Scam alert: Google Money Tree is NOT hiring at-home workers
It sounds so appealing: make money working for Google all from the comfort of your home. But fraud fighters warn: this work-at-home offer is a scam!
The bad guys are using Google's good name to their advantage. They use a number of slick tricks to con people into thinking the company is hiring.
When Laurie Roerink needed a job, she looked online.
"I clicked on the ad, and (it) said 'Google.' so i thought, "Well, that's safe enough. It's Google."'
E-mails, ads and even fake news articles claim Internet giant Google is hiring at-home workers through a program called Google Money Tree.
"The kit cost $3.88 and I paid for it with my debit card." said Roerink.
What she received was a disk full of bogus material and a charge of $72 on her bank statement by Google Money Tree.
"I was just livid," she said. "I just can't explain except I was just so mad."
Roerink had been had. Jason Morrison of Google says the company isn't looking to hire at-home workers.
"Google is definitely not hiring people to post links, click things or fill out forms from home," said Morrison.
The Federal Trade Commission has taken action to shut down Google Money Tree and 14 other alleged job-related cons.
But the Google name is so powerful that work-at-home scams using - or I should say misusing - the Google name are popping up all over the Web.
Ironically one of the ways these scams spread is through Google's own ad placement service. Hundreds of thousands of companies place ads through Google. The ads are then automatically placed on blogs, Web pages and media sites.
That, of course, raises the question: doesn't someone at Google look at these ads to make sure they're legitimate?
Google says it has lots of automated systems in place to try to weed out the bad players.
"We have lots of automated systems in place to try to weed out the bad players, but really it's a cat-and-mouse game," Morrison said.
We were unsuccessful in reaching Google Money Tree for comment.
Ultimately the only defense against these schemes is awareness and the age-old maxim: it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
"And that's so, so true," Roerink said.
The bad guys are using Google's good name to their advantage. They use a number of slick tricks to con people into thinking the company is hiring.
When Laurie Roerink needed a job, she looked online.
"I clicked on the ad, and (it) said 'Google.' so i thought, "Well, that's safe enough. It's Google."'
E-mails, ads and even fake news articles claim Internet giant Google is hiring at-home workers through a program called Google Money Tree.
"The kit cost $3.88 and I paid for it with my debit card." said Roerink.
What she received was a disk full of bogus material and a charge of $72 on her bank statement by Google Money Tree.
"I was just livid," she said. "I just can't explain except I was just so mad."
Roerink had been had. Jason Morrison of Google says the company isn't looking to hire at-home workers.
"Google is definitely not hiring people to post links, click things or fill out forms from home," said Morrison.
The Federal Trade Commission has taken action to shut down Google Money Tree and 14 other alleged job-related cons.
But the Google name is so powerful that work-at-home scams using - or I should say misusing - the Google name are popping up all over the Web.
Ironically one of the ways these scams spread is through Google's own ad placement service. Hundreds of thousands of companies place ads through Google. The ads are then automatically placed on blogs, Web pages and media sites.
That, of course, raises the question: doesn't someone at Google look at these ads to make sure they're legitimate?
Google says it has lots of automated systems in place to try to weed out the bad players.
"We have lots of automated systems in place to try to weed out the bad players, but really it's a cat-and-mouse game," Morrison said.
We were unsuccessful in reaching Google Money Tree for comment.
Ultimately the only defense against these schemes is awareness and the age-old maxim: it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
"And that's so, so true," Roerink said.