While surfing on the Internet the other night I came across a classified ad that seemed too good to be true. This is what it said:
50 GUARANTEED PAID SIGNUPS
You're GUARANTEED 50 PAID Signups!! In 90 Days or Less Details Here!!
ORDER NOW AND SAVE $100.00
When I clicked on the ad I was taken to a site I was taken to a page that explained the deal and offered the package "just" $425...
Actually, for fifty guaranteed paid signups that was suspiciously cheap. How could they guarantee to get every purchaser FIFTY paying subscribers???
As I just said, but it is worth repeating,
if it seems too good to be true, then it ALMOST CERTAINLY IS too good to be true.
Just think about it for a moment...
The best performance for signing up paid affiliates that I know of was achieved by Daegan Smith, who grew his Success
University organization by 625 affiliates in just 90 days. After six months his group had grown to 2,000 affiliates.
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Other top affiliate marketers such as Ewen Chia and Stone Evans regularly recruit over fifty paid up affiliates to Empowerism each month (Ewen recruited 147 affiliates in September alone).
These guys are the best in the field, yet none of them offers any of his affiliates "50 guaranteed paid sign ups for $425".
And then, up pops a tacky-looking website which claims to be able to deliver that many paid affiliates to EVERYBODY who signs up.
What if 100 gullible souls each paid $425 each?
Are we really to believe that the people behind this dodgy looking website can produce 5,000 paid up members within a three month period?
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What if even more people paid up - 500, say... would they really be able to "guarantee" 25,000 paid up members in 90 days? It is crazy!
This is an example of a classic scam. It promises you a quick and effortless way of getting rich... in exchange for nearly 500 bucks!!
Here is what I did to check out the site...
First, the URL looked dodgy, ending as it did in ".tv"
The domain suffix ".tv" refers to the Polynesian micro state of Tuvalu but conjures up images of online porno and
amateur youtube film-makers.
Surely a website offering a genuine service would go with ".com" rather than ".tv".
Second, there are no names on the home page. When I searched in the testimonials all I discovered was that the cheesy faced anonymous
woman at the top of the page might be called "Lisa".
The only place I found a real name was when I clicked on ORDER HERE NOW.
Apparently a chap who calls himself "thomas wheeler" would like me to send him $425 via westernunion.com. It would appear that "he" can give a name and the vaguest of locations:
Saint Louis
Missouri -
USA
Hmm. No street address. No zip code.
Third, a whole page of the website is dedicated to explaining why they can't use Paypal. Here we discover Lisa's purported surname, and that her accomplice is someone called
"Jon".
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Of course, the non-use of Paypal would have nothing to do with the fact that Paypal require that you give them a verifiable street address, would it? | | 
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Going back to the main listings page I discovered that some of the other traffic generating services have Paypal "Buy Now" buttons for you to click.
However, the Paypal buttons are just window dressing. Presumably the idea is that Paypal buttons will impress the gullible visitor who will also swallow the "explanation" about why he can't send $425 via Paypal for his 50 paid up affiliates...
When I pressed the Paypal button you I got this message: This recipient is currently unable to receive money.
Fourth, in the left hand column there is a list of dodgy affiliate schemes. Not all the links work. One told me the referrer's name was neither Lisa, nor Jon, nor thomas, but Paul Somebody-or-other.
Two Quick An Easy Checks
I don't claim to be an expert web detective or anything like that, but here are a couple of easy checks that anybody can do.
FIRST STOP - GOOGLE.COM!!
This is easy. I simply pasted the website URL into Google's search field and out came a list of pages with people complaining about being ripped off! A string of people had spent $495 each without even bothering to do a few simple checks. They must be nuts!!
I didn't even have to qualify my search by adding the word "scam" to my search terms!
Next, I ran a "Who Is" Search...
The name and other details of a webmaster on an otherwise annonymous site can usually be found by looking up the URL on
http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx
However, when I ran a search for the URL, it turned out that the site is registered by a proxy company called domainsbyproxy.com which is designed to
"protect privacy" - and conveniently conceal the "private" details of website that is masquerading as a public company.
If you were foolish enough to send your cash, the only contact you have with a dodgy site like this is the email address that they kindly supply and quite possibly do not respond to.
So come on then, roll up! Roll up! Who wants "50 'guaranteed' paying affiliates for 'only' $450" from "Lisa" and her no-Paypal play pals?
I think I'll pass up "offer". thank you very much.
David Hurley
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About the Author
David Hurley is a professional Internet marketer, copywriter, and editor. David launched Grasp-The-Nettle.com after more than a year of research into why many Internet marketing start-ups fail.
David has researched the secrets that enable some people to come from nowhere and master the net.
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
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