BBB Issues Warning on Easy Street
A website with name like "Google Easy Street" that promotes work at home opportunities immediately makes me wonder if this is truly legit. As a company, Google just doesn't offer many work at home jobs. And building an online business with Google Adsense, well, there's nothing easy about growing a successful home business. In fact, Google work at home opportunities are one of the common types of work-at-home scams.
But I'm not the only one who wondered about this so-called Easy Street. The Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona issued a consumer alert for the online company, technically called Creative Synergy Training (CST), which purports to sell the secrets of making money at Google. (See the BBB consumer alert, which has a link to CST.) The BBB says that in a little over a month it received 10 complaints claiming the company charged consumers credit cards after they had requested their account be canceled within the three-day window that the company allows consumers to cancel their account and receive a refund.
When looking for legitimate work-at-home jobs, keep in mind the telltale signs of a work at home scam, which include:
- Promising big money for little work,
- High pressure tactics,
- Advertising endorsements by well-known companies without providing links or other proof of such endorsements,
- And confusing monthly billing policies in small print.
“Google Easy Street” is a scam. On their website in a very prominent position they announce that it only costs $1.98.
But below the bottom of the screen, in fine print, in their terms and conditions, they also tell you that they are going to bill a one time fee of $129.95. You have a 3 day cancellation period FROM THE DATE YOU ORDERED. But the trick is that they don’t bill the $129.95 until after the 3 days have passed. So when you see it on your bank statement for the first time, the cancellation period has already passed. In addition to the 129.95, they also slip into their fine print 2 more MONTHLY fees, of $39.98 and $29.95.
How many people have they ripped off so far? I’m helping my mother attempt to recover from their scam. They actually billed her the $129.95 twice! Of course, they’re claiming it’s all spelled out in the “terms and conditions”. But they make it just about impossible for all but the most computer savvy and suspicious to figure out their tricks. We’re working with her banks to get the money. We’ve forwarded all the information to Google’s legal department (this company had no right to use Google’s trademark and Google is already engaged in fighting other companies using the same scam) and we are planning to take this outfit to Small Claims court ourselves.
Here is Google’s contact information
Kent Walker, VP, General Counsel
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain view, CA 94043