call ourselves professional product and program testers if we didn’t give you an answer to these questions.

You can make money, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily will make money.

Each email that you read will net you anywhere between 1 to 10 cents. But these aren’t emails you would normally want to read. They’re advertisements for various programs or products that would result in InboxDollars making hefty revenue if you followed through and signed up for the program. Aside from emails, you can also “get paid” to play games, sign up for surveys, sign up for programs, shop, and search the internet.

What you aren’t told is that you will need to start spending money first and you’ll receive a measly percentage back on your spendings. This is the hidden truth behind their “get paid to” claims.

InboxDollars Scam

Take for example, this “Deal” offered for LifeLock. You get paid $20 if you spend anywhere from $120 to $324 for a LifeLock membership.

Okay, sure, this might be a deal if you are actually interested in their service and would like some money back, but for 99% of users this “deal” is completely meaningless.

My Results

I’ve been a member for about two weeks now and I have received 14 emails for a total of $0.40 cents. That’s a little less than 3 cents per email. If we take into account the $5.00 sign up bonus and the $1.00 introduction survey, I will need to read approximately 857 more emails.

At the current rate of 1 email per day, I’m looking at over 2 years of reading email just to receive my first $30 check. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do than click on an advertisement once a day for the next 2 years just to receive $30.

You make a lot of progress really fast early on, but according to our readers in the comments below and some of the reviews we’ve seen around the web, emails start to slow when you approach the cash out mark.

Even worse, there are reports of accounts getting closed right when they are ready to cash out. We can’t confirm these reports and InboxDollars does reserve the right to cancel your account if you violate their code of conduct.

The Real Source of Funds

At this point, you’re probably asking yourself how could they possibly make money by sending out emails. I decided to look into a few of the programs that are heavily promoted throughout the site. Take for example, eBay. InboxDollars will pay you $6.00 to sign up at eBay and place a bid. Not bad right? Wrong. They’re making anywhere between $25-$35 every time a new user signs up at eBay and places a bid.

Stamps.com is also heavily promoted at a $10 bonus just for signing up for their free trial. However, in the event you forget to cancel the free trial after a couple of weeks, you will be billed $15.99 per month and InboxDollars makes $50.

Stay far away from any free trial offers. That is where you will most likely lose a lot of money.

It sounds like users are getting the short end of the stick while InboxDollars laughs all the way to the bank.

I’ve tried that and I don’t like it.

If you have nothing better to do than to read emails (read: view advertisements) for the next few years, then by all means sign up and get started. I do feel that doing anything at InboxDollars aside from reading emails is a recipe for disaster.

In an extreme case, suppose you sign up for the Stamps.com free trial and forget about your account. In a month you will be billed and in the event that you refuse to pay you can have your account forwarded to collections which could have a disastrous effect on your credit score.

This result could yield hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in damages all for a measly $10.

Personally, I’m closing my account.

How Does Inbox Dollars Compare?

If you’re looking for a decent alternative, I would highly suggest looking into SwagBucks. I’ve reviewed them a few months back and I’ve actually made money and was able to cash it out. and give some tips on how to quickly start making some money with them.

SwagBucks does pay you to do a number of things, watch videos, play games, answer surveys, but my favorite is that they pay you just to search the web. SwagBucks gets paid by sending you Google’s sponsored results and, as a thank you, sends some of their earnings back to you.

I’ve switched my main search engine to SwagBucks. They are using Google’s results, so you are still seeing the same exact page you’d see if you searched Google directly. But by going through them first, you can earn some extra money.

I highly suggest that you create an account today. You’ll quickly see why I recommend SwagBucks over InboxDollars. Plus, you get a free $5 bonus just for signing up.

SwagBucks Pays: Here’s Proof

I can’t make a recommendation without offering a little bit of proof that it actually works.

Here’s a look at my total earnings so far: SwagBucks Proof

1 SwagBuck roughly equals 1 penny. So I’ve made approximately $928.78 since joining!

And here’s a peek at my personal cash outs.

SwagBucks Cash Out

You can redeem your SwagBucks for a number of things, but I’ve found it’s best to go for gift cards at places you normally shop. That seems to get you the most value for your “SwagBuck” and if you are as addicted to Amazon as I am, it’s a great way to lower your credit card bill.

That’s right. I’ve been able to make over $900 and it didn’t take over 2 years of clicking links in emails.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve gotten this far, by now you should realize I’m not a fan of InboxDollars.

There are better alternatives out there that have proven track records.

I’d suggest you stick with something else.

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (Update 1)

Click here to read my first post in the Financial Peace University review.

The first class was last week and I’ve had time to let my impressions gel.
As you can see from the materials shown here, the fee (mine was $90, but prices
vary) is not for materials alone. The paper inside the fancy box is worth maybe
$25. There’s an overpriced, cheaply bound book, a mind-numbing fill-in-the-blank
“workbook,” an envelope binder for keeping the recommended envelope
system organized, some CDs to supplement the weekly class, and some materials
with which you can order lots more from Ramsey’s website.FPU1

The rest of the value comes from the class, by which I mean the video presentation. I met in a room with about 40 other people and watched a DVD of Dave Ramsey teaching the first week’s lesson. It’s a little bit slick for my taste. Too glossy, too much of a performance and a production. Ramsey is quite the performer—the presentation is interesting and entertaining to watch—but it’s spoon-fed education. There’s no exploration of ideas, no exchange. And maybe there doesn’t have to be. It’s not philosophy, after all. People who take the course paid the money because they want to know what Dave has to say, not because they want to engage in discussion. Still, it goes against every educational bone in my body. All four of them.

All that said, I am actually enjoying Financial Peace University, to my surprise. It occurs to me that I didn’t pay to get my money’s worth out of the box, or even in classroom experience. I was willing to pay $90 for the chance that Ramsey would motivate me to do what I already know needs to be done: budget, save, pay off debt, invest. As Sabrina at SabrinasMoneyMatters might say, I’m paying to create some accountability. Good information and an easy-to-use system are just icing on the cake.

I’ve Tried That | Update 2 | Final Update

Review of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University

Dave Ramsey claims to teach people how to manage finances, get out of debt, save money, and make good investments. He is the author of a number of books on personal finances and has a syndicated prime-time radio show in which callers describe their financial situations and get free advice. The first website linked above is the home page of what is surely becoming an empire. I’ve tried just one little fiefdom in the Dave Ramsey financial advice empire: Financial Peace University (FPU).

It’s a 13-week course, complete with textbooks, homework, and class sessions. The class meets one night a week for two hours and teaches the basics of money management. FPU’s main claim is regarding the past success of its 300,000+ students:

On average these families have paid off over $5,300 in debt and saved $2,700 during this 91-day program!

I was skeptical. But my money management skills are those of a 12-yr-old (ooh, something shiny! Me buy now!) and I have the debt and saving rate to prove it. In short, I had little to lose. So if I could just meet the advertised averages of savings and debt reduction, that would help a lot. And I just might learn something. So I paid my $90 and enrolled in what is certainly the cheesiest-sounding university I have ever attended. The first class was last night (check back later for pictures of the materials and my first impressions). I’ll keep you posted.

Update 1 | Update 2

Day Job Killer Review — Forget the hype. Don’t expect to become the next Internet millionaire.

Warning: If you think that reading this ebook, or any ebook for that matter, will make you rich, then you are sadly mistaken. Realistically, will anyone be earning a million dollars per year after twelve months of reading the Day Job Killer and applying it’s techniques? No. It just doesn’t make any sense. If you stop to think about it for a minute, why would anyone pass up the chance to be a millionaire in only a year? Simply put, they wouldn’t.

If you have no experience in affiliate marketing, nor are you interested, I suggest that you stop reading now. The paragraph above is more than enough information to take away from this ebook review.

The Day Job Killer claims to take any affiliate marketer, arm them with a few tricks, and turn them into money making machines. The book itself is split up into three main sections: the basics, the secret, and advanced techniques.

Part 1: The Google Cash Method (The Basics)

The Google Cash method emerged a few years ago and taught readers how to advertise affiliate programs through Adwords in hopes of returning a profit on conversions. Basically, the users of this system would purchase ad space, and market an affiliate product. When a viewer clicked on the purchased ad, the marketer would hope the viewer would complete an action, such as sign up for a program or purchase something, and the marketer would walk away with some sort of affiliate income. This method is rather risky and if done incorrectly could cost the user of the system a lot of money.

This section is a look into the essentials of the Google Cash method and offers plenty of tips on getting started with that system, but as far as I can tell, it offers nothing new to the system. There were a few personal tips on how to maximize potential earnings and conversions, but other than that, this section is nothing more than hype on possible ways you could make money.

Part 2: The Leveller (The Secret)

Now, if you plan on purchasing this book, this section is what you are essentially spending your $97 on. In the Day Job Killer preview, we find the author makes a number of references to a secret that will turn you into a millionaire. This section is really the “secret” that is referenced throughout the presell page.

Here you will learn how you might be able to stop readers from visiting affiliate sites directly, but instead divert them to a page of your own where you can cash in on the affiliate sale yourself. I have to admit that it’s a pretty interesting and innovative concept, but in the end it’s the same information that can be found widely available for FREE on the web. If you were to spend an hour or two doing research, you will be able to find much easier and effective ways of earning money online. I’ll even give you a head start by pointing you to JohnChow.com and the Digital Point forums. Both of these sites are excellent resources and you will find helpful and knowledgeable communities who aren’t just trying to make a quick sale.

Part 3: Advanced Techniques (Advanced Techniques)

I’m not actually going to use this space to discuss the actual book. Instead, I wish to point out that the biggest gripe I have with the Day Job Killer is that the presell page is one hundred times too long. The presell page is almost as long, if not longer, than the actual book itself. As Joe likes to say, “the longer a sales pitch, the more decorated it is, the weaker the product.” Truer words, never spoken.

$1,000,000 a year in 12 months? Hardly.

To the average internet user looking to make money online, avoid this book. You may feel the urge to want to purchase it after seeing the pictures of earnings over $2,500 in one day, but take it from me, better information is out there and it won’t cost you a dime. The only thing you have to gain from purchasing this ebook is a 97-dollar receipt.

What YOU can do
Scams like this one thrive on ignorance and emotional appeal. You can help put these guys out of business by spreading the word about this post and the dirty tricks of scammers that want to kick you when you’re down. Help us get the word out:

  1. Share this post by clicking on the “Share This” link below
  2. Learn more about this and other online scams by reading the Related Posts below
  3. Report fraudulent activity at Scam Victims United and to your local police