Complaint Review: Google Cash Kit - St. George Utah

*NOTICE..!! this ripoff has nothing to do with Google search engine - many rip-off businesses use the Google name to fool consumers.

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This company first, goes under the guise that they are endorsed by CNN or Google.  In fact, I initially found them under an video add with the CNN logo.  Now, I am typically suspicious of anything that sounds this good, but I figured, "If CNN endorses it, it must be on the up and up."  My husband agreed; it is worth mentioning that he and I both have Masters Degrees, his in Business Administration.  Well, to make this as short as possible, I ordered the kit, for a nominal fee of 2.99 for shipping.

3 days later, I received my kit, and a day later, I received a call from a woman who claimed to be working for Google Cash Secrets.  She informed me that she was sending me info for a website that would teach me all I needed to know, and that if I wanted to cancel, I'd need to do so within a week or be charged $59.99 a month.  Fair enough, I said.  Again, Mr. MBA agreed, as one needs money to make money.  Two days later, I checked my email for this message. There was no message from these people.  I called the number they gave me to cancel, and asked what gives.  They had the "wrong" email address in their records, and the woman who answered informed me that I was only going to be charged $59.00 and that I was excused from paying anything else....this after I had only had "access" to this website for only two days, not a week.  She told me that the money had already been taken from my credit card.  Immediately, I told her to reverse the charge or be reported to the FTC.  She did.

Days later, I received another call from an "employee" of Google, located in Utah, (confirmed by my caller ID)  also claiming to have sent me the coveted kit.  He wooed me with some spiel about financial independence, asked me to write down my goals for 6 months, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years and informed me he was trying to see if I was a good fit for his company.  He decided I was, and told me he was going to have his boss call me at a prescribed time later in the day.  An hour later, I got a call from another "employee" of Google, from an Alabama area code.  I asked if he was associated with the guy who originally called me, and he said, no, and insisted that that guy must have been a scam artist.  Strangely enough, this new guy had the exact same spiel, almost word for word.  But remember, they were not associated with one another. 

The first guy's boss calls me at the appointment time, and my hubby and I listen in to his testimonials and his facts and figures.  Something rang a bell with my hubby, and quite frankly, didn't sound entirely kosher to me.  So, we started asking questions, about how the business worked, startup costs, statistics, and the guy started getting defensive on us.  That set off a red flag.  We told him we'd think about it, and then he started arguing with us.  He told us we were too cynical and narrow-minded to be a good fit for his company, and that he was not confident he could teach us anything.  That is why we both have Master's Degrees, you see, because we are unteachable. 

We hung up on him. 

Over the next several weeks, I received about a dozen calls from area codes all over the country, reading me the same spiel, which is obviously scripted.  By this time, though, I was so annoyed by the whole racket that I cut them off before they could waste anymore of my time.

The last straw came two nights ago (2/26/2010), when a woman called me from California, also claiming to have sent me a kit.  Again, same spiel, except she informed me that there would be $49.99 deducted from my credit card account until I sent back the kit.  How in sam hill did this woman have my credit card information?  And how many other people did?  I told her I never signed up for that, and she forcefully informed me that I did, and that she could prove it with her records.  PROVE WHAT? At this point more interested in the nature of the scam than I was in the "opportunity" she was offering me, I stayed on the phone with her.  First, I asked her the last 4 digits of my credit card (so I could cancel it after I got off the phone with her and have it reissued under another #).  Then, I let her go into her "spiel."  As she was doing this, I put her on speaker phone and went online to search her and her company.  It turn out that thousands other people had dealt with her company (which turned out to be Herbalife), with catastrophic results.  

I don't know from personal experience, as I declined her "offer," but, based on 9 out of every 10 reports I read on various scam websites, this company has bilked massive quantities of money from people under the guise of the promise of "financial independence."  She was being very equivocal,  so I started asking questions, which she would not answer unless I consented to have $150 deducted from my credit card.  Why, I asked her, would she not just answer my questions?  Eventually, I told her I was not interested.  I have to give her credit for staying calm and professional through my interrogation.

As soon as I hung up with her, I immediately called my credit card and had the number changed.  According to the customer service rep, calls like this were coming in all over the department, from people like me.  However, I was one of the lucky ones.  I was only out $2.99 for the shipping fee of the first kit.  Many of them had already been charged without their permission by these people, anywhere from $39.99 to several thousand.

Since I nipped it in the bud early, I cannot honestly say what would might have happened "if," however, the whole think stinks like rotten fish.  I later found out that Google does not endorse any of these "employers."  They are only using the Google name in order to garner trust.  I don't see how they get away with it.  In addition, they shared my information with others (phone #, address and credit card).  That alone tells me that this is rotten.  Who knows how many people out there have that old credit card #.  All I can say is I am lucky to have figured this out when I did and I feel sorry for the thousands of people who have lost significant sums of money to these sneaky, deceptive b***ards.