By Holly Reisem Hanna

It seems they’re at it again…

Last June I covered a story about a work at home scam called Easy Google Profits. The advertisements that were circulated for this scam, looked exactly like legitimate newspaper publications and blogs, telling the story of some fictitious person who recently lost their job and was now working from home with a system called Easy Google Profits. The articles explained how these people were now able to make a handsome income every month just by posting links on Google.

After months of this work at home scam being advertised on the web and thousands of people being taken advantage of, Google finally took legal action against Pacific Web Works for using the company’s name and logo to promote fraudulent work at home opportunities. (more…)

By Cleo Stamatos

With the economy hurting, unemployment at an all time high and with the holidays at our feet, it is natural for moms and people everywhere to try to find ways to earn extra money.  The old saying “desperate times call for desperate measures” should mean cutting coupons and not buying your favorite shampoo – not being duped by a con artist.  When you are looking for ways to make extra money, you need to be extra careful to avoid employment and work from home scams.

When I worked for the National Consumers League, a victim of fraud told me, “I asked all the right questions.”  What this person – a very successful architect – didn’t count on was the fact that con artists are dishonest.  You can ask the right question, get the right answer – but still be in trouble. (more…)

By Holly Reisem Hanna

Back in June I wrote about this work at home scam floating around, Easy Google Profit. The advertisements that were circulated for this scam, looked exactly like legitimate newspaper publications and blogs, telling the story of some fictitious person who recently lost their job and was now working from home with a system called Easy Google Profits. The articles explained how these people were now able to make a handsome income every month just by posting links on Google.

After months of this work at home scam being circulated around and thousands of people being taken advantage of, Google finally took legal action against Pacific Web Works for using the company’s name and logo to promote fraudulent work at home opportunities.

On Google’s Official Blog they said, “Even as we’re taking legal action to try to cut these sites off at the source, we’re still working constantly to remove scammy URLs from our index, and we’ll permanently disable AdWords accounts that provide a poor or harmful user experience, whether or not they use Google’s trademarks illegally. We can solve only part of the problem — the rest is up to you. Just as you should be careful about giving out financial information in the real world, you should be skeptical and review any offers online before sending any information, and always be on guard when presented with an offer that seems too good to be true”. (more…)

Yesterday I received an email from a friend of mine asking me if I read this article and if knew Jennifer Pallin of Austin? She then asked, “Have you checked out the Google Home Starter Kit?  Isn’t this just another MLM”? I immediately checked out the link that she included, and right away I knew that we were dealing with another work at home scam!

Just like the Easy Google Profit Scam, the article featuring Jennifer Pallin and the Google Home Starter Kit looks authentic like it comes from a reputable newspaper. The story explains how local mom, Jennifer Pallin lost her job managing the local hardware store and how she is now able to work at home and make $87.00 an hour with a trusted name like Google. (more…)

With Twitter being one of the hottest and fastest growing social networks on the web, it’s no wonder why it is now being targeted by get-rich-quick, work-at-home schemes. On July 1, 2009 the Better Business Bureau issued a warning against Twitter money making schemes.

One of the questionable companies mentioned by the Better Business Bureau was Easy Tweet Profits. According to Easy Tweet Profits you can make $250 – $873 per day at home with Twitter. Just like the Easy Google Profit Scam, it claims it has been seen on and trusted by, CNBC, AOL, USA Today, ABC, CNN and Yahoo, yet it doesn’t supply links to the “as seen on” segments. (more…)