I can see the political debates now arguing for the legalization of Google Kit scams, Acai Berry scams, Teeth Whitening scams, and all other forms of hidden negative option scams.

People protesting to reclaim their false hope

Regulators will go too far and people will cry out loud together in mass: "Give us back our right to be scammed!…Give us back our false hope!"

The poet-protestors will quote Michelangelo:

"False hope is harboured only by that love when
beauty is worn away;
Sweet hope is found in a chaste heart; it does not fail
because of changes in the husk."

And the singer-songwriter bards and rock bands will…

Oops. Sorry about all that. I think I might have started getting carried away. Anyhow, back to that ol' BBB warning thingy…

Here's what the latest BBB alert had to say. It includes many of the sites that had write-ups at WorkAtHomeTruth and other sitess over the past year or so, including:

• Google Money Tree - November 18, 2008 Warning about Google Money Tree and Google Treasure Chest is here
• Various Google Kits put out by Pacific Webworks – many of the Pacific Webworks Google Kits were discussed here
• Impact Wealth Solutions – EasyFortune500Profits was discussed here.
•  Google Success Kits – the particular one that the BBB references is called EarchCashFastFastWithGoogle – discussed here.

Of course it's always the same scenario of people getting hit with hidden charges:

"While the schemes go by many different names and are found on many different Web sites, the complaints to BBB tell a similar story. Complainants state that they signed up online to receive a free trial of a CD or access to information that would show them how to make money from home using Google. Consumers had to provide a credit or debit card number to cover shipping — which is typically only a few dollars.

Complainants to BBB state that they were billed before their trial ended — or never even received the CD — and continued to be billed after they had cancelled their order. Complainants also found mystery charges from several other businesses for services they didn’t realize they were signing up for with their “free” trial. One Georgia complainant’s bank account was debited $433 by various entities including Grant Finder, Web Training, Powersale, Safelock, Google Chest, Search Chest, A1Member and Auction Support."

You can read the full BBB alert and warning here - or you can just wait until another one just like it comes out from about another ten thousand news agencies, consumer advocacy groups and law enforcement agencies just about every single week.

Here's a short list to get you started:

• Recent MSNBC article – Twitter phishing ploy goes for "Direct Messages"
• 11/9/2009 article at ChicagoNow.com – Lawsuit: Work from Home Ads are a Scam! (Class Action lawsuit against Pacific WebWorks)
• 11/8/2009 article at the Chicago Tribune – Scams Prosper even if economy doesn't
• 10/6/2009 Pioneer Press Article – Work-at-home offers? Beware of the scams
• 11/6/2009 Central Valley Business Times article warns about Master Internet Profits – a.k.a. "Portal to Success"
• 11/4/2009 BBB alert - Arizona Work-From-Home Company Claims to Show How to Make Easy Money With Google
• 11/2/2009 News story at CNET - Spammy Scams surfacing on Twitter and Facebook

Do a few seconds of searching and you can find hundreds, if not thousands more published within the last week.

Related information:

• Make Money Posting Links on Google Scam

Quotation #1:

Washingtonpost.com interviews Andrew L.

"I get paid while mowing the lawn. I get paid while cleaning the garage. No matter what I'm doing, people keep clicking, and I keep getting paid."

From a site called GMoneyDreamMachine.com which claims that "In just a few minutes per day, Google Money Machine will show you how to make $1000, $5000, or even $10000+ a month or More!"

Quotation #2:

"I get paid while mowing the lawn. I get paid while cleaning the garage. No matter what I'm doing… I keep getting paid!" – Andrew, SD

From a site called ProfitCenterLearning.com which shows a logo from USAToday next to the following within quotation marks"

"Everything you'll need to make guaranteed fast cash on Google:

Your cost = $0. In just a few minutes per day, Google Biz Kit will show you how to earn $99 – $375 per day working from home!"

Quotation #3:

""I get paid while mowing the lawn. I get paid while cleaning the garage. No matter what I'm doing…I keep getting paid." – Andrew L.

From a site called BrowseFreeTrials.com promoting a product called eMillionaire Google Money System

Quotation #4:

"washingtonpost.com interviews Andrew L.

"I get paid while mowing the lawn. I get paid while cleaning the garage. No matter what I'm doing, people keep clicking and I keep getting paid."

From a product called "Impact Wealth" promoted by a site called OpportunityKnaux.com

Quotation #5:

"I get paid while mowing the lawn. I get paid while cleaning the garage. No matter what I'm doing…I keep getting paid." – Andrew L.

From a product called "Hot Business Market Pro" – a.k.a. Google, Fast, Easy Cash which was the order page from a site called EasySpeedyMoney.com

Where did these quotations start?

It seems that they started with an article by a Washington Post Staff Writer named Yuki Noguchi who quoted Andrew Leyden, former House Commerce Committee counsel and founder of PodcastDirectory.com – a dot-com venture that failed.

Within that article Andrew Leyden is quoted as saying:

"I get paid while mowing the lawn. I get paid while cleaning the garage. I get paid driving my wife to her office, buying groceries, seeing a movie, playing video games, or just surfing the Internet. That's really the nice thing about AdSense: No matter what I'm doing, people keep clicking and I keep getting paid."

Any of that sound familiar?

Other interesting places Andrew's quotation has been found:

One site called MicrositeAdvisors.com apparently felt it was within copyright "fair use" guidelines to copy the entire Washington Post article and put it on their site – best of all they put it in the "testimonials" section!

Somehow, I doubt the Washington Post would agree that the use of their article (and photo) would constitute "fair use", although I suppose it's possible that they bought the photo from the Washington Post Photo store which shows the photographer as being Linda Davidson.

Apparently WorkHomeUnion.com had the same thought as the entire Washington Post article, including the picture, can be found on that site as well.

Related posts:

• Make Money Posting Links on Google Scam
• Google Cash Scam

Again!…WorkAtHomeTruth has NEVER recommended any Google success kit trial offer and based on what we know so far we never will. In fact, the chance of one coming anywhere near our top 10 recommended home businessest would be ZERO.

I've been seeing complaints about a product called "Google Success Kit" that seems to rival the product Google Money Tree in terms of how much people hate it. Of course, if it's at all like the GoogleMoneyTree product I could definitely see why.

4/14/2009 update: There are so many products with different names that sound similar that it's getting hard to know which product people are talking about. Therefor the updates below from February may or may not be about the product your looking for information on. You'll need to read through the discussion, too. One person – Sarah – recently posted about a product called Instant Google Kit – also called Google Startup Kit which within the terms and conditions includes a subscription to a product called IPlanFinancial.

2/25/2009 update: This product has NOTHING to do with Paul Easton's JustMoreWebsiteTraffic product.

2/10/2009 update: now the customer service for Google Success Kit seems to be bordering on excellent. So mostly the complaints seem to be about other aspects of the business.

2/2/2009 update: Google Money Tree (mentioned above) has made significant improvements (in my opinion) to their order process since this was written.

2/2/2009 update: so far based on the feedback I'm seeing, Google Success Kit for the most part is providing reliable customer service.

But I've been trying to figure out where people are getting the Google Success Kit. I've searched for it and so far I've been unable to find the version people are complaining about. The GoogleSuccessKit complaints seem to center around allegations of unauthorized monthly charges for $11.95 per month and $4.95 per month after taking a $1.00 trial offer.

Not, I'll be curious to see if it says "trial" offer – just recently I was looking at another product called EarnCashFastWithGoogle where I actually had to look into the source code of the web page to find the word "trial". :-0

If anyone can remember the actual PAGE where they filled out there information to get the Google Success Kit I'd love to see it so I can see what they are doing to generate so many complaints. Also, if warranted I'll post the same information that I posted in the LONG discussion about GoogleMoneyTree here about where to file complaints, etc.

NOTE: WorkAtHomeTruth has NEVER recommended the Google Success Kit and based on what we know so far we never will. In fact, the chance of it coming anywhere near our top 10 recommended home businessest would be ZERO.

Apparently the Google Success Kit made one person so mad that they said that even if the product made them a millionaire they wouldn't want anything to do with their company.

Which brings up another point about the "Google Kit" type products – 99.9% of the time the REAL company Google has NOTHING to do with them. They are using Google's name without Google's permission! But I'm sure the average person who sees the name GoogleSuccessKit doesn't know that.

So far I've only found sites promoting the Google Success Kit that have a $1.87 charge. I haven't found one with a $1 charge so if someone can point me to the one that has the $1.00 trial offer I'd like to see it.

Also, the only phone number I've seen about the GoogleSuccessKit product is 1-800-659-1473 which apparently routes people to quickcashsupport.com.

Obviously, if anyone's had any success in canceling their Google Success Kit or getting a refund, please post how you did it in the comments and then I'll move it up to this main section.