Craig Davidson - A.K.A. as IStockPhoto 7068613

Recently I was asked to take a look at a product called Certified Cash Club – a product allegedly created by Craig Davidson (also known as IStockPhoto photo 7068613).

Certified Cash Club makes the bizarre, yet seemingly excited proclamation that it has been seen on Twitter, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Squidoo…all of which are sites just about anyone could load information up to. In other word, making a claim like that at the top of a sales page is tantamount to saying either "I have no idea what I'm talking about" or "I hope you are too stupid to realize that none of this means anything at all".

Of course CertifiedCashClub also seems very excited about "being seen" on FaceBook, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. As usual "HOW" they were seen isn't explained. Did they possibly BUY ADVERTISING on those sites to "Be Seen"?

Of interest is the fact that they didn't list "Google" in the "As Seen On" logo at the top. I mean, I just searched on Google and I "saw" CertifiedCashClub.com "on Google"…I also "saw" a picture of an Astronaut "on Google":

I "see" Certified Cash Club "on Google"...I "see" a picture of an astronaut "on Google"....

Thomas Bennett - a.k.a. iStockPhoto 4253221 loves all things certified

Thomas Bennett has ventured outside his comfort zone as a stock photo on the stock photo site iStockPhoto and worked his way up as a collector of all things certified.

Here he sits with his certified family in front of his certified home posing for a certified photographer. The youngest one is technically not certified yet, but she does have a certified binky (pacifier).

Michael Thompson - a.k.a. iStockPhoto 7256206 giving his "I got me some certified cash" look

Michael Thompson, also a regular of stock photo site iStockPhoto recently revealed that his glasses are fake and that he maintains his dazzling white pearly teeth by eating certified organic fruits and vegetables.

Oddly, right above the two testimonials that have images that can be found on iStockPhoto is the statement:

"Now I do know that every other formula, system, method, etc. out there only tells you how to generate money using only one not too useful tactic. WELL, YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO AND RIPPED OFF."

What is the Certified Cash Club refund rate?

Also, another fact that seems to be in dispute is their refund rate. For example, according to the image below, Certified Cash Club claims that their refund rate is 4%, but CBEngine.com claims the refund rate on Certified Cash Club is 33.21%.

So, let's review what we have so far:

We have a photo of Craig Davidson, the alleged founder of CertifiedCashClub sitting on the stock photo site iStockPhoto.

We have a photo of Thomas Bennett and his family – the first person giving a testimonial for CertifiedCashClub.com - on the stock photo site iStockPhoto.

We have a photo of Michael Thompson – the second person giving a testimonial for CertifiedCashClub.com – on the stock photo site iStockPhoto.

We have CertifiedCashClub claiming that their refund rate is 4% and CBEngine.com claiming that the refund rate on Certified Cash Club is 33.21%.

And we have a picture of an astronaut on the moon to demonstrate that the words "as seen on" can't be properly interpreted without proper context.

What should one believe about Certified Cash Club's claim of their average member's earnings?

Certified Cash Club's Income Claim

I noticed that Certified Cash Club's optin form includes the statement "MEMBERS EARNING AN AVERAGE OF $253.91 EVERY SINGLE DAY". If I am interpreting that claim correctly it would mean that they are claiming that the average member earns $92,677.15 per year.

Should you believe this claim? That's up to you. I am merely presenting my observations of various elements of the sales page that cause me some concern. They should NOT be construed as absolute proof of anything, but merely indicators that you may want to include in your decision making process.

What would I do personally if I were considering a product like Certified Cash Club? I'd pass on the product. There are simply too many indicators that cause concern for me.

And obviously the claims on KevinBlogSite have to be real right? After all the site KevinBlogSite.org is promoting – SimplePayChecks.com has proclaimed that it is "Trusted on CNN!" I mean – obviously that has to be true right? People can't just make up stuff like this and publish it on the web can they? Can they?

I mean sure there have been thousands of other FAKE sites that promise us that we can make $5,000 posting links on Google, but this one is different right? After all, Kevin tells us that he spent "almost a year trying to find a real, legitimate way to work at home… kept getting scammed…(and in) March I finally found the only legitimate, scam-free way to work from home. I signed up and made $1541.62 my first week!"

Yeh, I know that Michael Brown wrote this article about the Make Money Posting Links on Google Scam, but surely someone that takes out a FULL-PAGE ad in Small Business Opportunities Magazine (which apparently costs $10,130.00 for a full-page 2-color ad)…surely they wouldn't spend that type of money to tell a story that they are completely making up, would they? I mean…they could get in trouble! Uh oh.

Anyhow, I was so excited about KevinBlogSite that I even made a video about it:

Anyone know where I can buy a giant yellow envelope?

(More to come…)

Related pages:

• Make Money Posting a Link on Google Scam
• KevinsMoneyTree.org and SanDiego-Tribune-News.com
• Does KevinBlogSite.org really work?

"SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF., SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 – Trademarkia (www.trademarkia.com), the fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to create a brand, today previews its free service at TechCrunch50. Trademarkia was selected to demonstrate its product in TechCrunch50 – a showcase of the world's hottest new startups – from among more than 1,000 applicants in 26 different countries.

Where Trademarkia fits
Trademarkia is for busy people who want an effortless way to create a business name from the millions of trademarks filed at the United States Trademark Office that have now gone abandoned; receive email and SMS reminders and alerts on counterfeit brands; and find savings worth an average of $1,000 within minutes of use. People have really had only two ways to create a new brand in the past: come up with it on their own and hire a consultant. 6 million businesses in the U.S. need to create brands for their business, products, and services each year. Until Trademarkia, the option of creating a business name from abandoned names did not exist anywhere on the web because there was no way to find such names. Even when a good name for a brand was identified, verification of availability of a particular brand name required the assistance of expensive attorneys. What would the world be like if we couldn't "Google" information we did not already know? Such a world may have been our fate, had the prior holders of that mark not abandoned their ownership of it. Until Trademarkia, once fledging startups such as Google, Twitter, and Yelp (all previously owned brands) had to rely on expensive attorneys to find out whether previously expired brands were in fact available for purchase.

Startup entrepreneur and intellectual property attorney Raj Abhyanker considered these things when creating Trademarkia. "Trademarkia is essentially creating a market in which abandoned business names can be recycled similar to the now $1 billion+ expired domain industry." Trademarkia exposes the millions of historical business names, slogans and logos since the year 1870 that have now gone abandoned and makes them available for re-registration."

• Click here to read the full TradeMarkia press release
• Click here to try the TradeMarkia search engine

These are keyword utilities primarily used to manipulate, expand, or analyze keyword lists that have been generated from keyword research tools.

Google Suggest:
http://labs.google.com/suggest/
Good for verifying correct spelling or additional keyword suggestions.

Keyword List Dedupers:
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-optimizer
Paste in your list of key terms and this tool will remove any duplicate entries. It will also re-order the list alphabetically

Duplicate Keyword Remover Tool
http://www.servermind.com/keyword-cleanup.php

Keyword List Generators:
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-list
Allows you to generate a large number of keyword phrases based on permutations of keywords you enter.

3 Keyword Combination Tools from Ranks.nl
http://www.ranks.nl/tools/keyword_combinations.html
These tools go beyond the typical linkers & permutators, by allowing the user to specify additional results criteria like:

1) Don't include phrases starting with a certain keyword.
2) Don't change the order of certain keywords (e.g. "on line")
3) For two word combinations generated, give both the
AB and BA results.

Keyword Mixer
http://www.keywordmixer.com
The "Mixer" portion of this tool creates common domain name variations which can be useful to use as keywords in PPC -or as tags in web platforms that allow tags.

Jumbo Keyword
http://www.jumbokeyword.com
"JUMBO Keyword is a free web-based Google AdWords tool offering 70+ 1-click Google AdWords, keywords and text editing functions to help you create, manage and edit hundreds, even thousands, of AdWords keywords quickly and easily. There's even an ad editor to help you create ads for your Google AdWords campaigns." (description from the site)

Keyword List Sorter – useful for many other types of
sorting as well:
http://www.sortmylist.com

Local Keyword Generator:
http://www.5minutesite.com/local_keywords.php

Typo Generators:
http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/key…ypo-generator/

Frank Kern got it right:

"And while I’m sure these fake blogs played a major role in the FTC ruling, all those people telling you that this is all about blogs …"

"“…The most significant change to the revised guides is the deletion of the “safe harbor” that has long allowed advertisers to use testimonials who reported specific successful experiences with an advertised product or service as long as the advertiser included a disclaimer such as “Results not typical.” Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

ShoeMoney got it partially right and partially wrong (this was pointed out by Michael Webster of Bizop.ca here). Here's the wrong part:

"Obviously this is totally targeted at the fake news and blog websites. I think we will see heavy enforcement in these areas from these new rules."

I think people steeped in the study and sometimes cultish atmosphere of direct marketing – (including myself in the past) – sometimes have a hard time understanding the value of something like doing away with "safe harbor" in the guidelines.

I recently threw up a parody site called How I Made 10 Billion Dollars a Month Posting a Link on Google here which really drove home an important point the more I thought about the site which includes testimonials such as:

"Saw this blog a few months back. Filled out the online form last night and today I woke up and there was a check for $3,200 in my mailbox. I haven’t even received any of the kits yet!"

That may seem hilarious to a direct marketing copywriter or an internet marketer, but the problem is the following promises don't seem hilarious to many of the same people (these aren't all testimonials, but they are all pulled from current sales letters):

• "*Shocking* Proven 'done-for-you' money maker generates up to $35,867 in the first 14 days without any continued effort or time needed"
• "LIVE PROOF: $18,291.75 Effortless Income From ONE Program I Promote"
• "Imagine Seeing Cash In Minutes From Now"

I lived in that mindset for years until around 2005 when I started talking more directly to people who struggling to make sense of all the various internet marketing and telecommuting products being sold online.

Maybe the problem is that for many of us who started with things like Google Adwords in the very early days it was incredibly easy to make money online. I still remember how easy it was to upload hundreds of thousands of keywords to Adwords in the early days and pay 5 cents/click (you can't get away with uploading that many keywords these days without special permission and you definitely will NOT pay 5 cents per click by doing that anymore).

I gradually moved onto trying to impart the idea to people that they needed to think of looking at systems, techniques, and plans as things that might INCREASE or DECREASE their ODDS of success. Obviously there are some aspects of business that can be controlled more than others, but no matter what there will always be elements that are outside your control. That's not an easy concept to impart to a person and get them to hear and appreciate unless they've already had experience using systems in some area of their life where they have had the opportunity to deal with the law of large numbers.

Good poker players and backgammon players deal with this phenomenon all the time and I personally had the rather unusual "fortune" to have hustled backgammon in my teen years in some rather questionable areas of town – significant not only because I was directly experiencing the law of large numbers, but because I was experiencing them in sometimes unusual and stressful circumstances (including having a gun pulled on me, a beer glass smashed on the table I was playing at, and at least one person who tried to run out without paying who was chased down by friends and brought back to pay up).

Now, I'm certainly NOT encouraging gambling, but it does seem strange to me that poker has become such a huge phenomenon  (in the U.S. at least) and yet people seem to be unable or unwilling to make the connection between what it takes to succeed in a game such as that and apply the same principles to business.

I don't know this particular book, but I stumbled onto it when looking to find articles that might offer similar suggestions:

"The Poker MBA: Winning in Business No Matter What Cards You're Dealt" (part of Howard Rothman's Amazon Editorial review is excerpted below):

"Thanks to the song and movie by Kenny "The Gambler" Rogers, most of us now understand that "you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em." This axiom can be applied around a conference table as well as a card table. In The Poker MBA, Jeffrey Gitomer and Greg Dinkin take this concept to the extreme by drawing a world of business advice from the popular pastime. "There is no better training ground for business than a poker game, where your ability to measure risk and make split-second decisions determines whether you cash out a winner," note Dinkin, an MBA-carrying columnist for Card Player magazine, and Gitomer, a writer and sales-and-service consultant."

So I'll close this out for thanking my mom for letting me gamble in my youth. I'll never forget when she said, "well, as long as you're making good money". Of course she didn't know where I was making the money and what kind of places I was hanging out in, but I feel grateful for the opportunity to access a part of my brain during that time that has continued to serve me over the years.

"Felix Rodriguez" - a.k.a. iStock Photo 000006808979

"Felix Rodriguez" – a.k.a. iStockPhoto 000006808979 loves DataMoneyOnline so much that he wants to MARRY it!

Testimonial roundup at DataMoneyOnline

• "Felix Rodriguez" – currently married to DataMoneyOnline.com (happily I presume)
• "Linda Liu" who tells us that she was "ready not to believe"
• "Dorothy Gale" who requested not to be quoted (I guess not even fictitious characters have rights these days, since DataMoneyOnline quoted her anyhow)
• "Alexa Nichols" who asks the quite foreboding question, "Now who’s an idiot, huh?"
• "Livvy Feldman" who threw away her entire career as a web designer after stumbling across the DataMoneyOnline.com website.
• And…"Stu T. James" – his buddies call him "Stu". Actually I don't know what his buddies call him since his name probably isn't "Stu T. James", but if it was "Stu T. James" they'd probably call him "Stu".

Was the "Gene Truman" photo stolen?

I couldn't find the photo of founder "Gene Truman" on any stock photo sites, but the photo itself looks oddly familiar…I think it may be the photo of a member of a well-known marketing forum, but I haven't been able to pinpoint it yet. However, as you'll see later, if that IS the case the most likely explanation is that the photo was stolen.

What about video testimonials at DataMoneyOnline?

I know what you're thinking. Surely those video testimonials at DataMoneyOnline must be real, right? Right?

Video Testimonial Project on Elance

Pay close attention to the Job Description – especially the following part:

"I will give you a script you will have to memorize and speak out on a simple web cam."

NOTE: I have no proof that this is what DataMoneyOnline did, but apparently it is something that is done. Remember I found THREE such projects just quickly searching ONE freelance marketplace.

But fair is fair, right? After all DataMoneyOnline PROMISES not to charge you until you make money according to their Terms (sort of, anyhow):

"DataMoneyOnline.com is a unique program which guarantees that its members will make money within 24 hours of completion of the step-by-step free trial contained within the training program. Our system is designed to track the progress of our members as they complete each step of the training scheme – we will come to know when a User starts to make money using the system. It is only then that we will charge the card details provided by the User at the time of signing up for the free trial. We would like reinforce:

1. The User gives us the authority to charge their card as soon as he/she starts to make money using our program.
2. Submitting his/her cards details at the time of registration for the free trial acts as permission for the above clause.
3. No further permission/intimation will be required before charging the card.
4. We are permitted to charge the card only once.
5. We will not attempt to charge the card any further once the membership fee has been gained.
6. We will discard all personal data related to the card as soon as it has been charged, and will in no manner store it within our systems.

Since the User’s cards are charged only after money has started to be made, we cannot issue a refund once the card has been charged.

The above guarantee is applicable only if the User completes all the steps of the training within 24 hours of logging in to their account. All trials will be settled permanently if the User does not completes the training within 24 hours time frame, irrespective of making money or not."

OK. I know that sounds scary, but really look how easy it is…DataMoneyOnline even includes a 5 minute video RIGHT on their sales page that shows you how to make $1,000s! Here's a screenshot of it:

Just watch this easy 5 minute "Terms of Use Violation" static screenshot!

Hmm. OK. Maybe that wasn't the best example. But anyhow, apparently it's really easy to make thousands of dollars really, really fast.

Not to worry, you can easily resolve any dispute you might have via a quick trip to Kolkata, West Bengal, India according to their privacy policy (umm, why is that section in their privacy policy)? Here you go:

"Governing law

This policy and the use of this Site are governed by Indian law. If a dispute arises under this Policy we agree to first try to resolve it with the help of a mutually agreed-upon mediator in the following location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Any costs and fees other than attorney fees associated with the mediation will be shared equally by each of us.

If it proves impossible to arrive at a mutually satisfactory solution through mediation, we agree to submit the dispute to binding arbitration at the following location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India, under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. Judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitration may be entered in any court with jurisdiction to do so."

I'm booking MY refund-getting flight NOW!

Checking prices on roundtrip flights to Kolkata

 This is a no-brainer. I would merely need to spend $1270.00 to pursue my $197.00 refund. Easy-peasy!

This could be ME pursuing my $197.00 refund!

This all seemed so familiar…

I had a nagging feeling throughout analyzing DataMoneyOnline that a lot of it seemed very familiar. But I checked through the WorkAtHomeTruth site and couldn't find any research I had done on DataMoneyOnline.

However, after a bit more digging I figured out what was going on.

There is another site I reviewed a while back called MakeMoneyStudio (reviewed here) which was loaded with stock photo testimonials.

Taking a look at nameservers, it turns out that both DataMoneyOnline.com and MakeMoneyStudio.com are sharing the following nameservers:

• ns1.datamoneyonline.com
• ns2.datamoneyonline.com

DataMoneyOnline.com name servers

MakeMoneyStudio.com name servers

Is this the work of ongoing marketing menace Vipul Gupta?

About a year ago I recall running across some questionable "Data Entry" sites run by someone allegedly named Vipul Gupta who seemed to be operating out of West Bengal, India.

Sure enough, DataEntryCompany.com not only shares the same name servers as DataMoneyOnline.com and MakeMoneyStudio.com:

DNS info for DataEntryCompany.com

DNS Info for DataEntryCorp.com

AND registrant information for DataEntryCompany.com is:

Domain Name: DATAENTRYCOMPANY.COM

Registrant:
    Eknowledge Marketing
    Vipul Gupta        (vipulkrgupta@gmail.com)
    AE 90, Rabindrapally
    Kestopur
    Kolkata
    West Bengal,700102
    IN

Which looks suspiciously similar to the registrant information for MakeMoneyStudio.com:

Domain Name: MAKEMONEYSTUDIO.COM

Registrant:
    eKnowledge Marketing
    eKnowledge Marketing        (eknowledgemarketing@gmail.com)
    Cj-129, Salt lake
    Kolkata
    null,700091
    IN

Bottom line: Avoid DataMoneyOnline.com

Where to file complaints:

• Federal Trade Commission – FTCComplaintAssistant.gov
• Internet Crime Complaint Center – IC3.gov
• Attorneys General offices of your State and the State out of which the company is operating - Use the NAAG list here
• Better Business Bureau – BBB Complaint Form

Filing disputes with your Credit Card company or Bank:

You can typically find out how to file disputes with your credit card company on the back of your billing statement and you can also read up about filing disputes with your credit card or bank at HelpWithYourBank.gov.

DataMoneyOnline.com takes off after the FTC crackdown

 Final note: Once again we see an extremely questionable site taking off like crazy just after the FTC Operation ShortChange crack down. DataMoneyOnline is shon trending towards 1 MILLION Unique visitors per month.

If you do a lot of data manipulation and need a quick and dirty yet fairly robust tool to do things like trim white spaces, change delimiters that a list is sorted by, remove dupes, sort name and address lists…and most importantly…allow you to instantly write text backwards:

Blue
Green
Red
Yellow

eulB
neerG
deR
wolleY

ʇǝu˙ʌɹǝɥs ǝʞıl sǝʇıs ʇɐ ǝlqɐlıɐʌɐ slooʇ ƃuıʇıɹʍ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ sɐ ǝʌıssǝɹdɯı sɐ ʇou ʎluıɐʇɹǝɔ s,ʇı ɥƃnoɥʇlɐ

As we've seen before the amount of traffic sites like Internet-News-Daily.com continue to get is alarmingly high:   

Internet-News-Daily.com tells the familiar Mary Steadman story which claims that she makes $7,000/month submitting small texts and ads on Google….ah, whatever happened to the good ol' days of just posting "links"?

You may want to take a look at Michael Brown's write up about the to  "Make Money Posting Links on Google Scam" if you aren't sure what I'm talking about in that last remark.

Internet-News-Daily's recommendation of Google Profits

"Kevin M." and family - a.k.a. iStockPhoto 00006556811

If you click through on the Internet-News-Daily Google Biz Kit link you"ll be taken to a page on site called SecureFormNet.com which promotes a program called Google Profits which bizarrely claims to be a trademarked name. I guess their next move will be to claim trademark rights for the Google logo they're using on their site.

Google Profits presents a testimonial from "Kevin M." who claims to "make more money at home watching TV" than (he) was at (his) previous job working 9-5".

As usual Google Profits is using a stock photo for this testimonial. What's a bit strange though is that they don't have the usual weird disclaimer saying that they are using alternate pictures to protect the privacy of the person giving the testimonial.

And of course there are the usual ABC, MSN, CNN, and USAToday logos with no explanation at all as to why they are there.

But probably the funniest thing on the page is the "HURRY, Only 57 Kits Left!" considering that the whole sentence is part of a larger image.

The Google Profits order page contains all too familiar elements:

"Aaron H." performing his duties as a stock photo at IStockPhoto

Of course there is requisite stock photo used for the testimonial on Google Profits' order page, which I just bought from iStockPhoto.

Apparently Google Profits must get tons of refund requests really fast, because the order page states that there are "Only 37 Kits Left!" (again the phrase is part of the image), but when I went back to the original page 3 seconds later there were 57 Kits Left again.

Assuming a 12-hour sales day, that would be 20 refunds per minute x 720 minutes = 14,400 refunds per day!

Anyhow…finishing up the order page we find the terms in tiny white print at the bottom of the page AFTER the large graphic "FREE TRIAL!" arrow which points to the large red "Rush My Kit!" image, which state:

"I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy/Terms and Conditions. By submitting this form, I am ordering the Google Profit™ CD trial for $1.97 shipping and handling, after the 30 day trial I will be charged $99 for the program. I also  agree to the 14 day trial to Google Profit Resource membership for 47.50 per month there after should i choose do not cancel. Charges will appear on credit/debit statements as "GoogCD866-995-9812". For questions, call 1-866-995-9812 M-F, 6am-7pm, PST."

For "some" reason the hyperlink for "Privacy Policy" is in the traditional blue hyperlink convention whereas the Terms and Conditions hyperlink is not. Hmmm. I wonder why they did that?

Hyperlink coloring at the bottom of the Google Profits Order Page. Click for full image.

Even more interesting is the fact that in the actual terms and conditions there is the potential for ANOTHER monthly charge NOT mentioned at the bottom of the page. The last part of "Fees and Pricing" under the Terms and Conditions states:

"You have also been enrolled into a seven (7) day trial to the eBay Money Resource Center. Should you choose not to cancel your eBay Money Resource Center, you will be billed seven dollars and seventy one cents ($7.71) each month for the eBay Money Resource Center. If you wish to cancel your eBay Money Resource Center subscription, please call 1-800-215-1752 to cancel."

How much money is the affiliate running Internet-News-Daily making?

Obviously, I don't know his exact numbers, but my best guess is that a presell like Internet-News-Daily.com would convert this type of "biz kit" offer at between 5% to 10%, but even if you assume a 10% clickthrough rate on the fake news site to the Google Profits site which it promotes then you get the following astonishing number:

(800,000 unique visitors) x (10% clickthrough on Internet-News-Daily) x (5% conversion rate) = 4,000 conversions per month from just one affiliate.

To get a sense of how much companies are paying for leads on these types of offers I took a look at a couple of the affiliate network comparison engines – OfferVault.com and oDigger.com and it appears the payout averages around $30.00 per lead.

If that affiliate is earning $30.00 per conversion, then he or she is bringing in $120,000.00 per month before expenses.

Considering that the affiliate is likely running multiple offers in different markets where flogs are pervasive – i.e. health, diet, anti-aging, teeth-whitening, etc. - it's not unreasonable to conclude that one affiliate could be bringing in nearly a half million dollars per month (before expenses), if not more.

It seems a safe bet that given these types of numbers, flogs promoting questionable negative option offers will be around for a VERY long time.

KevinsMoneyTree.org and Sandiego-Tribune-News. - Unique Visitors per Month per Compete

And no wonder. According to KevinsMoneyTree.org's Kevin Hoeffer seems to have the most amazing way of making money:

"Here's the basics of what I do. Google pays me between $5 and $30 for every web site link that I post. No one needs to buy anything from me or Google in order to get paid. I’ve been getting weekly paychecks working on my laptop at home."

Now, if somehow you've possibly managed to miss the thousands of fake sites like Kevin's that have flooded the internet over the past year, I suggest you read the article here about the Make Money Posting Links on Google Scam.

The AMAZING part is that the fake news site Sandiego-Tribune-News.com KevinsMoneyTree.org uses as "proof" for his system attracted 1.5 MILLION unique visitors AFTER the 7/1/2009 FTC Operation Short Change Scam Crackdown Press Release.

You can see how KevinsMoneyTree.org uses the fake San Diego Tribune News site as "proof" for his recommended SimplePayChecks system in the video below:

It's also interesting to notice how popular KevinsMoneyTree.org and Sandiego-Tribune-News.com are as of today considering the fact that Google started banning advertisers who promoted (potentially) questionable offers using the Google trademark without permission from Google.

I went ahead and clicked through to the SimplePayChecks.com site that KevinsMoneyTree.org and Sandiego-Tribune-News.com were promoting and went through the order process as you can see in the video below:

Obviously the part of the SimplePayChecks.com order process that stands out the most is on the order page where it states "By submitting this form, I agree to the Terms and conditions below." after which you see me scrolling all the way to the BOTTOM of the screen to find the terms and conditions which state:

"By submitting this form, I am activating the MyMoneyPlan three day trial. I also agree to the bonus trial of SearchProfitSystem for fourteen days. After the three day and fourteen day trial periods, I will be billed forty-nine dollars and eighty four cents for MyMoneyPlan and twenty eight dollars and seventy one cents for the SearchProfitSystem monthly thereafter until I choose to cancel either or both programs. I agree to the Privacy Policy / Terms and Conditions of this Web Site. Google does not sponsor or endorse, nor is it affiliated in any way with this site."

One important aspect of the terms and conditions listed at the bottom of the screen of SimplePaychecks.com is the fact that the dollar amounts are written out in WORDS.

According to Ken Adams, an expert on contract drafting and author of "A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting":

• "…numerals are easier to read than numbers expressed in words…" (see 10.1)
• "Drafters will often do the words-and-numerals thing when stating amounts of money: Acme shall pay Widgetco One Million Dollars ($1,000,000). The idea is that whereas numerals are easier to read than words, they’re more prone to typographic errors; adding words provides a safety net, as courts generally hold that if there’s a discrepancy between words and numerals, the words govern.But stating numbers in words and numerals distracts the reader and represents another possible source of inconsistency, yet adds little or nothing of value in return. If your proofreading isn’t up to making sure that when you say 12 you really mean 12, the words-and-numerals system isn’t going to save you."

The second quotation is part of the fuller article Stating Amounts of Money here.

But perhaps more relevant is the Texas Attorney Generals recent complaint filed against the company Infusion Media (d/b/a/ GoogleMoneyTree, GoogleTreasureChest, and InternetIncomeInitiative) where the AG states in items 18 & 19:

"18. Defendants have added an inconspicuous disclosure to each of its Web sites that describes the additional fees. For example the following representation is made on the GMT Payment Page, below the area where the consumers are asked to submit their credit card information:

To get your free kit, just enter the information on the right, and I'll get your kit shipped out fast. Also…for a limited time, not only will you get my entire GOOGLE MONEY TREE KIT, but you will also get a seven day trial to my private, members only website. People pay almost ninety bucks a month for access to this site, but during this seven day trial period, you can have unlimited, back stage private access, without any charge whatsoever. You can stay a member at the discounted price of seventy two dollars and twenty one cents per month for life. Of course, if your goals change, you can always call and cancelyour subscription at any time. It really is the easiest thing you'll ever do. If you can follow simple instructions and will devote just a little time every day…you can be living the life of YOUR DREAMS TOO. I AM!

"19. Although information about a monthly fee is mentioned in the above disclosure, the defendants have carefully crafted the layout and design of the Web site to prevent consumers from reading the disclosure and discovering the $72.21 fee. For example, the numbers "seventy two dollars and twenty one cents," "seven day," and "ninety bucks" are all spelled out in the paragraph so that consumers are less likely to notice them. Every other time a number is used on the payment page – 35 separate instances – it is represented with a numeral."

I've excerpted the relevant part from item 19, but you can read the entire complaint against Infusion Media and all of item 19 here.

You'll also notice in the video that the only way to find an active hyperlink in the phrase "By submitting this form, I agree to the Terms and conditions below" is by mousing over EACH individual word in the phrase until you come to the word "Terms" which is an active hyperlink to the SimplePayCheck.com's Website Terms and Conditions.

Again this is interesting in light of item 24. the FTC listed under "Defendants Business Practices" in their recent complaint filed against Google Money Tree as part of their Operation Short Change Crackdown. Here's what item 24. in the complaint states:

"24. In at least some versions of the defendants' payment information pages, the words "Terms and Condition" in the phrase "I agree to the Terms and Conditions' serve as a Iink to a separate Terms and Conditions  page. These words,  however, are not underlined to indicate that they serve as a link."

SimplePayChecks.com uses the Google logo twice on the top of the first part of it's sales page

Its almost as if SimplePayChecks is trying include every possible issue that either Google, the FTC, or local AGs have indicated they have an issue with, including putting a gigantic Google logo at the top of their sales page and within the phrase "Want to Work From Home With Google?"

What about MyMoneyPlan and SearchProfitSystem – the two sites being promoted by SimplePayChecks.com?

Information about the MyMoneyPlan product being promoted by SimplePayChecks.com:

MyMoneyPlan.net is listed under the BBB report for Mars Hill Media, Inc. which includes the following statement:

"Complaints received by BBB allege the customer signed up for a free online business kit where the customer pays $1.95 for shipping and handling. Three days later they are charged $49.84 and find they agreed to terms and conditions for a 3 day trial offer and continuous charges they were unaware of. These kits may include Google Money Kit, Twitter Kit and Money Mastery Kit."

Of possible interest in the Mars Hill Media, Inc. BBB report – but again only possible interest is the following:

"Business Management

J.C. Residual LLC, a principal member for this company, is also listed as a principal member for Thrive Learning LLC. A separate BBB report is available for Thrive Learning LLC."

The BBB report on Thrive Learning LLC. can be read here and mentions the following Government Actions:

Information about the SearchProfitSystem product being promoted by SimplePayChecks.com:

I haven't found much on SearchProfitSystem.com.