Tweet this: Con artists exploit social Web sites

Herb Weisbaum • Profile • E-mail

Here’s something to tweet about: Con artists are now piggybacking on the popularity of Twitter and Google to pitch their phony work-at-home schemes.

Stealing the good name and familiar logo of these well-known companies is an easy way to grab attention and look legitimate to potential victims.

“They prey on people who are desperate,” says Ohio truck driver Robert Anderson, who fell for a home-based job opportunity that appeared to be from Google. “They make money by lying to people, promising them the world and giving them a guarantee they have no intention of honoring.”

The ads promise you can make thousands of dollars a week for very little work. Bogus blogs and fake testimonials back up these ridiculous income claims. And a deviously clever marketing trick makes these get rich quick offers appear to be risk-free.

“Unlike other work-at-home schemes that ask for lots of money up front, these Google and Twitter versions start with a small payment and then whittle away at your bank account,” warns Allison Southwick with the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

All they want is a couple of dollars — billed to your credit or debit card — to send you “free” information about their money-making machine. Armed with your account information they can charge you for services or products you didn’t order.

In retrospect, the offer was "obviously" a scam, says  Barbara Simonie of Henderson, Nev. She responded to a pop-up ad for the “Google Home Business Kit.”

Simonie agreed to pay $2.95 for the “free” information but never received it. She did find a recurring charge of $59.90 on her credit card statement from a company called Pacific WebWorks in Las Vegas. The company, which has a failing “F” rating with the BBB, also does business as “Easy Google Cash.”

Know the red flags Before you do anything, check out the offer. You can go to the Better Business Bureau site or do a quick search of the company name. You may find others have already complained about the company. Here are some warning signs: * The work-at-home ad claims that you can make lots of money with little effort and no experience. * You have to pay money up front (or give a credit or debit card number) in order to be considered for the job or receive more information. * The exact same tweet touting the program is posted by many different Twitterers * The employment opportunity comes via e-mail or pop-up ad.

Simonie called the company and was told the $59.50 was her monthly membership fee for the Google kit — a fee she never knowingly authorized. The customer service agent promised a refund. That was back in July. Simonie is still waiting for her $182 credit.

Pacific WebWorks CEO Ken Bell told me in an e-mail that his company’s Google offers “clearly explain the terms and conditions of the customer’s purchase before any purchase is made.”  As an example, Bell sent a pop-up ad in which the monthly charge is disclosed, but only for users who click on a tiny "Terms and Conditions" link at the bottom.

Google Money Tree
The Google Money Tree, recently shut down by a federal judge, operated in a similar manner. The online ads for this scheme were simple and direct. “Learn how to make $107,389 in six months just filling out forms and doing searches on Google and Yahoo," they said.

Karen Hobbs, a lawyer with the Federal Trade Commission, says hundreds of thousands of people fell for the pitch and had the $2 to $4 handling charge billed to their debit or credit cards.

“We have discovered no one who was able to use the information on the CD in order to make money,” Hobbs says.

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