Financial Reflections

When the Federal Trade Commission calls a special press conference, you know something’s up.  You may have seen one of the hundreds of ads with President Obama’s image and often a shot of a stimulus check.  They offer a way to get some of the billions the government is handing out.  Well the FTC has had enough and is holding a press conference to show what they call “Economic Stimulus Scams.” So what’s all the fuss about?

You may have seen some of the seemingly hundreds of ads with an image of President Obama and sometimes an image of a government check.   Sometimes they’re text ads, like the one I captured an image of below:

I was curious so I looked up the page it led to.   This one went to  Jessica’s Money Blog, under the URL www.officialstimuluspayments.com  I noticed most of the ads disapeared after the FTC announcement, but I guess that site lives dangerously.  Here’s a shot of “Jessica’s” page:

Like many of the blog-style promotional pages, it contains a (quite likely fictional) story of an everyday person who had great success with a free trial offer.  This one has two: a government grant offer and a “Google” money making system.

Here’s the page you see for the Google Money System.  I shrunk it to let you see what’s on the screen first.  I guess you make the money using Google, but the fine print bottom of the page indicates that Google doesn’t endorse the system, and none of the logos you see, such as CNBC, AOL, USA Today, ABC, CNN, or Yahoo! endorse it either.  I’m not even sure why they are on the page, other than to try to associate the offer with big names.

I was told it was only $1.95 for shipping to get in on this big money maker that Jessica used to get rich.  So why not check it out?  I entered some info and was taken to a second page to get my credit card info.

You don’t see the disclaimer until the second page, and here’s about how big it is:

Compared to the size of a full page, that’s kind of small.  If you don’t read that fine print you’re going ot be out $47 bucks in 7 das and every month after that.  How small is the “fine print?”  Here’s a shot of the whole page, just so you can decide for yourself.

The next offer gets at what the FTC was pointing out, the use of Obama with an offer.  Here’s the page:

You may note it uses the image of President Obama and the network logos, just like the FTC warned about.  It also lures you into a rebill arrangement just like the Google Money offer on the other page.  Only this time it’s a $100 hit and then a $49.95 monthly charge.  The fine print this time was at the bottom of the second page.

Is this a “scam?”  I’m not exactly sure how to define that, but it seems kind of slimy to me.  You may not there are TONS of offers like this out there, such as the many diet offers (such as acai berry or diet teas) that offer a free trial and often a $70 to $90 rebill every month.

The bottom line?

1. Always read the fine print.
2. There is not easy money.
3. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The good news is there are ways to take advantage of the stimulus package, but be sure to check with someone qualified to learn how the stimulus can help you.

Got a story about one of these rebill/stimulus sites?  Share it in the comments below…