It's like winning the lottery - only in reverse!
“Chris D.” of SelfProfitsMadeEasy excitedly proclaims on the SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com website: “…It’s like winning the lottery. Now I know I can do it. Thank you so much!”
Now the phrase “It’s like winning the lottery” could be interpreted in a couple different ways. It could mean:
a) He feels so lucky to have found SelfProfitsMadeEasy that he feels like “he’s won the lottery”
OR it could mean:
b) The chances of possibly succeeding with SelfProfitsMadeEasy are so astronomically low that if someone DOES possibly succeed with it it would be “like winning the lottery”.
Since Chris D. also goes by Stock Photo number 000006832151 at iStockPhoto (click here to verify) I’m betting on choice “b”: “The chances of possibly succeed with SelfProfitsMadeEasy are so astronomically low that if someone DOES possibly succeed with it it would be ‘like winning the lottery.”
The first thing I noticed about SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com was the Google Fortune logo that was at the top of the first page. So either this is the same company that ran Google Fortune or it’s an entirely different company and the copied the Google Fortune page and modified it.
One things for certain though – SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com promotes the following two sites:
- Network Agenda (NetWorkAgenda.com) &
- Grant Members Site (GrantMemberSite.com)
The reason why that’s important is because it appears that both sites are or were associated with a company called Raven Media Inc., a company for which the BBB issued the following two reports:
“BBB REPORT #1
Raven Media aka Grant Funding Solutions, Grant Search Assistance, Grant Writer Professional, BSM, SBA Express and www.networkagenda.com
2620 S. Maryland Pkwy. #859A
Las Vegas, NV 89171
Lara Clemens, Administrative Assistant
(866) 370-7270
This company has an unsatisfactory record due to unanswered complaints and a pattern of complaints due to a failure to eliminate the underlying cause of consumer dissatisfaction. As of 3/27/2008, the BBB has been UNABLE to confirm this company has a valid local business license for the locale in which they operate.”
“BBB REPORT #2
Grant Master CD
13 Summit Square Center
Langhorne, PA 19047
(866) 370-7270
Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to unanswered complaint(s).
TIPS
If you have received this deceptive call from RavenMedia, Inc. and have confirmed personal information with them, but did not agree to charges, we suggest that you check with your merchant card service ASAP about a bogus charge that may be placed on your card and then dispute it ASAP. If you have had dealings with this group resulting in unauthorized charges to your account/credit cards, we strongly suggest that you file formal complaints with your BBB (www.bbb.org), state Attorney General’s Office, as well as the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov)”
Click here for the full BBB report on Raven Media, Inc.
What stands out in report #2 is that the BBB is indicating that people were complaining about unauthorized charges. And taking a look at the SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com order page I noticed that the disclosure of the monthly charges were way at the bottom of the SelfProfitsMadeEasy order page quite far below the order box.
Strange GoDaddy Security Certificate for SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com
SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com uses SafeTrialOffers.com validation certificate
I also was a bit confused by the Godaddy Security Certificate on SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com.
Anyhow…
That made me start to wonder if Search4Profit, LLC actually was essentially the same company as Raven Media, Inc.
I took a look at various relationships between domains, phone numbers, IPs, name servers, etc. but didn’t really find anything definitive.
I did notice that both SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com and SafeTrialOffers.com were both hosted by the same name servers –
- ns2.crushllc.com and
- ns3.crushllc.com
I also noticed that the phone number in the following paragraph of the SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com privacy policy:
“If you do not wish us to use personal information about you to promote or sell our products and services or to sell, transer or otherwise provide personal information about you to third parties, please inform us by contacting customer service at 1-877-350-8480 and we will certainly honor your request.”
A quick search on the phone number revealed that the same number was used to handle customer service for ExtremeAcaiBerry.com – although it could just be two different companies using the same call center.
Since ExtremeAcaiBerry.com also used the same nameservers as SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com and SafeTrialOffers.com ( ns2.crushllc.com and ns3.crushllc.com) I decided to see if there were any more datapoints that might be useful to see if there was a way to determine if Raven Media, Inc. and Search4Profit, LLC.
While nothing turned up to support that idea, what did turn up was a bit more interesting.
I looked at one of the early WhoIs records and found the following information:
“Domain Name: EXTREMEACAIBERRY.COM
Created on: 07-Jul-08
Expires on: 07-Jul-10
Last Updated on: 09-Jul-08
Administrative Contact:
Brailow, Jason [email protected]
Creative Edge Marketing
# 231
5348 Vegas Drive
Las Vegas, Nevada 89108
United States
(801) 633-9861 Fax –”
And doing a search on the email address listed in the whois record turned up some very interesting information
Particulary this FTC case against Jason Brailow and JAB ventures.
I suppose it goes without saying that with the list of negative factors piling up rapidly against SelfProfitsMadeEasy.com that it looks like a good idea to avoid it.
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Some additional information on companies in this thread.
1. Grant Research assistance customer service as of 2006 was handled by iworks.com
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Corrupt-Companies/Grant-Search-Assista/grant-search-assistant-gsa-c5ef6.htm
2. Iworks.com, a Utah company, seems to handle a number of dubious products: http://iworks.com/products.html
3. Iworks Inc has been delisted as a Utah company since 2003, you will have to type in the search again.
https://secure.utah.gov/bes/action/searchresults
4. Jason Brailow, on the other hand, has 2 other Utah companies, Crush LLC, http://advertising.jasonbrailow.com/crush-llc.html, and Crush Direct, http://www.crushllc.com/new/publishers.php
5. The Brailow companies all seem to promising online lead generation. And the Nevada corporation is not registered in Nevada.
6. Be nice to have a useable database to track all these idiots.
Thanks for the additional data, Michael
I started using the free version of Maltego here:
http://www.paterva.com/web4/index.php/maltego but haven’t paid the $320 to upgrade to the full version yet.
But now that I’m starting to learn how to operate it better it looks like it will definitely be worth it.
I THINK it will do what you’re talking about, although I’m not sure how big the network diagrams can get or whether or not you can connect separate network diagrams.
The BIG downside to the free version is you can’t save anything, but as I’m learning to use it better it’s becoming obvious that it’s easily worth the $320 upgrade.
GoogleFortune looks VERY IFFY. Red Flags. I started reading their ad, and I noticed 2 spelling mistakes right off the bat. I told my husband about that, and he had just heard on the radio to be wary of websites/businesses with misspellings/poor grammar, etc. I kept reading and found many more mistakes, including the word “professional”. They don’t sound very professional. I also thought that this was an official Google business, but reading the fine print, it says, “Google does not support, endorse, and is no way affiliated with Search 4 Profit, LLC”. That was enough to keep me away.
Seems like there quite a FEW reasons to stay away from this one Helen.
Thanks for pointing out the additional info.
Thanks for the information!…I will not be filling out any forms.
hola estoy asustada ya que buscando formas de ayudar en mi casa buscaba trabajos dede casa y encontre la pag. de dorothea o algo asi, donde hablaba de esto de google fortne , salia algo de un kit a $1.89 o algo asi….por ser bajo el valor lo pedi… solo hehecho eso pero con esto de las estafas y eso tengo miedo de que me cargen otras cosas que no hepedido o algo parecido… alguien me puede orientar por favor
Since I don’t speak Spanish I ran this through Google Translate. Here’s what that says:
“hello I’m scared as seeking ways of helping at home looking for work dede home to find the pag. Dorothea or something, where he spoke about this in google Fortner, left something of a kit for $ 1.89 or something …. because they lower the value the pedi … hehecho only that but with that of the scams and that I’m afraid that I load other things not hepedido or something … someone can guide me please”
“hello I’m scared as seeking ways of helping at home looking for work dede home to find the pag. Dorothea or something, where he spoke about this in google Fortner, left something of a kit for $ 1.89 or something …. because they lower the value the pedi … hehecho only that but with that of the scams and that I’m afraid that I load other things not hepedido or something … someone can guide me please”
thank you Paul.
@patricia:
She is asking for more information. I have a good translator on my site that she can use to read about similar scams, not the exact same name but the same scam in a different package.
Hola Patrica,
Como estas? Quieres mas informacion? Google Futune es un fraude y es el mismo que en todo Google fraudes o fraudes de Google con nombres similarios. Quieres aprendar mas informacion que fraudes de Google en espanol con translascion puede visitar me sitio, por favor.
@patricia: El sitio, http://www.raief.com, esta es mio y mi hermanos.
I just noticed that I misspelled a few words. My Spanish is rusty. I have not used it for a few years.
@gregw: Thanks, Greg.
Can you tell her that http://www.raief.com/ is your site in case she is still reading this?
@Paul (Founder, WorkAtHomeTruth): Sure thing.