We here at the Electron Plumber have no problem with the idea of monthly rebills or affiliate programs. There are tens of thousands of products and services in this world that people gladly pay for every month and someone earns a commission on each one. Cell phones, cable TV, car leases, electricity, etc. Do you suggest people stop using their cell phones because they are charged monthly or because the cell phone store clerk gets a commission? Should we stop buying cell phones or cars because the stores doesn’t have signs disclosing that their sales people are paid on commission? No, of course not, and neither do we. The key is the discolsure of the rebill and the true month to month value.

These scam sites say they cost $1.97, then BAM, users get hit with $150 charges each month, all without their knowledge and for nothing new or different each month, and it’s near impossible to cancel them short of canceling your card number. That’s not value. However, is the ability to make a phone call from anywhere in the US worth $50 a month to you? I bet it is.

Rebills aren’t illegal, nor are affiliate programs. Promoting through false advertising and hidden rebills *is* illegal and you *will* get a visit from the FTC someday. Hope you’ve hidden your ill gotten profits well when that day comes.

Note that the Experian ID protection listed above clearly states that it’s free for 30 days (not 7) and then $9.95 per month after. It’s also plastered all over the Experian site that it has a monthly cost. We clearly suggest above that people sign up for the free month and check your credit report for signs of theft of ID fraud if you’ve been tricked into giving one of these scammers your card info. If you’ve given away your name, address, phone number, and credit card number to some trickster who then triple charges you without telling you, we think that puts them in a class of people that would also sell that info on the credit card black market for a few extra bucks. $10 a month for a few months (if you decide to keep it at all after the first month) to watch your back is nothing compared to your future inability to rent a car or get a cell phone or a loan of any kind or get collection agencies and lawyers to stop calling you 20 times a day after your credit has been trashed through ID theft.

Thus, it passes our tests and we suggest it to our readers. There is clear disclosure and real month to month value for anyone who has fallen for these scam artists.

Note, that just because an ad is selling a make money at home idea on a squeeze page doesn’t automatically make it a scam. If Joe Blow is selling a secret method to make some extra pocket money with Adsense for $59 and you think it’s worth $59, be my guest. It’s when Joe Blow tells you it’s $1.97 and you’ll make $10,000 your first week, then charges your credit card $79.95, $43.95 and $23.87 every month that it’s a scam in my opinion.

Always use your judgment, look for real reviews and testimonials and BBB Reports, not fakes. Don’t believe anything a site tells you without doing a search for info on it first. Some of the best programs on the web have terribly scammy looking sales pages. For example Yaro Starak’s is considered one of the top make money blogging bloggers but his Blog Mastermind course sales page looks like any other. I think people use those sorts of testimonial filled hard sell squeeze pages because they work on some level.