Maryland reports May 2009 unemployment rolls are near 210,000 and still rising. Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but BBB’s advice is “don’t fall for the little bird chirping $$$ hoping to make money with Twitter!”
The real scam here is there are websites like EasyTweetProfits.com and TwitterProfitHouse.com claiming you can make $250 - $800 a day working at home.
- The work? Grow your followers on Twitter and companies will pay you to “market” their products/services to your massive list of followers.
- How do you do this? Well, these companies offer you an instructional CD-ROM and monthly tips and tools to grow your work-at-home business.
- The cost? You pay $1.95 to cover s/h and of course, you pay by credit/debit card.
- The REAL COST? Once you give them your payment form, they bill you anywhere from $47 - $99.99 per month for the monthly service! What do you get? NOTHING! Consumers report losing hundreds of dollars at a time when they can least afford it.
These websites make promises they can’t deliver with gross exaggerations of income potential. They post false testimonials (for fun – cut/paste a testimonial and insert in search engine and you’ll find that same testimonial in many other websites – try it!) and they use icons such as USA, CNN, ABC. Now come on, how realistic is it to expect you can make lots of money with little effort and no experience. . . is that really the American way? It may be the American Dream but it is not today’s reality.
So our words of warning about Twitter? Cybercriminals are now using Twitter as they have email, fax, letters, and carrier pigeons. Twitter was created as a social network and began with security weaknesses which are now being “tweaked”! Scamsters will appeal to your need to trick you into believing you can make money at home simply by tweeting. And, because anyone can anonymously sign up a Twittter account and push unfiltered messages across the Internet, these rip-off artists can send links that when opened, will release malware that could take control of your PC, your bank account and your PII (Personal Identifying Information).
- Make sure you use anti-virus protection and spy-ware that is current and up-to-date! (we learned this lesson at BBB!)
- Install updates for your software but make sure it comes from reputable source. Some of the best malware comes in the form of suggesting you upload “new versions” of Adobe software
- Don’t click on links if the source is unknown or unsolicited.
And last word – be sensible. We all could use extra cash right now but we learned early in life that the pot of gold is something we chase, but rarely find. That pot of gold isn’t online! Talk soon – Angie
