Home Business Reviews Exposed!
After reviewing thousands of home business reviews I’ve been stunned by how many of the reviews recommend extremely questionable products. In fact, some of the home business reviews recommend outright scams!
Many of the reviewers don’t even know anything about the home based opportunities they’re recommending. I think they just read the sales page and try to make up a home business review off of that – sort of like cheating on a really important test.
So what should you do when you are reading through some of the reviews of home based opportunities?
Here are a few red-flags and warning signs to look out for when reading home business reviews
Red-flag/Warning #1: The home based income opportunity that is recommended is owned by the person reviewing the opportunity – but the reviewer doesn’t TELL you that.
I have no problem with a reviewer recommending his or her own home business income opportunity – as long as they tell you that they are the owner/creator of that home business income opportunity.
Some typical elements for Red-flag/Warning #1 are shown in the diagram below:
Fake Home Business Reviews
The easy red-flags for almost anyone to spot fake home business reviews are the following:
- Fake Home Business Review Award Site (I’ve NEVER seen a real one of these)
- Fake Seals Of Approval (Often will say something like “Certified Scam-Free” or will be made to sound like a legitimate seal of approval (i.e., “Consumer Reporting Agency” instead of “Consumer Reports”
- A request for donations (this is done to make you believe the site is a non-profit site)
- All of the products recommended in the home business review are owned by the reviewer (this red-flag is not as easy to spot for most people as the other 3 – if you aren’t sure about an opportunity feel free to contact me and ask me about it)
How to determine if a home business reviewer might own the websites being reviewed
I don’t expect you to do the following type of analysis (you can contact me and ask me to look into something) – however, I think it may be helpful for you to know that I actually dig for EVIDENCE before I say that I find an opportunity to be questionable.
There are many different ways to determine if sites are possibly owned by the same person or company. I go over one of the ways below:
Websites are hosted on what are called “I.P.”s – normally if you find a small number of sites (typically around 30 or so) on the same I.P. address they will usually be owned by the same person. There are exceptions to that rule of thumb as you’ll see below:
Home Business Reviews EXPOSED - sites hosted on same I.P.
Home Business Reviews EXPOSED - sites hosted on same I.P.
Below is a video of home business reviews at a site called TheWorkAtHomeReview.org followed by an “IP-Lookup” of sites hosted on the same IP as TheWorkAtHomeReview.org
In the above video of one of the home business reviews called TheWorkAtHomeReview.org is hosted on I.P. 67.212.182.186 and recommends the following:
- It suggests Instant Profit Package as the best home based business opportunity.
- It suggests Home Cash Course as the #2 home business income opportunity
- It suggests Survey-Broker as the #3 home business idea
In the video you’ll see that all of those are hosted on the same I.P. address:
- www.InstantProfitPackage is hosted on I.P. 67.212.182.186
- www.HomeCashCourse is hosted on I.P. 67.212.182.186
- www.Survey-Broker is hosted on I.P. 67.212.182.186
Because the following sites are also hosted on I.P. 67.212.182.186 I would suggest approaching them with caution:
- www.24-7-trading
- www.Adwordprofitkit
- www.Best-10-work-from-home
- www.Fastauctionincome
- www.Free-site-offer
- www.Get-merchant-account
- www.Get-web-visitors
- www.Globalmediaultd
- www.Googlemoneypro
- www.Googlesuccesscenter
- www.Googlkit
- www.Grantconnectioncenter
- www.Homecashcourse
- www.Homejobdailynews
- www.Idptcr
- www.Instant-online-income
- www.Instantprofitpackage
- www.Internet-career-finder
- www.Jeffjacksonmyprofitsite
- www.M0nstertrax
- www.Media-hub
- www.Monstermarketing
- www.Myp-site
- www.Myprofitsite
- www.Myprofitsitescam
- www.Mypsit
- www.News21today
- www.Nitricoxidemax
- www.Powermaxacai
- www.Ripoff-review
- www.Ripoff-review
- www.Ripoffs-exposed
- www.Scam-hotline
- www.Survey-broker
- www.Survey-income
- www.Surveyincomeplus
- www.Svyclb
- www.Theinternetsuccesscenter
- www.Theworkathomereview
- www.Top-10-work-from-home
- www.Tradingfromhome
- www.Webprofitclub
- www.Yourworkathometop10
Red Flag Warning #2: The home based income opportunity that is promoted by a fake news site or advertorial-style site.
Although these sites aren’t technically home business reviews often the nature of their content could be thought to be misleading:
Normally an Advertorial style web page begins by placing the word Advertorial directly at the top of the page. However, at this time News7Daily puts it’s disclaimer at the BOTTOM of the page AFTER the reader has scrolled past EIGHT (8) order links (2 of the links are located on images).
Red Flag Warning #3: Calling something a “Scam” without producing any evidence at all to prove it.
When you read through the warnings at Work At Home Truth you’ll notice that I produce a lot of technical EVIDENCE to show why I believe a particular work at home business opportunity should be approached with caution. You can see that in this analysis of home business reviews as well.
You’ll also find that I rarely call something a scam, because a home business income opportunity must meet certain legal definitions to accurately be called a scam.
Red Flag Warning #4: Using stock photos as the picture of the reviewer
I understand why a person my not want his or her photo on the web – who knows what certain people will do with it?
But at this time it’s been my experience that home business reviews that use stock photos as the picture of the reviewer are often questionable review sites.
I currently don’t have an example of this handy, but will post one when I come across one.
Hopefully this information will allow you to view home business reviews through sharper eyes.
Tagged with: Home Business Reviews Exposed • HomeBusiness Reviews • HomeBusinessReviews Exposed
Filed under: Consumer Alerts
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I would like to know about this Elizabeth Jackson top work at home consultant web site it say you can work from your home making 98,500 a year. It’s a auction listing work at listing on e-bay the web is http://www.workathomepositionplacement.com
Carla,
I put a warning out about that site in this post of 183+ websites to avoid
The company behind WorkAtHomePositionPlacement has a VERY bad reputation and is responsible for many of the warnings I’ve put out at WorkAtHomeTruth.
The GIGANTIC red flag with that opportunity is that they are using a REAL video from NBC News and then SPLICING it with their own video to make it look as if the two are associated.
I guarantee you that WorkAtHomePositionPlacement was NEVER seen on NBC, USAToday, CNN, or ABC – UNLESS they BOUGHT advertising on those channels or if those channels did a report WARNING people to AVOID WorkAtHomePositionPlacement.
You’ll see in the disclaimer way at the bottom of the page in very light grey the following text:
“**AFFILIATION/BRANDS – Work At Home Position Placement is not affiliated with, endorsed by or in any way associated with Apple, Coleman, Adidas, Compaq, The New York Times, Esquire, America Online, CNN, USA Today, Forbes, Yahoo. Work At Home Position Placement does not have the express permission of Apple, Coleman, Adidas, Compaq, The New York Times, Esquire, America Online, CNN, USA Today, Forbes, or Yahoo logo. ”
Some of their other companies and “spokespeople” (mostly fake) are:
Assured Payment Center, LLC
Auction Listing Agency
Auction Listing Specialists
Auction Listings Employment Agency
Automated Wealth System
Automatic Cash System
Best 10 Work at Home
Brent Austin’s Automated Wealth System
Catch a Cheating Spouse
Customer Care Center
Earn Cash with Google
Emily Thomas
EZ Affiliate Website Builder
Get Visitors Now
Guaranteed Cash Systems
Home Job Placement
IAffiliate
Internet Website Design
Jennifer Johnson
Make Money Taking Surveys
Make Money with Overstock.com
My Product Center
My Web Builder
NSA Technology
Online Career Observer
Online Jobs Worldwide
Professional Learning Institute
Six Figure Cash Machine
Six Figure Income
Underground Cash Secret
Underground Wealth System
Weekly Consumer Newsletter
Work at Home Position Placement
Work at Home Recruiters
Write at Home System
You Can Be An Internet Millionaire
As I predicted in the 183+ websites to avoid write-up, now that many sites are being busted for using fake photos for testimonials, they are trying to get around it by using wording such as the following:
“Stock photos were used for testimonial images. Note: nowadays you will see many sites claiming that “Stock Photos” and fake testimonial names are used to protect the testimonial givers privacy. While this may be true at times, the use of stock photos and fake names should still be construed as a red flag to be combined with other red flags when doing your due diligence.”
While I can see WHY a company or person MIGHT truly do this – to date I have seen NO legitimate opportunity that uses this disclaimer.
Also, at least one other site related to the Automated Wealth System (one of their other sites) there were reports of people trying to cancel and then getting asked what “they’re credit card limits are” (which is PROBABLY related to a questionable sales practice for trying to sell people additional information based on how much money they still have available – although salespeople who are SLICK at doing that can get that out of you without you ever knowing it’s going on).
I would like to know if “KeyJobsOnline” is a legitimate site. It sounds a little too good to be legit.
Thanks
Sharon,
No. KeyJobsOnline is not legitimate.
Here are the BIG red flags on this one.
1) The McAfee SiteAdvisor means NOTHING as far as the product is concerned. It only tests to see if there are potential problems with the site such as viruses, trojans, etc.
2) KeyJobsOnline is NOT “the ORIGINAL CREATORS of The Work At Home SourceBook”. In fact, they STOLE the name of the book AND stole the image for the book from a woman named Lynie Arden WITHOUT her permission.
Click here to see the REAL Work At Home SourceBook at Amazon.com
3) The site is using stock photos for testimonials.
Click here to see “Pat Emily” at the stock photo site stock.xchng
Click here to see ‘David & Sandy L.’ at the stock photo site stock.xchng
Can u send which online jobs are safe to do.
Traci,
This post is about home business reviews and it sounds like your asking about jobs.
If you are asking about home businesses I would recommend you watch this video:
What it REALLY takes to make money online from a home business
If on the other hand you are asking about JOBS, then I would recommend that you always follow the RULES here:
Rules for searching home jobs as it’s MUCH better to know how to STAY safe than to have a “list” of opportunities that are safe (more later).
However, I strongly encourage people to have at least SOME form of extra income outside their regular job.
Now, back to your original question, Traci, there are places to look for jobs that are safer than others. Here’s what I told someone else:
Here best bet would be really to grab the free ebook about finding work from home that is available at http://www.ivetriedthat.com
Also, Virtual Vocations forum is a reputable place to
find telecommuting job leads.
She might also look at the online resources mentioned at the department of state here http://www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/79980.htm
Another place would be the forum section (not the advertisements) here:
Telecommuting forum at WAHM
Always watch out for easy home jobs with high pay – The problem with some of the easier types of work isthat mostly it is outsourced to countries like the Phillipines andIndia where people are willing to work for $1 to $2 per hour or even less.
Also, there is a new forum where she can get feedback on something
called RealScam.com< ?a> that has a lot of people who are dedicated to helping people avoid scams.
And of course, either one of you can always ask me about anything
you’re looking into.
As Always Paul, may you continue to be blessed abundantly for the great work you do for the people who are diligently seeking home based business, and I believe they are many especially in the current economic climate.
Keep it up!
Pauline
Thank you, Pauline
Would like to know if you have looked at Matt Benwell Rapid Automated Income. Any info on this program would be appreciated. Thanks.
July 20, 2010
Surprised about Keyonline, as you recommend them on a previous e-mail.
I had a problem regarding Explosive Cash Secrets. I signed up and paid for info $9.95 in last of May. Never received info and had a problem with Web$avings4U mixup with another person signup. Upon obtaining a bank transaction history yesterday, noticed a charge of $19.95. The bank gave me a phone number which I called and talked the owner three different numbers for getting in touch with his secretary. Secretary told me there was a 30 day limit of money back. I canceled the account per the bank recommendation but still out the $19.95 which was charged on June 28, 2010 (within a 30day period).
Is this due to the economy?
I’ve never recommended Keyonline. I don’t even know what they are.
Sounds like you’re confusing my email with somebody elses.
I can’t quite understand the rest of what you’re saying. Are you saying there was some product you bought with a 30 day refund period and you tried to get a refund after 30 days and they didn’t give you a refund?
I don’t know those other two products either. It sounds like you need to check the terms of their offer.
I read the entire site about the Home Employment Agency. It sounds to good to be true, where you list items on ebay for companies as a acutioner. The site states that this site has gotten lots of attention from the news channels such as CNN, USA Today, US Online and some others. This was published by the Sunshine Tribute Job News. The cost to become an auctioner is $49.95 + $9.95 shiping and handling. I wanted to know if this work from home company is legit before I talk myself into investing into this.
Johnnie,
No, it’s not legit.
It’s on This post of 183 websites to avoid
and it’s the same as the HomeJobPlacement.org warning here
Hello, awesome article! And thank you for it. I was wondering about http://WWW.paidsurveysandmore.org , are they a legit website to try out?
No, use the free http://www.surveypolice.com