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Just this morning my wife received an e-mail from one of my colleagues – who is not aware of having sent it – telling her about a webinar on how to make money from your home. My wife thought it was a little odd that my colleague would send such an e-mail, and she told me about it. The whole thing came with a foul stench, especially since I had just written an entry in my blog regarding the Google Profit Library, a current nationwide scam trying to lure web site owners (or owners-to-be) into the impression they can make big money through their web site. The usual slang is “Kelly Richards from Greenfield, MA earns $5000/month from the comfort of her home,” or something similar.

As I said, the whole thing is a scam. The scammers illegally use the good reputation (and the logo) of a company like Google, who, apparently is not aware of the scheme. The Google Profit Library is not related (in any shape or form) to the search engine giant.

Let’s substantiate my claim that this is a scam:

First, we found that my colleague’s e-mail account has been compromised. Needless to say, but she didn’t send the e-mail. I do receive Viagra-related e-mails from her e-mail account on a regular basis.

Secondly, look at the URL that was forwarded to my wife: http://workfromhomenews.info/newest/index.htm.

The page that pops up (filling out the entire screen) gives you the impression that it is part of “NEWS 6 Boston”, which, I believe, does not exist (Your result may differ, since they probably change the page according to your IP address). On top of the page it shows the usual hyperlinks you would expect from a news channel, such as Weather, Finance, Traffic, etc. Sure enough, each of these links leads to one and the same page trying to lure the unsuspecting viewer into their scam.

Let’s have a look at an excerpt of their terms and conditions:

“Subscriber agrees to pay today the shipping and handling fee of $1.97 to begin subscriber’s trial membership. After your 7 day trial you will be charged $47.50 for the program. Subscriber has seven (7) days from the date of enrollment to cancel Trial membership by calling our customer care department at 1-877-883-2431 to cancel their trial subscription and to be issued an authorization number for return of the Search Profits disc. Subscriber must clearly write the authorization number on the outside of the package and return the CD to the address given by the customer care department within fifteen (15) days from the date of enrollment or does not promptly return the disc with authorization number according to the terms above, Subscriber agrees to pay a one time fee of $99.00, which will be billed on Day thirty-eight (38) from the date of enrollment. In addition, the subscriber will be provided access to an online Resource Center which will bill at $47.50 day sixty-eight (68) from the date of enrollment and we will re-bill every thirty (30) days at $47.50 per month until cancelled by calling 1-877-883-2431.”

My guess is that the majority of subscribers will miss the deadlines as indicated , and they will charge your credit card forever if you let them, because what can you do when nobody picks up the phone? Note, that the terms do not include a cancelation through their web site a feature that any serious Internet business would provide.

Do you have any more details? I would like to hear from you. Please leave a response to this blog entry.

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