Google money kit scams making a comeback on Facebook

by Steve Ragan - Jan 7 2010, 17:00

Since Monday, searches on Google and posts on Facebook have started to crop up with links to a site that uses some clever code and legitimate news to push the now classic “make money with Google” scam.

After being alerted to the rise in the number of links circulating online and on Facebook pitching the scam by security vendor Websense, The Tech Herald investigated further, digging into the site’s code and method of propagation. Was there anything new about this scam? Exactly how does it work?

To start, the links to the website will vary. However, the most common one is binsservicesonline-dot-info. If you follow that link, you are forwarded to another domain, biznews7-dot-org. The biznews7 site comes off as a news portal. The news of the day revolves around the headline, “Jobs: Is Working Online At Home The Next Gold Rush?”

The fake article is sprinkled with quotes touting the ease of working from home, and the money that can be made with “easy Google profit”. However, there is more to the site than the pitch.

The code running it has gone all out for the person reading, adding a bit of local flair thanks to JavaScript pulling data from GeoIP. The GeoIP code will alter the title of the portal, in our case it became the Indiana Financial Journal, as well as tag various parts of the headline story with your local city and state, such as it did for us in the example below.

Example:

“For Maria González it sure is. Maria, a mother from Indianapolis IN is thriving, in the middle of an economic recession working in the comfort of her own home.”

 

 

In addition to using GeoIP, the site also cites an additional source of information to spin the notion that Google is looking for at home workers and has the money to fund the opportunities.

The additional source is a Wired.com story from October 15, where reporter Ryan Singel covered Google’s profit growth for Q3 2009. [Source] If you look at the comments, you can see where people who have fallen for the scam are looking for more information on obtaining a job, since Wired is a credible source of information.

Another interesting observation comes from the comments on the headline story. Each one hard coded, they range from people asking about the “easy Google profit” program, to those already supposedly using the program telling the others how great it is. One comment says the person heard about the program on Facebook, and wants more information. There’s even a comment flagged as spam that shows up as removed by the site administrator. Now that’s irony for you.

Clicking any of the images, the fake advertising links off to the side of the page, or links proper will direct you to hxxp://secureweb-dot-secureweboffer-dot-com-slash-offer-slash-go. According to the site, this is where you can become a member of the “online profit club”.

 

 

This scam has been running with moderate success since November, and recently it has spiked again for unknown reasons. It is spreading via comments on Facebook, and recently started to show up on forums and comment spam.

However, the number of links is slowly heading down. It appears that Google is catching on, and based on earlier search results, Facebook is too.

The biznews7 site is a template, or rather a mashup of more than one template and CSS code. The addition of GeoIP, and JSKit comment code is new, as is the link to Wired.

There is nothing new about this type of scam though. It is the same no matter how you spin it. There is no such thing as a “Google Profit Kit”, and the only people in the aforementioned “profit club” are the ones running the scam who take your money and sell your information.

The servers hosting the two scam sites are owned by HostGator and Slicehost from the looks of things, and each one was reported. However, as of January 7, they were both active. [Source: 1 2 3 4]

Last month, Google announced that they had filed a lawsuit against 50 John and/or Jane Does, as well as Pacific WebWorks, in an effort to smash the scams online that are offering work-from-home jobs. The lawsuit is just another step on Google’s war against deceptive marketing and advertising on their ad network. As more businesses and people are discovered, they too will be added to the suit.

The bottom line is that the only way you’ll make money with Google is to either invest heavily or send them your resume and hope for the best.

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