Reporting online scams

Yesterday I got a messege from someone telling me I should make a blog about different scams that people can find online.
Then I found an interesting article
http://www.blogstash.com/10-signs-of-online-money-making-scams/
well I decided to put the site I am now having trouble with, to the 10-sign test"

1.Big Money~If any site promises to make you a bunch of money in a short time, then it is probably a scam. Otherwise they would be doing it themselves instead of trying to sell you the info.
2.Who Are You~Be aware of any company that hides info on who they are & how to contact them.
3.Response Time~Before signing up, contact the site/company, and ask a question or two. Usually scammers don’t even bother to answer or respond to any email. Even if they do, it takes them a very long time to respond. Ask yourself if they take that long to respond to a question, how long is going take them to pay you (if they are even going to pay)?
4.Over Decorated~supposedly scam sites use more flash then non-scam sites.
5.Fake Testimonial~Most businesses use testimonial which is a good way to promote. But, if you pay close attention, you can easily spot the fake ones. For example, a testimonial about a product that helps you make more money with your site says “…with the help of the x program i have made that much money on my site. Regards, bill billy www.bill.com …”. If you check the mentioned site, 9 out of 10 times, either it doesn’t exist or if it does, no body by that name is responsible or have anything to do with the site
6.Too Easy~Now what kind of real job can you do with no hard work or experience and still make a few thousand dollars a week....NONE
7.Email offers~Don't you love getting emails from Nigera or where-ever addressed to "Dear Friend". Didn't realize I had friends in Nigera.
8.Pay A Fee And Keep It A Secret~What legitimate company that you have worked for before, required you to pay a fee in order for them to give you more detailed information on how to make money? And why would they be afraid if you told someone about this transaction?…
9.Free Email Address~I guess scammers like using gmail & yahoo for their emails. (I have both...hmmm)
10Gut~99% of the time, what your gut instinct tells you is the truth.




And I would like to add another one to that list: Check the company out at the "Better Business Bureau". Here is some info I found this week about Rob's site.

Business Contact and Profile for Bloggingtothebank.com
Name: Bloggingtothebank.com
Phone: (510) 595-2002
Address: PO Box 99800
Emeryville, CA 94662-9809

Principal: Mr Robert Benwell
Customer Contact: Mr Robert Benwell
File Open Date: February 2007
Type of Business: Investment Advisory Service
BBB Accreditation: Bloggingtothebank.com is not a BBB Accredited business.

*~*PO Box 99800 in Emeryville, California is the address of this company's internet service provider, Melbourne IT a company located in Australia. On November 17, 2009 BBB was notified that the PO Box is no longer in use.

#1 I knew there was a problem with Rob and his website, when I instantly got emails from him with links to "buy" more stuff. When I went to his main site and wrote him a messege telling him I couldn't afford to buy anything...he didn't understand and keeps sending me emails with the same links.
#2 It has now been or 6 days since I first paid for his "FREE" service and I still havent seen my new blog.
#3 For whatever reason you cant always just hit reply to one of his emails...because his emails don't always work...havent figured out why. So I usually either send messeges to all 4 of his emails or have to just contact him from his website.

It seems like I am not the only person having trouble with Rob and his site. I did a search on hubpages to see if anyone had written anything on online-scams and here is 1 such page.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Rob-Benwell

Don't trust everyone. Just as you wouldn't trust a stranger with your money in real life, there is no reason why you should do so on the internet.
I am in the process of checking these 5 places for info about "bloggingtothebank.com"
Internet Fraud Complaint Center - this is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), that strives to address fraud and scams committed over the Internet.

Better Business Bureau - file an online complaint against any company or charity that has treated you unfairly. The site also provides a national database of reliability reports. A positive report doesn't mean the company is definately a legitimate one, but on the other hand, companies with negative reports should be avoided.

Rip Off Report - file a report about any fraud or rip off scam you have come across. The report you file will be placed online for the world to see!

The National Fraud Information Center - this site is US based and is specialised in dealing with most kinds of internet and telemarketing frauds/scams.

Fraud Watch International - seeks to reduce the incidence of Internet fraud by educating consumers, shutting down fraudulent and scam sites and prosecuting frauders.

Federal Trade Commission - allows you to file a complaint about a particular company or organization, using a secure complaint form. Although the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, the complaint helps in fraud investigation, and can lead to law enforcement action.

Money Making Scams

Working for yourself at home sounds like a dream for alot of people...myself included. In the past, I had found different ways to make money at home. I ordered supplies from a company to make earrings, that supposedly if sent back to the company and the company approved of them then they would pay for them...course the company always found a reason not to approve of the earrings. I should of just sold all the earrings in a yardsale.

I knew an old retired guy, who wanted to supplement his retirement fund by stuff envelopes. I think he did get a list of names & addresses that he was supposed to mail stuff to but after he got the initial list of names, he never heard from the company again.

Years ago, I even joined some sites that would pay a person to read emails. I figured, great because I am always reading emails. Course they were not going to pay you to read your own emails. You had to go to special sites and click on a bunch of ads and read the advertisments (also known as emails). You would get paid about 1cent for each email and wasn't going to get a check for any of it until you got to $100 (or something like that). I never did get paid for that.

Even today, you can pick up a "National Enquirer" trash-paper and find ads toward the back of the paper for business opportunities...processing mail, data entry work, mystery shopping, and even one claiming to pay up to $3,000 dollars a week. Well you know the old saying "if it sounds to good to be true, then it is" and that last one of making $3,000 a week sure sounds to good to be true.

This week, it would seem that I fell for another money-making scam online. I've been reading quite a bit about how to get paid from writing blogs online. Sure I can type a blog, and I can be opinionated on alot of different subjects. My problem seems to be getting other people to follow my blogs and/or clicking on the ads that are on the same page as my blogs.
I found a site "bloggingtothebank.com" and Rob stated that he would set up a FREE blog for me and help me along to get followers and make money with it. I should have known that it was a scam when he sent me to sign-up with another site, which I had to pay $24.95 for. Supposedly Rob said he would have my new blog up & running in 24-48 hours. It has now been over 84 hours. I've already written to Rob to complain and all I get from him are more sites to join with more stuff to buy for a few hundred dollars.

Guess I will keep my day job for awhile longer.

Court bill

Yesterday while looking in a box, I found 1 of the old Kingman court bills that was finally sent to me in April. I don't have any idea on why they divided the bill in 2.
Anyways I paid $450 towards the bill. I had thought of saving up until I had the total amount and then pay it off with one-lump payment. But figured it was better to just get the money out of my reach so I don't waste it on silly nonsense stuff.

It wasn't on the budget I made up yesterday, because I wasn't even thinking of the money I already had in the bank. But actually the money in my savings account was supposed to be saved for this court bill anyways. So I did the "grown-up" thing and started paying it yesterday. Weird how doing the "grown-up" thing of paying bills can actually make me feel good. But I bet when the court opened up today, that someone must of had a heart-attack when they saw my payment. My court bill is about 7 years old.


Well today is a new day and looks like it might rain again. Good day to stay home and clean out more boxes. Maybe I'll find all the paperwork I need for the state of NH court.

I need a budget

Now alot of people will say that you need a budget. I have even heard Brenda make comments as she is ordering craft supplies that something isn't in her budget (I don't really think she makes a budget). She is probably like me and will just shop as long as money is in the bank account.

So I thought I would give it a try for this month. Now to figure out what I actually spend money on.
Groceries:$100
Eating out:$80
Qwest:$100
Birthday gifts:$30
Post office:$25
Comp/Cam:$30
Magazines:$20
Bathroom stuff:$15


See my rent & utilities are automatically taken out of my paycheck before I even get paid so I don't have to budget for those, and the rent amount is always different depending on how many hours I work.
I don't own a car so I'm not budgeting for gas or insurance. I don't have a phone or cable TV so there really isn't much for me to budget for this month.
Almost forgot to add in Qwest for my wi-fi service. I haven't gotten a bill from them yet...guess I should go to their site later and find out why.
I almost wasn't going to put bathroom stuff on this list as I'm pretty sure that I already have enough shampoo, but decided to add $15 as a "just in case I need it".

This budget only comes up to $400...so I guess the rest of my money should just go into savings...yeah right, lets see if that really happens.