Income 4 Beginners: The Latest Internet Scam?

Is This Business Opportunity Really an Illegal Pyramid Scheme?

By Jennifer Claerr, published Sep 19, 2007
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Recently I received an email on my MySpace account. Some other MySpace user was graciously offering me an ebook, called "Income 4 Beginners," completely free of charge. This ebook would enable me to turn my computer into a practical ATM machine.

Well, of course I was skeptical. But I thought, for the record, I should take a look at the Income 4 Beginners system. I went straight to the site in question, inserted an anonymous email address into the field and downloaded the ebook.

The Income 4 Beginners ebook, apparently anonymously written, claims that this money-making system is fool proof, idiot proof, and "child proof." A chimpanzee could do it.

Then Income 4 Beginners claims that this system requires no selling, only to turn around and contradict itself later by saying that selling is, in fact, required.

The Income 4 Beginners ebook goes on for seven pages of promotion and testimonials before even beginning to explain how the system works, or what is required of the reader.

Then there is an epiphany! The final twist, the anonymous author tells me! When I get people to purchase the Income 4 Beginners system from me, I get to keep 100% of the profits! He claims that there is nothing in it for him. He further claims to have a sales conversion rate of 90% for this incredible money-making system.

The ebook goes on to say that I must make a $40 investment, continually telling me what an incredibly low price this is for such an wonderful money-making opportunity! Yet, somehow, the person who wrote Income 4 Beginners has yet to tell me what on earth this incredible money-making opportunity is.

The author begins page 10 with a question and answer section which somehow completely neglects to tell the avid reader what the heck the "product" is that he's going to be selling. He claims that the product is non-refundable, and that you never have to worry about giving a customer their money back. Not only that, but the author will also provide all customer service for the product, free of charge!

 
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Income 4 Beginners: The Latest Internet Scam?

Illegal pyramid schemes depend on somebody losing their money. Eventually, they always collapse under their own weight.

Credit: bewinca (www.sxc.hu)

Copyright: bewinca (www.sxc.hu)

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In an illegal pyramid scheme, the income comes primarily from people investing in the money-making opportunity.
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Yeah, it looks like Income 4 Beginners is really gone, and that Stealth Money Maker is its replacement. Except that I saw some places where it said that Alan Humphreys was the owner of Stealth Money Maker, not Jon Davies. It may be a smoke screen. Maybe he's using a new pseudonym now, or sold the "business opportunity" to somebody else. I saw another site which stated that "Income 4 Beginners is now Stealth Money Maker." I wouldn't invest in the new so-called opportunity. These money making schemes depend on a large number of investors losing their money. If nobody lost money, nobody else would ever make any.

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Posted on 03/29/2008 at 12:03:22 PM

 
This alone pissed me off, as I knew that it meant fewer people would be able to order from me. But I had other stuff going on, so didn't really sweat it. Today, however, I checked one of the blogs where I was promoting I4B and lo and behold - No more I4B! You'd think Mr. Davies would tell his subscribers this. At least a farewell e-mail...something. But nope. Just gone. Bye bye. When I did a little Google searching on this, I came up with two interesting articles: http://www.ihatescammer.com/make-money-scams-investigated/income-4-beginners-2 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/380654/income_4_beginners_the_latest_interne t.html (The first link apparently is pushing a different product at the bottom, so disregard that part. But the basic story in the article sounds like what happened to me.)

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Posted on 03/26/2008 at 1:03:52 PM

 
Plus the fact of getting paid directly to PayPal instead of waiting for affiliate checks appealed to me. So I purchased Income4Beginners and began promoting it. After posting ads on free classifieds, I made a few sales. Not much, but about $120 total. Had I been promoting it hardcore, I probably could have made a lot more. Eventually, I noticed that I stopped receiving payments, even though I was still getting traffic to the sites where I was promoting I4B. Intrigued, I tried to order from my own page, just to see if the link was broken or something. It turns out, Mr. Jon Davies switched the payment processor from PayPal to Alertpay without notifying any of his subscribers. Kinda strange considering an abrupt change like that would have a pretty profound impact on your subscribers' sales (since PayPal is much more common than Alertpay).

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Posted on 03/26/2008 at 1:03:02 PM

 
I posted the following on another forum, detailing my experience with I4B... If you're looking to make money online, I'm sure you've seen ads for a program called Income4Beginners, which claims to show you how to "turn your computer into a 24/7 ATM machine!" Normally, I don't pay much attention to ads like this, but when scanning the fact that the author, Jon Davies offers a free e-book that shows you how to do it, I figured, what the hell, I'll opt-in and see what the book is about. It turns out, the "Free" ebook is actually just a pitch for his offer. You purchase a package of various internet marketing software and e-books for $40. In return, he offers you the right to re-brand his Income4beginners page with a PayPal button that's set up for your e-mail, so that basically you promote the site (with your unique affiliate link), and every time someone signs up (so that they can re-brand the package themselves), you make 40 bucks. "Hey, it's only 40 bucks", I figured. Plus

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Posted on 03/26/2008 at 1:03:28 PM

 
More on income4beginners and stealthmoneymaker...hmmmm....is it the same person? http://www.onlineopportunity.org/stealth-money-maker-review/

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Posted on 02/19/2008 at 6:02:06 PM

 
I discovered another interesting little tidbit while I was browsing the web on this subject. Apparently, Income 4 Beginners is gone! It has been replaced with StealthMoneyMaker. Get a load of this link: http://www.ihatescammer.com/make-money-scams-investigated/income-4-beginners-2

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Posted on 02/19/2008 at 2:02:02 PM

 
I want everyone to understand that this is not a review of the product, but rather of the too-good-to-be-true ebook. I specifically feel that this is probably a pyramid scheme. I am generally opposed to purchasing this scheme, which I suspect to be illegal. I feel that if I had purchased the product, I would have become a victim. If I had sold it, I would have become a perpetrator. One does not need to purchase an AK-47 to express one's general disapproval of AK-47s as a whole. I was shocked that there was no negative rhetoric about this scheme anywhere on the web. I thought this was perhaps because so many people had tried to sell it that they didn't feel they had the right to speak against it. At any rate, it does seem that people don't scream if they get defrauded of a small amount of money, and that it isn't a reason to speak out. They think, just "let it go" or "make it back in sales."

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Posted on 02/19/2008 at 11:02:22 AM

 
Folks, I have provided my sources for this article. I got my information about pyramid schemes from the experts, not the least of which is the New York Attorney General. Be sure to visit his website, and Bill Branscum's page, if you feel that you have any more questions as to what a pyramid scheme is and how it functions. Very often there is a "dummy" product involved, but it isn't what the investors are really buying. Instead, they're paying their money for the business opportunity. Nobody ever does or ever will use the product. Instead, they purchase the scheme because they believe they will make money. However, only a small fraction of people, the ones at the top of the pyramid structure, will ever see any return on their investment. MLMs function on the same model, but are technically legal. Still, they are unfair, since the "business" depends upon investor losing their money to the small number of people at the top of the pyramid.

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Posted on 02/19/2008 at 11:02:38 AM

 
Yes, in fact I did miss the name of the author of this ebook, even though I read it fully. And you want to know why I missed it? Because It isn't where it's supposed to be, on the title page of the ebook. It's at the bottom of page ELEVEN, couched within the author's "FAQ" which I regarded as so much garbage, and which was only essentially a repeat of what he had said before. I went back and reread the ebook, and found the name buried within the text as an offhand comment, ("My name's Jon Davies, by the way."), but my opinion of the ebook did not change. I believe Jon Davies' actions to be deliberately and maliciously deceptive. He doesn't want people to know that he wrote the book, so he buries his name in pages of mindless self-promotion.

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Posted on 02/19/2008 at 10:02:09 AM

 
In fact I was paid to write this review, and the article is one of my best performers. It is top ranked on the search term, "Income 4 Beginners Scam." And so I think I'm getting a lot of traffic for a specific reason: a lot of people have the reaction, "Aw, this is a scam," when they first read the ebook. It's only natural. I felt I needed to speak out because I didn't see anyone else saying what I was feeling about this book. I felt that people needed a place to go when they received this ebook and felt concerned for their own well-being.

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Posted on 02/19/2008 at 10:02:49 AM

 
Good Article! A few years ago, I lost my money to a few pyramid scams myself.

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Posted on 02/17/2008 at 7:02:02 PM

 
HI I got "the" email, just like loads of other people, and as I read through it I felt the word "scam" crushing me. I agree with you Jennifer, they are selling tripe and only making money on the back of idiots like us. The author makes his money by us buying our submit button off him in the first place!!! The author does in act give his name as Jon Davis. Presumably a pseudonym...... I shall give it a wider berth than ever, having read all the comments herein.

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Posted on 12/07/2007 at 12:12:00 PM

 
I totally agree with the author!!!. I have "bought" this 3 weeks a go and guess what? Zero sales - after having invested on ads as advised by Mr Davies in his marketing guides. But one thing I noticed (because I did get email from others for this product)the id reference number keep on increasing. That means additional people are buying it. The question is - who did they buy from? from the affiliates or from Mr Davies himself?I have doubt they bought from the affiliates as even though the traffic comes from the affiliates. For those who have surfed the webpage, you notice that the dropdown window requesting for your email? Those who are conviced will fill up the form and I guess, it is Mr Davies who get the sales not the affiliates who did the marketing. I may be wrong but I have stopped advertising this as I dont want more people fall for this trick or 'scam'. By the way, anyone can advise whether I can get refund from Paypal? Chao.

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Posted on 12/07/2007 at 3:12:00 AM

 
TO SOMEONE ELSE !!! But you don't find this out until after you join.... by then they already have your money and guess what ??????... You can't sell this idea to anyone because they've already heard about it due to the fact that part of your agreement of becoming an affiliate is ADVERTISING TO 1000'S OF CLASSIFIEDS EVERYDAY !!! LOL Sound familiar ? In summary, as an affiliate, you simply are are ONLY advertising for the person who created the scheme.... if you REALLY want to make money.... YOU MUST BE THE PERSON WHO CREATED THE SCHEME !!!! (get the idea)

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Posted on 11/29/2007 at 1:11:00 PM

 
Hey.. I think Angela hit the nail on the head ! I have tried several different online programs but have been successful at none of them. I agree with Angela that the subcription websites are the only ones making money. Actually, I'll take it a step further and say that they only ways to make money online is through affiliate or subscription programs (but ONLY if YOU are the one CREATING the program). All of these affiliate programs claim you can make money by becoming an affiliate and selling their product or service.... but the truth is... the ONLY person making the money is the person who designed the affiliate program idea ! And anybody who joins the program is simply lining the pockets of the "program creator". If you research and study the online affiliate programs (although normally you don't find this out until AFTER you've joined them)... you find out that the program is NOT selling any kind of product or service... they are simply SELLING THE "IDEA" OF SELLING SOMETHING

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Posted on 11/29/2007 at 1:11:00 PM

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