When I first saw the complaints about a product called Internet Income Initiative (also called Google Pro Kit), I thought “wow, this really, really reminds me of the long and angry discussion going on right now about GoogleMoneyTree here. Of course instead of “Kevin Larsen” the product is by “Michelle Valdez”.

I went through the process for getting the Google Pro Kit and was bothered by the exact same thing that bothered me with GoogleMoneyTree. When I got to the part where I was supposed to enter my credit card, there was a pre-checked box stating “I Agree to The Terms and Conditions”.  What was interesting was that the phrase “Terms and Conditions” was hyperlinked to the actual Terms and Conditions, but on my computer I couldn’t even tell it was a link, although that may be an anomaly of how it displayed on my Mac iBook G4.

Anyhow, I went to read the terms and conditions. If I hadn’t already been talking to the people in the discussion about GoogleMoneyTree I would have been surprised by what I found.

Nothing we recommend on our top 10 recommended home businesses list comes anywhere NEAR to costing that much. Not even remotely close.

In fact as of today NO product recommended on the WorkAtHomeTruth sites comes close to costing as much as the full paid membership to InternetIncomeInitiative – a.k.a. Google Pro Kit.

As of December 27, 2008 2:00 A.M. Central Standard Time the Terms on the InternetIncomeInitiative site state:

“If you have a question or complaint regarding the Site, please send an e-mail to support@internetincomeinitiative.com. You may also contact us by writing to internetincomeinitiative.com, Website Customer Care, 5940 S. Rainbow Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada 89118, or but can only cancel by calling Customer Service at 888-657-8585.”

Click here to read the Terms at the InternetIncomeInitiative website.

If you signed up for InternetIncomeInitiative and were surprised by the charges that appeared on your statement, you may want to read the following information from the Federal Trade Commission:

• Prenotification Negative Option Plans
• How to Right a Wrong
• Trial Offers: The Deal is In the Details

Within the page called “Trial Offers: The Deal is In the Details” you’ll see the following

“It’s The Law

According to the law, companies must clearly and prominently disclose the “material” terms of their trial offers before you give your consent. Material terms may include:

• the fact that by accepting the trial offer, you’re actually agreeing to be enrolled in a membership, subscription or service contract or paying for additional products and services if you don’t cancel within the trial period;
• how much time you have to cancel before you incur charges;
• the cost or range of costs of goods or services you’ll receive if you don’t cancel during the trial period;
• how to cancel during the trial period;
• whether you’ll be charged a non-refundable membership fee if you don’t cancel within the trial period;
• whether fees will be charged automatically to the credit card you used to buy other goods or services.”

So the question is what does “companies must clearly and prominently disclose” mean?

FTC has very good guidelines about proper disclosure placement as they relate to proximity and prominence here:

www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus41.pdf

I encourage you to read ALL the information above, but some of the relevant parts from the above PDF document are repeated below:

“Many of the general principles of advertising law apply to Internet ads, but new issues arise almost as fast as technology develops. This booklet describes the information businesses should consider as they develop online ads to ensure that they comply with the law. Briefly,

1. The same consumer protection laws that apply to commercial activities in other media apply online. The FTC Act’s prohibition on “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” encompasses Internet advertising, marketing and sales. In addition, many Commission rules and guides are not limited to any particular medium used to disseminate claims or advertising, and therefore, apply to online activi- ties.

2. Disclosures that are required to prevent an ad from being misleading, to ensure that consumers receive material information about the terms of a transaction or to further public policy goals, must be clear and conspicuous. In evaluating whether disclosures are likely to be clear and conspicuous in online ads, adver- tisers should consider the placement of the disclosure in an ad and its proximity to the relevant claim. Additional considerations include: the prominence of the disclosure; whether items in other parts of the ad distract attention from the disclosure; whether the ad is so lengthy that the disclosure needs to be repeated; whether disclosures in audio messages are presented in an adequate volume and cadence and visual disclosures appear for a sufficient duration; and, whether the language of the disclosure is understandable to the intended audience.

3. To make a disclosure clear and conspicuous, advertisers should:

• Place disclosures near, and when possible, on the same screen as the trigger- ing claim.
• Use text or visual cues to encourage consumers to scroll down a Web page when it is necessary to view a disclosure.
• When using hyperlinks to lead to disclosures
• make the link obvious;
• label the hyperlink appropriately to convey the importance, nature and relevance of the information it leads to;
• use hyperlink styles consistently so that consumers know when a link is available;
• place the hyperlink near relevant information and make it noticeable;
• take consumers directly to the disclosure on the click-through page;
• assess the effectiveness of the hyperlink by monitoring click-through rates and make changes accordingly.
• Recognize and respond to any technological limitations or unique character- istics of high tech methods of making disclosures, such as frames or pop-ups.
• Display disclosures prior to purchase, but recognize that placement limited only to the order page may not always work.
• Creatively incorporate disclosures in banner ads or disclose them clearly and conspicuously on the page the banner ad links to.
• Prominently display disclosures so they are noticeable to consumers, and evaluate the size, color and graphic treatment of the disclosure in relation to other parts of the Web page.
• Review the entire ad to ensure that other elements—text, graphics, hyperlinks or sound—do not distract consumers’ attention from the disclo- sure.
• Repeat disclosures, as needed, on lengthy Web sites and in connection with repeated claims.
• Use audio disclosures when making audio claims, and present them in a volume and cadence so that consumers can hear and understand them.
• Display visual disclosures for a duration sufficient for consumers to notice, read and understand them.
• Use clear language and syntax so that consumers understand the disclosures.

Once again, I’d recommend you read through the entire disclosure guide if you want more details.

Related posts:

• GoogleMoneyTree complaints
• BradsMoney – Where’s that Government Check