Beware of the “Free Plus Shipping And Handling” Scam 0
Typing in the phrase make money Google on any search engine will land you over 9,000,000 websites telling you how you can learn to make money online with Google Adsense. This is very refreshing, as if you would have searched for this phrase 6-8 months ago, you would have come up with websites leading you to all types of scams.
Typically the scams were set up this way: a company using the Google logo without Google’s permission lured you into purchasing a CD full of information on how to make money by posting ads on Google. The claims were usually along the lines of 10 minutes a day of work would net you thousands of dollars a month. All you had to do was fill out a form to request the free CD. The catch was you only had to pay shipping and handling, which was usually a minimal amount – anywhere from $1.95 – $4.95 but always less than $5.
What if you found out you didn’t want it? Well, you could send it back within the trial period of 7-14 days. Most people, thinking it was very fair, went ahead and entered their credit card information. What the company didn’t tell you was that the trial period started from the day the order was placed. By the time the CD arrived, the trial period was probably over, and charges would appear on your credit card bill that sometimes totaled upwards of $100. If the purchase wasn’t canceled, this would be billed continuously in monthly installments.
It proved difficult to get the charges taken off of the credit card for consumers who called their company to dispute the purchase. Technically it does fall under fraud; however reading the terms of service on the website would reveal fine print which states that by signing up for the product, the consumer agree to all actions – or liberties – the company decides to take with your credit card. While this practice is, in fact, sordid and did get these companies in a lot of trouble due to the countless complaints springing up from banks and credit card companies throughout the nation, it still hasn’t been completely abolished. The Google CD scam has been shut down, but other scams that use the same practices, like tooth whitening and diet pills, have yet to follow.
