274 Responses to “Google Treasure Chest – it’s a scam and a half!”

1. Not Kevin on May 1st, 2009 at 3:58 am

   Interestingly the payment processor for Google ATM is Pacific Webworks who are in Salt Lake City View Larger Map Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 1st, 2009 at 8:36 am

     @Not Kevin In Buddhism, there are no such things as co-incidences!! Each time I find one of these addresses on StreetView, they always seem to look the same. Certainly NOT millionaire’s alley. Florida, Salt Lake City, Jackson, Denver…. just endless long roads with low-rise shopping and business units. Weird. BTW, you always seem to do your searches using google.com and yet you appear to be UK based. Do you find you get better results than using the google.co.uk domain? Just wondering! Like or Dislike: 0  0

2. Not Kevin on May 1st, 2009 at 4:04 am

   Content removed Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 am

     This comment and a few others have been edited. The tone of our attack was beginning to sound like a Lynch Mob, something I abhor. It’s quite possible to be direct and act with integrity without lowering our standards to the scum we hate. Investigative questioning is fine and there should be no need for unsubstantiated personal slander. This does not mean that persons affected by the scammers should cease to express their comments in any way they see fit! If it makes you feel better to get it off your chest then that’s fine by me. But don’t worry; Sooner or later the scammers will make enough rope to hang themselves. Like or Dislike: 0  0

3. Jameson Johnson on May 1st, 2009 at 11:06 pm

   You are on very dangerous ground with some of the posts above. the person you have linked to, was falsely implicated by the AG’s office in Texas. As of today, his name is being dropped from any and all actions. His is the owner of a Telcom company that has nothing to do with the issue in question. He was a former employee of a media firm named in this transaction. If I were the owner of this site, I would be very, very cautious about posting this kind of information. Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 am

     @Jameson Johnson Thanks for the information. I take it that you mean Eborn as that’s the only name floating around. If so, all information published here on the Google Treasure Chest Trail was collated from publicly available non-copyright sources. I don’t consider that dangerous ground but thank you for your concern. My real concern is for the hundreds (and more likely thousands) of individuals who’ve been sucked into this scam. Granted, the scammer’s (whoever they are) T&Cs are getting better now, but originally the UTAH & Nevada ones used extremely dodgy methods which have been documented on this website and others. None of us, I guess, will be quaking in our boots that an innocent man has had charges dropped against him as I certainly haven’t slandered anyone and anything I’ve said is fair comment. Furthermore, the timings of employment for Eborn that you state are at variance with his own statement on his (now removed, I notice) LinkedIn profile where he stated he’s been employed by the ‘telecoms’ company since the end of last year. I also notice that all LinkedIn & Myspace profiles have gone for him and the legal man at that company. All this information was posted in response to the Texas AG charge, not before. As such, I’m in effect repeating ‘prior art’. I am the owner of this site. Perhaps with your knowledge you could help find the owner(s) of the scammy sites. Some of their efforts to remain shrouded know no bounds. Many are based abroad unfortunately, like Cyprus, but their pages are using material source on some of Eborn’s servers, by the look of it. As I said, the commonality of design and purpose is very close to the sites based in UTAH. At my estimate from people who’ve commented, I’ve helped recover $3,500 of money for people who can ill-afford it. From the number of hits I’ve had, I’ve most likely stopped people ‘investing’ in these rip-offs to the tune of $200k+. I’m truly pleased that an innocent man (Eborn) remains innocent. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and all comment on this website reflects that. Following your comment, I’ve cleaned up some contributor’s comment that I deem scurrilous in the present context. I also think, that if, as you say, (I haven’t checked yet), Eborn has been let off, it doesn’t mean that charges cannot be re-started. The police in the UK do this routinely. The similarity of the various sites shows some commonality of plan and purpose and coupled with the length of time that scams like this have been going is quite staggering. Tie this in with a whole bunch of linked addresses and telephones and I think you’ll find that many, but maybe not Eborn’s, chickens are still to be brought home to roost. Like or Dislike: 0  0

     • Curious on May 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm

       Can you help me get my money back even after the seven day trial they speak of? Like or Dislike: 0  0

       • Strangely on May 22nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm

         @Curious Still do all the calling etc. Many people have asked for a full refund, no excuses taken. @Tara Boyd took this approach recently as did @Collen and @Peggy. (These are all links to the related posts and comments). Like or Dislike: 0  0

4. Not Kevin on May 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm

   Well I for one will await some sort of formal confirmation that charges have been dropped – as of today I cannot find anything to back up that claim. In any case ‘Strangely’ – like a handful of other blogs – has performed a fantastic public service by alerting people to this scam and therefore avoiding people from getting ripped off or helping them to recover their money. Wether or not Eborn is an innocent party, what has been posted here is no more than information which is in the public domain. The Texas AG mentioned his name and the company name in their press release and the pdf document linked from it, as did several other news reports, blogs and websites. A search for his name or the company name shows plenty of publically available information. As a side note there is also a reference to his alleged involvement with Google Money Tree in posts on scam.com and workathometruth.com from way back in February with reference to the Nevada Attorney General. http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=727843&postcount=195 Therefore I don’t think a warning posted here about “being on dangerous ground” is accurate when the post and the comments which follow it are only repeating factual information which is in the public domain (and was put there by the AG in Texas). Whover is behind Google Treasure Chest and related scams, the fact is that there are hundreds of ‘blogs’ and ads out there promoting these offers along with hundreds of complaints about these offers. To discuss them and attempt to offer help to the victims of them is perfectly legitimate and reasonable – freedom of speech and all that. In any case the comments made here are quite mild compared to those on other blogs who have covered this story, eg: http://www.nickycakes.com/google-money-tree-hit-by-texas-attorney-general-can-you-really-be-this-stupid/ Let’s not forget that the ‘guilty’ parties here are those behind these scams who swindle people out of their hard earned money! Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 4th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

     Originally Posted By Not Kevin FYI: Jameson Johnson has been back at least twice to this site and has failed to make any additions or useful comment of any kind. I’m leaning more and more towards the ‘Huntsville Prison Sodomy Tree’ outcome… Addendum Make that 9 page views in total, all emanating from 75.162.240.156 apparently which is a big ISP in Denver, Colorado. The beauty of the original Texas court summons is in the pdf information. The government, of course, can request a bucket of information that a humble UK citizen (sorry, subject) does not have access to. They want phone logs, they get phone logs. They want UPS delivery slips, they get’em! they want ISP logs – no problem. Myself, I’m left to deduce by cause and effect. Now this can be quite good and makes the mind think more than it would normally. For instance, at my time in university with my physicist’s hat on, I both measured the charge on an electron and calculated it’s charge to mass ratio (e/m). [check out Millikan's oil-drop experiment etc for this stuff, if you don't believe me] (a bit of Feynman comes into this as well for a comment on the human condition). The thing is that the electron is about the teeny-tiniest thing there is. You can’t see one. You can’t touch one. You can’t catch one. But I measured one! It happens because of the effect it makes on it’s surroundings. I don’t need to see it, because I can deduce all I need to know without that actual proof. And so it is with the scammers. Though they may hide and scuttle, bluster and strut, I know their game by the effects that happen. I don’t even need to know their methods – I can see their bad effects and that’s good enough for me. It’s interesting finding out, but not essential. Like or Dislike: 0  0

5. Strangely on May 2nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm

   Originally Posted By Not Kevin Well I for one will await some sort of formal confirmation that charges have been dropped – as of today I cannot find anything to back up that claim. http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=727843&postcount=195 Me neither! I’m tending to think from the silence that Jameson Johnson may not be who he appears, ha ha. Still. Wait and see. That February posting from scam.com is revealing – I think there’s too much out there and a few removed networking profiles amounts to zilch. That NickyCakes post got me though. That’s a definite ROFL. Like or Dislike: 0  0

6. Casey on May 2nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm

   Hey I also got scammed on this google treasure chest. I was fortunate to realize in time that there was the 71 or 72 I don’t remember the charge that would happen in 7 days and I printed the whole transaction and then re read it. I thought at the time that I would just try for a few days and then cancel. Well I did and made nothing and then it was the weekend when I tried to call and they were closed for the weekend so as I expected I was charged on Monday morning. I called them kind of in frantic mode and the guy on the phone told me he would cancel it and gave me a cancellation code and told me it would be 7 to 10 days and it would be reversed. I am happy to say they did reverse the charges and it was a day after the 7 day trial. I wish I had done my homework before I signed up. I think the reason we were all taken is its an awfully nice carrot to be dangled above our heads. I mean I really could use a job that would provide me with some extra money. I work hard for my money but I am only making min wage right now and I am having a hard time making ends meet. I just wish there was some legit company out there that would really help you make money from home. I mean I don’t have hrs and hrs to work I work more than full time now. I don’t need it to be thousands but well a couple of hundred dollars a week would really help even 100.00 a week would help. where do you turn to do some honest work to earn a little extra cash. I don’t own a car so working from home is kind of appealing. I just hate getting scammed and taken by scum bags like these. Well thanks for listening and thanks for this site. Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 2nd, 2009 at 5:17 pm

     @Casey Thanks Casey for your kind words and expressing yourself so clearly. I can tell exactly where you’re coming from. As for honest work – you’ve definitely looked in the wrong place with Google Treasure Chest and the myriad of lookalikes. The internet is good for buying shoes, books and CDs but for an easy job that someone hasn’t already thought of – that’s something else. As you said, it’s an “awfully nice carrot to be dangled above our heads”. Not only that, but the audio and avatars that accompany the spiel are excruciatingly enticing and make it all sound sooo plausible. You are actually very lucky to have ‘applied’ at this moment. Just a few months ago and it was a different story altogether as the various posts and comments have pointed out. Like or Dislike: 0  0

7. Casey on May 3rd, 2009 at 12:53 am

   I wrote earlier about this I was scammed as well but was able to get my money back. Today I have been thinking about this all day and its getting me angry that they have taken so many people who really needed a job to do at home to make some extra money. Now I am not stupid and did not really believe I would make as much as they said but hoped for a 100.00 to 200.00 a week. So after my post this morning I went about my day but kept thinking about this. So I went to Google and typed in work from home jobs. OK so the first things there was this scam! Then there was all the links on the side there was like 10 almost 80% were for this same scam. How can we get them off. Is it possible to get them banned. Its just they don’t care and they know they won’t fool everyone but with so much advertising they will get enough to make it worth it to them. So lets make them pay just click on the links and then move on that way they have to pay for the click. Maybe if we hit the pocket book it will slow them down or at least cost them some of the money they are scamming people out of. Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 3rd, 2009 at 1:17 am

     @Casey Depressing, innit? Someone has already suggested that the links are clicked and gave a method of automating it. The T&C of Google ads prevent me from saying a Y/N on that and I’m not allowed to click links on my own website. However, I’ve looked at ways to stop the buggers appearing on my website…. The answer is that I don’t have the time to block them. Each site has to be blocked at the site level and they only give you 500 sites… Wildcards can be used in the domain names but they are very little use IMHO for the myriad of scam sites. A better system would be for Google to invent a way so that I can block ads from my site at the keyword level. However, as you’ve seen, the behemoth that is Google is quite prepared to sit on it’s hands with this one. Actually, it doesn’t take long to use up $50 worth of adsense vouchers! Vouchers? Well yes, check most cheap webhosting sites and you’ll see that they all give the webmaster a wodge of ‘free’ adsense. I hope things work well for you Casey. You’ve obviously spent some time thinking about this. Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Curious on May 22nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm

     Can you give me some guidance on how to get my money back? Like or Dislike: 0  0

     • Strangely on May 22nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm

       @Curious The very best thing is to work back through all the comments on this post (and the related ones). This way you’ll see the various ways people have used and also, the most recent ones are the ones that are currently successful. In a nutshell though: Act with utmost haste! Time is of the essence because of the ‘clauses’ that GTC and others have in their T&Cs. There is no standard time span – it keeps changing! Keep a record of all your future dealings with the company and your bank – this means emails etc even if they most likely don’t get through. Keep the returned emails as the header and timing information is useful proof. 1. Phone the number on the website you signed up at. The UK and USA are sometimes different with this. 2. Get a ref number from them. Ask for a complete refund as per THEIR conditions on the website. 3. Send the disc back if you’ve got one. Any other stuff as well if they request it. Use Recorded Delivery or equivalent so that YOU have proof that THEY have received their rubbish back. 4. Contact you bank or other finance company. 5. Get a stop on all payments, explaining the situation. Mention this and other websites that have tracked these scammers if it helps to justify your case to the bank. Many are well aware of this problem now by comments I’ve had on this website! 6. Cancel your credit card and get a new one if that makes you feel better You can, if you think you’ve been duped unfairly, contact your country’s consumer protection and legal agencies. The UK and USA are different here, but the principle is the same. So if you are USA, you need your state’s AG office and maybe the UTAH AG if it’s a GTC type thing you’ve succumbed to. There’s the Better Business Bureau (BBB) as well as a few others. In the UK, we have the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which is an all encompassing government agency. They reckon £3.5 billion was diddled in various ways last year…… Like or Dislike: 0  0

8. Not Kevin on May 4th, 2009 at 3:32 am

   Interesting comment here which was made by a Google Employee: “Since you expressed some frustration about the lack of communication regarding internet fraud, I’d like to address this issue directly and share some tips for protecting users from fraud. Most fraudulent sites using the Google name to entice users have a legal disclaimer at the bottom of their homepage. The disclaimer on http://www.googleprofittree.com/ reads “GOOGLE is a registered trademark of Google, Inc. Google Profit Tree is not a partner, affiliate, or licensee of Google Inc., nor is it in any other way formally associated with Google Inc.” So, I’d advise users to look out for such red flags that indicate malpractice. Violations of Google trademark are pursued to the fullest extent of the law. Nevertheless, we rely on users to exercise good judgment and educate each other about internet fraud due to the sheer number of scam sites and the sheer number of internet users falling prey to fraud. I’d like to use this opportunity to encourage all users to report any Google ad that may violate our company policies through the Ad Feedback Form in the AdWords Help Center article below: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hlrm=en-uk&answer=61214 However as someone pointed out that only helps for direct reporting of ads – however Google trademark infringement can be reported to them here: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/request.py?contact_type=g_trademark&ctx=contactpolicy If you’ve found a website that uses the Google trademark inappropriately, we’d like to hear about it. We appreciate your taking the time to report this issue. Like or Dislike: 0  0

   • Strangely on May 4th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

     @Not Kevin I’ve been thinking about the end bit of this Google Employee’s statement: Google trademark infringement can be reported to them here: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/request.py?contact_type=g_trademark&ctx=contactpolicy If you’ve found a website that uses the Google trademark inappropriately, we’d like to hear about it. We appreciate your taking the time to report this issue. Now you can call me uncharitable if you like, but why the hell should I go round looking after the interests of one of the most cash-rich and profitable companies on the world? It’s their trademark, they should protect it. They have the databases and logs to back everything up in any court case they choose. It’s disingenuous of them to say we should all look after ourselves but ‘please watch out for our trademark abuse and let us know – we’ll be very pleased’. Fuck them I say. It’s all their fault that this continues. They make a tidy sum from it, thank you very much. The key (wait for it, pun alert) is in the keywords that are used to dynamically place these adverts on websites. If site owners can block ads by keyword in the same way that they can by competitor, we’ll be a helluver lot closer to getting rid of the scourge. aahhh. That’s better. Like or Dislike: 0  0

9. Not Kevin on May 4th, 2009 at 3:44 am

   Oops, forgot to provide the source of the above: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=6788bdcb645e0a13&hl=en [The Google Profit Tree referred to is one of the sites with a Nicosia Cyprus address despite a similar sounding name (and marketing method) to the Google Money Tree /aka Treasure Chest sites.] Like or Dislike: 0  0

10. Strangely on May 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    @Not Kevin – @Not Kevin Thanks again for your work. It seems a relatively easy thing to me for Google to block ads from duff companies as THEY HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION! It’s what they do. You’d also expect them to be more pro-active in protecting their trademark, which is now acquiring the dripping slime of the scammy world on every web page. Even on normal searches it’s becoming impossible to escape their cloying mass. Google has, as part of the adsense sign-up all the names and keywords. It has the world’s biggest database of ‘hits’ and ‘search’, ‘source’ and ‘destination’ type information. It shouldn’t be an unreasonable request to Google nor an impossible task for webmasters like myself, to be able to block adverts from undesirable third parties. Currently, it’s a site-by-site process. Webmasters shouldn’t have to trawl the web, laboriously assembling lists of fly-by-night operators to block. The only reason they appear on my website is by use of keywords. Therefore, I should be able to block ads using these targets in the same way as I can block a competing business. It means I can’t talk about SEX without sex-ads appearing on my site. It means I can’t talk about GAMES without games-ads appearing on my site. It means I can’t talk about CARS without cars-ads appearing on my site. It means I can’t talk about COMPUTERS without computer-ads appearing on my site. It means I can’t talk about HOLIDAYS without holidays-ads appearing on my site. While some of this is desirable, it makes it hard to be critical about an issue without that issue being advertised! It’s pants. Now let’s see how many ads appear for the capitalised items above; SEX, GAMES, CARS, COMPUTERS, HOLIDAYS !! Like or Dislike: 0  0

11. Not Kevin on May 4th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    Indeed. In fact this version of the Kevin Hoeffer scam site: [ libertycn (dot) com ] has even replaced their links to the “Google Easy Money Kit” with blocks of adsense ads and instructions to click on them! So not only are they violating the adsense terms and conditions by encouraging click fraud but as they have an adsense account and publisher id Google will have all their details: name/company name, address etc. The site owner is also obviously so confused by all the different fake Hoeffers that the audio says “this is Kevin Hoffer” while the blog text says “My name is Peter c Hoeffer!” Kevin, er Peter, or is it Jeff? http://blog.spywareguide.com/2009/02/hi-im-jeff-unfortunately-im-al.html Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 4th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

      Crikey! I see what you mean. It isn’t loading properly currently but there’s enough there to get your drift. You are not wrong there with the ‘cn’ bit. Our friends in Shanghai are well in on it now. There are a shed-load of dot cn websites that I’ve picked up after ‘signing’ up for three different ‘schemes’. These apparently separate outfits have a lot in common no matter how much one denounces the other – remember that bit about, we hate spam as much as you do. Your email address is safe, privacy, terms, blah, blah, blah – well now the spam is piling in to me! Most of it is dot cn with redirects, with similar domains and sub-domains across all three ‘businesses’, even the query strings have the same construction, but, get this, some of the website registrars point back to….. Draper, Utah! Q. What’s the difference between spam and scam? A. a C and a P Like or Dislike: 0  0

12. John Henry on May 5th, 2009 at 3:50 am

    A few of your readers may recognize me from the AdSense forums. I wanted to add a couple of things to this AWESOME post: Google is now in early beta testing of ad filtering by category. This should allow people to wipe out most of these kinds of schemes. Also, while Google’s hands are tied a bit by liability (they can’t say ‘OMG EVERYTHING’S A SCAM’ because there actually *are* legitimate web developers who consult on AdSense deployment, and it would unfairly tar them with the same brush as this outfit or the ‘Modern Marketing Systems/ADZACT’ clowns operationg out of Phoenix), they do have a statement pinned on the help forums to the effect of ‘we don’t endorse anyone, watch your back.’ http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=3814852a926058f1 Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 5th, 2009 at 9:41 am

      @John Henry Thanks John. I’ll hunt around and see if I can implement this now! Is it publicly available? A similar sort of filtering could be applied to the old Referral program before they pulled it. Also, as you so politely put it, I realise that AdSense is ‘a good thing’. I’m part of that system in a small way… But, just like money itself, when the crooks get into it, it becomes something else. I do think Google should do more. When my mythical Auntie Bessie, who can hardly work a mouse, starts fishing around the web, she’s hardly likely to consult a statement buried way down in a Google Adsense forum or help page, is she? In the way that governments (certainly in the UK) have now taken it upon themselves to speak in plain English on all their forms because we are all citizens and deserve NOT to be confused by our language, Google should have a plain unobtrusive policy that’s enforced because they are the major player by a long chalk in this field, and also, it’s their mission statement to ‘do no harm’. In my book, ‘do no harm’ is not the same as ‘do nothing’. Hopefully this beta you mentioned is actually doing that. Thanks for your input. (BTW, John has a very good internal debate on a Privacy Policy and what it means etc here; http://www.lowgenius.com/DesktopModules/Blog/Trackback.aspx?id=6&blogid=2) You seem to have a bit of a gripe at the moment about that ‘Modern Marketing Systems’ lot… I’ve checked the site and your comments. LOL. I’m off to shoot myself after that crematorium music sat on top of the words, …is an industry leader in Microsite Marketing. Modern Marketing Systems (MMS) specializes in the development of highly monetized niche microsites. Using proprietary algorithms and technolog (…) MMS is able to target the most potentially profitable keyword phrases and develop customized web properties to exploit these niches. What is a Monetized Microsite? A Monetized Microsite is a tiny website, often only 1 -5 pages, focused around a niche keyphrase. Our keyword research and search engine optimized sites allow us to achieve high search engine placement for our clients bringing them highly targeted traffic. And there we have it. Complete and utter bollocks. Thanks for nothing Misha. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 5th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

      @John Henry Well John. After a quick check, I’ve found that these plans have been going on since at least the 2nd of January….2007!! For a beta, this is like Vista all over again. See Google is Beta-Testing Keyword-based Ad Filtering To be fair, things look like they are coming closer to fruition: AdSense Developing Category Filtering Feature http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/04/category-filtering-feature-being.html The links also shows some balance with the financial loss that some people had when Google changed it’s Adsense methodology. This ties in with what you said about the problems that Google has. The problogger screen-shot shows a potential layout and would probably be enough for my needs. I’m not sure how the categories work though. It looks like a lot depends on the honesty of the AdSense advertiser. If they stick their ‘Get-Rich-Quick’ into a different category – who’s to know? It could be months before someone cottons on. As you said, it’s not straightforward. Thanks again for the input – it’s got me thinking! Like or Dislike: 0  0

13. Not Kevin on May 5th, 2009 at 5:36 pm

    There is a good discussion on this issue at the Adsense forums: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=1971df66dffac5a9&hl=en This was relating to the avalanche of ads for fake blogs promoting the Acai diet scams which appeared a few months back, (see: http://wafflesatnoon.com/2009/01/29/acai-cleanse-scams-update/ ) but applies equally to the “make money posting links on Google” garbage which is promoted in exactly the same way (and probably by the same CPA affiliates). Some good posts and points made by BobA and others although the issue remains unresolved… Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 5th, 2009 at 9:48 pm

      @Not Kevin Thanks for that mate. BobA did make some fine comments that were lost in the waffle defending the actual fruit. (as it happens, grape juice has more antioxidant..) There. They’ve got me at it now! WafflesatNoon seems to have made a life’s work out of publicising the scamer’s activities. I really don’t know how the time is found to do the research on that list, and then type it out… However, as I found out, people have been suggesting to Google for some years before I came across all this, to take a stand and do something about the scummy adverts. There’s been get thin, get smooth, get toned, get healthy, get rich quick, get grants, get educated, get laid schemes in a dizzying succession. All we need now is ‘get snake oil’ and we’ll have come full circle. Now where was that recipe … get one python skin, the fangs of a rattlesnake, and some cobra eggs; mix well with some genuine 18th century absinthe. Bottle it in genuine chamoix skin pouches…… This post http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2009/03/oprah-acai-berry-scam-hoax-rachael-ray-dr-oz-brad-pitt-angelina-jolie/#comment-7051 mentions this post http://www.oprah.com/article/health/nutrition/20090105_orig_acai on the Oprah Winfrey website. It’s really good news! Oprah is not happy, not happy at all, about her name being used to flog the acai stuff. She put her learned gentlemen onto the case to hunt down every instance…. Like or Dislike: 0  0

14. help on May 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    need help. just signed up and then ran across the scam. how do i stop it? Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 15th, 2009 at 8:26 am

      @help Read @Penny’s comment here. If it’s a GTC scam you’ve been hit by, phone one of the two numbers…and wait…and wait. Weekdays only, apparently! If it’s one of the other, related scams, try some of the phone numbers at the top of that posting, which is, google-treasure-chest-phone-and-address-list. If none of these work, find the number from YOUR ORIGINAL SITE where you signed up. If it’s US based, it should have some contact numbers. (emails hardly ever work!) If it’s not US (or UK) based, you are in uncharted territory, I’m afraid. With that number as a contact, phone them and you’ll get some sort of cancellation code. WRITE ALL communications and numbers you get down! You may need them if there are follow-ups. Nearly every person that has contacted this site (and other similar investigative ones) has contacted their bank or card company, informed them of the problem and either got a stop on any further payments, cancelled the card for a new one or even their bank has done the leg-work for them and got their money back. It depends who you are with, I guess. If your sign-up is very recent and it’s with GTC, you’ve a pretty good chance of emerging unscathed according to my correspondents on this website as you are within the ‘terms’ posted on that site. But you must be persistent, and patient (waiting for the phone), and firm (when you get through). Good luck! Like or Dislike: 0  0

15. Not Kevin on May 14th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    Here is the latest version of this scam – thanks to Electron plumber for the scoop! http://electronplumber.com/the-miami-gazette-news-scam/ ‘Miami Gazette News’ – setup to look like the website of a local newspaper: (fake adwords type ads, video clip on the recession, local weather) but every single link goes through to our old friend securecartcenter.com aka Easy Google Profit / Google Treasure Chest Kit / Easy Google Cash, LLC. (They use all 3 of those names on the one page). The usual recurring billing hidden away in the terms and conditions and more references to blazing keywords (blazingkeywords.com) The whois info for miamigazettenews.com is hidden by Moniker Privacy Services but the site is hosted by Westhost in Utah. The domain was registered less than 1 month ago on 2009-04-17 and of course no genuine local newspaper called Miami Gazette News appears to exist. “As part of our ongoing series: “Jobs and the Recession: What you need to know” we examine an industry that, despite the recession, seems to be booming” – is that the scam industry then? Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 15th, 2009 at 8:38 am

      @Not Kevin The Miami Gazette News (MGN) is a hoot, isn’t it? I checked out “John B. Guiseman” as a Google search. Wadyaknow? Only one hit – that page on the MGN! It’s another same-old, same-old isn’t it? I particularly liked the ‘quote’ from our old mate, Kevin H(oeffer). As you said, MGN isn’t a newspaper. In fact, do a Google search on “Miami Gazette News” and the actual MGN is 5th with the electron plumber’s post @#1! For a site purporting to be selling Google-using knowledge, it’s not looking good, is it! In fact, there’s only the one page in the paper….! MGN is another example of the scammers using freely available tools to produce advertising dressed as news. TV shows do it all the time, sometimes spoof comedies, but quite often product plugs disguised as documentaries. The scam videos that I mentioned previously in another post are doing the same sort of thing whereby a google search looking for good OR bad things about the scammer and his product pulls the same viral video to the top of the list! One odd thing is that the electronplumber.com has chosen to hide his identity behind DomainsByProxy! This is his choice, of course, but it’s odd, given the tone and subject of many of his postings. Living in the UK as I do, the current scandal about MP expenses and ‘openness’, ‘transparency’ and ‘trust’, brings this point to the fore in my mind. For myself, the ‘About’ page says who I am, and a whois says where I live. I get spam, so what? I got spam on the contact email address I use before I set up this website… As they say, “I hate spam as much as you do!” Like or Dislike: 0  0

16. Inquirer on May 15th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    This is how easily people are getting scammed. The name of the product contains the word “Google” or the name of other popular enterprise to be able to function as a derivative of that fame. They have multiple “lead capturing” websites that are built under the premise of making money from home. This is step one, acquiring the contact information of the individual by “suggestively” inducing them to order a CD for a small shipping& handling fee. Some companies offer their product for free to simply capture the lead. Hidden to the public you will find the disclosure that states you are entering a “membership” program where you will be billed “X” amount after 7 days. Now the trick is that before the 7 days have elapsed, they will call you and try to sell you a “coaching OR mentorship” program that will basically make you a .dot com millionaire. The whole scheme is based on a so-called qualification process where they simply find out if you have money or not. If you do end up buying into their elaborate pitch, you will promptly know you have been fooled. The so-called training is a compilation of crap you can get on the internet for free. The phony testimonials are evidently used to attract poor souls feeding on the dream of becoming wealthy using the computer. These people have been scammed anywhere from 3k to 15k. The product is the same but the marketing is “different”. The easiest part is that you can simply change the website/product name and that gives you a new start. This company started with “googlepro” by Michelle Valdez (internetincomeinitiative.com) and then moved on to http://www.googlemoneytree.com, http://www.googletreasurechest.com, and who knows what else. Their offices around the US are mostly PO boxes. I have found out that the greater part of these scams is coming out of the state of Utah (Ultimately, it could be anywhere). There are probably hundreds of little cells calling out of their basement. Now to put this into perspective, from the people who were cheated from $72 plus the people who are in the so-called coaching, these guys are definitely making scads of money from hard working Americans. LESSON FOR EVERYONE: Don’t just give out your information to whatever website you see on the internet if you are not sure about their reputation. Period. BBB can sometimes be inaccurate since they can simply go by another DBA. Researching the internet is probably your best bet. People need to take this entire scam down by reporting it to the respective Attorney General. Texas is already doing it so…let’s get our money back! I hope everyone reads this so we can help each other in these bad times. We got to stick together for once for a change. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 16th, 2009 at 10:39 am

      @Inquirer “We got to stick together for once for a change.” – here, here to that. View Larger Map This is the base of internetincomeinitiative.com and also all the Google Treasure Kit Pro Money Tree schemes. I checked the T&C of the site and they seem to have changed from my memory (I didn’t dump all the text originally, unfortunately). The new wording ties in with some recent comments today and yesterday where GTC are getting really picky and punchy about their returns, possibly to stifle people as a way to maximize income. See @brad and @Sandra Joan Mason. This is what they now say: 30 Day Unconditional Satisfaction Guarantee and Cancellation Requirements At any time during the first thirty days, if you are not fully satisfied with your purchase, you may call customer service at 888.657.8585 for a refund of your monthly subscription and the shipping fee. When you call, a customer representative will give you an RGA (Return Goods Authorization) number. The kit must then be returned with the RGA number. You must be able to confirm delivery to receive your refund.(my highlight -SP) Please ship your kit with a delivery confirmation to our fulfillment center: 405 East 12450 South, Suite G, Draper, Utah 84020. Note: This address is for returns only. All other correspondence must be sent to the address on the website. Here you’ll see that they’ve put the onus on the ‘customer’ to prove that the goods have been received. This is wholly wrong and probably legally contestable. A reputable company would either accept customer’s word OR have a procedure to prove goods have been delivered. It’s up to them to prove goods have been received, not the customer. After all, it’s at their risk that they send the goods and the parcel company or postal service to deliver them. In light of the above, it’s really, really important that this business is brought down as soon as possible. Their weasely ways have shown no end to the twists and turns they make. It’s not a business. It’s a dirty scam, pure and simple, dressed in UTAH sunshine and clean air. Like or Dislike: 0  0

17. Nice on May 16th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    Very interresting article about “securecartcenter”,and the sites beeing similiar to this one. As I am not a zero educated guy,nor a dumb ass I was beeing curious about that site,so I checked to google it as,after seeing that lame javascript “time-left” counter.Really nice proccess of research you have done there!And yeah,this seems to be quite legal as you can read up everything on their site. I doubt it would be possible to get the money charged back. And yes,those people are making 9,800$,but only by “frauding” stupid people. -E Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 16th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

      @Nice Thanks for your kind comments. I’m not certain that this stuff is legal though, especially in the US where most damage appears to have been done. There’s the Texas court case and their continuing changes to their Terms & Conditions… Just because it’s possible to read something doesn’t make it legal or right. I say, “If their T&Cs are okay, why bother changing them all the time?” Answer: Because they know and realise that they are wrong and they’ve been caught out. We are now seeing a rapid process of damage limitation on their part. Like or Dislike: 0  0

18. Not Kevin on May 17th, 2009 at 12:17 am

    @ Inquirer Excellent expose and summary of the whole process. The securecartcenter connection is interesting and there is a UK angle too. Whois RecordRegistrant: Secure CartCenter PO Box 1941 Orem, Utah 84059 United States Domain Name: SECURECARTCENTER.COM Created on: 01-Apr-08 Expires on: 01-Apr-10 Last Updated on: 25-Feb-09 But the privacy policy on securecartcenter.com refers to: blazingkeywords.com, 224 S Main St #218, Springville, UT 84663 Tel: 888-248-9285 Whois info on that domain is hidden as they have used domainguard http://whois.domaintools.com/blazingkeywords.com This site: https://www.securecartcenter.com/Nzg3OHwyMjYzfDI4OTgzOHx2Mg==/itham4b9/g Refers to itself by three names “Easy Google Profit” “Google Treasure Chest Kit” and “Easy Google Cash, LLC” although as mentioned, the privacy policy refers to “blazing keywords” as does the terms and conditions which also mentions that you are signed up for a monthly fee to Grant Spring (grantspring.com ) – perhaps they are having an identity crisis? Blazing Keywords also owns the identical looking : https://www.blazingwordsnet.com/ whose contact us page gives the address as 51 west center street #621 orem utah 84057 but also says billing provided by Sleepy Sky Solutions Ltd 5 Sunny Terrace Dipton County Durham Stanley DH9 9DX (UK) – (corrected by SP) The identical looking page https://www.myblazingkeys.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html has the same US address but says billing provided by Blue Cord Marketing Ltd 18 Fairhills Avenue Dipton County Durham Stanley DH9 9DY United Kingdom This site again has the US address and the Sleepy Sky Solutions Ltd UK address: https://www.guideofproducts.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html Companies House lookup is closed overnight but I cannot find either of these companies via a Google search. http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/findCompanyInfo.shtml Here is that US address again: https://www.virtualmemberbilling.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html (no UK address this time) and again: https://www.guideofkeywordspro.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html (with Sleepy Sky again) and so it goes on: https://www.treasurechestnet.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html Same site design, but this time the US address is 970 W Broadway Ste. E347 Jackson WY 83001 and the billing is provided by Kamio Network Solutions Ltd Unit 4 15-17 Caledonian Road PO Box 190 London England N1 9DX – if you think that US address sounds familiar you are right – it’s the same address as the Wyoming mailbox address for Google Treasure Chest: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=970+W+Broadway+Ste.+E347+Jackson+WY+83001+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq= There are a whole lot more sites but I got bored :) 9membersupport.com, a-1member.com, accessmemberarea.com, benefit-today.com, billingmembersupport.com, blazingkeywords.com, blazingwordsnet.com, career-fly.com, financialcrisisgrant.com , funding-club.com, fundingstimulus.com, grant-pro.com, grantstimulusnet.com, guideofkeywordspro.com, guideofproducts.com, keywordguidesite.com, keywordmaniapro.com, loginformembership.com, memberareabilling.com, memberbillingarea.com, membertoursupport.com, myblazingkeys.com, mykeywordsnow.com, myproducts247.com, myresource365.com, myrewarder.com, myrewardstore.com, mystimulusgrant.com, mystimulusonline.com, onlinememberareasupport.com, powersellersguide.com, productresourceclub.com, productresourcelink.com, productresourcenetwork.com, proproductresource.com, resourcenetexpress.com, reward-me.com, securehostingcertificate.com, stimulusfunding4me.com, support-for-you.com, supportkeywordsite.com, supportmembership.com, supportmembershipclub.com, treasurechestnet.com, usbgrants.com, virtualmemberbilling.com, (list edited & sorted by SP) So it looks like Google Treasure Chest is still being promoted under another name? https://www.securecartcenter.com/Nzg3OHwyMjYzfDI4OTgzOHx2Mg==/itham4b9/g Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 17th, 2009 at 10:19 am

      @Not Kevin Thanks again for your (obviously tedious) work. I know exactly what you mean about getting bored by the never-ending monotony of the scammer’s purpose. I’ve sorted your list just to make it easier to view and for the greater visual impact. From the stuff you’ve pulled together it appears that everyone in Utah USA & Co Durham, UK is a scammy worm. The multi-headed nature of this operation shows no sign of diminishing although they’re incredibly aware of their legalese. I’ve left some links live in your post. They provide a wealth of new phone numbers as the scam progresses, old web titles are retired and new clones are manufactured. Because of the sheer number of addresses used in Utah, I’m left wondering if any of their office space is actually paid for – or do they just push on after two months without paying the bills…? LOL. As you noted, they should really pay more attention to their T&Cs… Quite often the names in the ‘copyright’ are strikingly different to the actual web page. The names rotate through the various sites. I think this is by design for obfuscation purposes OR because these sites are obviously cobbled together in some haste and they forget to edit everything… As for the UK, in the era of Double-Glazing salesmen following Thatcher’s ‘right to buy’ scam, the houses in the old mining towns of Co Durham were prime targets. Salesmen would trawl the streets looking for old terraced and semi-detached houses with new front doors. These were called “gophers”. This meant if they’d “go for” that then they’d “go for” anything! ( – meaning they’d be aspirationally upwardly mobile and would do anything for the sake of appearances). Well now all the coal mining money has dried up, it looks like there’s a little community of data miners developing! For mapping is a semi; 5 Sunny Terrace Dipton STANLEY DH9 9DX Funnily enough, if I look this one up as well; 18 Fairhills Avenue Dipton STANLEY DH9 9DY …all the internet mapping solutions show these houses to be opposite each other on the same road. This shows intimate knowledge of the area, a bit like myself knowing a postcode for an electricity sub-station which I use to dig down through bogus websites!! (Another connection, from reading this website you’ll note, is that I’m from that part of the country. In a former life I did deliveries to the Annfield Plain Co-op just down the road!). Small world. No-one can hide for ever. One other point I’ve noticed…. Check out the ‘copyright’ at the bottom of these addresses you provided: https://www.blazingwordsnet.com/ https://www.myblazingkeys.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html https://www.guideofkeywordspro.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html https://www.treasurechestnet.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html They all state: Not affiliated with Monster Worldwide or http://www.monster.com What’s all that about? I seems to me that while appearing to have an almost complete disregard for the official law of the land, they have even more fear of the jobs website monster.com!!! I’ve had a cursory check but I can’t see any monster references anywhere (apart from the gif image is called monster2), unlike the Google references that used to pepper the websites and thus needed a tail-end disclaimer. Weird. Speaking of which, on this website blazingwordsnet.com you’ll find this picture, but no Google disclaimer, just the Monster one! From the four websites above, (plus virtualmemberbilling.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html), we now have these contact telephone numbers, should anyone snared in the trap wish to try them. 1-888-256-9025 51 West Center Street #621 Orem Utah 84057 1-888-258-5204 51 West Center Street #621 Orem Utah 84057 1-888-256-9024 51 West Center Street #621 Orem Utah 84057 1-888-249-7889 51 West Center Street #621 Orem Utah 84057 1-888-256-1248 970 W Broadway Ste. E347 Jackson WY 83001 Finally, I’m not sure that Google Treasure Chest is still being promoted under another name? https://www.securecartcenter.com/Nzg3OHwyMjYzfDI4OTgzOHx2Mg==/itham4b9/g It’s just another permutation that we haven’t actually written down. I think they’ve use it before – after all, this lot is on the one web page…. Google Treasure Chest Google Treasure Chest Kit Easy Google Cash Easy Google Profit It’s just more of the same and there’s a limit to how much one’s brain and fingers can take of this rubbish, isn’t there?? !!! Following this, I’ve updated the phone & contact list here, google-treasure-chest-phone-and-address-list Like or Dislike: 0  0

19. Not Kevin on May 17th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    Yes, i was puzzled by the Monster.com disclaimer too! Some more sites with a UK connection: This website: ezdollarstraining.com/ references dollars but gives a UK address: Shimon Technology 3 Northstead Drive Co.Durham Consett DH8 0RX United Kingdom 866-756-1774 But the domain is registered to someone is the US (in Utah!): Steve Comer 831 East 340 South American Fork, Utah 84003 United States Domain Name: EZDOLLARSTRAINING.COM Created on: 08-Apr-09 Expires on: 08-Apr-10 who also owns onlineroadtoriches.com/ also references dollars but gives the same UK address but a different number 866-898-1402 Domain Name: ONLINEROADTORICHES.COM Created on: 08-Apr-09 Expires on: 08-Apr-10 Last Updated on: 08-Apr-09 Those UK limited companies do exist but were only incorporated very recently – as recently as less than 2 weeks ago. Companies House search shows: Shimon Technology Ltd 3 Northstead Drive Co.Durham Consett DH8 0RX United Kingdom Registered Number: 06880158 – Registered at Companies House on 17/04/2009 https://www.ukdata.com/numbers/06880158.html which is very near to Sleepy Sky Solutions Ltd – only incorporated on 05/05/09 5 SUNNY TERRACE, DIPTON, STANLEY, COUNTY DURHAM, DH9 9DX https://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/viewCompanyDetails.do?companyId=06895986&only-match=1 and (as you pointed out) they are just across the road from: Blue Cord Marketing: also incorporated on 05/05/09 18 FAIRHILLS AVENUE, DIPTON, STANLEY, COUNTY DURHAM, DH9 9DY https://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/viewCompanyDetails.do?companyId=06896019&only-match=1 Kamio on the other hand has an Essex address: https://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/viewCompanyDetails.do?companyId=06817892 Both the ezdollarstraining.com and onlineroadtoriches.com actually charge an upfront fee ($48.73) but it is only if you click on the terms and conditions that you discover that this is an ongoing monthly fee and not a one off charge! Google Treasure Chest even has an ‘honest’ sign-up page: treasurechestnet.com/index.php/InfoSite/GoToSignup.html Which is quite clear about the monthly charge: “You will be given a complementary 10 day trial membership, after which time you will be billed $72.21 per month, for each month your membership is active. Should you wish to change the terms of, or cancel your membership, please contact our customer service department at. 1-888-256-1248 Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm.” note the amount: $72.21 per month – exactly the same to the cent as the Google Treasure Chest charges when they made their ongoing monthly charges somewhat less obvious. Also note the copyright date: 2007 Perhaps the 2007 method of being upfront about the $72.21 per month was not profitable enough so they decided to go for the sneaky option? Some more of these Google offers that keep popping up: Google Pay Day yoursearchprofits.com/051409/order.php This one is based in the Philippines, so good luck cancelling that! Of course you have to navigate to the fine print to find that little nugget of information: “This offering is a contract between you the buyer and our business, the seller. The seller is located in Pasig City, Philippines and by doing business with us you agree that this offering is made from Pasig City, Philippines and shall be governed by the laws of the Philippines … By electing to participate in this offer, you are entering into a contract.” From: http://secureordersites.com/sites/JRSPrivacy/terms.html Google Power Profit Pro: rs937.powerprofitpro.com/ note the link to the ‘log in page’ which goes to a parked domain! Google Profits: ssl.securedorderweb.com/gpz/698/order.php#popup Google “Rapid Profit Generator” / Hot SEO Profits rs855.hotseoprofits.com/?subid=62453-1 Note the small (tiny!) print at the bottom: “The individuals shown are paid actors, and not necessarily Hot SEO Profits customers. The actors neither endorse nor sponsor any of the products and/or services. ” Hmm. Reminds me of ‘Beth’ the Christian Mom with her “All persons mentioned on this blog are fictional examples of people who used the promoted products and is for demonstration purposes only. The statements contained herein come from many different people and are not necessarily being made about the specific products discussed.” http://mikeyounglaw.com/wp/2009/04/11/christian-internet-marketing-selling-greed-using-jesus/ Also note the link to the log in page which says: “Your login information was sent to you via email when you ordered the eBay success kit.” Ebay? Hang on – I thought this was a Google thing!? hotbusinessmarket.com/login.php This one even claims to be FTC compliant! goge3lo.secureordersmanager.com/?affiliateid=scam Hmm, the FTC might have something to say about that given the recurring billing is hidden in the small print and the order page has a picture from istockphoto with a testimonial from “Kevin M” and all the logos with “as seen and trusted on” next to them goge3lo.secureordersmanager.com/?cmd=order&subcmd=&offerid= If you look up the whois info for the above, surprise surprise it’s hidden using domainsbyproxy but the ip address shows secureordersmanager.com is hosted in, wait for it – Utah, Salt Lake City. Google Revolution is another new name and so they go on… Here’s one targetted at the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand: yoursearchprofits.com/030609/index1111-4.php?subid=221010&subid2=&hitid=629381724 Finally, this one ties in the word grants with Google money – although the only ‘Grants’ Google offers is free Google AdWords advertising to various charitable organizations. http://www.google.com/support/grants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46027 So not very likely then that you will get a check from GoogleMoneyGrants “to fill out forms and do searches on Google”. as claimed by gmoneybiz.com/index.php aka Gmoney.net 1-866-631-1664, eWealth Media Ltd 2648 East Workman Ave. Suite 307, Los Angeles CA. 91791. For an interesting insight into the murky underworld of the people promoting these offers and getting paid up to $37 for each victim err sorry sign-up, just join offervault.com (free to join, anyone can do so and no credit card required) :) (It’s just a listing of all these CPA offers from various networks) Once there do a search for google in their offers search and 144 different offers are currently listed! Interesting discussion here by some of the people promoting these offers trying to justify their actions: wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/54024-google-money-tree-acai-berry-colon-cleanse-government-grants-2.html “F**k ethics and morals” pretty much sums it up. I guess they don’t believe in Karma then. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 17th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

      @Not Kevin I don’t know how you keep at it mate – it does my head in, all this shit. It’s like a never-ending dose of syphilis where the antibiotics don’t work and it won’t go away! As for the Karma thing, I can understand some people’s viewpoint that everyone should look after themselves – and generally, it’s a sound principle if you are capable. The Buddhism I do is based on building a concrete unshakeable core for oneself, in harmony with all the forces, good and bad, in the universe… However, everyone makes mistakes (mistakes are a manifestation of the negative forces) and following my initial investigation where I fell into this miasma of manure and mirrors all of a month or so ago, I’ve decided that it’s far, far better to help people over these difficulties than to ridicule them. Everybody needs help at some point in their life, even Presidents and Doctors, Scientists and Soldiers, Sales Assistants and the Garbage man. Everybody, no-one is immune. In fact, I think the bravest people are those that admit they been made to look a fool – I know I’d have difficulty revealing to the world my stupidity and greed. The people that say ‘tough’ and ‘they deserve all they get’ – these people are the cowards because it’s so easy to ridicule anonymously. Hopefully, by this website, I’ll have educated a body of people that are aware of the dodgy folk in the world. The information from people’s experiences collated here and elsewhere, can be passed on, time and again. Google Treasure Chest in all it’s incarnations is obviously a poor business model grounded in fluff and won’t survive in it’s present form. Eventually, under public pressure, Western governments will hammer down the rubbish into the negative mud from which it arose – same for all countries with reasonable legal systems. The Philippines and Cyprus are something else though. And if it starts being Shanghai and St Petersburg based – well that’s when the shit will really fly. By the way, that Steve Comer at America Fork – well it’s actually the end of the road on Google Streetview! Ha Ha ha. View Larger Map Also, that Essex address you found pulls out a few (not) surprises given my Essex knowledge in that area. For those of a nervous disposition, don’t click this link which is a Google search on the Essex address derived from the company search for ezdollarstraining.com, “14 ROMAN WAY, BURNHAM ON CROUCH, CM0 8UE”. Click and Search. You’ve been warned! The website names coming out of the < > link of Ramson Productions have to be seen to be believed. I don’t think you made quite clear in your post that the websites now have UK addresses and yet US phone numbers as contact points! Is this part of the Globalisation we’re hearing about nowadays? Like or Dislike: 0  0

20. Not Kevin on May 19th, 2009 at 12:53 am

    “I’ve decided that it’s far, far better to help people over these difficulties than to ridicule them. Everybody needs help at some point in their life, even Presidents and Doctors, Scientists and Soldiers, Sales Assistants and the Garbage man. Everybody, no-one is immune.” Couldn’t agree more – and to ridicule would also be wrong because people’s lack of knowledge or lack of internet savvy does not mean that they are necessarily stupid or greedy (or that they somehow ‘deserve’ it). And just because something screams scam to you or I does not mean that it’s obvious to others. In fact “research into scams, which was carried out by the University of Exeter, also found that the victims were in general not poor decision makers, and often had successful businesses or professional careers”. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ikhXvWtreDoxkOj0y8hQMQw3zHWw http://www.smeweb.com/economy/news/why-we-are-scammed-050918.html Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 19th, 2009 at 8:13 am

      @Not Kevin … there are no co-incidences and the recent release of the Exeter research that you spotted is surely a case in point for me, it being only 35mins away down the motorway! There are two extra salient paragraphs in the news article apart from the one you mentioned, I think. victims often keep their decision to respond to a scam offer private and avoid speaking about it with family or friends. – which parallels what I said about people who DO admit to being made to look a plonker are very brave indeed. And, (…)scams also abuse people’s trust of authority by making a scam look like a legitimate offer from a reputable business or official institution - this is exactly the Google Treasure Chest / Acai Berries / Slimming / Grants rip-offs etc method whereby the website is plastered with trademarked images (with a tiny disclaimer at the bottom) and/or recommendations from famous or otherwise authoritative people like Oprah and Springer or some university, fake or otherwise. Thanks for your comment. That’s another good bit of spotting you’ve done! Here are two more links: Office of Fair Trading(OFT) press release from the 17th May 2009 AND The psychology of scams: Provoking and committing errors of judgement (pdf 3.3 mb) The last is the original 3Meg report from the University of Exeter research for the OFT. As is usual with this stuff, it’s for insomniacs only!!! n.b. the OFT is a UK government department for consumer protection to ensure businesses are being run properly. They reckon that scams cost the UK folk alone, £3.5 billion annually, which are credit-crunch sized figures! Like or Dislike: 0  0

21. Trish on May 19th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    I also lost on Google Treasure Chest. When I put in the disc I got a Trojan Horse alert. I ordered the disc before vacation and was too late to cancel. My credit card will reimburse the $1.97. Wow! Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 20th, 2009 at 8:22 am

      @Trish …and why am I not surprised by that? !! I hope you didn’t install anything. n.b. For everyone: always run your windows PC with limited user credentials, i.e. don’t browse the internet, read CDs/USB sticks or click on strange email attachments using the ‘Administrator’ account under any circumstances. Doing this makes it much harder for Trojans and other malware to take hold. Not impossible, just harder – and this assumes you have a decent, up-to-date anti-virus package running. Some of these things, once on your PC, can take all weekend to get rid of – and weekends are just too precious to be wasted fixing computers! After my little investigation into a related scam which ended with a disgusting credit card company in Sioux Falls, my spam from this and related sources has gone up 20-fold! I’ll probably zap my spam honeytrap email address soon because of it. You’ll find it here: http://strangelyperfect.tv/3533/robert-g-allen-grants-and-a-credit-card-slimeball/ Question: Has anyone who has signed up for this Google Treasure Chest and related things noticed a dramatic increase in your email spam? Like or Dislike: 0  0

22. Strangely on May 21st, 2009 at 10:17 pm

    The Best is Yet to Come! So far, visitors to this website have generally,( after a fair bit of effort usually), generally been able to get through to a phone number eventually and have got refunds (although only a few people have actually got back here and reported their success) Well now, check out this person’s experience here: http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2009/03/oprah-acai-berry-scam-hoax-rachael-ray-dr-oz-brad-pitt-angelina-jolie/#comments @Favored is the person, posting on 21 May 2009. This is a short version of their short comment: …Acai Berry Edge…crap. I tried cancelling and they tell me that there is no order under my name or email address. If there is nothing under my name I thought I was safe, but sure enough a week later I’m charged $79.99. (-my emphasis, SP) So @Favored is saying: 1. That they got through on the phone 2. They were told there was no order 3. They assumed they were safe – maybe the web transaction had failed. 4. They were billed a week later. This is what I mean when I say the best is yet to come… Assuming @Favored phoned the correct company, then the company say they have no record of them – but bill them anyway!!! This is getting to be really, really dodgy dealings. Like or Dislike: 0  0

23. love2annoy on May 22nd, 2009 at 1:42 am

    I’ve got to say this, sorry for the profanity, but.. HOLY SHIT!!! I did the google search of: “A year ago I was an account manager for a (drum roll) a pipe manufacturing company. Not exactly what I dreamed of when I was growing up.” 2,660 results found… Now I feel like a dumbass, and I was sitting here trying to actually start my business, which I’m still trying to do. And I thought this would help.. guess not. All I wanted was a little help, and instead, I get ripped off, MANY deductions from my accounts that are all fraud… joy joy for me. I’m going to go cry in the corner now…. not really, but this does piss me off really bad. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 am

      @love2annoy You profane as much as you like mate if it makes you feel better… When I first did the ‘…(drum roll) a pipe manufacturing …’ search all of a few weeks ago, there were a few hundred returns. Now 2600+ !! That number is on a search without “quotes”. If you put the search string in “quotes”, Google looks for the complete string using an exact character and space match. I’m still looking at 211 – which is bad enough though! Add in the other clone sites like Christian mom and swimming pool Kevin/Steve and it’s a sizable problem of scam sites spawning scam sites spawning scam sites. Like a Pyramid! BTW, @love2annoy, have you got any money back yet? If so, what did you do? There’ll be a lot of people wanting to know… If you haven’t, there are a heap of numbers to choose from and a lot of suggestions to help you. @Tara Boyd had a good suggestion to get a 3-way call going so that your bank can listen in on your cancellation request. Getting big finance involved with their monetary muscle seems to be the best overall route. Cancel cards, phone for return ref numbers, these have all worked as well. I’ve not heard of a single person who’s said the email address on the GTC contact form works though! Like or Dislike: 0  0

24. Not Kevin on May 22nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    Interesting comment on this page (the one made by baronsass): “I’m in Canada and after placing an order for clothing on a site in LA started receiving changes from GTC. I never saw their ads, never talked to anyone, never signed up for anything at all, yet somehow they managed to get my CC info and address and begin charging my Visa.” http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/152771/page/14 Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 23rd, 2009 at 9:23 am

      @Not Kevin You should read the ones after that as well! People are quite rightly going ballistic now. Some have emailed Obama…. It appears that some people are being billed without ever visiting GTC etc. This ties in with a couple of comments I’ve received here. One mentioned that their anti-virus had detected a trojan on the disc as well… Who knows how they are doing it, but the fact is that most people don’t lie and are being upfront when they say a charge has appeared on the account and they don’t know who Google Treasure Chest (or whatever) is! As I keep saying, the only thing going for the scam(s) is that it’s US-based. Once the final destination of the scammed cash moves to dodgy states then everyone is fucked who signs up for this rubbish. The only recourse then will be to cancel cards and wave bye-bye to the cash already gone. @JennB is a case in point, a bit down the page from @baronsass. She says: ***********************READ ME************************** Ok, my husband and I have not signed up for anything, didn’t purchase a FREE cd kit, or whatever they say we did. We didn’t do it. Whatever they say I did is BS. pure BS. I called 1-888-256-1248 (which was the number listed under the Google Treasure chest deduction on our bank statement) its a calling center. They will NOT help you out. They give you the run around. I was on the phone with Mi Anne for an hour as she told me that she couldn’t refund my money, wouldn’t give me her company name, supposedly didn’t have a supervisor, on and on and on… After demanding to speak with a Supervisor, Manager, CEO, Owner, ANYONE she said they couldn’t tell me anything different than what she was saying. I finally got a supervisor and she obviously was no help. I hung up on her completely furious with this BS. I looked online and found this website. I called the 2nd number I saw, which was 1-877-208-6490. They were no longer working with Google Treasure Chest and couldn’t help me. I called the 3rd number listed, 1-866-951-1406 and FINALLY spoke with an AMERICAN! She spoke proper English and was very helpful. She said that on 3/25/09 $1.97 was taken out of my account, the on 4/4/09 $72.21 was taken and on 5/4/09 $71.21 was taken again. This was the charge that we saw. Thank GOD she mentioned the 4/4 deduction otherwise I would never have known. BTW we NEVER signed up for this and NEVER gave our Debit card over the internet, so how did they get our account info?!?!?!?!? She said unfortunately her company couldn’t refund the money because it was after the “refund time” blah blah blah, at least she explained things. I asked what I could do, this was the 4th person I had talked to over 2 hours and was ready for an answer. She said to go to the Sheriff and file a fraud claim again Google Treasure Chest. Get a claim #, badge #, and contact # and then call the 1-866-951-1406 back and they would refund the $146.39 to us. I am going to make them pay the 35.00 overdraft charge if our bank doesn’t excuse it. The Sheriff told us to contact the FBI and let them know what is going on. Hopefully this is helpful to everyone. From this you’ll gather that the call centre staff are employed to answer calls and don’t work for GTC. This has been pointed out by a commenter here ages ago. But when the call centre person advised @JennB … to go to the Sheriff and file a fraud claim again Google Treasure Chest. …well that really takes the biscuit! My gut feeling is that we are getting close to cracking this particular rotten barrel wide open. I hope US border controls are watching for the Google Treasure Chest runners! Like or Dislike: 0  0

25. Google Treasure Chest and the BBB (Better Business Bureau) | Strangely Perfect on May 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm

    [...] Google Treasure Chest – it’s a scam and a half! [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

26. Not Kevin on May 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    Came across a site called ‘Total Treasure Chest’ which claims to have received death threats as a result of people thinking they are Google Treasure Chest! http://totaltreasurechest.com/news/googletreasurechest-scam/ Here is another one of those 1 page ‘fake newspaper’ sites with an interesting choice of picture: http://www.losangeles-tribune.com/finance/index.php Perhaps they are trying to tell us something! Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm

      @Not Kevin Ha Ha. I took this screendump of the site just to trap the ‘image’ you refer to. It’s my guess that the site has been compromised in some fashion!! LOL! An ‘interesting’ thing about the LATN site is that I can’t find ANY contact address or phone! The contact at the page footer points as a straight mailto to MiamiGazetteNews.com, the site we spotted a while back… I’m not too sure about ‘Total Treasure Chest’. This whole marketing thing sucks and for their own good, they’d be better off getting a new catchy domain and setting up a redirect. Like or Dislike: 0  0

27. Joanne on May 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    Hi Strangely, Joanne here from TotalTreasureChest. I found your link via my traffic reports so had to come over to take a peek :) You have a fabulous breakdown here of this fiasco! Kudos for the super info you’ve provided to help make people aware. Yes, we have received threats, but we won’t be changing our domain name due to this. I’ve had it registered for 5 years now and we are just completing a major site overhaul. I am not about to change my entire business because of one silly scammer. There are already way too many negatively people affected by this scam and I don’t intend my business to be another one of them. Keep up the good work here :) Sincerely, Joanne TOTAL Treasure Chest Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 24th, 2009 at 10:13 am

      Hi Joanne Thanks for your kind comments. What started out as a simple bit of investigation into an internet annoyance for me, has ballooned out a bit! I checked your domain and yes, you’ve been going a lot longer than the GTC mob. It must be a bit of a pain for you because of the tarring-with-the-same-brush tendency that exists(we have this with the MPs expenses scandal right now, for instance – I’m sure there’s got to be one that’s okay!). I admire you for carrying on regardless – it’s what I’d do after thinking about it, so please ignore my earlier comment, which you have anyway! It’s at times like this when I’m reminded of a pseudo Latin phrase I picked up back in the mists of time that is strangely appropriate: Non Illegitimo Carborundum …which means…wait for it… Don’t let the bastards grind you down! Like or Dislike: 0  0

28. Can't believe I was so stupid... on May 27th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    you’ve become a one-man scam investigator since the last time I checked in! (I was one of the commenters on your first couple of posts) Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am

      Hi @Can’t believe I was so stupid… Again! It’s not by choice you know, but sometimes, you just have to speak out, if only to protect other people from the bad guys… If I say nothing, then the scum think it’s okay? And it’s still going on, morphing from one incarnation to the next. Did you mange to get a refund in the end? I think last time you contacted, ‘it was in the post’!! – or something! Like or Dislike: 0  0

29. dailyartist on May 28th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Subject: Google Treasure Chest, 970 W. Broadway, Ste E347, Jackson, Wy 83001 email hidden; JavaScript is required Mon Fri 9 to 5 866-951-1406 (support) 866-957-0020 UT (for refunds) The best and most efficient way to throw a monkey wrench into this scam machine is to immediately cancel your debit or credit card to stop any future debits to your finances. Get a new card with a “new” number. It is a hassle but not as much hassle as dealing with trying to chase after the scum that do this scam. Notify your bank of the reason why this is necessary and have them monitor your account for future activity coming from this scam. File a fraud report with the bank if they insist. When I was hit by this GTC scam I canceled my debit card immediately and alerted my bank about the scam and asked them to monitor my account. Fortunately for me, the 30 days had not elapsed and I was able to use the GTC 30 day guarantee to recover my money. When I was able to reach someone at the phone number being listed for refunds coming from this “unauthorized debit” by GTC, I informed the person (Rachel) that answered that I was calling to get my guaranteed 30 day refund. She asked “do you want me to cancel your subscription so you won’t be charged anything further?” ( well, duh!!!)and I replied “yes, cancel that “fraud” and you will no longer be able to debit any future finances from my account as I had canceled my card and put my bank on fraud alert for future activity coming from your company.” She pretended to have to go check my records to see if I could be given a refund and I was put on hold. When she came back her manner was gruff and frosty and she said I could have my refund, and she was cancelling my subscription and I would not need to return the dvd kit to get the refund. I guess they did not want to mess with returning the original $1.97 shipping charge that I paid for the dvd kit. She gave me a cancellation number and I read it back to her, she checked my address for accuracy and said I should have my refund in 5 to 7 days. I followed this up with a letter in the mail to GTC address with all the necessary information concerning my dealings with them stating that since they had all the necessary information about my account that I was expecting them to expedite the return of my money immediately. That letter was returned as “undeliverable”, but it curiously looked as though it had been slit open on one end and re-sealed. It was over 10 days before the $72.21 showed back up in my account. GTC did not answer any of my e-mail. They were extremely hard to reach on both phone numbers –I mostly got a message mumbling what their hours were and a cut-off, or a voice and then a cutoff and a voice with an “ominous” cut-off click. The voice sounded like the same person on all the connections. I had to be persistent to reach a real person and I was mad enough to do so. I figured they would have to eventually answer the phone to conduct any business. The phone number that worked for me was the refund number listed above (866-957-0020). I reported them to the Utah BBB and when BBB sent copy of my complaint to GTC it was returned back to BBB as undeliverable. Most all of these type scams are trading on the “Google” name as this places their ads and websites high on the search scale to be found, plus, most surfers trust that the “Google” name connection, (or for that matter any other well known company with logos such as CNN,etc) means that it is legitimate. What these scams have in common is that they bait you with some kind of “kit” which you think is your only cost. What they are really selling is membership in worthless websites filled with ads and software that can be found for free anywhere on the internet. What they are neglecting to do is inform the consumer that their intent is to enrol you in a monthly membership and pass your financial information on to other cohorts. Just having an obscure link of terms and conditions that is buried at the bottom of the page is not sufficient to fulfil FTC dot com law on showing what their intent is. The law requires that businesses must show disclosure (intent) in clear and conspicuous easily read disclosure near where you submit your financial information if other terms or conditions are part of the transaction and should also have a place for you to check showing that you understand that further debits are going to be made when you submit the transaction and your financial information. All terms and conditions of a transaction should be disclosed before they have your financial information. These scammers are claiming you should have read the t/c before you signed up but they are the ones that are not complying with FTC law on clearly and conspicuously publishing their intent t/c along side where you submit financial information so you can make an informed decision and or agree to their terms. Please go read this http://peggyconyers.com/GTCscam/042209infusionmedia_pop.pdf to get more of an idea how these scams work. Another wrinkle in these membership scams is they are making their websites look like a newspaper article that endorses the scam, but if you look closely at all the information on the web-page you will see that they do it like all “bait” web-pages. They cut off consumer comments supposedly due to spam and leave their t/c or disclosure in very tiny print at the very bottom of the page and have plenty of links to click to sign up for the scam being offered. Check out this website http://www.miamigazettenews.com/ and notice the print immediately under the “Miami Gazette News” headline (this publication is an article advertisement for Easy Google Profit). It was created using one of wordpress templates. I was exploring and researching some of those scam money maker websites offering glowing wealth or just information in a kit and you know how one of those pop-up chat windows come up when you try to leave and they try to talk you out of leaving before you sign up? Here is some of the dialog I had with one of them: Kelly Says: Wait! Don’t Leave! My name is Kelly and I have just been authorized to give you a CHAT ONLY DISCOUNT! CLICK HERE now to get $0.99 SHIPPING! Kelly Says: Just type ‘HI’ or ‘Hello’ in the space below to let me know you are there. Kelly Says:Anyone with a computer and basic typing skills can Earn up to $943 Per Day! Kelly Says: Whenever you are ready, just type ‘HI’ or ‘HELLO’ and we can get started… You: How much does this cost me Kelly Says: When you order right now, you will get your Risk Free Trial Kit and all you have to pay is the Chat Only Discount price of shipping of just $0.99! CLICK HERE to get yours now! You: Is there further cost than the .99 Kelly Says: This amazing offer is only available through this chat and for a limited time. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this deal. You: Is there a further fee than the .99 Kelly Says: You will get Real, Live support to answer any question and help you every step of the way! CLICK HERE now and get your kit for just $0.99 Shipping! You: you are not answering my question —is there further cost than the .99? Kelly Says: I am sorry, but I only have limited information. For more questions or information, please email us at email hidden; JavaScript is required to contact customer service. You: Why do you you not have your terms and conditions out in plain site for the consumer to read instead of hiding them in obscure linK FTC says that that kind of information should be near the submit financial button and it is not Kelly Says: No, this is not a scam! We are so confident that this will help you make money that we are offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee! You: I have seen by all the complaints that you do not always live up to the guarantee and I also see that Texas has a lawsuit against you Kelly Says: My name is Kelly and I’m a live virtual agent. You: I’ll just bet you are. When the questions get too tough or personal you turn into a virtual agent. Now where have I seen that before? Kelly Says: Please allow 5-7 Business days for your Free Trial to arrive if you are within the United States. You: You have not made satisfactory answers to any legitimate quetions so I conclude that you have something to hide Kelly Says: I’m sorry, but I only have limited information on our products, and the ability to offer you this discount. For more questions or information, please email us at email hidden; JavaScript is required to contact customer service. You: email don’t answer, the phone numbers don’t answer so how can I find information about this offfer on whether there is further fees involved if you won’t answer’ Kelly Says: I’m sorry I don’t have a phone number to provide to you. For more questions or information, please email us at email hidden; JavaScript is required to contact customer service. You: any legitimate agent for a company should have that information at hand Kelly Says: Our fine-tuned, proprietary software is 100% Guaranteed! You: 100 per cent guaranteed for you if I am stupid enough to go for it Kelly Says: OK to end the CHAT simply CLICK on the “X” in the upper right. Like or Dislike: 0  0

30. rick on May 29th, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    i ordered this scam and after giving cedit card info i found a warning site for the very same google scam – i quickly called my credit card co and told them my card had been lost and to cancel card an send me a new one – it worked and a wk later i had a new card and no more worries – and yes i am convinced that these sites are origin of ensueing virus problems …. just proves there’s no easy way to big money !!! Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on May 29th, 2009 at 10:31 pm

      @Rick Have you actually had any computer problems since you applied for this wonderful business opportunity? I’d be interested to know. A huge increase in spam mail doesn’t count though… ;-) This is because I did an experiment a few weeks back and I’m going to have to close that email account as it’s collapsing from overload – all courtesy of a ‘marketing’ company in…UTAH! And another in California. Everything points to Google Treasure Chest etc. If you check this post, http://strangelyperfect.tv/3533/robert-g-allen-grants-and-a-credit-card-slimeball/, you’ll see a few nom de spam names I used in this investigation. These are hardly appearing in the spam now, as are the original spam addresses that I listed. However, the content and enough similarities convince me that the whole thing is connected. Also….. ….check my post http://strangelyperfect.tv/3126/drill-down-through-bsadnpanthersslcom/ This is possibly the most interesting!! I stumbled upon their open server (it’s locked down now, although I made copies of all the contents!), and you’ll see all the various ‘campaigns’ that they’ve used and have planned. All the graphics and much of the text for the scummy websites was neatly categorised and listed in the folders. Everyone is there – Robert Allen, Google Treasure, Acai, Weight Loss, Government Grants……..zzzzzz The thing is, that all the newest spam I’ve had contains information on all these wonderful business opportunities, ha, ha, ha. If ever proof were needed, then there it is! Someone really needs to tip this overflowing toilet of crime over! Everyone! Contact your local BBB and FTC in America. Call your Attorney General. This has to be the best approach. Eventually, there’ll be such an overwhelming body of evidence that they’ve got to go down. People power backed by law. Like or Dislike: 0  0

31. Paul Schlegel on June 2nd, 2009 at 5:41 am

    Beautiful job on this! I learned a few tricks I hadn’t thought of for digging the data out here. Like or Dislike: 0  0

32. Not Kevin on June 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Interesting use of words on these sites, which all seem to have the same text – could be wrong but I think ‘posh’ is not a widely used word in the US? A UK connection there perhaps? Would tie in with reports that some people (in the US) are getting a GB at the end of the transaction info on their credit card statements and also the list of UK Ltd companies (mainly in the North East of England plus one with London and Essex addresses) posted earlier and listed on the contact us pages of blazingkeywords group of websites as “Billing provided by”: eg: blazingwordsnet.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html Here is the posh reference on 17 almost identical websites: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22As+unbelievable+as+it+sounds,+you+could+be+making+enough+money+to+live+a+posh+first+class+life+just+a+few+short+months+from+now.%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=OXU&filter=0 Another excerpt from those websites looks like a cut and paste job from a 2006 article by this guy: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2006/11/09/drill-down-then-out-verticals-where-its-at As used on these sites: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Note+also+a+BBC+article+link+from+2004,+a+badge+of+slightly+dated+information,+which+isn%E2%80%99t+exactly+what+a+medical+researcher+wants.%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&filter=0 So they could not even be bothered to come up with some content for these sites they are charging people $72 a month for but just copied and pasted it from some 3 year old article!? Like or Dislike: 0  0

33. Not Kevin on June 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    Oh and this bit: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Scientists+over+at+Google+understand+Pareto%27s+Law+and+they+know+that+80+percent+of+links+on+the+web+point+to+only+15+percent+of+web+pages.%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=jh&filter=0 was nicked from a 2003 article from here: http://www.searchengineguide.com/senews/000385.html While this bit: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Google+Adwords+is+not+only+a+pay+per+click+advertising+outlet,+it%27s+a+powerful+tool+that+can+be+used+as+an+advertising+template+for+your+online+ads.+%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=AdV&filter=0 Was nicked from an about.com article here: http://homebusiness.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/pay_per_click.htm In fact about half of their ‘about us’ page (from ‘How it works’ until just before the end where the whacked in the bit copied from searchengineguide.com) is a copy and paste job from that about.com article. [at blazingkeywords.com/index.php/Default/About.htm ] and ditto for their various carbon copies of that site. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on June 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 am

      LOL @ Not Kevin!! Well spotted mate. But how do you know which is REALLY the first one? Most of the time it’s clear but after a while my mind is just a blur of dates and numbers….. Speaking of which! Check out this comment by @Harry Tullman at # 3 June 2009 at 2:42 am on http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2009/03/oprah-acai-berry-scam-hoax-rachael-ray-dr-oz-brad-pitt-angelina-jolie/#comments It’s the Acai Berry stuff. He has a name, Andrew Miller and an address and phone number that I *know* I’ve looked at before as I recognise the StreetView! but I can’t find any mention of on my pages here. Is it something you were looking into? Cheers. 1287 N. Research Way, Orem UT, 84097 Tel: 821 765 9765 Fax: 821 765 9755 If what the guy is saying is true, then this is a sea-change in operations. In this case the scammer sends out the goods semi-blindly to a victim, and then finds out more about the person like email address and THEN bills them! How many Miller scammers are out there in the desert? Like or Dislike: 0  0

34. Google Treasure Chest - Phone and Address List | Strangely Perfect on June 4th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    [...] Not Kevin [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

35. Not Kevin on June 5th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    Good article here on the rise of the flog (fake blog used to promote offers like Google Treasure Chest, Acai, etc) http://www.jayweintraub.com/2009/03/the-rise-of-the-flog.html Valid point made in the comments by Paul Schlegel that “By not going after the [CPA] networks, the affiliate networks have no incentive to NOT run the offers as those offers are huge money makers for them.” Same thing would apply to the affiliates creating the fake blogs. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on June 6th, 2009 at 10:49 am

      @Not Kevin Interesting and thought stimulating! It all ties in with that email marketting list I found, where anyone who has had the misfortune to have signed up to one of these schemes then becomes, in the words of the marketteers, a prequalified opportunity seeker who has shown commitment towards working from home by being a business opportunity enthusiast who has invested … in Incentivized Freebie Websites . It’s really nice to know what they really think of you? As you may recall, I did an experiment, ‘signed’ up for three things and then was rewarded with the discovery that all the scams in that long folder list I discovered actually started sending me spam email for more ‘opportunties’!! They ARE connected, at root, branch, limb and leaf of the whole Google Money Tree; acai, weight loss, government grants, gold selling etc etc etc. (see: http://strangelyperfect.tv/3126/drill-down-through-bsadnpanthersslcom/ http://strangelyperfect.tv/3533/robert-g-allen-grants-and-a-credit-card-slimeball/ ) As the article says, it’s the networks that are the problem, the email list being one public manifestation of them. The trouble is that customer lists are a valid business tool. Like a knife, they can be used as tools to do a job or as a weapon of evil intent. So banning knives throws the baby out with the bathwater and similarly with the email lists. The trick for law enforcers is to spot when the lists are being used badly, just like with the knives analogy. This is something I’ll have to think about. As an aside, but related to Google Treasure Chest, I revisited their WHOIS… http://whois.domaintools.com/googletreasurechest.com ..Pay particular attention to their META keywords (a way of describing the site and attracting traffic), which are only 16% relevant (actually, the SEO score for the title is only 40% relevant c.f. the various relevancies for this website – not that that matters too muck – but, you know?) Anyway, their META keyords include such gems as: FREE FREE WORK EMPLOYMENT GREAT LEGITIMATE SCAM SCAMS This is another aspect of SEO manipulation which I mentioned in this post http://strangelyperfect.tv/3311/watch-out-for-the-scam-double-bluff/ In this case, it was looking at the results of Google searches. Above, is one way that the searches are generated. I know that META relevancy has diminished over the years, but on the other hand, it shows how their unscrupulous minds work! And anyway, who knows how Google uses META or any other data? If you ask them, you’ll get an ambiguous, polite, corporate reply. They are hardly going to broadcast the golden lodestone to the world, are they? Like or Dislike: 0  0

36. Peggy on June 7th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    Keywords for Google Treasure Chest site. name=”keywords” content=”Google Treasure Chest, Google, Google Treasure Chest kit, advice, articles, asking, based, best, biz, bizymoms, business, business opportunities, businesses, care, career, careers, check, city, companies, company, computer, continued, corner, courses, customer, customer service, data, data entry, directory, earn, ease, easy, email, employment, entry, entry jobs, expert, fee, find, find work, found, free, free work, free work from home, freelance, getting, great, help, hits, ideas, income, information, internet, investment, job, jobs, legitimate, legitimate work, legitimate work from home, legitimate work from home jobs, life, looking, making, market, mom, moms, money, money making, money online, new, online, opportunities, opportunity, paid, part time work from home, partner, people, potential, privacy, process, program, programs, real, research, resources, return, review, sales, scam, scams, search, service, services, simple, site, sitereviewauthority, sites, sra, start, success, support, survey, surveys, system, telecommuting, training, typing, ucs, value, wah, wahm, web, website, websites, work, work business, work from home, work from home business, work from home data entry, work from home free, work from home in canada, work from home in greece, work from home jobs, work from home moms, work from home no fees, work from home online, work from home opportunities, work job, work jobs, work moms, work opportunities, work programs, work typing, work work, working” Think of anything they left out??? Like or Dislike: 0  0

37. Stay Away from Google Kit Scam | GO0D.com on June 8th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    [...] if you have fallen for the Google Kit scam, you should read the following post and contact Strangely, the owner of the [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

38. Not Kevin on June 15th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    Good investigation here into one of the companies behind this scamorama and the links between this spider web of scams. Wu Yi, Acai, Credit Reports, Govt Grants, Colon Cleansers, Resveratrol and Google “cash kits” all emanating from the same source. “Meet Just THINK Media of Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, and their online empire of dubious products. Magic weight loss tea, free government grants, acai and red wine pills, colon cleanser, free credit reports…if there are incessant ads for it everywhere on the Web, they probably sell it.”… http://consumerist.com/5251497/easy-weight-loss-and-free-cash-a-dubious-product-online-marketing-empire-revealed?scams Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on June 15th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

      Hi @Not Kevin. This seems like another can of worms…. I’ve checked the “Consumerist” article, and after five minutes probing I found our old friends in Nicosia, Cyprus!!! You can find this from the Consumerist -> link for Credit Report America and the dismal old man (please shut him up). Go through the sign-up process as nothing shows in the source code in the first few pages. I used the address & phone number of ABC News to get past the checks but used my own spam-magnet email address. On the page where you have to enter credit card details, check the terms & conditions at the bottom. It’s https://www.creditreportamerica.com/terms-and-conditions.php …and Bingo!!! The name and address is: 17. Customer Service. If you have any questions, please call 866-989-8952. Vasilissis Freiderikis, 33 1st Floor P.C. 1066, Nicosia, Cyprus There’s the old count-down timer on this page again. The handy (not) robot scripts shows on this and other links also… As I keep warning people, once this stuff is out of the USA/UK, it’s beyond any law. I mean, Domains by Proxy, Inc. is the registrant cover for justthinkmedia.com which “The Consumerist” thinks is the umbrella organisation. I (and you, I think) would disagree. The umbrella is firmly held in the hands of Vasilissis Freiderikis, whoever that really is!!! Thanks for pointing this out. It’s nice how everything keeps tying in together, isn’t it? I should make a new posting on it, but it’s just another manifestation of the same old thing, isn’t it? So it’s hard to decide how to fit it in. I haven’t done any GTC investigations for a bit. I’ve one soon to release on a UK tool supply company for my mate who’s been tonked by their shenanigans. Prince Charles is connected, looslely, so watch this space!! On another of the Consumerist links in their article, the credit card sucking page is https://www.earncashfromgrants.com/confirmOrder.php?sess=7uu2tnt498adfeooudvq4ch9h2 after you’ve battled with the same irritating old man again. This one has NO contact, NO terms and conditions, NO information whatsoever! And they expect people to hand over their money details…? !! Now where’ve we seen this before?? If I get time I’ll poke around a bit more – but I’ve a good idea what I’ll find, Ha ha. Keep up the good work and thanks again. Rees Like or Dislike: 0  0

      • Not Kevin on June 16th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

        Interesting. The Blazing Keywords / Search Chest bunch seem to have a liking for Nicosia Cyprus too. If you do a search for “jurisdiction is set for as Moonbridge Services Ltd, 6 Ioanni Stylianou” http://www.google.com/search?q=jurisdiction+is+set+for+as+Moonbridge+Services+Ltd,+6+Ioanni+Stylianou&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=wjD&filter=0 - you will find at least 5 of their sites which say “For billing purposes, jurisdiction is set for as Moonbridge Services Ltd, 6 Ioanni Stylianou, 2nd floor, office/flat 202, 2003 Nicosia, Cyprus” productnetresource.com sellpoweronline.com springfinancial1.com http://www.searchchestcom.com blazingkeysearch.com That’s in addition to at least a dozen of their sites which say “billing provided by” and then give one of several UK addresses (mostly in the North East of England) and the names of various UK Ltd companies which were only registered in April or May of 2009 (as posted earlier in a previous comment). This includes the Google Treasure Chest site http://www.googletreasurechest.com/index.php/contact.html with their UK address of: TonStep Networks Ltd 36 Colchester Terrace High Barnes, Sunderland Tyne and Wear SR4 7RY United Kingdom and Blazing Words https://www.blazingwordsnet.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html which gives their US mail address (huh!?) as 5 Sunny Terrace Stanley DH9 9DX which is also their “For billing purposes, jurisdiction is set for as” address. (Sleepy Sky Solutions Ltd, 5 Sunny Terrace, Dipton, County Durham, Stanley DH9 9DX United Kingdom) Wonder what that’s all about? Like or Dislike: 0  0

        • Strangely on June 16th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

          @Not Kevin I think our Geordie bint is stashing her cash away in Cyrus for her retirement… As you say, “what’s it all about?”.. We seem to have core business activities centred on Utah & Nevada in the USA with (bizarrely, IMHO) County Durham in the North-East of England (my original home turf) and another key location of Cyprus. Chuck in the odd Florida, New York and California references, plus an Essex link and someone in a tower in the Phillipines and what DO we have? We have a right old can of worms, that’s what, and not one single part of it is legal or honourable. I don’t know if you’ve caught my latest investigation into the new GTC incarnation (the king is dead, long live the king) called Google revolution but that has another County Durham address, stuck in the hills near Consett. I checked the GTC site during this process – they are ‘closed to new members’… Ha Ha! Like or Dislike: 0  0

39. Google Revolution, Different Name, Same Scam! | Strangely Perfect on June 16th, 2009 at 2:16 am

    [...] email spambuster Mailwasher Pro is doing overtime since I posted my investigation into Google Treasure Chest and the Robert G Allen Grants swindle.  In this second investigation, I showed how the email spam [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

40. Google Revolution, Different Name, Same Scam! | Strangely Perfect on June 16th, 2009 at 9:49 am

    [...] email spambuster Mailwasher Pro is doing overtime since I posted my investigation into Google Treasure Chest and the Robert G Allen Grants swindle. In this second investigation, I showed how the email spam [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

41. mystimulusmoney dot con | Strangely Perfect on June 16th, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    [...] I think they clicked a link in their logs… If you’ve read about my investigations into Google Treasure Chest and it’s sequels, then this will now become depressingly familiar.  MyStimulusMoney purports [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

42. Not Kevin on June 22nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    Google Treasure Chest fined by Utah Division of Consumer Protection. On April 20, 2009 the Utah Division of Consumer Protection issued a Final Order by Default against Google Money Tree LLC and Google Treasure Chest LLC (“Respondents”). The Respondents are ordered to cease and desist from: a) failing to ship goods or furnish services within the time advertised or otherwise represented after receiving payment; b) charging consumers for consumer transactions that have not been previously agreed to by consumers; c) indicating that a specific price advantage exists if it does not; d) failing to make refunds to consumers within 30 days of receiving valid requests for refunds; e) sending goods or providing services to consumers pursuant to a negative option plan; and f) any act in violation of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act. The Respondents were assessed and ordered to pay an administrative fine in the amount of $12,500. http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/online-shopping-sites/google-treasure-chestcom-in-sandy-ut-22233884 Well $12,500 that’s just a drop in the ocean when their scam must have net them millions of dollars. Just a little ‘cost of doing business’ to the Google Treasure chest gang. Not even a slap on the wrist, more of a tickle. Hope the Texas Attorney General can do better than that! Like or Dislike: 0  0

43. Strangely on June 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    I forgot that I’d read this a while back. Thanbks for that. It looks like @gregw2 was right when he said, Utah, not Nevada, is the stronghold of the scammers in the US. They do use Idaho and Nevada addresses and business sites but the main players are all in Utah, where they are protected by the government and laws. No one has been convicted or brought to trial for Internet fraud in Utah and I will be surprised if that ever happens. As you say, it’s a drop in the ocean. http://strangelyperfect.tv/4308/google-revolution-different-name-same-scam/#comment-1584 Like or Dislike: 0  0

44. Jon C. on June 24th, 2009 at 12:24 am

    I just have been dealing with Google ATM, another bastard business that is appearing to be sanctioned by Google Inc but is just pretty much a scam. It was dumb of me to do an online 1.95 thing, but i figured hey its 1.95, lets check it out. 1 week later, after never receiving anything from Google ATM, no email, no letter, no kit, I get a charge for $69.90 and so I start investigating. The company that was collecting was reg.net but the charges were generated from Google ATM. I call my bank, they cant cancel a transaction that is pending, but are willing to work with me after the charge is posted. I called all the numbers I could find for Google ATM, eventually I was calling 1(800)497-4988 and they told me that they would cancel all my future charges and cancel my account but that they could not give me a refund. I repeatedly asked to talk to a manager or superior. 3 different times I was sent to a different voice mail. I wrote down all the bs they were feeding me, and i started telling them that yes some one said I could be refunded. I left a longer voice mail each time, and would complain longer to each customer service agent more and then I started telling them that they have notice of my intent to contact the BBB and the FTC and that I want a refund now, and to prepare for a lawsuit. I did fill out a complaint the BBB and when i searched the 4988 number it brought up a place in Las Vegas and one in Utah. I picked the Utah address, which had the corporate name Pacific something (not Google ATM) to file the complaint cause on my 1.95 charge it said Utah on it. I told them this and how i was hung up on and given the run around and how I never agreed to any charges, nor did I ever receive anything, except for charges. Eventually I got a call from (801)578-9020, and supposedly I will be getting a full refund in 72 hours, but I am skeptical because this is a predatory scam that I think people less pissed off than me could get charged a lot for a long time. I also canceled my debit card. I had also called reg.net and they said that they were contacting the vendor and I should have word in 48 hrs. So be persistant people, they will act nice, but google atm reps know it is a scam and are trying to put the stones to you. You can get a refund, or at least a confirmation number saying u will be refunded, but I am now trying to explore more legal remedies because this is horrible and wrong and predatory. I want more than my money back, I want this F’ers to stop and I want them criminally and civilly pursued. ALso I think Google should do more to stop the ease of these companies using their name and image. I wouldnt be surprised if Google gets paid good money to not be more vigilante, but thats just my opinion. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on June 24th, 2009 at 12:44 am

      @Jon C Your tale is like many others I’ve seen (if you take the time to go through the hundreds of similar personal testimonies to yourself ON THIS POST ALONE! – you’ll see what I mean) It’s good that you were persistent as this seems to be a common trait among those who’ve got their money back (some people had no trouble, to be sure, but most have quite a struggle). Firstly, you paid by debit card – I’m not sure of this. Most folks use a credit card online. Even so, your bank should follow your instructions, I’d have thought. If you tell them that an illegal fraudulent transaction has been made against you and another is due, then they may act differently. Use the word “fraud”. It seems to work. People HAVE been charged many times – some have lost thousands! So don’t let them fool you that it isn’t fraud, don’t let them con you that their terms and conditions are okay – as they’re not. YOU thought you were paying 1.95 for something. It never arrived. Then you had an unexpected withdrawal that you didn’t spot when purchasing your thing for 1.95 … … = fraud mate. Plain and simple. ASAP make a formal complaint to the UTAH AG and your own state’s AG. If enough people do this, then someone will pick up on it. The Texas AG has a case against some of it, but it’s a huge beast of twisted rotten people swimming in a vast network of linked cesspools of filthy crime. Trust me. They are not nice. Their actions prove it and I judge people by their actions. Finally, Google Inc make money on every advert click(so don’t be surprised – you are right!). It can be as much as a dollar for a click on a paid-for adsense thing that makes money. This is why Google do nothing – they make cash. However, as the scammer has to pay for the scam ads, I’m now advising people to click on them. They are everywhere, even the anti-scammmer websites! But each time you click, even if you do nothing, it’s money straight FROM the scammers pocket, and maybe, that’s as good a way to hit them as any! See this link for more on this. http://strangelyperfect.tv/4308/google-revolution-different-name-same-scam/#comment-1580 Rees Like or Dislike: 0  0

45. Not Kevin on June 25th, 2009 at 11:54 pm

    Google Treasure Chest have ‘moved’ from Sunderland. :) If you check their contact us page, the UK address is gone. http://googletreasurechest.com/index.php/contact.html However if you check Googles cache of the page you can still see it: http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:xr_ONwHGGxcJ:googletreasurechest.com/index.php/contact.html+%2236+COLCHESTER+TERRACE%22+HIGH+BARNES,+SUNDERLAND,+TYNE+AND+WEAR,+SR4+7RY&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk UK TonStep Networks Ltd 36 Colchester Terrace High Barnes, Sunderland Tyne and Wear SR4 7RY United Kingdom Speaking of moving, Blazing Words / Blazing Keywords are on the move too. Remember Sleepy Sky Solutions, the “billing provider” for Blazing Keywords at 5 Sunny Terrace, Dipton, Stanley, County Durham, DH9 9DX. This week they notified Companies House UK of: 23/06/2009 DIRECTOR APPOINTED MISS VICTORIA GRACE SUDDICK 23/06/2009 DIRECTOR RESIGNED SHIRLEY HENDERSON 23/06/2009 REGISTERED OFFICE CHANGED ON 23/06/09 FROM: 5 SUNNY TERRACE DIPTOP STANLEY COUNTY DURHAM DH9 9DX TO: 87 SNOWS GREEN ROAD SHOTLEY BRIDGE CONSETT COUNTY DURHAM UNITED KINGDOM DH8 0EP It’s still on their contact us page though where it is also described as their contact us address: by US mail (eh?) https://www.blazingwordsnet.com/index.php/Default/Contact.html Oddly the owner of a pub/hotel further on down Snows Green Road is also called Victoria Suddick! Hmm. 87 Snows Green Road is also the home of GUNSTONE SOLUTIONS LTD, whoever they may be… Well at least the “As seen on ABC News” logo on the sign up page for this scam is now accurate. ABC News did indeed do a little feature on Google Treasure Chest – about what a scam it is! Treasure Chest of online trouble: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/special_reports&id=6873047 Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on June 26th, 2009 at 9:48 am

      @Not Kevin You’ve been very busy again! Keep it up – I’ve had limited opportunities for research over the past few days. There are a few Suddick directorships in that area, so we can probably expect a few more address changes! Complaints Board is full of the horror stories on this particular operation… But in the mean-time, here’s that pub! View Larger Map Apparently, “time has stood still here” according to a cycling review! http://www.c2c-cycling.com/consett.html Also, check: http://www.creditgate.com/directorsearch/directors_su_9.aspx http://www.checksure.biz/Director/VICTORIA+SUDDICK-2956557.htm This is a big, big, complaint about this lot: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/blazingwords-866-200-5186-cy-c207385.html And this is the ABC “review” of Google Treasure Chest you mentioned – well spotted! http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=6873094 Like or Dislike: 0  0

46. Not Kevin on July 1st, 2009 at 5:09 pm

    Good news! People filing complaints to the FTC seems to have finaly spurred them into action: FTC opens all-out assault on economic cyber-scammers. FTC goes after Google Money Tree, Mentoring of America and others in Operation Short Change http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43177 $300 million one of those is claimed to have made from their scam! ( John Beck/ Mentoring of America) Federal Trade Commission v. Infusion Media, Inc., a corporation, also d/b/a Google Money Tree, Google Pro, Internet Income Pro, and Google Treasure Chest, West Coast Internet Media, Inc., a corporation, also d/b/a Google Money Tree, Google Pro, Internet Income Pro, and Google Treasure Chest, Two Warnings, LLC a limited liability company, Two Part Investments, LLC a limited liability company (United States District Court for the District of Nevada) http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0923060/index.shtm Dubbed “Operation Short Change,” the law enforcement sweep announced today includes 15 FTC cases, 44 law enforcement actions by the Department of Justice, and actions by at least 13 states and the District of Columbia. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/shortchange.shtm Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on July 1st, 2009 at 6:48 pm

      YEEEEE-HAAAAAH! Excellent news, innit? I’m gonna have some quick fun now before all tyhe links are pulled like for the original Eborn charge…. See what you can dig up extra? p.s. WELL SPOTTED! (I’ve just got in from the day job) This is the new FTC video from their website: It details much of what we’ve alrerady discovered about these scum and the manipulative methods focussed on people’s vulnerabilities. Like or Dislike: 0  0

      • Strangely on July 1st, 2009 at 7:07 pm

        This is the key people list from the charges: Individual defendants Eborn. Burnside, Miller and Norton have formulated, directed, controlled. had the authority to control, or participated in the acts and practices of the Google Money Tree Corporate Defendants that comprise the common enterprise The defendants maintain or have maintained Internet websites, including those found or formerly found at the domains googlemoneytree.com, internetincomeinitiative.com, googletreasurechest.com , deliciousdownloads.com, safedownloadarea.com and redtomorrowfield.com , through which they advertise, market, promote, offer to sell, and sell their work-at-home kit YEEEEEE-HAAAAAAH! Like or Dislike: 0  0

47. Not Kevin on July 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    Here is a Fox TV news video clip on Google Treasure Chest / Money Tree. Feds Investigate a Utah ‘Work at Home’ Internet Business, Freeze Assets: http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-feds-investigate-utah-internet-site,0,4801939.story The ex employee who is interviewed in the clip posted a warning on complaintsboard.com way back in April (I only came across it today though) and another ex employee replied 5 days ago to say that “I worked for Platinum Teleservices as well. The company shut down this week because the police showed up and told everyone to go home. This place is a complete scam.” http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/fraud-alert-i-am-a-former-employee-c193173.html Lots of other news coverage too: http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22google+money+tree%22 These fake news sites and ads have even been featured in stories on Wired.com and Forbes.com recently: http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/15/mehmet-oz-oprah-business-media-resveratrol.html http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/fake_news/comment-page-1/ Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on July 3rd, 2009 at 7:45 am

      Thanks Not Kevin. I’ll make a main posting with some of this stuff to get it on the front page where it deserves to be! I followed through some links and one had a link buried right down the page to this webpage: http://cockeyed.com/citizen/google_money/google_money.php It’s the original artwork from which derives our Kevin/Paul bloke! Like or Dislike: 0  0

48. Not Kevin on July 6th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    “I Caught Kevin Hoeffer Barbecuing at Costco” – hilarious! “In fact, when I saw him, his wife and his two sons on this box for a Camp Chef Expedition three griddle range, I laughed and laughed. I laughed because I knew that everything he said before, every single thing he wrote and every single thing in his voiceover was a damn lie.” By the way, speaking of Kevin Hoeffer – it looks like Google is finally banning the Adwords accounts of people who have advertised Google get rich quick scams or as they put it ““Promoting Google Money Tree or ads that promote a misrepresented affiliation with Google. Due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers, we’ve made the decision not to accept these ads.“” http://www.adwordshelpexperts.com/2009/07/adwords-suspended-promoting-google-money-tree-or-ads-that-promote-a-misrepresented-affiliation-with-google/ Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on July 6th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

      @Not Kevin I think the thing about the Hoeffer/barbecue thing is the absolute lack of skill around the subject…..the more you look, the funnier it gets. As for the Google ban – I wonder when that kicked in, because I saw some ads yesterday on a few random websites. I also checked a spam this morning to see if there’ve been any changes (it was a grants one). The new thing ‘appears’ to be of a totally different class to the Bobby Slimeball Allen and Honest Micky Greene types…. However, further checking revealed wholly contradictory T&Cs on different pages (referring to the refund methods and policies), plus, an ad for a money-making scheme not wholly unrelated to the Google Money bollox. Stuff like this is wholly against US ‘consumer’ law, and the FTC charges explicitly state this in their analyses of the various web scams. In fact, I’m slightly amazed about the continuing adverts in this area following the FTC swoop. The reason I say ‘slightly’ is that it’s like a blast wave travelling out from an initial explosion. I assume what we are now seeing is the stuff from the thousands of suckers who’ve tucked into the scam hoping to make it rich, blind to their moral bankruptcy, temporarily or otherwise, and now still frantically flogging while the core finance collection system is closed down. When the ones with the wherewithall to hop to another money processing centre do so, then the whole cycle will repeat. The fact that Google has put the blockers on that part of the ‘business’ is all a little bit too little and late. Google Treasure Chest closed last month as it and it’s brethren morphed into their next incarnations. The bigger fish at the top of the pyramid (“we are not an MLM or pyramid”) will have already started new Adsense accounts and instigated name, address and website changes. This will then prosper for another year or two before Google close them down, but how many people will have been robbed by then? http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=0e9732d93b7e65bc&hl=en This forum set discusses the whole thing. The funny thing is the way that everyone refers to people who’ve been robbed as ‘consumers’. I’m still trying to get my head round that one…..if I bought into the Google Money Bollox, what exactly would I be consuming? I like the way that some folk who admit to doing this (one guy has a $1000pw spend on Adwords but is now moaning he’ll have to get a ‘proper job’), in general, still blame the small fry for their stupidity in not reading the ads properly – or whatever. I know the phrases “being in denial” and “codependant relationships”, but this is ridiculous! Another observation – in searching for the original Google source of: “Promoting Google Money Tree or ads that promote a misrepresented affiliation with Google. Due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers, we’ve made the decision not to accept these ads”, …. well I can’t! There are >2000 results, and the only place to read these words apart from in a report, is if YOU have been sent an email by Google. So all the people initially reporting this have been blackballed by Google! There are quite a lot. That knowledge puts some of the postings into a different light! Thanks again for your continuing work in this area, Not Kevin. We should be earnestly looking for the “next big thing” now, I think. The scammers will certainly be doing just that! Like or Dislike: 0  0

49. Is This the New Google Treasure? | Strangely Perfect on July 9th, 2009 at 10:10 am

    [...] original Google Treasure Chest was wound up some time ago, and it’s owners are now on multiple charges filed by the [...] Like or Dislike: 0  0

50. peggy on July 10th, 2009 at 1:48 am

    I guess now since the fed seems to be after the “google” scams that the “Google engine corporation” can afford to step in and look affronted by not accepting those ads. Such a shame to lose that revenue. Hmmm wonder what brought that about? While I am still on the subject of the google scams: (taken from http://scam-googletreasurechest.blogspot.com) Today I spent some time on the FTC website reading the lawsuit that FTC has filed against the corporation running the Google Treasure Chest Scam (and other Google named scams). Hope you will take the time to go read it also. http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0923060/090622googlemoneytreecmplt.pdf It is very enlightening and certainly vindicates what I have been saying all along about this being a scam and just why it was a scam. I don’t know what the final outcome of this lawsuit will be but I hope these con artists get locked up and the key thrown away. From what is being alleged in the lawsuit the con artists were no better than a burglar that breaks into your house and steals what they can get their hands on. What seems to me to be so strange about this in regard to the mentality of the con artists is “What were they thinking?” Did they really think they could get away with such blatant disregard for the law? And another thing, why did it take the law so long to go in and take some action. I guess the con artists think that if they out-source part of the action overseas that the law won’t be able to reach them but they better brush up on the law concerning the Electronic Fund transfer act and regulations. The law can still reach them and they can’t hide–it just might take a little longer but sometimes that makes the penalty even more stiff when it finally comes home to roost. The counts being levied against GTC in the lawsuit: Count 1. Failure to disclose material terms Count 2. False or unsubstantial representations regarding income Count 3. False representations regarding affiliation (misleading one to think Google was behind them) Count 4. Violation of the electronic Fund Transfer Act and regulation E. (it seems that they should have gotten written authorization or similar pre-authorization for further debits to your account plus provide you with a copy of such. Also it seems that in the unauthorized debiting of your account they did not even have proper authorization to show to your financial institution to make such a recurring debit. Makes you wonder what other loop holes the financial institutions ignore. I would think that to debit your account electronically that the banks would need to have some kind of proof showing that such a debit could even be made. ) Section 907(a) of the EFTA, l 5 U.S.C. j I 693e(a), provides that a ”preauthorized electronic fund transfer from a consumer’s account may be authorized by the consumer only in writing, and a copy of such authorization shall be provided to the consumer when made.” Section 90349) of the EFTA, 1 5 U.S.C. j 1 693a(9), provides that the term ‘- ‘preauthorized electronic fund transfer’ means an electronic fund transfer authorized in advance to recur at substantially regular intervals.” In numerous instances, the defendants have debited consumers’ bank accounts on a recurring basis without “obtaining” or “providing” a copy of a written authorization signed or similarly authenticated by the consumer for preauthorized electronic fund transfers from the consumer’s account, thereby violating Section 907(a) of the EFTA, l 5 U.S.C. j l 693e(a), and Section 205. l 0(b) of Regulation E(a) I 2 C.F.R. j 205. 10(b). My advice to anyone who was involved in this scam and still having a hard time trying to contact these con artists to get their money returned is to copy the FTC lawsuit PDF and take it to the bank to show them how you were swindled. The bank has some responsibility in this matter too as they maybe should have required more proof that the debit had some merit or backing before they sent your money off to the con artists. Like or Dislike: 0  0

    • Strangely on July 10th, 2009 at 9:25 am

      @Peggy I’ve now noticed that Google Inc., while notionally blocking a few adsense accoounts, are still taking ads for extremely similar schemes, some of which, if not being run by the original people, are actually using the same business methods and from virtually the same premises (certainly the same towns in Utah!) See http://strangelyperfect.tv/4308/google-revolution-different-name-same-scam/ and http://strangelyperfect.tv/4971/is-this-the-new-google-treasure/ What is extremely disturbing to me, is the comments from the report on the Eborn closedown on a local TV/web news station here, http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-feds-investigate-utah-internet-site,0,4801939.story The comments are here, http://www.topix.net/forum/source/fox13now/T28A5BU37IS57DC8C I’m disturbed because hardly anyone in Utah seems to think there’s anything wrong with the business and it’s methods and activities. They seem to be of the opinion that “at least it’s giving people jobs”…. “what right have the FTC got to come busting in…?” etc Presumably, this is what Mafia staff, hitmen, drugs runners, prostitutes, money-laundering bankers etc think when the G-men come knocking? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In light of the Arizona action against a similar fraudster, see http://strangelyperfect.tv/4971/is-this-the-new-google-treasure/#comment-1639, I think the best advice for people is to: force a chargeback via their Credit Company cancel their card and get a new one contact the FTC or whatever and ensure you are on the list of complainants seeking damages If you are not on their list, how will you get recompense? The Arizona settlement shows a 3:1 ratio of the fine to damages. Carrying this forward, if the FTC seek damages against Eborn et al of $100m, then the FTC fine will be $300m. The more people that are on the ‘damages’ or restitution list, then the bigger that fine is going to be! It’s no good just locking Eborn and his chums up – that needs to be paid for and it costs a lot to keep people incarcerated. We must ensure that everyone who’s been hurt by these people get adequate compensation. Crime must not be seen to pay. I know you got your money back but have you added yourself to the list? The amount of stress you’ve suffered and the sheer waste of your valuable time (every second of your life is precious and you can’t get it back) shows you (and people in your situation)have a case. Some people were on the phone for HOURS and HOURS. This costs! Eborn should pay. Rees Like or Dislike: 0  0