Need help with a probable scam

[NobbyNobbs]

I need some assistance from the smarter-than-I people who frequent this site.

My wife is looking for some work to do at home, and through a career builders website, came across this (http://www.bigpaywork.com/index.php).

Fortunately, she asked me before signing up. It just screams "scam" to me. I really suspect it's a take-your-money-and-run thing, despite all the guarantees cited.

The problem is, scientifically speaking, no amount of intuition is better than cold, hard facts. I've searched the site for the fine print, and can't find any. Can anyone give me the dirt on this thing, with cites? What is it I'm missing?

Thanks in advance.

[drkitten]

The problem is, scientifically speaking, no amount of intuition is better than cold, hard facts. I've searched the site for the fine print, and can't find any. Can anyone give me the dirt on this thing, with cites? What is it I'm missing?


Here are some testimonials (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070911104738AA3gHkL) courtesy of Yahoo. Here's some more (http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=28762)from scam.com. Short answer : scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, scam....

[Peacock]

I'm no expert, but I've always read that legitimate businesses never ask your to pay money up front before they'll hire you. I can't post links yet, but if you google "work at home scams" you'll get a lot of good informational sites. Basically, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

[Wolfman]

I have a friend in Canada who registered for something like this (I don't know if it was the same company, but the pitch was pretty much the same). She paid her money, then discovered that not only was she just helping enter information to send out spam, but that her "earnings" were based on some weird sort of commission system. Basically, they would send her information that she could enter for them, but this gave her almost no money; she was expected instead to actively find new addresses of her own (by using friends' information, or browsing internet sites (such as personals sites) to get peoples' email addresses (which would earn her more money).

When she attempted to get a refund, the response from the company was that she obviously had not made a "reasonable effort" to try the system first, and that therefore there was no obligation to give her a refund (turns out that the "unconditional refund guarantee" actually did have some conditions). So, essentially, if you apply for a refund before the first month is finished, they just say you didn't make a "reasonable effort"; if you apply after the first month (and after making a "reasonable effort"), your deadline for the refund has expired.

Don't do this. Absolutely. Unless you happen to have a personal proclivity for mining the internet for email addresses that will be used for sending spam, this is a complete dead end.

[Miss Anthrope]

This is the new era version of earn money by stuffing envelopes at home. Back then, it was junk mail. This time, it's spam.

[NobbyNobbs]

Thanks to all. Exactly what I suspected and needed.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

After a couple of minutes with Google:

http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2007-08-23/studentsurvivial3.html

It's a scam.

[Wowbagger]

YOU have to PAY THEM $97 for the priviledge of earning all that money from them. Why, on Earth, would a legit business do such a thing?

It might be a legal scam to pull, at least according to their very wordy disclaimer ( http://www.securegistration.net/disclaimer/disclaimer.php ), but it still reeks of shadines.

[Almo]

Hahah!

Urgent Update: I will only accept the next 3 Participants that register online by Midnight September 26, 2007 . Once again I apologize in advance to anyone who cannot participate.


Had to type that since the site has disabled selection of text in the browser.

Also interesting is that the payment screen https://www.securegistration.net/sp/register/data/index.php mentions nothing about Data Entry Jobs. Like it's a generic portal other sites might be pointing to.

[ChristineR]

I often hear people ask how spammers manage to make any money when everyone knows that 95% of spam is never even delivered and 95% of the rest lands in the junk box. The answer is: spammers don't make any money. That $97 is the money that drives the whole damned industry.

[JonnyFive]

Hahah!

What's even funnier is that it just checks your computer's set date. I tried changing mine to the 19th, and there it goes. :)

I'm glad everyone was able to give you some advice, Nobbs, as this sort of stuff is total BS. It's tempting too; my wife almost signed up for this stupid "12 daily pro" scam, which has now collapsed completely because it was just a ponzi scam to begin with. Fortunately we did our homework and realized it was BS.

When a company wants data entry done, they will usually go to a temp agency, or hire a competant high school kid out for the summer (we had our CEO's grandkids doing some filing around the office during the summer - they spent the day in the conference room going through boxes of insurance documents or some boring crap). They will probably pay them slightly better than minimum wage. I made about $10/hr back in the late 90's when I did some summer data entry (which was good for a high school kid), and the going rate now is probably $8 - $15/hr depending on the complexity of the data and the skill of the data entry clerk.

$500 - $1000 a day is insane.

[Michael C]

What a piece of ****! And what's so special about South Dakota? The only place in the world where this "amazing program" is not available:

It doesn't matter who you are or where you live in the world! This amazing program is available worldwide!

Not available in South Dakota

[tkingdoll]

I often hear people ask how spammers manage to make any money when everyone knows that 95% of spam is never even delivered and 95% of the rest lands in the junk box. The answer is: spammers don't make any money. That $97 is the money that drives the whole damned industry.

That's true, but I also read that it only takes one sale of the viagra/penis patch/whatever to cover the costs of hundreds of thousands of emails.

And of course there are the hackings, etc.

[ChristineR]

That's true, but I also read that it only takes one sale of the viagra/penis patch/whatever to cover the costs of hundreds of thousands of emails.

And of course there are the hackings, etc.

Well, not quite. You have to pay the $97 or so dollars up front for the spam generating software, and you have to pay fees unless you are using hacked computers. Most likely you will have to pay fees to the hackers. Strictly speaking I think you are right: something like one in 100,000 spams results in a sale and that sale generates a buck or so which is enough to cover the 100,000 e-mails. You might pocket a quarter. These numbers are probably way off, they're just a general idea of how it works. But you are not likely to ever get that $97 back until you have sent out 400 * 97 * 100,000 spams and most people hate themselves long before they ever get that far.

None of this applies to the overseas criminals, who aren't paying for anything except possibly their local internet connection. They are really not making tremendous bucks by US standards either.

[JonnyFive]

I rate a whois on the domain name, and the name that comes up is "Virtus Offshore Investment Co.," which is located in Panama City. Apparently, it's some kind of virtual office/offshore hosting provider, so it seems like their registration info hides the actual creator of the site.

Virtus web site. (http://www.thevoic.com/)

Not sure what the South Dakota thing is about, other than the fact that SD has several laws regarding commercial email that might legally curtail the operations of someone doing this within the state. I would think other states have similar laws, though, so maybe there was some kind of legal action there. No idea.

[Wowbagger]

Had to type that since the site has disabled selection of text in the browser. "View Source" still works. You can copy the text from there. (I almost chose to quote stuff from that site, myself.)

[aargh57]

What a piece of ****! And what's so special about South Dakota? The only place in the world where this "amazing program" is not available:

The jerk who runs the scam probably has friends in South Dakota and he's afraid of getting his butt kicked if they fall for this.

[bpesta22]

I think the company would be violating minimum wage requirements; they probably owe everyone back pay for all hours worked. File a charge with the Dept of Labor, who will likely do nothing:)

[Just thinking]

What a piece of ****! And what's so special about South Dakota? The only place in the world where this "amazing program" is not available:

Perhaps someone there grew a brain ... or learned the hard way (like me) that things that walk like ducks, quack like ducks and lay eggs like ducks are in fact ducks.

Last time I checked, data entry is a very low paying field.

[Tokenconservative]

I need some assistance from the smarter-than-I people who frequent this site.

My wife is looking for some work to do at home, and through a career builders website, came across this (http://www.bigpaywork.com/index.php).

Fortunately, she asked me before signing up. It just screams "scam" to me. I really suspect it's a take-your-money-and-run thing, despite all the guarantees cited.

The problem is, scientifically speaking, no amount of intuition is better than cold, hard facts. I've searched the site for the fine print, and can't find any. Can anyone give me the dirt on this thing, with cites? What is it I'm missing?

Thanks in advance.

Not to put two fine a point on it, but backbone, is missing.

Yes, this is a scam. I did not read the whole thing, but when some ad screams at me the way this one does and then tells me I can make that kind of money for keyboarding, after I get up off the floor and my gut stops hurting from lauging so hard, I look to see how much $$ they want from me to start "earning checks like these!! No, really!!!"

Real jobs do not require you to pay to work them. It's that simple. They may require some training, but that is at their expense, not yours.

Your wife will have better luck helping retired Nigerian generals get their XX-millions of dollars out of an African bank....

Here is what you tell her: Honey, this is a scam. I am not giving these people any money and we are not taking it out of the household account.

If she wants "at home" work, she might try real estate offices. They often look for assistants to set appointments and do some other things, and through that, by the way, she might make some valuable contacts and learn some skills for when the kids are grown and she's back in the work world.

Good luck.

Tokie