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Kiwis duped by internet get-rich-quick scheme

9 January 2009

Have you seen the new wave of ads appearing on sites that are part of the Google Adsense network?

"Kiwi mum of four makes it big"

"Auckland solo mum earns big money"

"Kiwi gran says yes to unlimited prosperity"

There are many more -- but I'm sure you get my drift. These are all ads that promise unlimited wealth to anyone who wants it.

Overwhelmingly they appear targeted at people who are down on their luck or struggling to make ends meet, ie: the most vulnerable in our society.

But hey, if these are miracle programs that can turn any struggling Kiwi into a financially secure big-earner then that has to be a good thing -- right?

Dead wrong!

When I first saw these ads I could smell snake oil, so I did some investigation.

And sure enough, all these ads led to websites that looked strangely similar.

Take the website of good old Kiwi girl Cathy Betty.

Cathy and her family seem to live in Auckland and her website is rich with pictures of her, little baby Sarah and an unnamed male who we assume to be her partner.

However, once you start reading the detail on this page, alarm bells start to ring.

"It just isn't true that you can be rolling in thousand-dollar bills without doing anything".

Now that's very true but I didn't think we had "thousand-dollar bills" here in NZ.

But Cathy's promising to help you get into your own "authentic home-based business that will - with some work on your part - lead to ever-escalating income".

And, believe it or not, this business involves "no explaining" and "is not a sales job".

So what do you have to do in order to earn all this wealth? How exactly do you make money without selling anything?

Yes, the smell of snake-oil is getting really strong now!

In fact, this has all the hallmarks of a scheme designed to dupe the dim and gullible. An awfully long, rambling website (complete with an almost unlimited range of fonts, typefaces and highlighting styles), plenty of promises that sound too good to be true, lots of pictures of "regular people" and the all-important long list of testimonials.

Let's look at one of those testimonials...

Rachel Oliver says that she was on the bones of her arse before finding this "opportunity" but now earns more money in a month than most of us earn in an entire year. And look at how pretty Rachel is. Surely such a sweet looking fox wouldn't lie about this, would she?

Well there are plenty of folks who say she is lying and this site contains many such allegations about Rachel and the Liberty League scheme she fronts.

Yes, this *is* a get-rich quick scheme that, like so many others, is simply little more than a 2-level pseudo-ponzi scheme.

How do you get rich?

Well you sign up to the plan for an annual fee plus a monthly fee for your "personalised" website, plus a whole lot more money for extras. Most of this money gets distributed back to those above you in the network.

The premise is that you're buying into personal awareness and training systems that will improve your life -- but we all know that this is just a foil to try and disguise the true nature of the scheme.

Quite frankly I'm sick and tired of seeing people who know no better and who can least afford the $1500+ it actually costs to get involved in a scheme like this being ripped off -- then going on to rip off others.

This system fails the key tests of what's a true business opportunity and what's not:

For a start, there is no real product. Nothing is being created here and no real service is being delivered -- therefore no wealth is actually being generated -- it's just being redistributed from the idiots who come in at the bottom of the multi-level tree to the founders and those who recruit them.

I wonder how many previously innocent Kiwis have been duped by this scam?

Well just a few seconds of searching turned up a long list of Kiwis that are part of this scheme:

and there are many, many more.

Do these people really believe they can get rich by sitting at home and allowing a website to earn them a fortune while doing next to nothing?

The people behind this scheme are making very, very good money but it must be remembered that for every dollar they receive, someone is handing over a dollar and getting nothing in return. If that weren't the case there'd have to be some kind of productive activity going on -- but there's not.

No product is being manufactured, no service is being delivered (other than the duplication of mass-produced clone websites that are then personalised with a few pictures and a couple of paragraphs in the "who is..." section.

Please spread the word about this. Tell friends, neigbbours and relatives that there are no free lunches and that if it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is.

As for Rachel Oliver... well I suggest you read the posting under the title Victoria Vance at the bottom of this page. This claims to be from Rachel Oliver's mother and has some frank things to say about her girl's claims and ethics. "My daughter is a liar, a manipulator, & will use all to get her way". Does this sound like the description of a scammer? Is it really her mother or just someone trying to discredit poor old Rachel?

The fact that it's still online and the site hasn't been sued for defamation might be a clue.

How do we protect the gullible amongst us from losing their money to schemes like this?

While it might (or might not) be a technically "legal" system, is it really a morally or ethically sound way to make money?

Isn't it time the mainstream media started alerting people to this kind of scam, especially now that times are tough and an increasing number of dim-bulbs might be preparing to invest their last few bucks in such a "too good to be true" option?

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