I listed an item on Craigslist recently and received an email last last night from denese Hankins <hankinsdenese@yahoo.com>, about 10pm with the simple text of:
hey
do you still have the item?
“Yes, sure do.” I replied, wondering what the best place to meet this person was going to be. It was 1:41am though, I was having a restless night and figured I’d get through a few more emails before going to bed.
No sooner do I think this than I get a reply from my new friend “denese” with the following:
Dont sell this!
Just wanted to let you know that I was selling a few things on CL just like you. I ended up realizing a lot of people get ripped off, its over-all NOT SAFE anymore to meet people from craigslist. A friend of mine told me about an amazing website and said I should check it out so I did. I made about 4000$ ast month. Its great and the has helped me and friends so much. I’m doing better than my current fulltime job and this is just extra money! If I can do it, you can. Visit http://www.googleandmoney.com
If you need any help let me know! I have no problem giving tips and tricks that I have learned so far.
Good luck with your sale.
At this point I sighed, knowing it was a bot working through the Craigslist listings emailing random people, probably just enough not to get blacklisted, and hooking them into this scam.
I went to the website, it’s that classic “get rich quick” template that all these sites like Rich Jerk and “1 Secret Tip to Loosing Bellyfat” websites all use. The site also notifies me that Google will pay me $7500 a month for no reason, all I have to do is send them $1.95 + $2 S/H to get their “Business Kit”.
They explain the process as (Screenshot as of 2:40am 2/6/10):
For anyone non-technical out there: The only business Google runs that MAY or MAY NOT disburse money to you is their AdSense ad service. And that requires you to run a popular site that displays ads that advertisers pay you to display. That money comes from ADVERTISERS, not directly from Google’s coffers. The site claims that Google pays you to “post links” and you will suddenly get checks in the mail because “Google monitors everything” — this is a lie. There is no for-pay service Google offers that has anything to do exclusively with link-posting.
Now, moving on through this scam…
Clicking the link to order their “Business Kit” takes you to tryblackbeltprofits.com which directs you to ordering “The BlackBelt Profit System” — they make the form look like an iPhone so you know they are hip and legit.
There is also a pile of money on the desk, which makes you know they are serious:
The best part is if you try and close the page, you are automatically blocked by not one, but two on JavaScript popups trying to get you to try the newly-reduced-price TRIAL:
I think anytime you are dealing with a business that is so super-cereal about what they are doing that they explain it using multiple onbeforeunload JavaScript events and use 9 or more exclamation marks, that basically means they are legit like crazy.
After closing the last JavaScript popup window, you are directed to the order page and that’s when it all becomes clear what this scam is all about:
This is the Video Professor scam all over again (Link 1, 2 and 3) with one minor change: They declare the ripoff on the order page instead of hiding it – which Video Professor did originally. But they make sure to push it down 500px or so below your scrollable view (I’m on a 24″ monitor). Notice how the money and order information is all primarily above that on the right? I bet they are hoping you never notice that box.
So you see, your $4.94 investment using “The Blackbelt Profit System” is going to turn into a $4.97 monthly charge and a $149.95 annual membership fee if you don’t “cancel” in the first 14 days.
I’m going to go out an a limb here and say that any program that makes it’s money exclusively from people’s mistakes, is going to make it damn near impossible to cancel.
There is an 866-number you can call (1-866-445-4241) but given that domains are all private registrations with googleandmoney.com being from an entity in the Bahamas (as of 1:40am 2/6/10) I’m going to guess they will drag your phone calls on for exactly 15 days, at which point, you are no longer eligible to cancel.
googleandmoney.com along with god-knows-how-many-other websites are likely all front-ends that pour into this single “Blackbelt Profit System” scam. The Blackbelt domain was registered August of last year for only 1 year so it seems they are just getting in as fast as possible to see what kind of money they can make before calling it quits and closing shop.
Oh and good luck fighting them on that. Besides no one to talk to, you would be dealing with an out-of-country entity that has your credit card on auto-charge cycles every month and every year.
If I had to guess, given how shady this type of scam is, after the 14 days, what most likely occurs is 11 months of $4.97 charges against your credit card, hoping you won’t notice because it will be buried among so many other charges, and then at the end of the year, the $149.95 “membership fee” will be charged. At that point if you call to cancel, they would just throw the fact that you’ve been using the “membership” all year in your face.
If you haven’t read them yet, TechCrunch did an excellent series on The Video Professor and how the company operates much like this (making millions a year). When you order the “free training CD” that is advertised on TV all the time, somewhere on the site is claims you are agreeing to pay $290 for the entire collection if not sent back within the first 10 days or something — at which point you receive the entire collection in the mail, mostly confused as to why.
I would define a scam as:
A business transaction where one of the involved parties doesn’t fully understand the parameters of the transaction to-the-benefit of the other party involved.
And that is exactly what is going on here with The Blackbelt Profit System scam. The feeder sites mis-represent exactly what it is that you are buying and what you will be doing to make money. The Blackbelt Profit System site explains something else entirely and only makes you aware you are agreeing to a yearly membership and monthly fees in the Offer details at the bottom of the order page.
Just a quick tip: Google seems to think your site may be harmfull (as in virus infected) might want to check up on that…
Jarle, thanks for the heads up — were you seeing that via bit.ly from the TechCrunch tweet or inside of Chrome/Firefox as the browser-warning page? I saw the bit.ly warning (which made me want to die) and have been scanning client and server side resources since. Checking Google’s Webmaster tools indicates no malware issues or using Stopbadware. I’ve emailed bit.ly about the error and hope they come back with something.
Whew, bit.ly got it fixed and removed the warning, we’re all set now.
Thank you for looking out for all of us.
People are more volurenable now than they were ever before.
After listing an item for sale, I got the same e-mail as you, only I recived the e-mail from myrtisvann@yahoo.com
You are a life saver!!!
Thank you so much for this tip. I just received an email like this one last night and new it was fishy. I love when people like you give others heads up on this kind of information. Thank you again for all you detailed information it was truly helpful!
Firas, thank you for the kind words. These types of scams are so frustrating to see happen, people getting duped all the time.
I just got an email from francisca Yoder yoderfrancisca@yahoo.com aksing if I had a # to contact me about my item for sale then I sent My # now looking in my spam box I got this
Dont sell this!
Just wanted to let you know that I was selling a few things on CL just like you. I ended up realizing a lot of people get ripped off, its over-all NOT SAFE anymore to meet people from craigslist. A friend of mine told me about an amazing website and said I should check it out so I did. I made about 4000$ ast month. Its great and the has helped me and friends so much. I’m doing better than my current fulltime job and this is just extra money! If I can do it, you can. Visit http://www.googleandmoney.com
If you need any help let me know! I have no problem giving tips and tricks that I have learned so far.
Good luck with your sale.
Hope I dont start getting crazy calls or texts
Thomas that’s really freaking annoying — the bot that contacted me didn’t ask for a #, but I would have done the same thing (given it to them) not knowing it was bullcrap. Keep us posted on what ends up happening.
One weird thing though, I keep getting calls at 9pm from “Wells Fargo”… I’m not aware of any bank that calls you at 9pm at night. Not to mention no messages and always hangs up.
Scammer possibly.
I just received an e-mail similar to this for an item I posted on craigslist. I was excited thinking I sold my item. Yet it was an fool trying to scam me.
Thanks for giving everyone the heads up.
Raven, no problem. I’m glad I could help.
I can’t help but think many of the affluent douchebags I see in most places became that way (affluent — they are certainly douchebags from birth) because of dishonesty.
The older I get, I’m probably just becoming more jaded. Still, I almost want to throw out my morals on occasion… But anyway, good heads up.
Ben I know what you mean. If I watch more than 10 mins of financial news, you pretty much get that impression stem-to-stern.
Wanna be rich? Fuck people over. Want to be SUPER rich? Just fuck more people over (Bank presidents, fund managers, etc.)
What gets my goat is the golden parachutes they get, justifying all this garbage.
Thank you for the heads up! I am often so tempted to fall for these, and I am at a point in my life where I cannot to afford to lose a dime.
As for your site coming up as a “virus”, it didn’t happen to me, but obviously someone, somewhere, does not want you to get the truth out to
the masses. Kudos to you for doing the work, and to pass along your knowledge to us. God Bless!
Kat, here-here. I don’t think many of us having any extra money we want to loose on stuff like this. Glad you didn’t get hooked.
I did order the Black Belt system and then cancelled before the trial period ended without any issues. I called the phone number on the website and reached the CS department. They were friendly and helpful. I am not saying whether the system is legit or not, but so far I have not experienced any issues with canceling my membership or having extra charges applied to my card.
Todd thanks for adding your own experience for others to read. Glad to hear they didn’t play games with you.
Thanks for letting everyone know about this. I got this exact email from a Gabriel Wagner today and got all excited. But alas, I Googled the link before clicking it and lo and behold, your site came up with all the information I needed. Thank you.
Sometimes I wonder if Craigslist is even a legitimate site to sell stuff on anymore.
John, Craigslist is a blessing and a curse. It’s totally open & free, which makes it super-easy to use, but that’s also it’s curse, because jerks like these people can quickly setup scams on it and have a captive audience of 1000s of people that they can email to bait them into something.
eBay is much harder to bait people in this fashion, mostly because the account would get banned fairly quickly, but the downside is that using it is such a chore and requires so many more hoops to jump through.
I can’t figure out which one is worse.
Either way I’m glad you didn’t get duped by these folks.
Riyad,
Excellent Service you provide. The same technology platform that allows these people to dupe us can be turned back on them through people like you. This is the second time this week someone has tried to get me. This craigslist bandit and then a letter that had my address handwritten (but was through computer generation)offering free airline tickets. 10 minutes or less surfing the net and BANG – we get informed. My hat’s off to all of you out there informing us.
I have several listings on Craigslist and receieved these scam emails form these tow people and their emails simply stated ‘what condition is it in’
daniela Ruiz (daniela.ruiz69@yahoo.com)and antoinette Vick (vickantoinette@yahoo.com)
I responded and was shocked to get an immediate response and then all the stuff about making money and ‘googleandmoney’
Just recieved the email about googgleandmoney.com, I read what you said and wanted to thank you! So thank you for providing us with this info! Keep up the good work! Thanks again Thomas JR
“misery loves company”?
I am so happy to hear I’m not the only one to receive these degrading responses to my everyday personal business.
THANK YOU for taking the time to be so helpful to a ‘struggling to keep up’ member of this techno-illiterate society.
Thanx again for keeping us informed.
I award you a golden star ! JK
Just got the same craigslist email. Guess I should have known since they asked about the condition of the item although I had clearly indicated in the listing. These guys are just loser scumbags too lazy to make a legitimate living. I’m a firm believer in karma so not to worry, these guys will get theirs in the end. Hey googleandmoney dude – watch out for that Greyhound bus as you step off the curb….
Thanks for the heads up! Had 4 similar responses and I just bounced back to sender because of your excellent info! Giveaway was “Did you get my text message”? No number. no text! lol!
Thanks again
Guys I just wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to come here and post your “me too!” experience you had, it helps let others know that this crap is going on and makes the visibility better which helps makes life a bit harder for these jerks.
Stay safe out there!
Just got the same e-mail from “Chris Butler” warning me about Craig’s List. When I tried to Google his site, I saw yours first. Thanks for keeping people from getting scammed.
Carole
Truly a public service you have provided here. I did a search and found your page because I had gotten the same email whilst selling something on CL. While I would not have been scammed by the program, you have saved myself, and many others from having to dig and dig for this valuable information. Its a shame that the Fed Gov, CL, and the free email providers like yahoo arnt doing much to protect the consumers from fraud. At least we have good people out there like yourselg to keep it real
Just adding my thanks for this article. Received two separate e-mails from different addresses asking the exact same question about two different items I listed on CL. Responded back to both, received the googleandmoney from one address and have yet to hear from the other, but expect it. Again, thanks for the information!
This is an excellent article that just helped me out. I’ve been leery of so many scams on Craigslist these days.
I googled the googleandmoney website first and your article came up which definitely helped me out.
They all use the exact same preformatted email and act like they’re doing us a favor to keep us safe which is really the bait to get unsuspecting users to trust them and go to their website.
At any rate, thanks and the blog is excellent no need to reply.
Hi all!
I just got exactly the same email after posting an ad on craigslist. Thanks
Thank you for spending a conciderable amount of your time for the benefit of people who you don’t even know. You are a blessing and example to us all. God bless you!
itz ok