GoogleMoneyTree Nailed By TX AG

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nachoninja said:
lest we forget that the porn industry works on the same biz model and it still exists....
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Yeah, except with porn, you know exactly why you're being billed and what for... and the only thing that's stopping you from stopping them is that you don't want to ring the bank and tell the nice lady on the phone with the sexy voice that you need to do a chargeback against "All Black Anal Sluts that Like Gurgling Cum Dotcom".

Similar business idea / scam got floated in Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Take out a deceptive add, get people to send a cheque to a regular sounding business name, cycle funds through to account name that's filthy, and send them a refund cheque apologising about how you're stock was seized by customs. Very few people will cash a cheque from "Male Arse Tickling Pleasure Dildo Pty Ltd".
 


Jon said:
Just heard about this..

The Texas Attorney General's office is going after the boys from GoogleMoneyTree for fraud.

Rumor has it the GMT guys are going to try and put blame on networks and some affiliates as well, although nothing has been filed against anyone else yet.

If anyone is still promoting it, I'd suggest you take it down right about now.

Official TX AG link: Texas Attorney General
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Thanks for the warning
 
Aequitas said:
Honestly I can't give you any legal advice and I can't even say what you should do but I can say that I have previously seen everything from C&Ds to court action being taken when someone is fucking with another companies trademarks.

This includes domains which contain trademarks in them, will they ever catch you?, who knows, should you take all your shit off those domains, well I honestly couldn't say what you should or shouldn't do, nor could anyone else.

However if your worried about it go out and ask a lawyer if what your doing is considered infringing upon the rights of the other parties.
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Thank you. Definitely will be consulting a lawyer.
 
This has nothing to do with the actual product or idea. You can sell someone elephant shit in a box and re-bill them monthly for new shipments, but you must allow them to cancel, and if you say it's a free trial you must allow them a refund within the trial period. Or if the trial is free and you're making them pay for shipping you must actually send them the product....

This advertiser FTL. I hope he gets fined and goes out of business.
 
If you are offering to sell something, collecting money, but not giving what you promised then that is fraud. Plain and simple. These stupid fuckers could at least get their shit together and send out their shitty CDs instead of just thinking that they can collect money from people and not give anything.

The Google trademark thing is interesting though. Many advertisers use the same Google font and colors in their pages. Alot of them mention that they are in no way affiliated with Google, but I'm not sure if that's enough or not to avoid lawsuits.

Isn't using Oprah and Dr Oz on all those Acai berry sites sort of the same thing (as using Google on these bizopp sites)? I've also seen Brad Pitt and Britney Spears on some as well, but I guess it would be up to those individuals to sue those companies.
 
I've also seen Brad Pitt and Britney Spears on some as well, but I guess it would be up to those individuals to sue those companies.
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don't you guys have some sort of freedom of speech to protect for that. i mean if i say britney was caught taking acai in LA last week isn't that reporting news? as opposed to stating britney lost 20 lbs taking acai sooper poop 500.
 
Not sure as I'm in Canada, but I guess the celeb endorsement thing isn't as "damaging" as it is for a product like Google Cash. If the consumer thinks that the offer is related to Google (when clearly it's not but sheeple aren't the most web saavy), and they get scammed/rebilled then they automatically associate with Google being a scam.

Bottom line is it hurts Google's rep when you have all these products banking off Google's popularity, and that's probably why they are playing the lion in the field ready to pounce at the right moment. I think affiliates need to watch it in terms of putting Google logos etc on their LPs and also disclaim that they are no way endorsed or associated with Google themselves.
 
Spliffic said:
If you are offering to sell something, collecting money, but not giving what you promised then that is fraud. Plain and simple. These stupid fuckers could at least get their shit together and send out their shitty CDs instead of just thinking that they can collect money from people and not give anything.
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Exactly, this is what this is all about. An advertiser not delivering what they said they would, charging people for it, and then not allowing them to stop future charges to their credit card. One of my friends likes to get the physical product pictures for his landing pages (that's another thread) and even after 2 months, a few credit card charges, and many phone calls he failed to recieve anything from the google money tree people.

I hope the Texas AG shuts down this guy hard so other shady advertisers get the memo, unfortunately Utah has a long history of sheltering these types of shady direct response marketing companies. Which is probably why google money tree and hundreds of other infomercial/telemarketing/abusive billers are setup in that state.
 
Listen sounds like the advertiser is a douche. But how do you think the advertiser was able to pay affiliates $40 dollars on a free trial offer. He had to do something shady to meet any profit margins.
 
Spliffic said:
If the consumer thinks that the offer is related to Google (when clearly it's not but sheeple aren't the most web saavy)
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Actually a couple of my close friends (3 of them to be exact) who don't know dick about advertising/marketing but who are fairly web savvy people all came to me on different occasions asking me about Google Cash.

Each and every one of them thought it was a straight up Google product, I told each and every one of them it wasen't and it was a scam (This was awhile back before anything like this was even close to going down).

So even though you may think the non-savvy internet user are the only ones who think its a Google type product your very wrong about that assumption.

We have to remember that doing what we do all day makes us more then just web savvy, like I said my friends don't know the advertising/marketing side of things but they are definately web savvy and they were all fooled into thinking that this product came from Google.

So yeah I'd say that a fuck load of people thought Google released this product, which definately hurts there brand like a mother fucker.
 
Aequitas said:
Actually a couple of my close friends (3 of them to be exact) who don't know dick about advertising/marketing but who are fairly web savvy people all came to me on different occasions asking me about Google Cash.

Each and every one of them thought it was a straight up Google product, I told each and every one of them it wasen't and it was a scam (This was awhile back before anything like this was even close to going down).

So even though you may think the non-savvy internet user are the only ones who think its a Google type product your very wrong about that assumption.

We have to remember that doing what we do all day makes us more then just web savvy, like I said my friends don't know the advertising/marketing side of things but they are definately web savvy and they were all fooled into thinking that this product came from Google.

So yeah I'd say that a fuck load of people thought Google released this product, which definately hurts there brand like a mother fucker.
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I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the behavior that Google has displayed running their business model gives one the impression that they are so absolutely fuking arrogant about their ability to rule the internet that they might seriously be the only company that want do a damn thing about something that could affect their branding.

Of course they probably have some algorithm that just read this post and has just unleashed an army of bots to serve papers on all my favorite Google offers tomorrow.
 
Listen, when I go to a network and see a wide variety of offers for my taking, I leave it up to that network's compliance dept. and attorneys to pre-screen the offer before it becomes available to the public.

Because that's what we are: the public.

Now if that network's compliance dept didn't do a good enough screening, or it turns out the offer is shady, that's not my fault. Fuck that. Do I stop running the offer when I find out? Of course. Do I have regrets I ran the offer? Of course. I can't tell you how many offers I've run that got pulled for one reason or another. Somebody is to blame. Perhaps its the compliance dept thinking "well, shit, lets make a quick 20 mill on this offer because we get a C&D from Google and then we'll stop it".. maybe this mentality is what's the real problem, and it's going to take a real suit from the big boys to stop this practice.

But listen, it ultimately ends with the network in my opinion, and the advertiser. This cannot trickle down to the innocent affiliates who trust the advertiser and assume the fucking offer wouldnt be there if it wasnt already pre-screened and 1000% legitimate. How am I supposed to know these people arent sending out their CDs or issuing refunds? It's impossible to know what goes on behind the scenes.
 
Aequitas said:
Actually a couple of my close friends (3 of them to be exact) who don't know dick about advertising/marketing but who are fairly web savvy people all came to me on different occasions asking me about Google Cash.

Each and every one of them thought it was a straight up Google product, I told each and every one of them it wasen't and it was a scam (This was awhile back before anything like this was even close to going down).

So even though you may think the non-savvy internet user are the only ones who think its a Google type product your very wrong about that assumption.

We have to remember that doing what we do all day makes us more then just web savvy, like I said my friends don't know the advertising/marketing side of things but they are definately web savvy and they were all fooled into thinking that this product came from Google.

So yeah I'd say that a fuck load of people thought Google released this product, which definately hurts there brand like a mother fucker.
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Your friends are idiots.
 
Roundabout said:
Listen, when I go to a network and see a wide variety of offers for my taking, I leave it up to that network's compliance dept. and attorneys to pre-screen the offer before it becomes available to the public.

Because that's what we are: the public.

Now if that network's compliance dept didn't do a good enough screening, or it turns out the offer is shady, that's not my fault. Fuck that. Do I stop running the offer when I find out? Of course. Do I have regrets I ran the offer? Of course. I can't tell you how many offers I've run that got pulled for one reason or another. Somebody is to blame. Perhaps its the compliance dept thinking "well, shit, lets make a quick 20 mill on this offer because we get a C&D from Google and then we'll stop it".. maybe this mentality is what's the real problem, and it's going to take a real suit from the big boys to stop this practice.

But listen, it ultimately ends with the network in my opinion, and the advertiser. This cannot trickle down to the innocent affiliates who trust the advertiser and assume the fucking offer wouldnt be there if it wasnt already pre-screened and 1000% legitimate. How am I supposed to know these people arent sending out their CDs or issuing refunds? It's impossible to know what goes on behind the scenes.
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^ IMO the best argument from that side of the field.

On the other hand, the affiliates cross the line and become not-so-innocent when they start making false claims about google and using screenshots, checks, and logos for extra credibility. Like others have said, this tarnishes googles brand to the 10th degree. Actually a pretty scary thought, wonder what's gunna go down.
 
^^ Yes.

If you were promoting books for some company and they didn't ship them there is no fucking way you should be held accountable.

I have been saying this for months now, but it is not the flogs, the celebs, even the shitty product or "misleading" statements. None of this would have ever come to light if not for the fact that the merchants would not let people cancel nor refund their money.

I am interested to see what the networks do when the trial offers go to shit because of what the advertiser will be forced to BOLDLY disclose. Every network emails me their top offers and it is always a rebill.

When everything shakes out, the affiliates that have learned how to drive good prospects to advertisers will win and the others will go away. At the end of the day a sale has to be made unless it is a scam. Might not be a bad time for some of the newer kids to try some real "cost-per-sale" programs and see if their traffic sucks or not. It's going to matter very soon.
 
I think the major lawsuit against affiliates is BS from Google. Suing affiliates who advertised in their own backyard wreaks of complications and Bad PR. Having a judge asking why they didn't police their own shit would be the first question.
 
I wonder how many people didnt get paid by this company. Someone has to be sitting there holding the bill
 
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