How to not get ripped off by so called online “experts”, don’t get scammed online!

I have been working online since 1999. I got started by doing public speaking on how to not get “scammed” online.
I have a special loathing for online scammers.
Online anyone can say they are an “expert”, they can make all kinds of claims of what they have done, and what they earn, and how do you know the difference?

I am going to give you a few tips and tools you can use to find out if the person you are considering hiring to help you is for real.
Recently I have had several clients who paid for SEO services from so called “experts” and they got burned.
If they had just done a little checking first, this would not have happened.

The first thing to check with any SEO expert or anyone promising you high traffic and instant profits, is to check their websites page ranking.
If they are a ZERO, then you just saved yourself from being scammed. If the site is a zero-3 and they say they are an expert, they obviously are not.

Here is a page rank checker you can bookmark and use.
http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

Next find out what other websites they run.
Here you will often discover much interesting information about your potential scammer.
Things like fake testimonials and the same faces and same lies on all their scammy sites.
To find this information out,
All you need to do is go to Yahoo search and enter this:

linkdomain:abc.com -site:abc.com

of course changing the abc.com to whatever persons website you are researching.
This will show you all the domains associated with that persons business and IP, and you will also pull up any comments they left on blogs using that IP, and it really gives you a overview of the person you are considering investing your money with. They may have some things on a different IP, but you will still learn a huge amount about the person by doing this.

Be sure to start clicking on websites that you see listed, and you will soon spot the fakes and the scammers as you will start to see the same sales pitch and the same fake testimonials on various websites. You may see the same website design used over and over for various sites.

As you do this be sure to check the page ranking for some of the sites the so called SEO or Web Expert has worked on, and you will see if they can deliver the goods for you. Especially check out their own domain and page ranking that they have given you as their main business website. Also check their traffic, if it is a ZERO, you know they are scamming.

Don’t forget to Google their name! I suggest when you Google you add the words ,scam, rip off , fake, fraud after their name, why?, because anyone who has complained about them online will pop up for you in the results.
This itself can be a real eye opener.

I learned this the hard way after I bought a scooter online,(X-Treme Scooters) I checked out reviews, I checked out the manufacturer, and I thought I did due diligence, then when the scooter fell apart in the box and the company refused to refund me, I did a new search using the words “scam, fake, rip off and fraud” with the scooter name and there were hundreds of people who got ripped of just like me! I learned my lesson.

Look for the negative words first when checking something out online.
I actually helped other people not get ripped off by writing about this long and horrible scooter story ( it turned into a 4 month battle with the company.)
I wrote about it on eBay guides and a few other places online. Finally my credit card refunded me under the fraud category for this purchase.
Lesson learned.

Taking 30 minutes to do some checking can save you lots of heartache and the loss of your money down the road.

Finally I suggest you download a great tool I use called SEO toolbar. It has all the things built in I have mentioned above and you can just click the various things like page rank, traffic and whois and the yahoo link domain and see it all there.
You can download this tool here
http://tools.seobook.com/seo-toolbar/

Also SEOBOOK is a great blog, packed with very helpful information.

Don’t forget to ask for “proof” from the experts.

Honest people have honest testimonials with people you can actually contact, not made up people or friends that you will see on all thier scammy websites over and over.

Honest people have real websites with real numbers and proof that you can check out for yourself.

These days everyone and their brother has decided to become an “Internet” expert, either Seo or Social Media or something else. Buyer beware, don’t get scammed and taken in by the rip off artists and frauds.

I hope I have stopped some of you from getting burned online.

Please share your stories and leave a comment!

Family campains against Sexting, daughter hung herself.

Jessica Logan’s nude cell-phone photo – meant for her boyfriend’s eyes only – was sent to hundreds of teenagers last year in at least seven Greater Cincinnati high schools.

The 18-year-old Sycamore High School senior was then bombarded with taunts: slut, porn queen, whore.

On July 3, Jessie hanged herself in her bedroom.

She was Albert and Cynthia Logan’s only child.

“My only baby that I will never be able to touch again,” Cynthia Logan said through tears. “I will never have grandchildren. I will never be able to hand down my heirlooms. I’m just devastated by these parents that allow their children to do and say anything they want.”

Now, Jessie’s parents are attempting to launch a national campaign seeking laws to address “sexting” – the practice of forwarding and posting sexually explicit cell-phone photos online. The Logans also want to warn teens of the harassment, humiliation and bullying that can occur when that photo gets forwarded.

Cynthia Logan and Parry Aftab, an attorney and one of the leading authorities on Internet security and cyberbullying, plan to attach Jessie’s name to a national campaign to educate teens about the dangers of sexting.

Aftab, based in New York, is the catalyst for a network of volunteers working to stop cyberbullying. She operates two Web sites: wiredsafety.org, the world’s largest and oldest cyber safety organization, and stopcyberbullying.org.

“Schools need to understand our kids are targeting each other and how technology is being used as a weapon,” Aftab said. “None of them (the schools) know what to do. Many of them … think it’s not their problem. They want to close their eyes and put fingers in their ears, saying it’s a home issue.”

Compassionate and carefree

Jessie’s friends and family described her as an artistic, bubbly, compassionate carefree spirit who had many friends in several schools. She was also a “tiger,” who would relentlessly stand up for someone.

“But she couldn’t stand up for herself,” Albert Logan said.

“I think when you’re constantly knocked down, you lose your self-esteem,” his wife added.

Jessie was not alone in sending nude cell-phone photos. Her friends point to the increasing pressure on teenage girls to send nude photos to their boyfriends.

A national study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy revealed that 1 in 5 teen girls or 22 percent say they have electronically sent or posted nude or semi-nude images online of themselves.

Some area school resource officers and principals estimate that at least half of the students have an inappropriate photo on their cell phone.

After the cell-phone photo was disseminated, Jessie’s outgoing personality turned inward.

The Logans blame a circle of five friends from three other high schools for forwarding the photo.

According to Cynthia Logan, Jessie took the photo and sent it to the boy she had been dating for one to two months. He, in turn, forwarded it to four girls, she said. Efforts to reach the former boyfriend were unsuccessful.

Lauren Taylor, a friend since childhood and a Sycamore senior last year, discovered the photo had been forwarded when two girls in her class showed it off. She broke the news to Jessie.

“Her head just dropped, and she started crying,” Lauren said. “And then, we went straight up to the counselor’s office. And after that, she did not want to go back out in the hallway.

“She just totally changed. She wasn’t as outgoing and kind of kept to herself, where she would normally be like jumping around. Instead her head was just down, and she would always be crying,” Lauren said. “I remember her constantly calling my phone crying.”

When the taunting started at school, Jessie skipped classes, sometimes slipping out a door to sleep in her car in the parking lot. When truancy notices showed up, her mother started dropping her off at school, but Jessie hid crying in the school bathroom.

“I watched her get kicked out of maybe three or four parties over the summer just for having ‘a reputation,’ ” said Steven Arnett, a friend of hers who graduated last year from Moeller High School.

After seeing what Jessie went through, he said, “There’s no reason to send pictures like that, no matter what a guy asks for. I don’t think that’s an acceptable thing to do.”

She couldn’t even escape when she went home, her close friends said.

“I’d be with her and she’d get numbers that weren’t even in her contacts, random numbers that she didn’t know, texting her, ‘You’re a whore, you’re a slut,’ ” Lauren said.

“Or, she’d get on MySpace and get messages from people calling her those names, or Facebook would be the same way. It was constant. She’d go home thinking, ‘Oh I’m going to get away from this,’ but she never could get away from it.”

The Logans said Sycamore High School and the school resource officer didn’t do enough to help Jessie. Sycamore sent truancy notices, Cynthia Logan said, but no calls or letters about what was happening to her daughter in school and no notices to other parents about explicit cell-phone photos. And no charges were filed by the resource officer, she said.

Sycamore Superintendent Adrienne James said she couldn’t discuss specifics of Jessie’s situation. The perils of technology was a topic at a parent information night, she said.

“It is a form of bullying, and that is something we cannot tolerate. The difficulty is stopping it. … That’s why we stress with our kids that the moment you push ’send,’ the damage is done.”

Educators and parents must be involved, James said, in talking to teens about making good choices, positive self-imaging and avoiding risky behaviors.

Montgomery Officer Paul Payne, the school resource officer, said he confronted some of the girls who forwarded Jessie’s photo, even though they attend another school. He asked them to delete the photo from their phones.

“Could she have pressed charges? No, because she’s 18,” Payne said, adding that there were some areas that could have been explored. “The investigation stopped at her wish, because she basically didn’t want this to go any further. … You respect the wishes of an 18-year-old. In the eyes of the law, she can make her own decision.”

Payne said he supports the Logans’ efforts to change laws. “Let’s face it. The law hasn’t caught up to what the original law was designed for.”

Jessie expressed regrets about taking and sending the photo, her mother said. She wanted to warn other kids. At Payne’s suggestion, she did an anonymous television interview.

“My little girl wanted to get the message out to other children not to make the same mistake she did,” Albert Logan said.

Despite missing so much school, Jessie graduated. She began making plans for a new job and college at the University of Cincinnati, where she would major in graphic design.

Then, a 16-year-old Sycamore student hanged himself last June 27. Cynthia Logan put her arms around her daughter, who was sobbing when she heard. Against her parents’ wishes, Jessie went to his visitation and funeral, because a friend needed a ride.

‘She snapped all of a sudden’

After the boy’s funeral, Jessie went to Lauren’s house and ranted about why the boy had committed suicide.

“She just kept crying,” Lauren said. “Basically, what she kept saying was, ‘How could he do this to his family? How could he put his family through so much pain, and his friends? … I never thought that she would go and do the same thing.”

Later that day, Jessie’s mother suggested that she just stay home and chill out.

Jessie complained that she was 18 and planned to go out.

Jessie took a shower before getting ready. Her dad was home. Cynthia Logan was on the phone with her brother, walking in the hallway, when Jessie came out of the bathroom and went into her bedroom.

“That is the last time I saw my daughter alive,” Cynthia Logan said, her voice lowering to a whisper.

Her mother discovered Jessie hanging in her bedroom.

“There sat her phone. Her straightener was hot. She was ready to go out. I don’t know what happened,” she said, choking back tears. “It was impulsive, like she snapped all of a sudden. You have all this weight, and it was just one more thing.”

The Logans may never have closure. She did not leave a note.

Jessie placed five phone calls before she died.

The Logans wonder if something that was said in a cell-phone conversation set her off during the last moments of her life.

Albert and Cynthia Logan have gone public with Jessie’s story, hoping to change vague state laws that don’t hold anyone accountable for sexting. They also want to warn kids about what can happen when nude cell-phone photos are shared.

“We want a bill passed,” Cynthia Logan said.

“It’s a national epidemic. Nobody is doing anything – no schools, no police officers, no adults, no attorneys, no one.”

Stop the “Flat Stomach” Fat stomach ads already!!! Enough




Who is behind those ugly disgusting fat stomach ads?
These “flat stomach rule” weight loss ads are making me furious!
I decided to do a little sleuthing and find out.
I hate these ads, they are so ugly and they are on every website I visit!
I am not kidding, websites I have previously found easy to use and on the more
shall we say classy side are being ruined by these ads. While I am reading world news
there on the side is a big horrible distorted photo of stomachs and it is gross!
Really gross.

Here is another FAKE MODEL who is on http://beverlysdietblog.com/?p=8&cpage=7#comment-317

• About Me

  

  Just a catalog model who does not own the rights to her photo.

  My name is Beverly Long and I was born and raised in California. I tried every diet out there before finally finding the perfect one!

  I Shed 34 Pounds In 40 Days With a 2-Step Diet

  My FAKE Struggle- Nice job of ad writing by scammers!
  

  Hi! I’m Beverly Long ( fake unknown model photos) from California (NOT) and I am a full-time mom with 2 amazing kids. If I would have known how hard two kids were, I may have stopped at 1!! I love my kids, but miss the body I used to have before them. I don’t have much time for myself, but the time I do have, I eat I am always on the move so eating healthy is difficult. I try to organize my life around my health, but you know as well as I how hard this can be. Needless to say I don’t have any time to work out. I have a gym membership that I use about twice a month, (who am I kidding, im lucky to go once) what a waste of money. bla bla bla, fake fake fake. If you google any part of this fake testiimony ad, you will pull up all the fake “Sue, Karen, Jenny, Becky and more FAKE blogs.”

Then they say “as seen on Rachel Ray” . Oh really when was this on Rachel Ray?
You mean you bought a spot on her T.V show? I somehow seriously doubt Rachael Ray endorses this
disgusting ad. Of course I still have no idea who owns this company and what exactly do they sell?
Since I never click the ad, and I try not to look at it.
After being assaulted by these ads for months now I am furious.
I use an ad blocker, but these are not pop up’s so they are still there.
When I googled “I hate these fat stomach ads” I got an interesting assortment of results.
Many diet forums had people complaining that these ads upset them.
I had not even considered that possibility. Various forms of the ads say ” ARE YOU FAT?”
Which is rude and offensive. Then to have to stare at that butt ugly photo while you are in
a support forum could be upsetting.
For me these photos are like a day at Great America, where I
avert my eyes from the women that should never be wearing crop tops and stretch pants,
who have their rolls hanging over their pants.
This is something I have never understood. First it looks so uncomfortable and second
do they really think this is attractive?
I digress. These ads also make me lose my appetite. (maybe that would could be a diet aid?)
I won’t even watch plastic surgery on the T.V, it makes me sick.
I think society today reveals way too much.
What happened to the mystery of the human body?
I don’t want to see all this, really I don’t.
Now I see this company (who may behind all of these ads, since FL is listed as the place in many whois)

Natural Source Store. LLC
6565 Taft Street, Suite 204
Hollywood, FL 33024

Is also behind these gross “removemystretchmarks.com” product.
I looked up who owned that website and it was a guy in Canada
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT INFO
Credit-Assist
Drew Marcin
1285 Northgate st.
Oshawa
Ontario
L1G 7M7
CA
Phone: +1.9054553235
Email Address: andrew_x_@hotmail.com

He is just another shill for this companies MLM scheme.
Do not buy these products! Nothing but plastic surgery can get rid of stretched and damage skin. I hate seeing so many people falling for all these scams. This product cosmetyn is no good.
It should be illegal for companies that buy a crappy ad is the BACK of major magazines to be able to say
“see us in Lucky or Glamor or Redbook” yeah see them in the back in the paid classifieds.

So I looked up MonicasDietBlog.com. on whois and of course it has paid privacy settings.
Administrative Contact [1625376]:
Moniker, Privacy Services MONICASDIETBLOG.COM@domainservice.com
Moniker Privacy Services
20 SW 27th Ave.
Suite 201
Pompano Beach
FL
33069
US
Phone: +1.9549848445
Fax: +1.9549699155
Then I noticed that is says Monica Conrad under one place and Monica Coyle right next to that!!
Hello, get your name right, but no why do that since it is FAKE anyway!
Next I did a search on some images and guess what I found, why I found Monica Coyle/Conrad turned into
Becky! Yes Becky Edwards and she has the exact same blog? Wow. Then Jenny Conrad, and then I found
http://danasdietdiary.com/, same set up, well you get the picture. Here is a sample for you.
Now it was getting interesting, guess what popped up next the same template for the blog but this one is called
megansdatingblog.com, now I am thinking who is running this entire thing, templates and multiple products?
This is driving me crazy now. I must find out who is behind these blog templates and more.
Anyone out there know?

http://www.namecheap.com/

Back to the acai scam….
I looked up the stuff they are trying to sell you which if you do not know by now is all a big scam! Avoid at all costs, this is just anoher MLM, (multi level marketing) scam.

It is a MLM scheme (as usual) and guess what when you click
the recommended products on “MonicasDietBlog” you get this www.life-cleanse.com,
who also seem to share the same whois privacy information!
Registrant [1571984]:
Moniker, Privacy Services LIFE-CLEANSE.COM@domainservice.com
Moniker Privacy Services
20 SW 27th Ave.
Suite 201
Pompano Beach
FL
33069
US
And gee big surprise the Acai berry trial domain also has this…
Billing Contact [1433856]:
Moniker, Privacy Services ACAIBERRYDETOX.COM@domainservice.com
Moniker Privacy Services
20 SW 27th Ave.
Suite 201
Pompano Beach
FL
33069
US
Phone: +1.9549848445
Fax: +1.9549699155
Now interestingly as I continued to dig, I found on the terms and conditions page a web address buried in there where you could email to discontinue getting emails from them.
This looks like where they must manufacture the bogus scam product Acai Berry diet extract aid whatever they call it.
Yet again, you really can’t contact anyone or discover WHO OWNS THIS and who is running this scam.
Because when this much secretive cover goes into a product, you can bet it is a total SCAM!
I called one of the 800 numbers and got these guys, fwm.labs adn they are located in , you guessed it, FL!

fwmlabs.net fwmlabs.org
Administrative Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (032b8abdb93d4af89fb058aa5ce690e4.protect@whoisguard.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd. #110 – 732
Westchester, CA 90045
US
trynaturesbestacai.com, more buried information
Registrant:
XStreamHost.com
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: TRYNATURESBESTACAI.COM

Anyway, it just got bigger and deeper so I found this guys blog about it and he has really got some great stuff on there,
all the fake photos, and names and it is great, go and check him out.
http://wafflesatnoon.com/2009/01/29/acai-cleanse-scams-update/
He also compiled a fantastic “The Fake Diet Girls” photo album. I love it! The photos I posted have many other fake names.
Just to let you know, this is a huge scam, do not buy anything from these sites and these are not real people
they are paid models or actors and please please be careful out there. The internet is rife with criminals who have blossomed online.
Many of these scams are run from Russia and Nigeria and Belgium.
They aren’t even in the U.S and if you get taken the authorities here can’t do anything for you.
I will post more later after I do more investigation.
Read some more reports on people RIPPED off by this whole acai berry scam.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/372/RipOff0372878.htm

Here is a sample from all the complaints.
Nubodi Inc., Acai berry 500, and Wellness Watchers MD – all crooks.

The complaint I filed with the Better Business Bureau in Florida attempted to negotiate with Nubodi, and imagine this – Nubodi reported they had never done business with me, they say they did not share my information with Wellness Watchers MD, and if I would just ’send them my personal information and credit card numbers again’ then they will try to find me in their system. Ha! What a laugh!

The BBB should be ashamed to even negotiate such scandalous requests when they know what kind of people they’re dealing with (BBB gave this company a grade of ‘F’ on their website).

I also alerted the Chamber of Commerce in Davie, Florida to the scandalous activities of Nubodi and Wellness Watchers, and the Davie Chamber of Commerce was kind enough to call me. The gentleman there informed me that the telephone number for Nubodi: 801-208-7485 is NOT even a Florida telephone number, but the address they are using: 4650 SW 51st Street, Suite 711, Davie, Florida 33314 – IS an actual address.

Soon after my conversation with the helpful gentleman at the Davie Chamber of Commerce, a woman from Oregon called me to say that the she was given my number by the Davie Chamber of Commerce as another person who had been scammed by Nubodi’s Acai berry scam, and I told this lady to beware of Wellness Watchers MD too. Unfortunately for this lady in Oregon, she purchased the products with her debit card, so the money is gone from her bank account forever, and I doubt that she’ll see it back again. I encouraged her to close her account so that they can’t get at any more of her hard earned cash.

I sincerely wish that someone out there would go after these people – Nubodi and Wellness Watchers MD – and put them behind bars. They are getting rich off of a lot of unsuspecting health conscious people.

The thing that is driving me crazy is who owns these companies. Who is the guy in charge.
I have done all kinds of business related searches and I can not find the a-hole who runs this entire operation. That is worrying to me. NO names no accountability.
Check out this disclaimer from one of the many fake acai berry sites.
Copyright © 2009 Pure Acai Berry Pro. All Rights Reserved. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. *As with any weight loss program, proper diet and exercise are an integral part of achieving results. Pure Acai Berry Pro is not affiliated in any way with Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Rachel Ray, The Rachel Ray Show, ABC, CBS, CNN news, Fitness Magazine and WSJ.com. Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Rachel Ray, The Rachel Ray Show, ABC, CBS, CNN news, Fitness Magazine and WSJ.com are registered trademarks of their respective owners. The individuals and testimonials shown are paid models, and not necessarily Pure Acai Berry Pro customers. These statements have not been reviewed by the
Food and Drug Administration.

You would think Rachel Ray and Oprah Winfrey’s people would force them to stop using their names like this.
That has to be illigal, and they use their images too.

7 Reasons Why Every Writer Needs a Website

The Internet has profoundly changed the way people communicate with each other.
This has also impacted businesses and altered the way they do business.
If you are serious about writing, you need an online presence.
Here are 7 reasons why.

1. Be easy to find.
In today’s world, people find you though the Internet.
The Internet has become the yellow pages to the world.
People now google someone they meet or hear about to learn more.
You don’t want to miss those opportunities.
Each time someone finds your website or
blog, you have an opportunity to promote yourself and your product.

2. Showcase your work.
Your website or blog serves as your portfolio.
This is where you showcase
your work and your talent.
You can use your website like a resume.
Have your biography and a section with samples.
You can create your press kit for easy access.
You can have your podcasts or
any radio show appearances on your site.
You also want to list all your contact information.

3. Branding.
As writers our name is our brand.
This is an opportunity to get your name out there 24/7.
The Internet is always “on” and fresh content is a priority for search engines.
With your site you have a palette to showcase and present yourself to the world.

4. Marketing.
You will want to have your website address on all your written materials.
Editors and agents can peruse your work in your sample section.
Having you own website or blog gives you the opportunity to promote yourself online,
submit your articles to online services like e-zine or join an article submission service
for a small monthly fee. They will distribute your articles for you.
Always place a short line about yourself and a link to your website in all your work.
Internet marketers and website owners are starved for content, and as a writer you can provide it.
This will stay out there online for years and reap you benifits and new customers or readers
long after you have written the article.
There are also services you can sign up for where people will hire you to write articles for them, such as elance.

5. Creativity and Fun!
To utilize and enjoy your creativity, start a blog.
Blogging is a great way to get traffic from the right audience for the right reasons.
This is your chance to express yourself while attracting an audience
who shares your interests and wants to hear what you have to say.
When you add a blog to your website, you instantly will see an increase in traffic.
Search engines love fresh content and blogs are an easy
and fast way to provide new content.

6. Build a mailing list.
This is critical if you want to begin to market and sell yourself and your product.
You can offer a monthly or bi monthly newsletter. You can tell your clients and
interested parties about products you recommend and you can do this as an affiliate to make money.
This is also a potential list of buyers for your books and future books, teleseminars,
classes, podcasts and any personal appearances or speaking you may be offering.

7. Monetize your site.
Earn a little income back with your site. If you can begin to build some traffic
and an audience for your website or blog, you can make money from your site.
This involves joining some affiliate programs such as Amazon and Adsense.
Almost every company now offers an affiliate program where if you discuss a
product and use your affiliate link to the company, you will earn a commission
if the customer buys.
Amazon actually will credit you for anything someone buys through your link
for up to 24 hours. The commissions run from 2-5%.

Most people now use the Internet to find what they are looking for.
Don’t miss out by not having a web presence. You don’t have to
understand computers or be a techie. There are many great website
designers and professionals available to help you get started.
Click here for a free quote on a website or a blog for your business.

Linda Lee offers coaching and consulting on how to promote
your website and blog.
She also can help you with affliate set up and marketing.
SEO Website and Blog custom design and redesigns
and hosting are all avaliable at askmepc-webdesign.