The fake news pages with newspaper like titles report on individuals earning $25 for each posting they make for Google. (even in the golden age of internet money making it was never that easy) To get started one just has to “pay $1.97 or $2.95 for a home worker starter kit”. This low figure gets people to more readily give up their credit card number, only to find they have been billed a $50 to $79.90 monthly membership fee, for which they may get a DVD containing malevolent viruses or information that can be found at no cost on the web.  These scammers have made millions from people who were already facing hard times.  The fine print on the bottom of the sales page the fake news leads to states in part:

Results may vary.  This offer is not endorsed or sponsored by Google or any news organization shown herein.

This scheme employ the standard scam tactics: unrealistic earning claims, fake endorsements, tailored for the readers geographical local,  fake “seen on” news channel references, combined with an audacious mis-representation of Google’s business practices.

The large number of separate entities running slight variations of this scam has made it difficult fo class action lawsuits,  the FTC, or Google to stop. Usually a number of complaints about deceptive billing practices can result in the site’s Merchant Account, ad their ability to process credit cards canceled. Google is going after Pacific WebWorks, a card processing site along with 50 unspecified suspects.

It’s disheartening to see the most powerful company on the web, withe the directive: Do No Evil,  has been unable to stop this abuse of their name and reputation from continuing for more than 3 months.

Google’s blog is warning customers to be wary of the following work-from-home for Google programs with the names: Google Adwork, Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Cash, Earn Google Cash Kit, Google Fortune, Google Marketing Kit, Google Profits, The Home Business Kit for Google, Google StartUp Kit, and Google Works.

Anyone can do business with Google starting with a $5 Adwords account start-up fee, but not as an employee, but as promoter buying advertising space on Google.  the payoff (if any) is typically a moderate percentage profit over the ad cost. The majority of new Adwords buyers loose money at first in this increasingly competitive arena.

A typical fake Work For Google news page

Dateline’s work at home scam investigation aired in early April, (the full program available online), examines more cases of fake jobs obtained over the internet from what appeared to be major legitimate companies, like like Staples, Compac Computers and Goldman Sachs.  One of an endless various scams perpetrated by Nigerians that all capitalize on banks adding to the depositor’s account, prior to the funds from the counterfeit checks “clearing” .  Never wire a “surplus” or “fee” payment via Western Union until the check’s funds have transferred. (I would never wire money to strangers, under any circumstances)

For more info, check out the FTCs guide: Giving the Bounce to Counterfeit Check Scams

The Dateline program revealed a more sophisticated addition to the scam, hiring “payroll clerks”, individuals who use standard check creation software to unknowingly produce counterfeit checks, using bank account numbers provided by the scammers, one woman had sent out hundreds of checks totaling over $750,000 before realizing she was a puppet.

Fraud is said to be one of the top 5 sources of income in Nigeria, Dateline played an excerpt from a popular song:  I go chop your dollar

“Oyinbo man I go chop your dollar,
I go take your money and disappear
419 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner”

On Friday, March 6th, 20/20 reported on the runaway fraud in the  Work At Home industry,  with a growing number of “Victims” supplied by the economic downturn.  One expert reports “54 out of 55 work at home offerings are scams“.

Interviews included the victim of an unsophisticated envelop stuffing offer with a $37.94 setup price, that simple takes the money without delivering anything, the operator of one of these scams was shown being arrested.  [The lesson learned, if it sounds too good to be true, like earning $12 per envelope stuffed, it's probably not true.]

Another classic case profiled involved a more sophisticated, secret shopper scam.  The participant is sent a check for $3990 with the instructions to deposit it, then immediately go to Walmart to evaluate their moneygram service by sending $3500 back to the secret shopper service, keeping the $490 balance as payment. By the time the check is discovered to be counterfeit, the victim is out $3500, with a ruined credit rating. [ Always wait for funds transfer to be completed before drawing from a questionable check, no mstter how official it looks, clearing alone is not a gurantee the check will be good.  The same bad check scheme is used by endless scams, including the classic Nigerian prince email scam]

The 3rd scam detailed was a rebate processing service bait and switch scheme, in which the rebate actually applies only to sales of impossible to market products.