Quite often, people even search through our archives first. They do their due diligence and then write a message like this one, from alert reader Joanna:

Hello. Great site.

I came across this web site homebizlast.com/ and could not find anything about it in your archives.

A person whom I only know on facebook (young daughter of real life friend) claims to have made 150 dollars in one day.

I will ask her about it, but she is very young – around 17. Have you come across this site before?

Here’s the problem, and there’s no way Joanna and the other diligent readers would know this. (By the way, Joanna, I love your accent!)

We HAVE covered homebizlast.com, just not in that particular disguise. Not with that exact name. The same scams go by different names and just recycle the same sales pages and tactics over and over.

Truth be told, I think there are like five scams on the Internet. But they wear hundreds, nay, thousands of different masks.

Homebizlast.com is one of them. What is it? It’s Easy Google Profit dressed up to look like a legitimate news site. It tries to sound like a news story. It runs a script that makes the newspaper title and location local to you. (Mine is called the “Utah Online Edition” and the person making $5k per month lives in Salt Lake City. Where are these details located when you visit homebizlast.com? Speak up in the comments to play Where In The World Is This Scam Today?! It will be fun!)

We wrote about this fake news tactic here. That was back in May and it was selling Easy Google Profit even then.

So, thanks for the question, Jo. It turns out we have written extensively about the so-called Google scams. They’re all the same. Here’s a good place to start—the Master List of Google Scams.

If you hate spam like I do, there’s a good chance Sanford Wallace is responsible for your attitude.

The good news? He just lost a big legal fight with Facebook. A court has ordered him to pay Facebook $711 million for hacking members’ accounts and using them to send phony posts and messages. And the court referred the case to the US attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution. (Read the story.)

YES! It’s Bozos like him that have given Internet and email marketing a bad rap. They are the back-alley underbelly of a legitimate business that just about anyone can do.

Will he ever pay the full penalty? Of course not. But today is still a good day for the Internet.

My friend was, until recently, one of the millions of unemployed. He lost an excellent management job back in August and was thrown into the scary, mine-filled waters of the online job search.

He’s smart, so he was able to avoid most of the turds floating around in that lagoon.

One of them caught his attention, though. He signed up for a free resume critique at The Ladders. Theladders.com caters to executives and claims to help its members land career management jobs paying more than $100k per year.

It offers a free critique of your resume. You upload it and a resume expert goes through it and gives feedback on it. My friend uploaded his and got really good feedback about why it wasn’t landing him any interviews.

But, along with the feedback came an offer. We will rewrite your resume and cover letter for a mere $700!

Wow. Time for a big pause. To be honest $700 is nothing if it helps you get a job that pays more than $100,000. But could ladders.com really deliver on its promises? A careful search through a skeptic’s eyes (mine) turned up this:
A client of a resume writer certified by the National Resume Writer’s Association (the NRWA, who knew?) submitted a resume to the ladders and got back a blistering critique. The accredited writer found that “After reading the critiques that bashed the resumes they created, I found that the information they provided was not only subjective, but it was often inaccurate and incorrect.” (Read the discussion.)

Got that? Inaccurate AND incorrect! That’s a double negative!

I also found that the Wall Street Journal offers a similar service—free critique and a fee-based rewrite—for less. And the NRWA can also refer job seekers to certified resume writers who would do the rewrite for even less.

Bottom line, friend rewrote the resume himself based on the feedback he received, got interviews, and is now once again employed. And he didn’t spend $700 to do it.

All of my kids except one have had it, but so far, Her Hotness and I have stayed clean. We’re hoping it stays that way. It’s draining our schools and churches here, with health officials surprised that it is hitting so hard, so early in the season. That means you have a lot of people sick, worried about getting sick, and ready to pay to avoid it.

And of course, that only means one thing: it’s a scammer’s market ready for the reaping!

Are we appalled? Yes. Are we surprised? We are not. Check out the story:

Federal officials have warned promoters of more than 140 products sold over the Internet about fraudulent claims that they can prevent, treat or diagnose swine flu.
Bogus products include devices and sprays that claim to sterilize the air or surfaces, and dietary supplements claiming to boost the immune system. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it even has found fake Tamiflu being sold online without a prescription.

Want to have a look at some of the scammy products? Just Google “swine flu” and look at the sponsored search results. Chances are good that you’ll spot the products making false claims. Check out Microsan, for instance, at stop-h1n1.com. See the fear-stoking headlines at the top? They’re designed to prod you into a quick purchase before your critical thinking skills kick in.

The problem is bad enough that the FDA created a Swine Flu consumer fraud detection team, which spotted about 10 new product a day being promoted. All of them were making untested, unproven claims, and some of the products were downright dangerous. Check out the useful warnings at the FDA:

On May 1, 2009, FDA and the FTC warned that consumers who purchase products which claim to protect against or treat the 2009 H1N1 virus, but are not approved by FDA for the treatment or prevention of influenza, are risking their health and the health of their families.

These fraudulent products come in all varieties and could include dietary supplements, medical foods, or products that claim to prevent or cure the 2009 H1N1 influenza.

FDA announced that it has initiated an aggressive strategy to identify, investigate, and take regulatory or criminal action against individuals and businesses that wrongfully promote purported 2009 H1N1 influenza products in an attempt to take advantage of the current flu public health emergency.

Full disclosure: we won’t be testing any of these products. Maybe we could get Steve to inject or ingest an unknown substance purchased online, but it won’t be me. The flu sucks, but so do the potential hazards of swallowing something made in Albania with misspelled English words on the label.

For real information on Swine Flu, look to the Centers for Disease Control. Wash your hands often and don’t make out with strangers on the bus or subway without a surgical mask.

More and more people are turning to the Internet as a tool to find jobs. It’s almost indispensable, in fact, to any job search. Even if you don’t use the big job sites, you will need to visit your potential employers’ Web sites to learn all you can.

That’s why Jon’s experience caught my eye. He was laid off some time ago and did what millions of others do. He put his resume up at Monster.com, Yahoo Hot Jobs, and career-builder.com.

The result?

[I received] nothing but scam-scheme-fraud job offers left and right (which I spent the better part of every day looking for information on these companies sending job offers), reported them to their security dept. and several other agencies, and nothing was ever done to these scams-schemes-frauds.

After some BBB complaints I actually received an email from Careerbuilder saying that they are not responsible for scams-schemes-frauds and it’s up to the people using their site to find out what’s a scam-scheme-fraud.

Didja catch that? CareerBuilder.com says it’s not their responsibility to determine what is a real job offer and what is not. Buyer beware. Or in this case, broke and maybe desperate job seeker beware.

What-the-hell ever.

Is it the responsibility of these sites to hold your hand through the process? No. They’re not your mother. You’re supposed to keep your brain turned on.

But any Web site offering a job-related service messes with the real lives of people. They have a moral obligation to either (1) do something to prevent fraudulent use of their service, or (2) post a big giant warning that says, If someone says they found your resume on CareerBuilder, it’s a scheme. Don’t waste your time!

Jon continues:

With that said, I also believe that any legitimate company offering customers a product/service should check anything out before they advertise/offer it to anybody. They however don’t, come to find out their claim is there is too many calls coming in to check everyone , but have a dept. for after the fact situations of scams-schemes-frauds posted on their site. Isn’t that a little backwards? So basically as long as any company/person pays to advertise on your site they can put up any scam-scheme-fraud job posting.

What Kind of Junk Jobs?

When you post your resume at public sites, you are in a sense posting a target to your back. Not always, of course. Not everyone. But far, far too many people receive scam invitations disguised as job offers.

Here’s the kind of crap that CareerBuilder and other large job sites enable:

This is where I was contacted by wealthdci.com-Angela Penbrook productions for rebate processing, which at the time this company didn’t show Angela Penbrooks name or had any ratings with the BBB or any other consumer agency. So I kept reading their site and it looked like something I could do and signed up, which is when I then found out it was one of Angela Penbrook Productions out of Irvine,CA. A quick search lead me to numerous complaints websites going back for years, I quickly felt a punch in the gut feeling and emailed for my 90-day money guarantee. No answer to several emails then I called and called only to receive Lie after Lie that we are processing your refund that never came, so days before my 90 days was up I called my credit card company faxed copies of my emails and their answers to them for proof. I was lucky and received my refund through the credit card company ,which after a few days they acknowledged their investigating dept actually has known about this Angela Penbrook Productions companies.

Jon’s experience with fraudulent “jobs” doesn’t stop there:

Then the emails/calls for representatives out of country jobs> “We heard you were looking for a home business type jobs, since you filled out an application to our service/product” type of stuff was overwhelming. Every day almost 40-70 emails/calls. First I forwarded some of them to the FCC, FTC, BBB, SEC , Attorney General, but none of them had any registered business names with any county clerks office-using mail pick up places as company address’s-etc. etc.

Most stopped and then I recieved an email from HiringMax (Fountain Valley,CA) saying Careerbuilder gave me your info and I am posting your resume on our site for companies to view, you should also stop by one of our work fairs too. I checked this company out, but there is no business registered by that name either with any LA/OC county clerks office for 2 different main offices listed on their website, plus they were using hotel work fairs address’s as one of their company addresses.

So I confronted Careerbuilder about them sending my resume info to HiringMax and was told by a manager they never did any such thing. Then I confronted this “Fred” at HiringMax and he kept claiming CB sent him my info. I asked him how can that be when they said they never did any such thing and my resume was off their site for 2 months? Then he got really rude and, long story short finally said he would take my info off their site, but after searching this company/person out more, I found Ripoff Report complaints from employees and customers that said he would send employees to other companies job fairs to get/sometimes steal people’s info from their lists.

We have seen too many complaints like this about CareerBuilder for me to just cast it off as one person’s bad experience. Monster.com and Yahoo Hot Jobs post plenty of junk jobs (ever search for “telecommuting?” Don’t.), but I’ve never heard of people being directly contacted by fraudsters who say they got their resume from Monster.

Just be extra cautious. As the number of people searching for work increases, so does the number of scum-sucking bottom feeders who are working hard to take your last grocery money from you.

I listen to music and audio books on my Zune 30. I get the audio books from Audible.com, where a gold membership gets me one audiobook per month plus access to thousands of others at low prices.

I love that I don’t have to rip books from CD to my Zune…a simple download and I’m there, all for about $15 per month. The Web site works flawlessly for me every time, and unlike some people have experienced with Kindle, I own the audio books I buy. In case you’re curious, here are the books playing on my Zune:

• The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood (my current listen)
• A Mercy, Toni Morrison
• Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
• The Hunger Games & Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
• Catch 22, Joseph Heller
• Home, Marilynne Robinson
• The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie

Get a Free Audio Book

Audible is running a promotion just for friends of members. (Don’t you feel special?) You sign up for a free, two-week trial of its service and you get to download one free audio book to see if it’s a good fit for you. If you stick around, it’s only $14.95 per month for a Gold membership and that includes one audio book each month.

Click here to check out the offer. Instead of listening to Fergie or something while you jog, you could be getting smarter with audio books!

And remember, the first one is free and there’s no obligation to extend your membership beyond the free trial. Take a look at Audible today.

You see, I got this letter. (Click on it to see the full version, which is readable.) No return address. Postmarked in Illinois, which is a whole bunch of states away from me. So I don’t know who sent it to me. If it’s one of you and you somehow got my home address, I’m a little creeped out, but THANK YOU! I don’t know what the deal is, but all I have to do is send $2 to a post office box in New Hampshire, and they’ll send me all the information I need to change my life!

For $2, they say,

“We will show you how we use our program and how it can putyou into whatever income bracket you want to be in. We anticipate that you will surpass the $50,000 bracket within the first year, but there is no limit on your earnings, it could be much , much more!”

It’s only $2, and I can afford to lose that. I might as well take a chance. Heck, maybe it’s genuine.

Crazy, right? If you read the letter, you’ll see that it tells me absolutely nothing about what the program is or what I would be doing to earn this fabulous income.

But too often in this business, facts don’t matter. It’s all about pushing my emotional buttons. That’s why the letter leads with, “How would you like to receive the kind of money that most people only dream of having?”

If someone or something opens with the word “dream” in the first sentence, I know it’s a ripoff.

But the point of this post is to hold this snail mail scam up in comparison to the Internet scams we see every day of the year. Many Internet scams don’t give much more information about their offer than this letter…they just push your buttons and let the emotion do the rest.

Very often, the only difference is the price. I can’t think of an Internet scam that will cost you only $2. And I’ve heard stories of people losing thousands.

I shouldn’t be surprised…truly there is nothing new under the sun, and that includes the various ways people will separate others from their money. But what’s curious to me is that the very same people who would see this letter and immediately know it’s a scam sometimes get sucked in by scammy sales pages online. It’s almost like there’s a hypnotic effect coming through the monitor that causes people to suspend the bullshit detectors in their brains.

So, at the risk of sounding like a broken record and for the benefit of those readers just joining us, here’s Joe signing off with a warning: Be careful out there.

The spam box is where your email system sends messages that it thinks should never see the light of day. It is not for the uncritical or the unwashed newbie. In fact, I haven’t even told my mom that she has a spam box. She’s the kind of person that believes and clicks on whatever shows up in her email.

Why do I do it? Because on days when people send us messages that say, “should I pay $500 to EZMoney to set up my automated online store?” it reminds me that the work we try to do here at I’ve Tried That is important work.

Stay away from your spam box. Here there be dragons.

Dear user of the ivetriedthat.com mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (joe@ivetriedthat.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://ivetriedthat.com/owa/service_directory/xxxxxxxxemail=joe@ivetriedthat.com&from=ivetriedthat.com&fromname=joe

Best regards, ivetriedthat.com Technical Support.

First, ivetriedthat.com doesn’t have a mailing service. I would know because, well, it’s kind of my domain. And if one of us had ever upgraded this nonexistent mail service, I would have seen the bills.

joe@ivetriedthat.com, You’ve Received a $1,000 Wal-Mart G-Certificate

http://alynnadelida.com/solim?e=xxxxxx=29028016&l=0&email=joe@ivetriedthat.com

The advertise rsinthisemail arenotaffi liatedwith anyof the above bra
nds. Thisis a third-partyadvertisme ntsent to you by the list onwer. If
you nolonger wish to receiveemail fromthisadvertiser, please write
101-1001W.Broadway,Suite765 Vancouver,BC V6H-4E4

An anonymous spammer sends me a link to supposedly claim a $1,000 gift certificate from Wal-Mart. Yeah, like I’m gonna click that.

Why Do Spammers Do It??

Why do they send such blatant security risks and ripoffs? Because they work! People click them all day long!

The harder question is Why Does It Work?? Why do people click them?

I don’t know. If you can ask that question, padawan, you no longer need me. Now go forth and share your wisdom with ten million Internet users and have them do the same. That’s the only way we’ll make a dent in this kind of spam.

The wicked awesome photo for today’s post brought to you by: Luke Forshaw

The doors are now open to the improved program, and you can try it for seven days for $4.95.

What Is Niche Blitzkrieg?

It is an outstanding online course that will teach you how to make money online. It will show you how to create Web sites targeted to specific markets (niches) and how to use those sites to make money.

You will learn the non-negotiable basics of how to perform keyword research, how to tell if an idea has profit potential, and how to cash in using Adsense and other affiliate marketing strategies.

Plus, with about a dozen new training videos and the updated forums, it’s easier than ever to get help from expert Niche marketers.

What is a Niche?

A niche is a small, specialized corner of a market. For example, say I wanted to open a store. I wouldn’t try to open a discount store because I couldn’t compete with Wal-Mart, right? But I could maybe open a small store that specializes in hand-dipped chocolate strawberries. That’s a niche.

The same concept applies online. An online niche is a small, specialized corner of the Web. Something that maybe only 5,000 people search for every month instead of 50,000,000. Say you wanted to open an online store. You wouldn’t try to sell books because you can’t compete with Amazon.com. But you could sell TV-themed bobble heads (like Dwight from The Office). Everyone that looks for TV-themed bobble heads on the Web will come to you.

Why Niche Blitzkrieg?

We are big believers in Niche Blitzkrieg and its creator, so we’re excited to see this trial period. (Click here to see the numerous articles we’ve written about it.) If you have wanted to look inside the course but the price tag scared you away, now is your chance. Because now you can jump in for seven days and pay only $4.95.

If you like what you see and want to continue, do nothing. Your card will be billed one time for $77 at the end of the seven-day trial. If you have seen enough at the end of seven days, you can easily cancel and pay nothing more than your $4.95.

Quite a deal, huh? If you have a lot of ideas for niche markets rattling around in your head, but you don’t know how to check them out and turn them into money, you can find out for $5.

Start by clicking here. You will jump to the Niche Blitzkrieg sales page that will give you more information about what the course offers. If you have any questions about this offer or about NB, ask them in the comments. Michael, who created the program, is known to haunt these parts on occasion and he just might pipe up to answer your questions personally.

Alert I’ve Tried That reader Karen sent us this:

This site is for a job called, “Auction Listing Agent.” Costs $197.00 and what you’ll be doing is logging into Ebay, finding products for big name companies like Dell, etc., and filling out forms for $5 a pop. You are getting products listed to big names companies for auction and getting paid to fill out a form.

Is this for real? I think not! It’s run by Jennifer Johnson. At first she says no experience/education needed-then she says there is no competiton because this is a secret and nobody has the education or training to do it. Provides you with a mentor. My vote-Scam. Please tell me your vote. Thank you

I’m voting with you, Karen.

Readers who have been with us for very long will remember the Angela Penbrook/Angel Stevens rebate processing scam from last year. One of those scams cost $197, too. I think there’s a scammer’s Bible somewhere that says Thou Shalt Charge $197 for Thy Garbage.

Those sites also had a video pop up script that played a little video of Angela or Angel or Diana telling you all about how you can change your life with an hour per day and they’ll show you the secrets. This “auction listing” queen is Jennifer Johnson.

“Hi,” she says cheerily. “I’m Jennifer Johnson.” What the hell ever. Hi Jennifer! I’m Cary Grant. “I have an urgent message for you that could change everything,” she chirps.

Oh, Jennifer is also “America’s Top Work-at-Home Consultant.” No, really. I kid you not. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see. I wonder if Angela or Angel or Diana knows Jennifer has taken her title! Maybe they’ll get in a mud pit and wrestle it out! Let’s watch!

Sorry, I get carried away. It’s just that we’ve seen all this before.

Big companies like Dell are not sitting around hoping that you’ll list their products on eBay! You aren’t going to list auctions and get paid for filling out a form! You get paid IF someone clicks on the item you list and then buys it.

When homejobplacement.org says, “If you’re serious about working an extremely lucrative real job from the comfort of your home, I urge you to get started right now,” it is misleading you. It’s an outright lie to say it’s a real job. A real job is one in which you get paid a known amount in exchange for your time and skill.

Not IF the company makes money. Not IF the customers buy the right product. And you sure don’t have to pay an employer for the privilege of working!

So you’re right, Karen, and thanks for speaking up. Here is one person’s experience with another “auction listing” offer:

When I get this program I thought I was going to get an special program to put auctions in Ebay for diferents companies like Emily Thomas announce on this website “http://www.workathomerecruiters.com/index2.php ” I feel like I have been bamboozled, because I do not have recieve any thing that you promise on your web site.

I would like to know when you are going to send me that information, because the main reason I paid US$97.oo was get that program no a EBAY course that you sent me instead my money. Its no fair you act like that this is the principal reason many people do not belive in internet business, please be honest.

They’re all the same pigs, just with different lipstick. Stay away from Homejobplacement.org.