Income at Home 55 is a Scam! (maybe)
Posted: August 1st, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Scam | Tags: income at home, pyramid scheme, Scam, work from home | 28 Comments »
I know, I know, like you didn’t know it already, right?
Well it’s one of those thoroughly obnoxious radio ads I hear day in and day out during my commute, so I thought I sign up and check it out. But first, the ad.
The Radio ad:
“Financial Freedom Awaits You!”
“A simple way to earn ‘quit your job’ kind of money”
“One of the few work at home companies with an A+ BBB rating”
Here’s the details:
They mention being an A+ BBB rated company, but they don’t specify what that company is or what the affiliation is – not even on the website they direct you to.
Speaking of the website, incomeathome55.com redirects you to: Premier Team Online Home Business System website https://leadingincome.com. Incidentally, Premier Team Online Home Business System IS listed in the BBB, but they are not accredited and have an F rating.
Anyway, the Premier Team Online Home Business System website provides additional flashy, marketing type logos and text proclaiming the multitudes of people who now make 6 figure incomes with their “system.”
About 23 pages down, at the very bottom is a form section that asks for your personal contact info so they can “rush your free kit” out to you.
On June 29, I singed up for :
Free Online Package – Video, Workbook, and Audio
Package $0.00, Shipping & Handling $0.00
(the DVD package required $9.95 shipping, and I wasn’t down with that.)
Within a few minutes I received an email:
“Dear George, (I never use my real name for these things, until I’m sure it’s a real deal)
Congratulations for ordering the Home Business Information Package! Your Personal Mentor will be contacting you soon to send your Free Online Package. You will also receive a confirmation email. Be sure to check your screened mail if the confirmation does not show up in your email inbox.
For fastest service contact your Mentor now. Below you will find their contact information.”
A couple hours later I received a follow up email, containing a link to a 30 minute video title “The 5 Key Elements to Financial and Time Freedom in a Depressed Economy.”
The video was really nothing more than a number of testimonials from people who got rich using the system – with the following phrase floated at the bottom on the screen:
“Income applicable to the individuals (in examples) depicted are not average”
No doubt.
Anyway, the video opens with a guy on the beach talking about how great and wonderful and transformative the system is. It them goes into more glitz and glam about being wealthy and free, and ends with the obligatory testimonials.
The testimonials are filled with the usual stories of everyday people who were fed up with their mundane and stress filled jobs. They were tired of working to “make somebody else rich” and went off on their own. Within 6 months of using the system, they were able to quit their day jobs. Pretty standard stuff really, where these type of scams are concerned.
So the video references these “Five Rules of Financial and Time Freedom”, and asks if they really work, but takes forever to actually outline what they are. Instead, they talk about the “rewards for playing by the new rules” and show lavish lifestyles, big houses, SUVs and yachts. – they even threw in some women in bikinis and island resorts! Again with the caption “Income applicable to the individuals (in examples) depicted are not average.”
Eventually they do get to the Five Rules:
1. Find a large and growing industry
2. Have a consumable product that people need.
3. Create income leverage (get paid for other people’s time)
4. Follow a proven model for success.
5. Associate with successful people.
In short, this is a complicated, maze-like pyramid scheme designed to keep stringing you along with abstract promises of a better life and vague references to “the new rules” of wealth, retirement and so on. I suspect that all roads eventually lead to a collection point where you sign up and fork over your hard earned money to get a video tape of how to make your own “work at home” sites and string unsuspecting people along to buy a similar kit from you, and so on…
The large and growing industry is a pool of suckers who are disgruntled with their 9-5 jobs and dream of getting rich quick with some new method or technology (like a work at home kit on the Internet!).
The income leverage is the pyramid scheme. You likely get more residual income (commission) for signing up a certain number of suckers and have them work for you signing up ever more suckers.
The proven model of success is the “system” that you follow. Sites like these give you a template or pattern to follow. You create some unique branding to make it look just different enough, and the more unique and different it is the more suckers you will likely attract.
Associating with successful people ties back into the pyramid scheme. You want to stick with the person who signed you up (your “mentor”) because you view them as successful. That means they get to keep a higher number of suckers under them, and hence earn more money.
UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, incomeathome55 now redirects to http://radio.theonlinebusiness.com/goland45/CITADEL-STRM-45. The mere fact that the site keeps changing is a major scam red flag!
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