Easy Google Profit, GoogleTreasureChest & Google Money Tree Scam

Everyone loves it when their website pages reach the top of the search engines, but what a shock it was to us to start receiving ’scam’ emails, questions about some program, and death threats. Yes! Even death threats!

We started to research just what exactly it was that people were searching for information on, and boy did we find out. It seems there is a program out there called Easy Google Profits, that for $1.97, will send you a CD about how to make thousands within 72 hours. Unfortunately, for those who don’t read the fine print, you also end up being auto billed monthly for 3 separate charges. We have also read numerous reports stating the CD rom has a trojan virus on it as well. Ouch people!

This company has NOTHING to do with us. I even had someone scan a copy of the package they received so I could see what the heck was going on! The email address on the front of the package clearly says “support@googletreasurechest.com”. If one was to take a look at our site, we are clearly totaltreasurechest.com, NOT ‘google’.

So no biggie – people make mistakes. We have tried to send those of you contacting us some advice and assistance, but once we start getting death threats and other threatening emails, one has to draw the line at some point – hence this post

So here’s a little of what we found out:

On April 24, 2009 the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced charges for operating a fraudulent work-at-home scheme against Infusion Media Inc, GoogleTreasureChest.com, InternetIncomeInitiative.com, and Jonathan D. Eborn (”Defendants”), whose “GoogleMoneyTree.com” promised six-figure earnings for conducting specialized Google and Yahoo Internet searches. According to the state’s enforcement action, GoogleMoneyTree failed to clearly inform purchasers that they had been enrolled in monthly memberships and had only seven days to cancel their trial membership. Purchasers who failed to cancel within seven days were automatically charged $82 on their credit card statements each month. In addition to the unexpected credit card charges, customer complaints obtained by state investigators indicate that GoogleMoneyTree failed to actually send the “free kit” and refused to honor customer refunds. The state is seeking an injunction, civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, as well as restitution for purchasers.

Here is the link to the full charges made by Texas.

From other reports we have read, it seems calling this company to cancel the charges does not work, despite receiving a cancellation verification code. Most consumers have had to actually cancel their credit card and have a new number issued. I’d advise anyone who has purchased this product to contact their credit card company or bank asap, and advise them of the situation.

MAY 20 UPDATE: The Easy Google Profits scam has now spread to 2 different sites built to look like respectable newspaper pages from The Los Angeles Tribune and The Miami Gazette News. These are NOT actual pages from REAL newspapers – they have been developed purely to dupe people into thinking the opportunity is legitimate.

Be on the lookout for:

http://miamigazettenews.com/business/2009/main.php
http://www.losangeles-tribune.com/finance/

Help Stop Others From Being Duped!

Please leave a comment below with any other helpful information or questions you may have. Let’s stop these guys NOW.