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I keep seeing ads all over the place for a news article on making money at home from a paper called the Los Angeles Tribune. Well, it’s just another day, another unheard of news site touting another part time work at home money making offer. This time it’s losangeles-tribune.com advertising the Easy Google Profit earn money from home kit and stars our old friend Mary Steadman. Good old Mary Steadman must be making money online hand over fist using the Google Biz Kit with all the cash she must be spending on advertising.
You think you’re only paying $1.97 “shipping” to receive the secret to making money part time with a home based job working for Google, then BAM, in 7 days they hit you for $75+ and then $75+ a month every month until you manage to get through on their phone line to cancel the “subscription” you never agreed to. If you do get someone on the phone, they’re likely the one with the real stay at home job taking calls. Or you cancel your account with your bank, which is likely the far easier route to go. How’s earning from home part time with Google feel? Are we making money yet? Wait a sec, someone just took my money!
UPDATE: Looks like Mary Steadman became too famous. Now the same exact news page appears at moneysecretblog.com with the same exact picture, but this time the woman’s name is Louise Biggs. Sometimes it’s there as LouiseBiggs with no space. Plus the name of the site has changed to moneysecretblog.com. Seems once enough sites report on it, they change the names.
How Does The Los Angeles Tribune News Get People?
- First they draw you in with the appearance of a real news site. Think back about how you actually got to the site though and you’ll notice that you clicked on an advertisement somewhere. That’s not usually the way newspapers work, advertising a story about making money online now is it?
- Click on any of the links or ads on the page and you go to the site securecartcenter.com and the Easy Google Profit offer, a notorious bait and switch negative offer site. Notice how every single link on the page brings you to this offer make money online at home offer.
- In light text and in a small font, they put the words “This publication is an article advertisement for Easy Google Profit.”
How these people think that the Feds will never catch up with them is a little shocking, and the sad thing is when they get theirs, you won’t get yours back if you’ve fallen for their scam.
Wait, Isn’t Easy Google Profit Only $1?
No! It’s not only $1. This is why it is a scam in our opinion Just look closer… Here is how they screw all those poor out of work folks into thinking they can work from home online! If you sign up for their “program”, they are going to whack your account for $80 a month until you manage to call their Customer Service number and get it canceled. That’s if you can get through that is. My screen resolution is 1650×1080, which is pretty good sized and I can’t see any of the fine print on the purchase page. If I scroll way past the order entry form, we see this in tiny tiny letters at the bottom:
By submitting this form I am ordering the Hot Business Market Pro trial membership. After the seven day trial I will be charged $81.32 a month thereafter if I do not cancel. I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. Cancel any time by calling 1-800-235-1364.
And that’s the better one of the two offers they are pushing. The other one has no mention of the monthly charge anywhere on the purchase page, only buried in the Terms and Conditions that you have to click through and find in a tiny popup window.
What do you get for the $1+$80 every month? I don’t know for sure but most people have reported they don’t get anything, and by then their credit card is whacked for $80, leaving them in the lurch.
I Was Taken By The Los Angeles Tribune News! What Do I Do?
- Don’t feel bad! Seems like hundreds if not thousands of people have been taken in by these sort of “negative option” offers that trick you by not clearly disclosing you are signing up for monthly charges. You were tricked, it happens to the best of us.
- Call the number provided on the website that took you in IMMEDIATELY. Finding that number is up to you, they seem to keep changing. Have a witness listen when you call and/or record the conversation if possible. Unfortunately many people have complained that they can never get anyone to talk to when they call.
- Call/write your credit card company and dispute the charges or better yet, report the card lost or stolen. They never clearly disclosed the charges you were signing up for, so you have a strong case here.
- Monitor your credit accounts! Click here to sign up for Experian ID Protection monitoring. You just gave some shady characters your name, address, phone number, credit card and secret 3 digit card number. It’s free for a full month, then it’s $9.95 a month if you don’t cancel before the 30 days are up. I’d strongly suggest signing up for the free month and check your credit report to make sure no one has tried to change your address or open a new card using your cards details.
I Didn’t Get Taken, But What Can I Do To Help?
- Click Here to Share this on Facebook! Hit “Post to Profile” to warn your friends.
- Use the “Share This” links below to Digg or Twitter or Stumble or Reddit or Email or whatever service you use to share this so that other people might see it before they get scammed too!
- Email this link to your friends.
But I Really Wanted to Make Money With Google!
If you really want to learn how to earn money with Google, there is a pretty good training course called Google Snatch Ultimatum (I know, terrible name) that you can buy for $77 straight away with no hidden fees or charges. Note, the “sales pitch” page it pretty cheesy in a get rich quick infomercial kind of way, but if you really want to know how to use Google Adwords and Adsense to make money, it’s a great way to learn the basics. There are lots of videos and tutorials that will step you through exactly how it all works.
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UPDATE: Note that this fake news site has just gotten FAR more brazen in their lies. Now it appears as if it’s a fake ABC News site reporting a story about something called Google AdWork, which is just downright false.
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I am yet another unemployed graduate sitting at home.
what i enjoy doing & i belive a flair for is reading & writing in the english language. So i hope these instructions help me to get employed stayin home workin online.
till then cheers
peace D
Also found them on a slightly different URL:
http://www.losangeles-tribunes.com/finance/
If you go to the main URL (take off /finance/), you get an Apache Server test page.
Awesome.
Ummmm, like I said.
1) Figure out which site is serving the popups and stop going there.
2) If it’s every site, check your computer for malware or viruses, as you have something running on your computer that is causing it. Adaware is a good tool for getting rid of stuff like that.
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