More Online Scams
For those of you who were disgusted with the last video, now comes round 2.
What the scam meisters did to the make money online field, they’ve been doing for a while in the weight loss field. Shame on these dishonest people. And shame on anyone who supports this nonsense.
Peace
Harlan
October 21st, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Wow, Harlan, you’re hunting them down! Great job on putting this stuff out to the public!
John W. Collins
http://www.TheFinanceFormula.com
October 21st, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Hey Harlan,
Thanks for being the whistleblower and exposing these guys.
~Brett
October 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Hi Harlan, well where are the good guys when you need them. At least one of them shows up. In the past 3-4 months I subject to a more subtler way by a few of those bona fide marketing gurus that don’t do the refund they promise/guarantee, don’t reply to their emails in a timely manner and then antagonize the customer if you get frustrated or gets his/their continuity program money coming in without delivering the monthly content. Keep up the good work. Chris
October 21st, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Just wish that your messages could get out to the masses and not just on YouTube or people who subscribed to your newsletters. Would be nice to see them on TV so more people would get the message. Great Job.
October 21st, 2009 at 5:37 pm
With the kind of opportunists getting online to make money these days there are probably several who will use your video as an information source to create a system that emulates what you are describing as shameful and dishonest. To some this isn’t immoral or wrong, but a brilliant marketing idea.
They’re probably replaying your video and taking notes intent on doing the same thing.
October 21st, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I fell for one of these types of scams for making money on Google. You are right they are scams and it is very difficult to get your money back. I actually had to report it to my bank as fraud and go through the hassle of changing my credit card number. Thanks again for educating people!
October 21st, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Hi Harlan,
Keep up the good work I love to see more of your superb videos.
Best regards,
Kent
October 21st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Hi Harlan,
Hopefully with the new FTC crackdown we wont see many of these fakesters.
It spoils it for all those ethical marketers out there, and there are a lot of really genuine marketers.
When I started PPC to CPA we in our group saw them wondered ( 3 years ago) when this will all blow up and its took some time but it sure has.
After the Google clampdown and FTC, together with Oprah’s legal teams we should hopefully see the last of these crazy fake blogs or Flogs as they call it in the industry.
Like Mike Hill says – why go down that route when you can do it the right way without deceiving people.
CPA is a huge industry and from what I have seen these last few months even CPA networks have cleaned up their act. Floggers should be banned from the networks for deceiving people.
Take care Harlan.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Hey Harlan:
Spend some time with MomsTeethStory.com too….. and all variations of Teeth Whitening — same deal — order “Trial” for $4.95 (and they sell you TWO of them in one fell swoop) and get suckered into continuity programs that will take you months to get out of.
Looks like cookie cutter sites for these CPA offers. SLEAZE
October 21st, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I’m going to do a video on that one next. It’s a doozie! Thanks Marge.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:27 pm
thanks again, your information is a great help for people with no experience in the scams field. i hate liars and cheats. i’m still trying to figure out if the acai berry thing was even real to begin with, acai berry whats that? never heard of them , then everyone needs to try them out . yea right. thanks again. ANT
October 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I agree with the sentiment here, but I’m a little cynical. Oprah got wind of this because her name was being used. The Chicago Sun Times was one of the “as seen on”s in the same ad. Tracing back through the CPA network leads to the culprit in that instance ( that was for Google Riches).
What I question is this:
The landing pages in question have passed “someone’s” quality scoring. The ads went into the content network and, still, could have been screened out by the magazine. All this happens (or doesn’t) BEFORE the crooks get through to potential victims.
The magazine takes no responsibility for the advertising… but it’s disingenuous to pretend that the credibility of the publication doesn’t transfer to the ad. When a publisher has to explain it in response to a lawsuit, they (and their peers) will be more discriminating in the future. They’ll win the suit, of course, but it’s going to take a lot more than Twitter to repair the brand.
Harlan has pointed out the striking similarities in the fine print. Let’s call that Latent Semantic Indexing.
I’m not convinced that a small battalion of ‘bots couldn’t get that cleaned up pretty quickly.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Harlan,
You missed the $29.95/month membership to FitFactory that (of course) has a different 800 # for canceling.
It’s in 2.1 of the terms.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Hurah for Harlan.
As a physician I am disgusted with all the junk I see.
Please go after those cancer “cures’. Taking advantage of unfortunate, suffering, people is an absolute disgrace.
People wake up! The web is not your doctor.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Hello Harlan,
Ha! These “flogs” are outrageous – I can’t believe people actually fall for these!
On thing to note is that CPA marketing is not a scam. CPA Networks are simply affiliate networks that pay per action (or acquisition). Just want to make sure that people don’t think CPA by itself is scam — it’s how people are marketing those CPA offers that is unethical.
I would also watch what you focus on. When too many people start yelling scam it effects the whole industry whether you like it or not. Like attracts like and fighting against and bringing attention to something will actually increase its power…
With that being said…I wouldn’t worry…what goes around, comes around…
October 21st, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Harlan
I see that you are new in this world.
What is best, ethics or afraid of punishment.
We all know the wright answer.
Education.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I totally agree with Hamant, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Let’s just hope the FTC gets rid of all the junk out there. Thanks Harlan for another eye opening video. I see this crap every day and it’s so sad that people are buying into it. Regular people surfing the net for something to help them have no clue. Thanks again Harlan
October 21st, 2009 at 8:34 pm
“Bravo Harlan”
You might want to think about hiring a full time bodyguard! I am sure you are going to piss off a lot of
marketers who do these type of promotions. I have seen tons of these ” CRAP ” promotions from my Advertisers and was asked why I don’t promote them—-DUH—– I will only say that I have never been screwed by signing up for one of these offers as I can honestly say that you need to read the
” TERMS AND CONDITIONS”
I did try the ACIA weight loss, and I picked it up at SAMS Club. I was so curious about the product seeing so much of it on the internet and my Affiliate CO’S, so I gave it a whirl——–OH, and I paid $19.95 for 2 boxes……..Now everyone hear this—-I didn’t lose a single #@*&@ pound……. I am not fat or overweight but I figured that taking this stuff twice a day I would have to lose something-right?
SCAM-SCAM-SCAM-SCAM-SCAM and more SCAMMMMMMMMMM
P.S. I am calling Sandra tomorrow—I like your style
Barry
Thanks Harlan for exposing these scumbags and I think its time to go Viral with this stuff…….
October 21st, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Do you consider new FDA approved cancer treatments a scam? Do you dare to go after the FDA that approves poisons that often more than not don’t cure cancer patients?
Is a juicy hamburger made of bones and skin of animals fed with bones and skin of other animals a scam?
Where you draw the line?
Kamau talks about Oprah and Dr. Alfano talks asks about going after the “cancer cures” scam.
I remember Oprah’s audience clapping when another billion was donated to cancer research. In the colon cleanse scam, you hesitate to say whether it really works or not. Yet the Oprah audience is applauding that yet another billion dollars is siphoned away into a research that really doesn’t work.
People make billions selling food that makes you obese and weakens your immune system, do you dare to go after those Dr. Harlan?
Of course I hate it when I get ripped of, but we loose focus about our well being. Because at the end of the day: if I loose a few bucks, I can learn and make a few new bucks. However, if I loose my health, I die and no money in the world can buy my life back.
Health is more important than wealth, although I know you will only agree once you or your loved ones get really sick or die for that matter.
Peace,
Stef
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 am
Hi Harland,
Another one of the thousands.
I agree with a comment made by Kyle above.
The flogs are outrageous. But the thing Kyle said and we must
remember is that CPA Networks and CPA Marketing is not a bad
thing In itself. Its the methods these Floggers are using to
advertise that is not acceptable.
I love CPA. But will never use deceitful methods like a flog
to attract visitors.
A lot of the pics come from Stock Photo and other sites
that sell pics. You can get any pics you want from those sites.
That’s mainly the method they use. married Couple pics etc.
The guy alone and the girl alone or together or with kids if
a family look is needed for their Flogging.
I think Stef got offended. Its nothing personal against
the Health care system or anything political Stef.
Its simply Harland showing us the methods these Floggers
(Or wankers as i like to call em) LOL, are using to drive
traffic to their sites.
Like this one:
http://exfatkid.info/uk/?t202id=42551&t202kw=adb
Another huge scam Harland. When I go to the site it says
he lives in Scarborough Ontario Canada. I’m sure it changes
for you when you visit and “Kevin” is from where you live.
LOL.
Some products do actually work.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 am
Hi Harlan,
I found one of the Acai berry ads for anti aging.
I recieved a free 14 day trial and after using it I found
that it did nothing that a normal moisturizer does.
I tried canceling before the 14 day trial and no one would answer the 800 number.
I tried all times of the day and finally after trying over and over someone actually answered.
Luckily I was able to cancel. I am sure they rely on people just giving up.
These people are just the scum of the earth.
Again Thank you for exposing them
Nancy
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 am
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October 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 am
These are exactly the blogs I referred to in my post yesterday. It would come up “Jenny of Wilmington, DE” when I was surfing from my parents’ house in DE. It was so obviously a scam to me, but that just shows how savvy I’ve become. Most people wouldn’t know the difference.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 am
Hi there Harlan,
Or should I call you “Scam Buster” or “Scam Hunter”
Loving your work
I think what you are doing is awesome
Regards
Jonathan Lake
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:50 am
Dear Harlan:
Either:
1). You feel that people reading this site are lacking the natural energy of “water finding its own level” and/or integrity to immediately and without direction, sense that these are obvious scams:
AND/OR:
2). You want to be heralded as the hero that “exposes” these obvious “National Enquirer gone Internet” scams to try and enlighten anyone that lacks #1.
Because, these are so obviously scams that I can’t believe that you feel the need to prove that they are…
So let me guess. At one time, you were an individual that conducted business in a manner similar to those that you are “exposing”…
Sort of a conscience release? Sort of?
A.M.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 am
Well, well, well, finally a true Marketing Expert with some big Kahunas! Since you are on a roll, I’ve got another just as big, if not bigger scam that has been going on since June 30th. If you send a blank email to: free@43yrs.com and then go to the ARCHIVES you find the truth behind The Streamline Funnel System. They shut down our forum sfsrevealed.ning.com about 3 weeks ago. Nobody wants to believe what’s really going on. The ones that do believe it, look the other way like cowards.
The attitude is that people should know better than to believe things that sound too good to be true. It’s their fault they are all greedy and want to get paid for doing nothing. That’s too simplistic to be sound reasoning because they didn’t see the sales pitch. Everyone was sold on this: Uses WEB 3.0 Technology and Paul Birdsall’s sincere claims that he is the WEB 3.0 founder of this new Software that took a year to develop at a cost of $92K. He claims that he will deliver 10,000 double opt-in leads for the monthly fee $39.95 automatically billed. For $370.00 he will sell you 40,000 double opt-in leads.
Then in one of the Videos he claims the programmers are fixing errors and he doesn’t know anything because he’s not a programmer. Huh? I thought he developed that Web 3.0 software? Funny how the truth always comes out. You and I both know there is no such thing as “Web 3.0″ so how on earth can he be the founder?
How are people supposed to know that simply refers to the stage the Semantic Web began about 2 years ago. Each stage lasts about 10 years – that’s where Web 2.0 comes from. Nobody had a name for the first stage! What you see now is the term SMART being used more — programmers and developers hate the Web 3.0 reference. Unless you’re a programmer, who would know that?
That’s not even the worst part of the scam… as if that’s not bad enough. There is no software but let’s just say, they did produce leads for their members. They claim they did but the leads came from Shaklee lists and the other top producers lists, not from any software or outside source. The only NEW leads came from their members efforts during pre-launch. Do you know how many people Jane Marke gets signed up for every program she promotes? Thousands according to all the leader boards.
Around 30,000+ members promoted their link like crazy thinking this was going to change the whole industry….those leads were sent in through their affiliate link — never to be seen again. Their leads were scraped clean and put into the “rotator” and sent out on behalf of all the members who were still waiting 6 weeks later for their 10,000 leads they had paid for — with another 10,000 coming up to pay for again.
It gets worse…. The members whose leads were now orphaned were now being emailed to with a rotator link to click on this time…they already requested more information through a members link….so here it comes back but this time with a rotator link that DOES NOT EVEN INCLUDE THE MEMBER’S LINK in the rotator. The member who was responsible for that lead being there in the first place is so Sxxx Out Of Luck!
Elderly retired people and newbies are their target market… Paul Birdsall’s Shaklee downline were told to cancel their 39.95 Partners in Profit program and funneled them into his Streamline Funnel System for the same 39.95. About a month later all the Streamline Funnel Members including the former Shaklee members are not being funneled back into a $299.00 Shaklee program that must be joined so they can take advantage of their massive powerline the members think they will profit from “next month”.
They see no new members or leads but they see that 12,000+ “downline” in their back office. When they found out I had tickets to their Millionaire Summit at The Venetian in Las Vegas on September 25th, they refunded my tickets and told me I was banned and threatened me with a lawsuit. If I showed up they would have security escort me out. Gee, I wonder why.
Just because I posted all their rotators to clearly show the fraud….nobody understood how to read the code I guess. The rotator did have about 10 member id’s rotating but they were all Paul Birdsall and his associate members at the top plus a few members they wanted to keep happy so they some positive results to combat the truth that was being told all over the internet.
If you email free@43yrs.com you’ll find the members there who, along with myself tried to warn everyone and stop this scam from continuing but we were labeled negative people who just make that stuff up because we can’t succeed at any program we try. Well, I guess they never took a look at my profile on Twitter. I’m thriftgirl62 and yes, that’s me, my mom, my sister, my car and my big red boat.
I didn’t lose any money on that scam…so why did I make it my pet project? Because I could and for the outrage they caused by targeting the elderly and retired great grandparents. That is the real reason I wanted them stopped. That 35-year old poster boy for useless people will be taken care of by the laws of the universe, the justice nobody can escape. The justice that Harlan can explain better than I can. So there you have it, another scam that won’t quit.
Can you help? The people who were members of the sfsrevealed forum would be grateful if they were contacted to get their personal experience with Streamline Funnel System and Paul Birdsall who is no stranger to scams. This isn’t the first, but I hope it will be the last. If he’s not stopped, he’s just going to try and hide the rotators better and change his re-directs so they aren’t so easily uncovered.
He was so sloppy at covering up this latest fraud, it’s obvious he’s gotten away with it for so long, he figured nobody would ever check. He figured wrong. Now, Harlan I have run the course and hereby hand the baton over to you — take it to the finish line!!! Please do!!
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
Great job in exposing these low lifes and scum bags they mess it up for the people who do sell legitemate stuff . W ell keet up the good works
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Hi Lyndon Irvine,
I am fine with Harlan sharing scams,
I would be even more happy if he or anybody else went after the bigger fish making 7 figures or more with an unnoticed scam like:
“Eat our delicious fast food that saves you time”…
Worse than a scam, there isn’t even little text that tells you that fast food makes you obese and obesity is a killer. Not to mention that you have no clue what you are eating anyway.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Harlan,
Darn it. I can’t watch videos from my computer at my day job, but I read enough posts I think to figure out the jist of the message. In regards to Leah’s comments on the rotator thingy, I think Stone Evans at the PIPS site is doing the same thing. I just don’t know how to expose this. This is especially prevalent at the TrafficSwarm site. Either he is stealing all the people signing up through the rotator, or he has an abundance of affiliate sites himself. Out of about 15 links I tried to sign up to, only 1 was a real person besides Stone himself.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:47 pm
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