Sephy’s Platzish

…it probably is. Cash gifting certainly sounds like a scam. I was perusing YouTube’s most viewed videos today in the Howto & Style category, I came across the one that is now 5th most popular, “are your ready to make 10k in the next 4 weeks”, where a gentleman goes on extolling the virtues of this program where you can get money every day. Of course, missing are the details on what you’ve got to do, and everything.

However, there’s the related videos section to save us from insanity, and one of them happens to be this one, with a guy opening a Purolator courier envelope with a magazine and envelope enclosed inside of the magazine. This should be your first warning sign glowing right at you - if you have to hide what you’re sending, there’s probably something shady about it.

Inside this envelope are two things - a “gifting” form, along with a “non-solicitation” form, which, as far as I can tell, is a form that says that you weren’t solicited in any way to send this gift. Basically, it’s a form wherein you lie to someone and say that the ad you responded to wasn’t a solicitation. Yeah. Right.

A couple of years ago, working on some tips about there being a lot of scammers on Craigslist who are willing to give fake people fake jobs, I started coming across all of these ads claiming that you’ll get “Huge Profits Instantly Within Hours.” So, being naturally suspicious, I replied to one, and got an email back from the person who took out the ad with a phone number.

Fortunately, at that time, Skype had free calling to the USA and Canada, so I called him up, and was redirected to this phone call that went on for 30 minutes explaining how just a simple “cash pledge” would lead me to earning tens of thousands of dollars, just off of other people sending their first customers’ money to me. Funnily enough, the diagram that I drew out looked like…hold your hats, y’all…a pyramid!

Hands up if you’re shocked at that - I see none…good

Anyway, this brings me back to YouTube’s videos - there are slews of videos out there now with people opening up FedEx and UPS envelopes with hundreds or thousands of dollars sent to them by complete strangers. This should be another huge red flag.

What possesses someone to send money to a complete stranger in the hope that maybe they’ll receive a whole lot of money in a short amount of time?

This cash gifting deal, if you ask me, is nothing more than an elaborate scheme to take money from people who are at a great disadvantage (i.e. someone who isn’t in a job and needs the cash) and send it to someone who, at least according to one video, is able to buy a full-HD TV, a Lexus and a house.

I have some questions for those of you who may be familiar with this scheme of cash gifting (also known as a 1up system, cash cash 365, and a whole lot of other names). I’d love it if you would be willing to do an interview which I’d publish (in text) here - all you have to do is drop me a line either in the comments or in the contact form.

In other words, I’m asking you to open up and explain to my why this isn’t a scam, and why you got involved, and some other things that came to my mind when I watched these videos (from all around the world).

If you want to read more information that sheds some light into this idea, check out this article from MarketWatch, about the ‘gifting’ scheme only Ponzi could love.

One of the things that I’ve been involved in over the last couple of years is fighting online scams. In fact, there’s a new project coming out quite soon which I have been involved in; there will be more on that in the next couple of days. As of right now, there are a couple more tweaks to be done to it and it will be ready to launch.

However, one of the most frequently asked questions is one of why the media or government doesn’t do anything to get the word out about these scams. As it so happened, about a week or two ago, I was having a rare moment of watching TV, and I saw this ad:

The site mentioned is fakechecks.org, and it is one of those sites that I think everyone needs to check out, and read through. If you don’t have a lot of time, then just check out the victim interview section - particularly this interview. I’ve got it posted below as well. If there is anyone who doesn’t believe that these scams have a real effect on the victims and their relatives, this video (along with the other ones that are on the site) will change your mind.

Stories like these are the reason I bait and the reason I want everyone to know about these scams. I applaud the victims who have been willing to come forward and share their stories for this site, and for the US Postal Inspection Service having the forethought to create this program. Hopefully it will go a long way to finally getting the word out there for everyone.

Spread the Word

I’d like not only this post, but also the fakechecks.org site to be seen by as many people as possible; if you wish, stumble both sites, put them on digg, bookmark them, send them to your friends - all that matters is that word gets out.

If you want some more information on these scams, check out a guest post I did at FreshBlogger in June - How to NOT Make Money on the Internet, along with Snoskred’s post from July - Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year!