scams abound on the web
I really felt it important to alert everyone to one of the shadiest scams around. Let me give you one reason to read this. With so many people asking "how do you make $100 a day", you are probably going to come across these guys, and may fall for their pitch.Backgrounds
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My friend sends me an IM, as I'm heading to bed. As plainly as could be, it says, "Want to see the biggest scam around?" Being tired, and bored, I say "Sure, but I've seen 'em all.." Then, he says "I know this is a scam, but I don't know how to prove it to ClickBank".
Now, here I am with proof after only 5 minutes of reading their sales pitch and members area. Mind you, my not-so-alert friend became a victim, buying something which "sounded so good" at 4am. For this, he's forgiven. We have all made silly mistakes now and then.
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Alright, the situation...
The scammer's website is paidrefunds.com
The gist of his pitch is:
- we send you rebates to your email address
- you login to our secure page
- you process these rebates
- we send you $15
The scam - you pay them $97 to "learn the ways of the jedi scammer". In turn, they screw you over and show you how to do it for free. This is as their affiliate. I am being serious.
Note: If you want this condensed, the shorter version is at the bottom.
Sounds simple, right? Well this is where the fun begins.
By all means, read through the site and sales pitches. Wooo, weee, look at me. I earn $15 for entering some names and email addresses into a paypal form. I know, hire some kids from the local college and pay them $8/hr to process five billion rebates for me. Really, I am such a genius. Okay, let's hit purchase.
The process begins. $97 is taken out of your bank account and goes into their clickbank account. Then, you arrive at this REALLY ugly and simple page. It looks like it was made in FrontPage98, in about 3 minutes. On this page is a link to another site labeled "secret members area". It has a "fantastic support" email address which belongs to someone using AOL. I know what you're thinking, these guys are uber PROFESSIONAL!
Now, you enter the members area. You type in the "one size fits all" password, they've assigned. Here they explain how to make $15 processing rebates. However, the kicker is first they want you to follow their 3 EASY steps...
Step 1: Create a clickbank affiliate account... wait, what!?
Yep, that's right sucker. You just paid $97 to be an affiliate. Don't worry! You won't spend anymore money with this AMAZING ONLINE SYSTEM. Why? No one ever refunds it because they always make tons and tons of money, like Scrooge McDuck! Ahh yes. I now trust this site like I trust eating a piece of ice cream that has fallen onto a walk patch in Tijuana.
Step 2: Get your rebates.
To get these rebates, you get access to what looks like a huge list of FFA's and useless bulletin board links. They are drenched in more SPAM than the actual SPAM factory.. Again, don't worry! SPAM is bad and we would never tell you to do that. Then again, charging $100 to be an affiliate is bad too. However, it's only bad if you get caught!! That's our motto!
Oh wait, you thought the program supplied you with the refunds/rebates? Oh no, silly. They just wrote that on the sales page to get you to think you wouldn't be doing any of the selling or advertising yourself. Remember, there is no such thing as "false advertising!" Haha, what a silly person you are to believe them!! Better suck it up, because the fun is just getting started!
Step 3: How to send a refund.
Open your PayPal account. Send the list of people who have ordered the outdated crummy list of surveys $5. Once again, don't worry! We credited your ClickBank account with $20. You'll get the $15 at the end of the month (this would be a good place for fine print about refunded sales costing you $5. But, they don't need to bother with that at this point. They only want you to pass the 60-day grace period for a refund).
Secret Step 4: Don't refund this.
In fact, since you're already an affiliate (you know, the free part at Step 1 for which you paid $100) pawn it off to your friends and family. This way, they hate you and avoid you like the plague! This is a great plan, guys!!
If you don't want the dripping sarcasm, here's the gist of their scam, how it works, and how you get screwed, twice.
They charge you $97 to be their affiliate, with false advertising and promises that they supply you with the "leads" and you just "process" them. No. You sell/advertise their service, and you "process" it yourself using your own PayPal account. Oh and by the way, if there's a chargeback/refund, you lose $5 automatically. That's all there is to it.
Here's how it works:
The plan is for you to spam their list of surveys, using their "free" resources, on the internet. Really, these are just message boards and bulletin boards of other useless junk items. If someone happens to join under your affiliate code, you send them $5 of the $20 they send to you.
Mind you, you have to refund them through YOUR paypal account. So, actually, you are paying them $97 to be their ClickBank affiliate (which is free). AND, of the $20 commission they give to you for someone joining, you have to give $5 back to the person for joining (because the spam message you post says they get a $5 rebate).
If the customer gets this huge BS list and decides to get a refund, guess what? Of the "$5" owed from your own PayPal account, the money you get for the sale was originally credited to your ClickBank (CB) account. It now gets deducted (the original $20 you made for the sale), because ClickBank removes the cash from that refunded sale from you and the seller.
Overall, you've just LOST $5 from the ordeal. And, there's not a damned thing for you to do about it, other than suck it up. You just hope no one else does that either, which is just plain silly. Why? Because this list of "surveys" is so old, and so whored out, chances of someone not getting a refund for it is slim to none.
Moral of the story: Welcome to the internet. It is the home of the scammers and cheaters. This is a warning.
posted by Don Marchand @ 4:06 PM
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