Someone named Jeff Walton is advertising freelance writing jobs on craigslist. He claims to offer weekly compensation for freelance writers who submit articles to a number of different freelance writing websites. The scam here is that Jeff Walton is promising to pay hundreds of dollars for work; however, you sign up, do the work, and never hear from Jeff again. Meanwhile Jeff is making a killing off of referral commissions.

You might not lose your own money with this scam, but you’re out hours of work with no compensation.

Beware of Jeff Walton

Tiffany writes…

I was looking on Craigslist to try and find a gig that I could do to earn some extra cash quickly. Then I found this one ad stating that they need writers with good grammar skills to review websites. I responded to the post (2095711992). Then Jeff Walton sent me an email within 5 minutes and it said the following:

Jeff Walton
writersupport@netbusiness.com
thewritework+canned.response@gmail.com

Hello,
You may start immediately. Our publisher network is Constant-Content.
You are required to have correct grammar and good writing skills only.You should keep all your reviews together in one email. We are only looking for honest and sincere reviews. Do not send one review at a time. Send in all your reviews at the same time (You may send reviews in individual files or in one file but all reviews must be together in one email) otherwise payments are delayed, reviews may be lost. The sooner you submit them the sooner they may get approved and the sooner you will get paid. When submitting reviews also have your paypal account (email address) in the email to receive payment. The more sites you review the more money you make. You will have 2 weeks, 10 business days to submit reviews or they will be rejected (Only reviews submitted within the 2 week period will be accepted, you will only be paid for the sites you review within the 2 week period). You may not get rich but some of our best reviewers make $900-$1200 every pay period. If you are serious about employment we supply ample amount of work. The amount of money you make is up to you. You may work full or part time depending on your situation. Payments are sent out as soon as reviews are approved (Payments may take up to 4 business days to reach your account depending on your payment processor) Do not reply to this email, send your reviews, any questions or comments email us at writersupport@netbusiness.com

INSTRUCTIONS
Writers must sign up (register with all sites, whether just entering your email or filling out basic forms) before writing reviews. We do this so we know our writers have really took the time to look at the sites before reviewing them. All reviews will be around 150 words. To see an example of an article contact writersupport@netbusiness.com If you happen to finish all reviews within a 24 hour period email writersupport@netbusiness.com for details concerning your pay rates and reviews.

1) register for the given websites (This step is very important)
(You may use an old email account or a new one as long as you can receive email confirmations)
2) take a look at what the sites are offering,
3) write a short 150 word review about every website
(this can include the theme, layout, style, what can make the website better, what you like, what you dont like, what the site owner should and should not do, etc)
4) submit your reviews to us along with your
paypal, email address and wait for approval
5) once we approve your reviews you will instantly be paid within 4 business days.

Approved reviews means that you followed directions and actually registered for the sites while preparing each of your 150 word reviews (You must register for all sites you review, this is part of the reason you are paid the good rate of $10 per review)

NOTE
Some sites give short quizzes, some sites require registration, others only require email confirmation to let us know you have gotten further than the first page. We recommend creating a new email address or or an older email you do not use anymore. The email confirmation is the most important part about the registration, use a real email address. Your name and address do not matter as long as you get through the site to do a full review. Our tracking software will let us know of any false reviews which will lead to immediate rejection. Some sites are international, some are not. If you can’t access a certain site go on to the next one. Reviews are not automatically rejected for being a little less than 150 words. Writers who have earned more than $600 will be asked to send in a W-9 form.

DUE DATE 12/12/2010

NOTE- If a link does not work, it simply means the website does not allow traffic from your area. Go to another link if this is the case.

The Following links are for USA and Canada only.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5
Link 6
Link 7
Link 8
Link 9
Link 10
Link 11
Link 12

Article Sample

Site # (username/email address)

Shvoong.com is a website that is set up for writers to earn money by writing about different topics. The SHVOONG
website is a place where writers can submit reviews of different products, books, and electronics. They offer
academic paper summaries, book reviews, movie review, and other gadget reviews. This website offers a variety of
different topics which allows writers to produce content for many different sections. Each topic has a list of different articles.
This website offers reviews of different books along with many other topics.
Each story is rated on a five star scale. This is a great website for the up and coming writer looking for a place to start.
Shvoog.com provides apprentice writers the opportunity to establish a career.
Their website has many different topics which will allow writers to prepare articles that are unique.
In order to improve this website you may want to consider reorganizing the navigation system.
It appears that every search provides random articles rather than locating specific articles.
Because there are so many articles on Shvoong.com it is the perfect
location for people to share their thoughts through articles.
****************************************************************

So I contacted writers support asking them if they are affiliated with Constant Content would I need to sign up with them. However I didn’t get a response so I ended up reviewing all the websites. Going through all of the websites I reviews I noticed that they all pretty much had the same layout, privacy policy and so forth and they were all created by digital target marketing. After I did my reviews I submitted an attachment with all of them as per the directions. I didn’t hear from them. I contacted both email addresses and still nothing. So after the four days past I contacted Constant Content and showed them the email Jeff sent me. This was their response:

Hi Tiffany,

Thanks for forwarding this to me. Could you please send me the link to the Craigslist posting you saw? I have had a few people email me with similar stories and I have been trying to contact the creator of the ad to no avail.

He has no affiliation to Constant-Content and we are not sanctioning this. If you read over his email he doesn’t even instruct people to sign up for our site, so I think he is only including our name to build credibility. From what I can see, he’s getting a commission for every signup you make on the sites he lists. You might be able to help stopping him by contacting the sites directly and telling them what he is doing.

Take care,

Eric
*******************************************************************

Realizing I’ve been scammed (although I had a feeling it was going to be anyway due to their lack of response) I submitted a scam complaint to craigslist since I couldn’t find the ad itself. I haven’t heard back from Craigslist yet and I sent the posting ID to constant content. Then when I did further research I saw how many other people received this same email off of craigslist and didn’t receive any response. I’m not sure if netbusiness.com is their website or not but that’s what others refer it too.

I would have sent an email to every single website that I had to review, but none of them have an email contact.

So if anyone responds to a craigslist job offer and receive the first email I showed, report it.

The bright side of all of this is it didn’t require any investment, I just missed out on about 45 minutes of extra sleep time!

I hope they actually catch him. These people are cold hearted and they’re probably more desperate now since it’s the Holidays and people are trying to make extra money.

For the record, Constant Content is a legitimate freelance writing program. I’ve check it out in the past and have seen pretty favorable reviews of it around the web. If you’re a freelance writer looking for another place to sell your articles, click here and check it for yourself.

As for Jeff Walton, stay far away from this guy. Always do your research before accepting any work at home job. If you ever have any doubts about the legitimacy of an offer, do not hesitate to contact me and I’ll look into it for you.

I had just left Dillard’s and was headed back to Victoria’s Secret to pick up my wife. No, really. That’s where she was. But before you get any big ideas about what she was shopping for, think of this: my daughter was with her. So yeah. I guarantee they weren’t shopping for Valentine’s Day gifts for me. (At least I hope not, because…the horror!)

All I wanted to do was get from point A to point B. Shopping for shoes in the mall was bad enough. I kind of prefer Target where all the shoes are right smack in the middle of the store, and there are only six varieties so I don’t get confused. So I’m walking with my new shoes minding my own business when this slick (read: young, cute) sales girl smiled at me and said, “May I?”

I had to stop. I mean, she smiled at me. Cute young girls haven’t smiled at me since pre-marriage days. Excluding my four-year-old. She’s cute and young, but it’s not the same, you know?

So I stopped (that was my first mistake) and let this girl tut-tut over my dry hands. There was no question about it: they were dry. And such a shame, too, good looking guy like me, she says. Next thing I know, she’s buffing my thumbnail with some kind of buffer thingy. I don’t know what it was. It was blue. And it left my thumbnail shiny.

Meanwhile, she learned that I am a writer, that I am married and have children, that I had just bought shoes, that I was at the mall for dinner with my wife and daughter, and that I had not yet bought her a Valentine’s day present.

I mean I’m so not a chatty person. That’s more than my coworkers know about me! I swear, if she had asked me for my social security number and my deepest hopes and dreams, I would have given them to her.

See, the thing is, I’m not even sure how it really happened. One minute we were just friends and the next I was a customer and had spent $40 I didn’t plan to spend on stuff my wife already has sitting on the dresser. Cuticle oil (WTF?) and some kind of lotion. She might have called it “butter” or something. Oh yeah, and salt from the Dead Sea. For scrubbing into your skin. To make it soft.

It was just so fast. And she seemed so sincere and I thought she really liked me and I believed her when she said that the softness on my hands would last for a week and the shine on my nail would last for three. I mean, why would she lie? We bonded, I tell you!

So what do you think? Are there any parallels? Discuss.

This company is totally a scam, and unfortunately I completely fell for it in a desperate time of need. I purchased the premium package for $60.00. After I purchased the packaged which was 300 assignments and then 100 assignments it stated that you could not cash out until all of the assignments were completed. I did a little research and didn’t find anything really out there.

Little did I know, it was because the company was brand new, so not enough time had elapsed for all the complaints to come in. I contacted them via email and they indicated I could request payment twice. I spent hours upon hours completing the 300 assignments and then requested payment. They indicated that it would take 6 to 8 weeks because they would have to submit each assignment to each company whose website you reviewed.

I then decided to do some research again and that is when I started hearing of the stories and the “infamous” letter that you would receive that basically states that you did not do the assignments properly and the companies refused to pay. I also checked them out with the Better Business Bureau and not only did they receive an F rating, but it also stated that if you gave them money you should contact your local authorities.

In any event, after I sent an email to them inquiring about whether or not I was going to get paid or get this “infamous” letter, I, of course, received that “infamous” letter within the hour. I am so mad, I could spit nails! I have been bantering back and forth with them. Visit my blog, as I have posted my emails to them and their responses back to me. I have yet to receive a response to my last reply.

I will not rest until this company goes out of business and stops scamming people. Not only do they take your money, but you end up wasting your precious time. My blog is tlondon.blog.com. Another great site to check places out is ptcinvestigations.

I feel so foolish that in my moment of desperation I failed to notice the obvious signs that should have raised red flags for me. I guess I just so wanted to believe that there was in fact at least one legitimate company out there that you could work for and make decent money. So far, however, that hasn’t been the case.

So please people, don’t fall for it. Don’t be enticed by their little “scam free” seal, as anyone can purchase that seal for $39.95. Don’t become another statistic of yet another person who put their faith in a company that is only out to hurt and scam you. These people are downright criminal. I wish there was a way that these sites could be policed in some fashion so they can stop getting rich by being criminals. It is just so frustrating.

They tell you Lee is delivering a special webinar–only he does it 15 days after you signed up for the 14 day trial.The phone number in the DVD case does NOT work. When you send questions to the support desk they give lame excuses why they can’t help you and actually ignore your how-to questions.

When I canceled–according to their directions, through a support ticket–2 days before the trial expiration–the next day I got an email saying that wasn’t good enough I had to fill in some form–which I did. With still one day to go, even after I got their confirmation for my, cancellation and still less than 14 days–they billed me! I am reporting then to the Better Business Bureau and sending their cancellation confirmation to my bank. For someone who markets himself as being all about integrity–I See zero integrity for how he runs his business–a real shame as his info has value but no support.

After we posted about Lee’s programs, he responded in our comments section offering to help anyone directly with their cancellations.

To cancel simply visit http://www.getmoremomentum.com/support/ and your request will be processed immediately.

We only want members who want to be in the program and we make canceling as easy as possible!

Alternatively, simply email me direct at lee [at] aimhighermarketing.com with all the details and I’ll take care of it personally.

Many thanks

Lee McIntyre

Lee’s program does have negative option offers (ie. if you don’t cancel your free trial in 14 days you will be charged to join the program) but in his defense, all of this is in plain view in big bolded letters as you signup for his program. However, there doesn’t appear to be any mention of how much this will cost you and the links to the Privacy Policy and Disclaimers are all invalid unfortunately.

Either way, if you’re looking to get in contact with Lee McIntyre personall, you can find him at lee [at] aimhighermarketing.com.

Oh, Facebook! So full of knowledge and useless information. Used for cheap shout-outs, desperate requests for sympathy and product endorsement. Facebook itself is not a scam. At least, it hasn’t gotten me yet. And then a friend of mine posted as her status: “Judy Starbright* )) I got my free teeth whitener trial today and my teeth are so shiny and white!! I feel like a new person.. for those of u that are gonna ask were I got it at here’s the link: myidolsmile.net use promo code: whitetoday.. you’re welcome!”
*name changed to protect the culprit, but did not touch the spelling or grammar.

I thought, “Hey! I could really use that,” and didn’t stop to question what I was getting myself into. So I typed in myidolsmile.net. The promo code said that if you paid $1.95 for shipping and handling, the product was FREE. [Note by Joe: this price is exactly $1 off the regular S&H offer of $2.95.] How can you do better than that? The website seems legit. I didn’t really question anything, especially because if my friend had done it without problems, I assumed I would be fine as well.

So I ordered it and provided my debit card number to pay for the shipping. I got a confirmation email from premiumwhitepro.com.

The product came within three weeks. So far, so good. It wasn’t very good quality, and the gel that they raved about was nothing special, and actually pretty gross. But it was a trial, and so I wasn’t too upset…until I checked my bank account and saw that Ultifreshwell had removed $49.89 from my account. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but I thought that maybe it meant they were sending me a longer lasting package, that I could send back for a refund, or something like that. Nothing else came in the mail. A few days later, Sup*Smilebright removed $86.93 from my account. And I currently have $48.23 pending to be taken out of my account from Sup*Whiteteeth.

I’ve canceled my bank card and started fraud cases on all three transactions, and of course, have yet to see whether or not that is going to be enough. I did some research after it all happened, because the numbers that are provided on the statement for the company are completely bogus. The numbers took me to a few discussion boards that talk about the ads seen online for “A stay at home mom discovers the trick to whiter teeth!”

The discussion boards also give several different company names such as Dazzle Smile or Dazzle White. But they all sound like the same thing and they all have recurring charges on their account. Some resorted to closing their bank accounts altogether. I really don’t want it to get to that point, but it might be the only thing to stop the charges.

Remember, “Free” Almost Never Means Free

Addendum by Joe: In all fairness to idolsmile.net (though they don’t deserve it), the first company that started Shelli down this tragic path, the page where you fill out the order form clearly states that it is a 14-day free trial. If you don’t cancel at the end of the trial, your account will be billed $87.62 for another month’s supply of whitener gel.

However, the fine print doesn’t say anything about the other companies and other charges. Also, if you DO cancel before the 14 day trial, guess what?

If you decide to cancel your Membership prior to the expiration of the fourteen (14) day Trial Membership period, your Active Credit Card will still be charged the fee of Eighty-Seven Dollars and Sixty-Two Cents ($87.62) at the end of the Trial Membership period.

WTF?? Go ahead and cancel, but we’re still gonna take almost 90 bucks?! So much for the “free” trial, huh?

What About Refunds?

It has a 30-day guarantee, so you can get a refund, right? Right? Um, not so much:

If you do not cancel your Membership as set forth in Section 7 hereinbelow, and return the one (1) month supply (“Qualifying Return Products”) at your expense as set forth below, your Active Credit Card will be charged the Monthly Fee of Eighty-Seven Dollars and Sixty-Two Cents ($87.62).

So if you were planning to order the trial, then cancel it, then get a refund, don’t bet on it. You only get a refund if you don’t cancel. There are other hoops you have to jump through, too, like returning the unused portion to them.

The bottom line? The “free” trial will cost you at least $87.62, and maybe, like Shelli, a lot more.

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.

So here is a partial list of the “I was scammed” experiences we have collected over the past week from comments and e-mail. If you would like to speak up, share your experience in the comments section. You could very well help someone from making the same mistake(s) you made.

Herbalife and Partnerwithpaul.com

I’m worse….I did sign up for herbalife and got screwed! So let’s count…..
$9.95 – package, 39.95 to keep it, $149 to sign up, $88 in product, $118 in product ordered that I did not request (this is full price by the way), $20 for the on line traning………So that’s about $425 that I didn’t have in the 1st place. My husband was laid off in Jan 2009 – still not working, I was laid off in June 2009. So obviously I didn’t have a lot of money to throw at this thing. Once my sponsor found that out I shoved to the back corner. Also, I tried taking the products – I can’t handle them….I have a heart condition and they affect my heart. I tried to explain this to my sponsor and she gets all rude. I asked to return the products and shes mouthing off to me how I’m negative and if I REALLY have a heart problem I should take them. Honestly! Like I don’t know how to take care of my condition! On top of all that – my mail was stolen from my mailbox which had my completed application in it – no according to herbalife I don’t exist as a distributor because they don’t have a hard copy – and to get another app is another $50!

So Yes, stay away! Anytime you head the word ‘Parner with Paul, or Herbalife’ run the other way – hang up the phone, delete the email, etc.

FromHomeDataEntry.com

This company’s parent company is Plimus.com
If you paid through Paypal, look at the receipt and it will tell you where the money was sent. I am also one of the people duped by this site. I fully intend to allot a certain amount of money to advertise against this company. I am disabled and am in the middle of getting my disability and can’t afford to be scammed but it happened. These people have no conscience nor heart. I plan to post negative threads(the truth) about this company whenever the opportunity presents itself.

AboutFaceCorp.com

I was looking for a mystery shopper job and I applied for this company called AboutFacecorp. com and well this site is a scam and what they did was copy the companies exact site so when you sign up it goes to them and not the campany. They would want you to shop a western union and rate it. They would send you checks that look real but indeed they are fake checks. Would just like to share that info with you. I also let the company know that this is going on and she relpied and said thank you and check the email that is comes from and she said no company will have live, yahoo, or hotmail as their email address. Just would like to share that info.

Fake Checks from LightSpeed Panel

I called because I was sent two checks in the mail saying I won for taking a moneygram survey, when I asked the man who I called what to do he told me to go to my bank cash it and then call him, I then asked him if I could read off the internet about this lightspeed panel and quoted that the checks were fraudulant and from canada and another man was told to contact fraud department and he instantly hung up on me. Once I said your are a fraud he hung up. I gave him the wrong bank and everything. No personal info. This shit is a scam. They will screw you over. Do not take the bait! I personally find it quite cruel to offer money to people saying they won money when they are very poor and cant even buy groceries. Its like hope and then its smashed. These con artists should go to jail. Dont respond to a man called Mike Daddy.

Bogus Web site charges from IMC

I WAS SCAMED BY IMC I WENT TO PAY THEM $97 FOR A WEB SITE BUT AFTER I GAVE THEM MY BANKING INFO A MESSAGE CAME BACK THAT THEY COULD NOT PROCESS MY CREDIT CARD ,BUT WHEN I CHECKED MY BANK ACCOUNT 2 DAYS LATER THEY HAD DEBITED MY ACCOUNT FOR $197 DO ANY BODY HAVE THERE CUSTORMER SERVICE PHONE NUMBER PLEASE RESPOND BURRUSROY@GMAIL.COM THANK YOU

I was scammed by Igomogul. I’ve finally figured out how this scam works. Igomogul gets you to contract a website design through them. Igomogul makes an account with godaddy listing you as the registrant, this is $10 a year. Once a person looks at the “who is” and sees they are the registrant they are convinced they control the domain name. If they look at the bottom they will discover that it says registrant can not delete, renew, transfer, or update the account.

Should you call godaddy they will tell you that only the person or company with the log on, password, PIN or account number has control over the domain account. As such the person or company with that information can delete, renew, transfer, update, sell, give away, or close the account at any time without consent from the registrant or their knowledge.

Should the website fail Igomogul simply tells the registrant is it their fault. Should the website prove successful Igomogul hs the legal right to sell it and keep the money. Furthermore the content placed on the website is copyrighted to whomever has the account information, so that also becomes the property of Igomogul. Igomogul can use GoDaddy design and development tools to create the site; this costs less than $50 a year.

At the end of the first 90 days Igomogul demands more money, if you do not pay then they remove the ads from the free AdSense program and the website now requires a membership log in fee. If you want links added to your webpage Igomogul asks for more money, again this is a free program that they do not pay for. The bottom line is that Igomogul takes advantage of people who do not have the experiance to realize everything provided by Igomogul is free or costs less than $100 a year.

Igomogul also uses your google account information to add Analytic, AdSense and the webmaster tool. All of these programs are free so Igomogul pays nothing to use them. The webmaster tool is the most important one for Igomogul to have access too. Should godaddy
agree to transfer the domain account to you then Igomogul still controls the website through the webmaster tool. Once Igomogul has the code to the webmaster tool you are locked out and can not verify ownership of the website or use it. At this point it is a standoff, you can sell the domain name however Igomogul is the only ones with access to what is added or removed from it. The website becomes worthless to both parties.

Igomogul knows the odds are in their favor that they will not have to refund any money.
Most people have used their credit cards to pay Igomogul and are accruing interest; hiring a lawyer and the added expense of traveling back and forth to Pheonix is also beyond their means. Arizona small claims maximum is well below what most people have paid so they will take a loss if they pursue small claims and win. When faced with the options most people cut their losses, give up and go away.

Should you file complaints with the Arizona BBB then Igomogul says that if you sign a different agreement they will release control to you. If you agree to sign then you forfeit all the money you have paid Igomogul and also agree not to pursue any further legal action against Igomogul. Why should you sign an agreement to take control of something that Igomogul was paid to create for you and register ownership for you in your name?

Igomogul claims that the Statement of Work protects them from lawsuits and being forced to give you a refund. If you read the SOW carefully you will notice that it says they are working on a website for the client. Since Igomogul owns and controls the website
they are their own client and they are using your money to develop and design a website for themselves.

When push comes to shove and you demand verification of anything via email or mail Igomogul refuses, they insist all conversations take place over the phone. If you should call them and you refuse to accept what they tell you they then begin playing a phone shell game with you, transferring you from one person to the next until you give up. They want to play he said she said phone tag so that you do not have any proof as to what was said over the phone.

A Better Way to Start Your Site

Did you know that Steve, our resident tech geek, has offered to help you set up your own site for free? You keep ownership of your work, no hassle, no hidden fees. Check out the free offer.

What happens is, once you give up your credit card info ($1.97 for shipping is no biggie, right?), you are signed up for a paid monthly membership. On the other hand, why do they need to charge a shipping fee for an electronic product? Rose tells the sad story:

I signed up for the free kit. No big loss @ only 1.97. I never had an opportunity to view the treasure chest information as some have explained above. I waited, and waited and…you guessed it waited some more. I finally opened an account online to view my credit card statement and saw the charges of the 1.97 plus the first charge of 70+ dollars. I filed a dispute with the credit card company and said I was responsible for the first charge. They may be able to get the refund for the second charge. I cancelled my card so I know it will stop. As far as calling the number for the refund, I get nowhere! To all who want to be self employed, this is not a way to get employment. Stay away from these schemes, they are not good for your emotional health! If there is any advice from anyone, I am willing to hear it!!

Pages like Joshmadecash and Coreyhasmoney are just funneling sites. That means when you click on whatever it is you have to click on to learn more, you are sent to the sales page of some flashy make money online program. In the case of Joshmadecash, you’re sent to buy Google Treasure Chest, one of the scammiest things we’ve seen in a while.

Here’s Carol’s story:

Initially this site came up and stupidly after reading this guys statement about how this was 100% trusted and guarenteed and totally risk and scam free, I entered my details. I was then connected to a video presentation about setting up a merchant bank account. An application form for IMAX Bancard Network then followed. At this point I became very suspicious and did not fill it in. However the next minute yet another link appeared re GoogleTreasureChest. It was at this point that the terms and conditions were made available for reading. I haven’t set up any password or acknowledged any membership number but I assume that because I had entered my card details re the shipping cost of $1.97 this could mean they are able to charge my card. I contacted Barclaycard who have blocked my card. This now means that nothing can be taken by anyone. Just tried to ring the 001-888-705-1275-001 but got no answer. Can anyone advise me if I need to do anything else or will what I have done suffice. Can’t believe I’ve been so stupid.

If you want all the dirty details on how these types of sites operate, read Battle of the Putzes. Reading the terms and conditions would be a good idea, too. But even if you do that, these jerks make it almost impossible to cancel. You’re much better of just staying away from them entirely.

The Oh-So-Friendly Knock

I was getting ready to go meet some friends for dinner last night when I heard a knock on the door. I assumed one of my friends decided to meet at my place first and I opened the door to an unfamiliar face. Before I could even get a word out Mr. Salesman had already begun his pitch.

Immediately, he started explaining his life story to me and how he wanted to go back to school to become a sports announcer and magazine sales were helping him achieve his dream. I told him that I wished him luck, but I wasn’t interested in any magazine subscriptions. Frustration swept over his face and he went off on how he was a top-seller and was only a few hundred points from winning a trip to the Bahamas. I again told him good luck and no thanks, but that wasn’t about to deter him.

He asked if he could write down my name and address so his boss knew that he was out trying to get subscriptions. I was in a hurry to get him out of here and started telling him my name when he cut me short. He needed something to write on. I turned around to grab a notebook off of my kitchen counter. I grabbed it and turned around to see him sitting on my couch. He said he could just use the table here to write as it would be much easier.

Okay, now I’m a bit creeped out. This stranger is in my apartment and isn’t very good at accepting no.

He wrote down my name and address and started his pitch again. This time he handed me a list of magazines that were available and told me to look through it. I again told him that I didn’t need a magazine but instead of acknowledging what I had said he asked me what type of music I listened to. I was a bit thrown off and regrettably replied “Rock.” And thus the final attempt at his pitch began.

“The Rolling Stone would be perfect for you,” he told me as he started rattling off prices. Initially he wanted me to sign up for 4-years for $125, but since “he liked me” he offered me the two year price at $52.00, which is still a ridiculously inflated rate.

It was about this time that I had found the cancellation instructions on the back of one of the papers he had handed me. Armed with these, I decided to play his game to just get him the hell out of my apartment. He was ecstatic to hear me agree and informed me that “you’ll be saving over $50 on the cover price when you order through us!”

He then informed me of a $15.00 “processing fee” as he handed me a $67.00 bill. I wrote out a check payable to the company listed on the order form and sent him on his way.

It had been a very uncomfortable fifteen minutes.

Immediately after he left, I started to Google as much information about the company as possible. I stumbled upon hundreds of complaints at Rip-off Report with claims of being charged and never receiving any magazines. The two companies in charge of handling magazine subscriptions are the Pacific Coast Clearing Services Inc. and Unlimited Sale, Inc. (253)851-8414 located at 5775 Soundview Dr., Suite 103C Gig Harbor, WA 98335. I quickly called Unlimited Sale Inc. to let them know that I had changed my mind about the order. They told me to mail away a copy of my receipt and assured me that the check would not be cashed.

A word of advice, if a kid comes to your door trying to sell magazines to win a trip or further his or her education, cut the conversation short and get them on their way as quickly as possible.

So, here I sit anxiously checking my bank account every 15 minutes to make sure that the $67.00 I sent away doesn’t leave my bank account. I don’t have much hope at this point. I’ll let you know of any further updates.

Leave a comment below if you’ve had an experience with these people or if you know how I can definitely get my money back.