Not long ago I skirted over a site called ProfitCenterLearning when reviewing one of the thousands of fake news sites flooding the web.

I shouldn’t have. I should have noticed the connection between ProfitCenterLearning.com and Pacific WebWorks – especially right at the bottom of ProfitCenterLearning’s Terms and Conditions it states: “Products provided by Pacific WebWorks, Inc. and/or affiliated companies.”

ProfitCenterLearning.com was registered by IntelliPay which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific WebWorks, Inc. I’ll go into why this is important later in this post.

Apparently ProfitCenterLearning has some sort of “qualification” procedure so I decided to see how “hard” it would be to qualify:

Q: How much money per week are you looking to earn?
A: $1,000 per week

Q: How much time are you looking to spend working per week?
A: Less than one hour

Q: Please enter your Zip Code to find out if you qualify.
A: I entered 1,000,000,000,000 as my zip code

I excitedly submitted the button to see “if I would qualify” and – phew!!! I did. I got the following message:

Wow. What a relief. I qualified!

NOW WAIT A MINUTE…why did ProfitCenterLearning have to check my zip code to see if I qualified if they’re qualifying me in an “Unknown area”? I’m starting to feel like they don’t really care about me. And for once in my life I was feeling “validated”

Well, they did care about the length of the zip code when I actually tried to proceed to order the Google Biz Kit:

OK. So I put in a 5 digit zip and now I’m onto the order page which tells me I can get instant access to the following:

• Real, live support
• Their proprietary software
• Access to tips, videos, tricks, etc.
• The Home Business Kit using Google
• Home BizKit software
• Unlimited Tech Support
• Instant Access to my Profit Gateway Portal

Wow. All for a $1.97? I’m ready to go! At least that’s all I see ABOVE THE FOLD of my computer screen along with some really cool big red arrows pointing to the arrow box that just make me want to hit that big ol’ INSTANT ACCESS button.

But wait…there’s more! What are all those words at the bottom of the page?

Oh, way at the bottom of the ProfitCenterLearning.com order page it says:

“By submitting this form I give my authorization to immediately charge my credit card $1.97 for access to the Business Kit for Google. I hereby request that my account be activated and authorize funds to be advanced as indicated. Monthly Service fees will commence 7 days from the date of this purchase, and will be billed monthly thereafter. After the 7 day trial you will be billed $79.90 monthly for the continued access to the Business Kit for Google. No refunds will be given for failure to use the requested and provided product. We reserve the right to transfer your billing to a third party Merchant of Record. This authority will remain in effect until revoked by me. This agreement will remain in effect each month until cancelled by me. You may cancel at anytime by writing to 230 West 400 South, Suite 100 Salt Lake City, UT 84101 or calling 1-800-497-4988 or 1-801-578-9020.”

Hmm. 79.90/monthly x 12 = 958.80/year. Hmm. That’s a tad more than $1.97.

At least it looks like they make it easy to cancel…better check their track record…

Since ProfitCenterLearning.com was registered by IntelliPay which is owned by PacificWebworks I decided to look into the complaint history of Pacific Webworks and came up with the following at the BBB:

“BBB Rating for Pacific Webworks Inc (click here for the full BBB report)

Reasons for this rating include:

• BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates.
• 487 complaints filed against business
• Failure to respond to 72 complaints filed against business.
• 66 complaints filed against business that were not resolved.
• Overall complaint history with BBB.
• Government action(s) against business.

The BBB has recently received numerous complaints regarding this company and the fact that consumers were not aware of fees that would be charged after the trial period for a Google Home Based Business offer.”

The BBB then goes on to describe the Government Action against Pacific WebWorks:

“Government Actions

On August 26, 2007 Pacific Webworks Inc entered into a Settlement Agreement with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection (“the Division”). Without any admission of guilt, Pacific Webworks Inc agreed to the following: a) to comply with all of the requirements of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act and all other laws and rules administered by the Division; b) to provide the Division with evidence that the consumers listed in the agreement have been made whole; c) to pay a fine, a portion of which was stayed for the company’s compliance with the agreement; d) to comply with all of the requirements of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act and all other laws administered by the Division, acknowledging that any complaints received by the Division regarding transactions entered into after the date of the agreement shall be subject to administrative or other legal action; e) to issue refunds for any validated consumer complaint, concerning consumers who purchased Pacific Webworks Inc products and/or services through the date of the agreement, and who file a complaint with the Division. This agreement does not affect the civil claims of parties other than the Division; nor does it preclude enforcement actions by other agencies having jurisdiction over them and their actions. Pacific Webworks entered into this agreement freely and voluntarily without any undue influence of the Division.”

You can read the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act here. I haven’t located the original complaint, but I did locate the DOJ Consumer Protection Cases Completed in 2007-08

…which lists Pacific Webworks this way: Pacific WebWorks – Unauthorized Charges

And the most recent resolved complaints against Pacific WebWorks are listed below:

While it’s good that all of these complaints were resolved and are closed, it is interesting to notice that “Billing or Collection Issues” continues to make up the highest volume of the complaints.

The specific breakdown the BBB gives for the 63 Billing or Collection Issues complaints that Pacific WebWorks resolved in the past 12 months is as follows:

[table id=17 /]

Of course the most interesting parts are the 41 Unauthorized credit card charges and the 13 Unauthorized bank debits.

It would be interesting to look at other websites and DBAs owned by Pacific WebWorks or one if it’s subsidiaries.

I don’t have time to that now, but there here are the sites and DBAs that the BBB lists under the Pacific WebWorks BBB report:

Sites:

• www. pacificwebworks .com
• www. profitcenterlearning .com
• www. googlefastcash .com
• www. gogglefastcash .com
• www. homebizkit4u .com
• www. moneyy .org
• www. googlebizkit .com
• www. profitstudiolearning .com
• www. yourprofitgateway .com
• www. esuccess2u .com
• www .eauctionsuccess .com
• www .yourwebsiterev .com

DBAs:

• Additional DBA Names:
• Goggle Fast Cash
• Google Biz Kit
• IntelliPay
• Your Website Rev
• TQG online business kit
• Tweet Profit Studio
• Profit Studio Learning
• Google Fast Cash
• QuickStart
• eAuctionSuccess
• ESuccess2u.com
• Tradeworks Marketing, Inc.
• YourProfitGateway.com
• Home Business Kit for Google
• HomeBizKit 4U
• Bing the Profit King
• Profits at Home Using Google
• GoogleWebIncome
• TQG Online Bizkit
• Profit Center Online
• Easy Google Cash
• Google Home Business Kit
• Grant Solution Provider
• Profit Studio Learning.com