Creekside Homeowner's Association

In these tough economic times, with an 11% unemployment rate, many people are desperate for a job or an opportunity to earn a little extra money to pay their bills.  Not surprisingly, it is also when scam artists come out of the dark to prey on innocent consumers.  The latest work-at-home schemes proliferating on the internet are the "Google Profit” type scams. Typically, consumers surfing the internet will click on the link “Easy Google Profit” or "Google Money Master" while reading -- what they later find out to be -- a fake article or advertisement.  The link directs consumers to a work-at-home scam, where they unwittingly sign up and their credit or debit cards are charged a fee.  Most of these scams claim that they are "risk free" and money will somehow magically start flowing into your bank account just by posting some articles or creating some ads.  They will charge you a seemingly insignificant fee to give you this secret information that only they know about.  Some of these sites will display logos of well known sources stating something to the tune of "As seen on USA Today, Fox News, Yahoo, CNN" etc. etc. etc.  Before you say "Wow, they really sound like the real thing since they're endorsed by (enter big media name here)!" check the fine print at the bottom of the page or in their "Terms and Conditions".  You'll see something akin to this: " USA Today, Fox News, Yahoo, CNN, blah, blah, blah and Google do not sponsor, endorse, and are in no way affiliated with (insert Google scam company name here.)

Now, when an unsuspecting citizen who is only looking to make some money to put some food on the table visits one of these wonderful sites and signs up for this Amazing Opportunity they are asked to fill out a form.  They are then asked to provide their credit card information to pay that oh so tiny little fee in order to receive the super-ultra-mega-secret information on how to make fistfuls of cash from home.  It's then again that we run into that little "fine print" problem.  Who reads that junk anyway?  The truth is: most people don't.  What the unwitting customer will start to notice is the cleverly hidden $70-$80, or more, fee being deducted from their account every month.  Ah!  Now we see who is making money from home, and it ain't us!  The only people making those "Easy Profits" are the scammers themselves.

There are as many work-at-home scams lurking out there in the wilds of the Internet as there are grains of sand in my kid's sand box.  I'm writing about these Google scams in particular since I'm the default "spoof/scam debunker" for my family and friends (and their friend's, friend's, friends), and I've been getting a lot of emails from them asking about this one. Unfortunately a few of them had already been lured in, and they are now doing some damage control.  I want to be sure my neighbors do not get sucked in by these easy money scams.  Everyone knows the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true..." well, you know the rest.  

If you are intent on finding a good work-at-home job to make ends meet; please do some research first.  There are many consumer watchdog sites out there, and the Better Business Bureau website is a wonderful resource.  Also, you have another resource if you are in doubt about one of these schemes: your friendly neighborhood Webmaster!  I'm pretty adept at sniffing out the scams, spoofs, hoaxes and phishing fiends.  If you have a question about any of these, including those chain emails that have sob-stories about little Jimmy falling down a well or the classic "Madeline Murray O’Hare Petition to Ban Religious Programming", which I've seen no less than a hundred times (which is amazing since she's been dead for almost 14 years) please feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  I don't mind taking a few minutes to check it out, and I already know most of them by heart.