September 24, 2008
The porn-for-pay offer that wasn’t
Yesterday I got an email that began:
We’ve seen your website at http://skeetsstuff.skeeterbess.com/2008/01/16/skeet-porn/
and we love it!
The writer then offered to pay me up to $4800 a month for links on my blog. $4800 for links on skeet’s stuff? Okay, that got my attention. Then I re-read the first line and noticed which post they were referring to. Uh-oh! That one, hmmm? Okay, they found a link to Skeet porn and they want to pay for space on my blog. That can only mean one thing, right? They’ll pay big bucks if I let them put porn links in my sidebars and on banners splashed all over the blog. I get offers like that all the time. It was only the payout amount that made this one unusual. Can there really be that much money in porn, that they can offer who-knows-how-many bloggers $4800 a month to advertise it? Whatever amount was being offered, I wasn’t interested, but I was greatly amused. I tweeted the news and started a tempest in a teacup. Everyone wanted details, but since I hadn’t followed up on the offer I had no details to give. In fairness to my tweet-peeps I had to investigate.
It didn’t take me long to confirm that it was a scam (if it seems to good to be true …) and that it had nothing to do with porn. Why the author of the letter chose that link remains a mystery, but I’ll speculate on it. I think that, having found a link flagged “porn,” he decided I might be lacking in moral fortitude and willing to help perpetuate his scam. Guess again, buddy! That post is about how having the word “porn” on my blog brings me all kinds of creepy traffic from folks looking for actual porn. Read my lips, sweetie … skeet don’t do porn. I’ll take your money to talk about Phentermine. If the offer is good enough I might be persuaded to blog about erectile dysfuntion or plastic surgery (in a tasteful manner, of course.) But porn? Nope! Not gonna happen!
For those of you who really want to know, here’s what he was touting. I was to put four block ads on my blog, then send out 100 emails daily encouraging others to do the same. If X-number of those people signed up X-number of people, who also signed up X-number of people, well, then I’d be rolling in money! There’s a catch of course - there’s always a catch. Once I’d reached the third level of sign-ups I’d need to pay a montly fee in order to advance in the scheme. The first two levels would actually be easy to reach, because there are plenty of fools in the world who would see that $4800 offer and sign up without finding out what they were getting into. The entire program is designed to pull people into the third level, where they would have to pay to continue. It’s a classic Ponzi scheme, aka: a pyramid scheme, in which each successive level of dupes is paying the previous levels for the right to join the scheme. Want to know the dead giveaway? The ads are all for the scheme. There’s no product or service being offered. You’re selling ads to encourage other people to sell ads that don’t sell anything except a spot in the pyramid. Those who sign up early will probably make a little money with it. That money will come from the fees of later sign-ups. Ponzi schemes always implode from their own weight. The early recruits will make money for a while, but the payouts get slimmer and slimmer as more folks sign up and only work the first two levels. When they don’t make any money because a saturation point has been reached, they won’t sign up for the third level, won’t pay the fees and the pyramid will collapse. Here’s a tip: any program that can only pay investors from money brought in by later investors is a Ponzi scheme and is predestined for failure. Don’t buy into it.You’re smarter than that.
Technorati Tags: fraud, Ponzi Scheme, porn, pyramid scheme
Posted by skeet @ 10:44 am • Blogging, Society & culture
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
September 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am, Lisa Says:
I knew it sounded to good to be true
Still, it made for an interesting evening on Twitter.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am, valmg Says:
You go girl! Great detective work!
Shame on anyone who thinks you’d do porn. Although I have had the privilege of seeing you in your underwhatwithall. LOL.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:08 pm, skeet Says:
We did have some porny tweet fun, didn’t we, Lisa?
September 24th, 2008 at 6:10 pm, skeet Says:
Now Val - I posted pictures in jammies, pictures in bubbles, one picture with a bit of cleavage, but I’m totally not recalling showing off my underwhatwithall! I’m so embarrassed - must have been sleep-blogging at the time!
September 24th, 2008 at 7:45 pm, Loretta Says:
Aw that totally sucks. Ponzi schemes are so 90s -lol- they aren’t even in the right spam generation, silly amatuer spammers. I’m glad it was just something dumb and easy to pass on.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:18 pm, skeet Says:
Loretta, Charles Ponzi ran his operation in the 1920s and scams that follow his scheme have been running ever since. They do seem to surge from time to time, though, so perhaps this one is the first of many to come. The sad thing is that they will always find gullible people and rope them in. My email didn’t come from the company - it came from some poor fool who bought into their hype.
September 25th, 2008 at 4:06 am, JMom Says:
Ah well, I guess it was too good to be true but it sure was fun tweeting about it and imagining all that money rolling in
September 25th, 2008 at 9:52 am, Heather in Beautiful BC Says:
Awwwwwwwww…. crap - a lousy scam - and here I was ready to earn some serious cash. Good job uncovering the deets, Skeet and keeping Twitter abuzz!