Money Blue Book

Whenever I see a predatory tow truck driver or a parking meter maid strolling by, I just want to roll down my window quickly and yell out - “Hey you! Go back to (some place far, far away from where I’m headed, and nowhere close to my car).” As you can tell, I am not too fond of tow truck drivers. My disdain also carries over to others in the parking profession, including but not limited to opportunistic car booters and sneaky meter maids who dart from car to car with their little hand held tri-corder gadgets, tucking tickets under windshield wipers and escaping before the driver comes back and catches them in the act. While these parking ticketers bug me somewhat, they don’t irritate me as much as tow truck drivers - perhaps it’s because parking ticket fines are usually not as financially hefty or as personally offensive as getting your car manhandled and forcibly hauled away by a stranger. Most of the time, I see tow truck drivers as nothing but conniving, predatory, and opportunistic vultures who feast on the vulnerable and distracted plight of unsuspecting drivers.

Just Watching Others Get Their Cars Towed In Their Absence Irritates Me

A few years ago I lived near a shopping center located next to a major Metro subway station. Every morning as I walked to the station to take the train to work, I witnessed the daily spectacle of tow truck sharks preying on those who failed to notice the no parking warning signs for non patrons. At the start of every morning rush, like clockwork precision, several red tow trucks would park themselves in partially hidden locations throughout the shopping center parking lot, embed themselves among the other cars, and lie in wait for subway commuters to improperly park their cars and walk away. Oftentimes as I walked by their tow trucks, I could see the drivers eating their breakfast sandwiches behind the steering wheel as they waited. As soon as the commuters had walked out of sight and demonstrated that they weren’t parking their cars so they could shop at a plaza store, the tow trucks would take turns swooping in, jacking up each vehicle one by one, and speeding away with their precious cargo like a thief in the night - racking up an instant $150 towing fee for each car, plus an extra $25 per day service charge for the cost of daily impounding. What a lucrative but conniving racket.

The livelihood of tow truck drivers is based on their ability to successfully hide in the bushes with their getaway vehicles and lie in wait for hapless drivers to make a parking mistake or slip up. In their eyes, a breach is a breach - if you park past a certain white line, that means you’re going to get towed - there’s little mercy. When that happens, it’s almost a given that at least one tow truck vulture will pop out from the shadows and holler “Gotcha!” as he gleefully impounds your vehicle with cranes and hauls it away to the junkyard. I don’t really care much for their self righteous claims that they are simply doing their jobs. They purport to follow the law and abide by no parking signs, but the reality is that oftentimes these warnings signs are not always sufficiently clear, evident, or easily understandable. The whole towing business is absolutely ripe for unchecked, unaccountable, and abusive practices.

A&E’s Parking Wars Reality Television Show Tries To Humanize The Entertaining Lives Of Tow Truck Drivers, Car Booters, and Meter Maids - But They Still Come Off As Jerks, Albeit Funny Jerks

I guess the world of reality TV shows has finally come down to this - an entire show devoted to the people we all love to hate. Yes, they get yelled at, cursed at, bird flipped, and harassed, but apparently they have feelings too as well as stories to tell. The A&E Channel has released a not-so-new anymore show called Parking Wars that follows the daily working lives of parking meter maids, tow truck drivers, and grunts who make a living from slapping indestructible boots onto vehicle wheels. For those who’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to work on the seedy side of the parking business, this show does a good job of telling it like it is - through the daily lenses of the ticketers and the towers.

While the show infuses the parking meter maids and tow truck drivers with some personality and offers a glimpse into their gritty service with a smile lifestyle, they still come off as predatory and opportunistic hounds who howl with delight when they successfully snag and trap a potential victim - a person who probably was simply at the wrong spot at the wrong time. It’s clear these vultures get a kick from handing out tickets and I’m sure they feel a rush of superior adrenaline when they get to flex their powerful authority by taking away some one’s valuable vehicular possession. Street signs confusing or yellow no parking lines not easily apparent? Tough luck! Ticket and tow, and ask questions later - for they are the law. After all, what is the ordinary layperson going to do - spend thousands of hopeless dollars and file a lawsuit over a $200 towing charge or a $300 booted car fee?

In an episode of Parking Wars, the camera trailed one particular meter maid as she ducked behind a building corner and waited for the right opportunity to pounce - taking a few moments to bask in the inquisitive glory of the A&E camera crew. It was 3:55 p.m. on a weekday and she was waiting near a downtown city street that was close to rush hour time. According to warning signs, street parking was prohibited at the start of rush hour, designated at 4:00 p.m. The parking girl chatted away about how much of a rush she got from ticketing people and the excitement of giving them out. As soon as her watch ticked 4:00 p.m., she eagerly dashed out to begin her ticketing raid, working her way from one side of the street and down the row of parked cars that were now illegally parked on the street. In the distance the camera crew could see a few worried drivers run towards their vehicles, trying to beat the parking violation clock. Some successfully ducked into their vehicles and drove off before their cars were ticketed while others beat it only by a few minutes. One driver who received a ticket only a few seconds before he arrived back protested. However, the parking meter maid was unrelenting and refused to rescind tickets already written.

In one case we had two individuals who verbally protested their ticket concerns to the meter maid over a broken and easily missed no parking sign that was literally dangling upside down. However, their complaints fell on deaf ears as the quota driven ticketing attendant offered no sympathy. Those drivers who parked in the spot guarded by the upside down, broken sign perhaps had a very legitimate lack of proper notice defense. A reasonable driver would not have been able to read the signs as they may not have been readily apparent to a reasonable person. I recently experienced a similar parking ticket scenario. I received a small parking ticket in a neighborhood where there were no visible signs denoting the side street I was parked on as restricted parking. While there were signs elsewhere, there were none readily apparent where I had parked. Luckily I had my digital camera on me at the time, which I used to take photographs of my parked vehicle and the surrounding signs and street shots to prove my case. However, other people are not always as fortunate and most are at the authoritative whims and mercy of parking ticketers.

It’s A Rude And Dirty Job But Somebody Has To Do It… I Suppose

Yes they are financial predators that profit from the absent-mindedness of hapless drivers but I suppose they do serve a legitimate societal purpose. None of them are ever going to win a popularity contest but on some level I suppose they are just dutifully doing their job. After all, some do come to our rescue and save drivers who are stuck in a ditch or have a flat tire on the side of the road, and I’m sure some do a great job of clearing away road blockages and making our highways and local streets more passable. A tow truck did come to my rescue when I spun off the icy highway and into a ditch in upstate New York during one particularly bad winter storm last year. Occasionally commendable credit is due.

But my biggest concern with the parking authority is that oftentimes, drivers are powerless to protect themselves against improper tows, unfair tickets, or even against scrape and scratch damages to our vehicles caused by improper and negligent towing techniques. Oftentimes it’s simply your word against theirs. I suppose the only real solution is to just stay out of their way if possible. Follow street signs to the letter, timely feed the meters, and don’t park in a spot if you have any doubts. That way, none of us will ever have to learn our parking lessons the hard way and find ourselves as entertaining sideshow victims on Parking Wars.

If you’ve ever encountered sites on the internet that claimed to offer brand new laptop computers, mp3 players, or even plasma TV’s for free, I’m sure most of you jumped to the immediate conclusion that they must all be scams. Well, on some level you may be correct and your initial instincts serve you well. But the misleading deception is not that they don’t actually give out laptops, it’s that these so-called free laptop offers do require some up front financial commitment and mandatory participation in a few monthly subscription programs. However, if you have a keen eye for seeking out deals that require the least amount of out-of-pocket effort, and know how to manipulate the rules by taking advantage of free trial offers, it’s possible to walk away with a brand new laptop for only a fraction of its fair market value.

What I’m about to share may be time consuming and require almost anal, obsessive compulsive organizational skills, but the potential payoff at the end is quite substantial. For those of you who need the laptop or fancy electronic gadget right away, you probably won’t have the patience for what this process demands. The procedure takes some time to complete and requires a lot of waiting - up to four months usually from start to finish. To successfully game the system and earn your almost free reward product you will need to be detail-oriented and willing to exercise patience and follow directions to the letter. If you follow these instructions, you should be able to beat the gift reward system and earn your prize - whether it be a free laptop, Ipod, Xbox, Playstation, or even a free plasma TV. The gift reward process does work, but it is heavily dependent on your own persistence and ability to successfully micromanage your offers to completion. If you are the type to give up easily or freak out in despair at the first sign of trouble, I don’t recommend any of this for you since you will likely crash and burn. For everyone else - good luck!

Background About Gift Reward Websites That Offer Free Laptops and Other Free Promotions

You may have heard about these websites that offer customers the chance to earn a free gift reward - usually an expensive prize like a notebook computer or even a plasma television set. I see these offers all the time and sometimes I even hear a few success stories here and there from friends (as well as a few horror stories) - but I never paid them much attention. I always assumed they were either spam offers or websites run by scammers. However it looks like some of these free gift reward companies are now branching out into mainstream media - running radio commercials, television spots, and featuring online banner advertisements on various websites.

These companies usually run a large number of similarly designed websites touting free laptops, free iPhones and an assortment of so-called free products. In exchange for you signing up yourself and/or referring a few friends to some of the company’s paid services, the company is willing to offer you a free reward. Some programs only require that you yourself participate in select offers, while others require you to refer friends, family, and strangers. Personally I recommend staying away from referral programs since I think they are too much trouble. Ultimately, the reward provider makes money because the sponsors and affiliate programs they promote pay them a lot of money in the form of incentives and commissions for advertising their products. By requiring you and I to sign up for paid products and subscriptions, the prize company makes a lot of money through referrals, which they in turn use a portion of to buy gift rewards for those that qualify for redemption. The way to beat the system is to make sure you cancel your paid programs before the end of free trial periods, or at the very least after fulfilling the prize terms to minimize your overall expenditure. Even for those gift reward programs that limit the number of cancellations to a certain number, you can still seek out the least costly programs to participate in for the mandatory length of time.

The reality is that not all customers will successfully complete the reward redemption procedure and many end up paying more money for unnecessary services than the ultimate value of their reward. The prize system works because the company knows that a sizable portion of customers will fail to follow the rules and procedure and not fulfill the terms to qualify for their reward. This method of working the odds is also how credit card companies make so much money off of promotions like 0% balance transfer offers. They count on a certain percentage of people to fail to make the business enterprise financially profitable. But you can choose to be part of that percentage that does succeed. If you follow the rules to the letter and document your receipts, as well as stick to the terms and conditions, you may be one of those that come out on top.

Some may say these types of offers are nothing but scams, but frankly they are really no different than your so-called reputable mobile phone company offering you a “free cell phone” with a new 2 year long term cellular contract. The word “free” is loosely defined these days in the business world. These companies and websites probably need to put a bigger asterisk by the word “free,” and indicate more prominently that additional terms and conditions apply. However, I think consumers need to take it upon themselves to read the fine print more carefully. In the world of free gift reward websites, the word “free” does not mean that the customer pays nothing out of pocket whatsoever - there is no such business model that could survive this way. When they say “free”, what they mean is that the customer pays nothing directly to obtain the product, say a free laptop, but may have to subscribe and enroll in a few participating product promos to qualify. These product offers frequently do require financial commitment, but only for the length of time required for reward program fulfillment (usually 1-2 months). In many cases you can cancel the paid monthly subscriptions within the free trial period without incurring a charge. Of course, each reward program’s terms and conditions vary so please read carefully.

Separating Scam Sites From The Safe, Legitimate Gift Reward Programs

You should never trust any reward site without first performing a detailed investigation into the company’s business practice and identity, and thoroughly going over its terms and conditions. Just because a website looks legitimate doesn’t make it so. You must also verify its identity to make sure you can trace and track down the company’s customer support staff before engaging with it. As a lawyer myself, I always want to know the identity and primary business location of the company I’m dealing with in the event I need to file a lawsuit against the company for any possible future breach of contract or civil fraud claim.

One thing to note is that these free gift reward companies are not the most pristinely run operations. Their business model naturally generates a lot of angry customers and commentators who are particularly vocal about expressing their views on websites like Rip Off Report. However, you should also keep in mind that the world is frankly filled with quite a few absent minded people who simply cannot follow directions. While I’m sure the majority of the scam reports are legitimate, I think there is a substantial number that are written by disgruntled people who simply failed to follow directions and rules set forth by the company. The terms and conditions written by the company is a obligatory contract between you and them that goes into effect once you sign up and start participating in their reward program. It’s important to follow the terms in great detail. Of course, this only applies to legitimate gift reward websites.

To Separate the Scammers From the Legit Businesses, You Must Do the Following:

1. Verify Its Identity - The quickest and most direct way to verify a company’s identity is to examine the information listed on the website. There should be a Customer Support, About Us, or Contact Us section where the company lists its identity and contact information. Legitimate websites ought to be transparent and you should be able to find and verify business identity information with relative ease. If you find a website that does not provide a telephone number or mailing address, I would advise you to be extra careful. Scam websites usually only include an anonymous contact form, without including an actual mailing address or verifiable phone number. There are also other ways to verify a company’s legitimacy, including checking out the website’s Who Is Internet registry information. Legitimate companies usually list their registry information openly, complete with actual addresses and verifiable phone numbers. If the company’s information is hidden or anonymous, you should be extra careful and suspicious.
2. Check Its Business Track Record - I usually run a few Google word searches to see if the company’s name comes up anywhere. This helps with verifying identity and checking out the company’s business track record. I’m looking to see whether it has a history of scamming people and whether it’s under investigation. Oftentimes gift reward companies will show up on sites like Rip Off Report, but you shouldn’t be immediately deterred by these consumer reviews without further investigation of your own. Use your own judgment about the reward provider and determine for yourself how trustworthy and reliable the program is. Remember, even great mainstream companies are bound to have a few customers here and there that simply have an unfounded grudge against them. You should also look the company up on the Better Business Bureau website. Keep in mind that companies frequently have multiple aliases and run similar operations under different names. If you find a phone number, you should try test calling to see if you can speak to a live person to verify the company’s authenticity.
3. Read The Terms And Conditions Carefully - It’s crucial to read the terms and conditions of the website very carefully. I recommend saving the terms and conditions web page to your desktop by going to your browser window menu and selecting “Save As”. This will allow you to retain the text in the form you found it and will help you keep a record in the event some sneaky company decides to secretly change their terms and offers without letting you know. Remember, this is your contract with the company. If something goes wrong and you must file a civil lawsuit or pursue a legal complaint against the company, this contract will lay out the details of your claim.

How To Beat the Gift Reward Process and Earn Your Almost Free Laptop Or Plasma TV

The first step is to obviously find a site that offers so-called free rewards. There are many of them out there and I don’t recommend any of them in particular, but they shouldn’t be too hard to find. In the future I will cite a few website examples and discuss my experiences with specific programs, but for now I leave the program search to you. Most of them show up in searches for “free laptops”, “free ipods”, and “free plasma TV’s”. Keep in mind that not all reward programs are legitimate.

Every reward program is different and specific terms and conditions vary so it’s important you actually read each program’s contractual details carefully before you even think of participating. However, their business models and the way they work are generally the same. There are two types of free reward programs - sites that don’t require referrals and sites that do. Personally I hate referral programs because I don’t like to bother my friends and family with spam and somewhat shady offers. If I’m going to get involved in some make money scheme/scam or reward program, I’d rather it only affect me and leave everyone out of it. That’s why I advise everyone to avoid offers that require referrals altogether. They are too much of a hassle and will likely upset the people you send those offers to. Once again, always seek out the fine print. Read everything carefully.

1) Before you start, be sure you have properly verified the identity of the reward website and make sure you have assured yourself that the business is indeed trustworthy. Make sure you document every step of the way by saving to your computer the contents of all offer listings and pages containing terms and conditions. You should also take a screenshot of each page or make a paper printout of the offer terms. Having full documentation is very important and will ultimately save you from a major mistake. It may mean the difference of you receiving your “free” laptop or finding yourself disqualified from receiving your reward.

2) Usually the reward website starts out by asking you to select your free reward. This part is meant to sucker you in and get you overly excited about the prospect of receiving an expensive product like a laptop, Ipod, desktop computer, or cell phone. Make your selection carefully since you usually can’t change your reward choice later after it’s made. The site will usually require you to submit your e-mail address right from the start. Never enter your primary personal e-mail address. You should always use an alternate or fake one from Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail because your account will be spammed. However, the spam is part of the program concession and needs to be tolerated if you are to fulfill the program’s terms.

3) Next, the website will usually ask you where it should send your free gift. This is when you have to enter your name, phone number, and address. Keep in mind that the mailing address you submit will likely be the target of any paid promotion they send you and may cause you to receive some junk mail for at least the duration of the promotion. If you want a fake phone number, you can always generate a free phone number online.

4) Some programs require that you refer a certain number of people and get them to sign up for the same product offers. I highly advise against getting into programs that require referrals. You don’t want to alienate your friends, family, or even strangers over this. I prefer non-referral websites since you work on your own and don’t have to annoy anybody. If your reward website is asking you to submit a list of your friend’s e-mail addresses, ditch them and move on to another website.

5) The program will usually run you through a long list of short introductory surveys and ask if you want information on any number of products from pills, to coupons, to student loans, to strange male enhancement products, to crazy nutritional supplements. Just say no to all offers and make sure you clearly click no to every request. Clicking yes will likely result in unnecessary junk mail or unwanted promotional samples to be sent to you. Furthermore, none of these initial offers usually count towards your “free” reward product.

6) The next part demands the most work and requires extra attention to detail-oriented record keeping. After the intro survey, you will likely encounter one or multiple web pages filled with advertisement offers. You will be instructed to select a certain number of product offers from each page by clicking on the desired link and signing up through it. There can be anywhere from 5 to 40 total offers that you have to choose from. Depending on the program details, you may have to select anywhere from 5-10 of them total (but of course it varies). Usually as you progress from one offer page to another, the product terms become more restrictive and expensive. The first page usually contains the least expensive products followed by more expensive and more difficult to fulfill offers. Some reward websites may require you to pick a certain number of offers from each page. For example, one notable reward website separates offer pages by “silver”, “gold”, and “platinum” labels - requiring 2 offers from “silver”, 2 offers from “gold”, and 6 offers from the more restrictive and expensive “platinum” page.

I recommend completing all of your required offers in one sitting to better track your reward completion. Before you sign up for any offer, read through each product carefully, saving and printing out the pages of the ones you are interested in. Here is where you compare offers and determine whether the particular offer is too expensive or has too restrictive of a return policy. Most of the advertisers do offer free introductory trial periods ranging from a week to a month. Before the trial period is up, you are usually free to cancel and get your money back, minus shipping and handling (although sometimes shipping is also refunded). Remember that you are committing yourself to these product offers. Make sure the individual products have return and refund terms that are clearly stated so you don’t get stuck with a permanent supply of useless furniture, foreign language tapes, or herbal supplements you don’t need.

7) Signing up for mandatory product offers will require the use of a credit card. I don’t recommend using a debit card because you want the purchase protections offered by credit cards in case something goes wrong and you either need to cancel your card number or need to protest an unauthorized transaction. Some of these advertisers have a habit of overcharging or continuing to charge even after customer cancellation. Thus you want all the purchase protection you can get.

8) I can’t overemphasize the importance of documenting everything. You should create a table, chart, or spreadsheet of all your product offer names followed by the offer details, including the page the offer was found on (”gold”, “silver” etc), estimated weekly or monthly cost, proposed cancellation date, and a section to indicate whether the item’s fulfillment has been verified by the reward program provider. If the reward provider limits the number of program cancellations, you will want to clearly delineate that on your spreadsheet.

Save every single piece of material you have on all offers you participate in. Run screen shots, print out pages, and save entire web pages that contain information about terms and conditions. In the event something goes wrong, you will need this documentation to prove that you genuinely fulfilled the terms of the offer and are qualified to receive your almost-free gift reward. You don’t want to go through all this for nothing.

9) After submitting your minimum required number of offers, you should regularly check your account to see when the offers have been fulfilled. Usually reward providers require you to fulfill their terms in 60 days to qualify for your “free” laptop or whatever reward you selected (the length of time varies). Your account should have a link location where you can check your gift reward status and verify that the advertiser products have been fulfilled and completed. Usually the advertisers are responsible for notifying the free reward center that you have successfully completed their offer, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the companies forget to report back to the reward provider site. In that case, you will have to bring forth your printed out proof or scanned documentation to verify that you are in compliance. That is why complete documentation is so important. These reward companies are notorious for forgetting to log your program completion.

10) If the terms and conditions permit returns, you should return most of the products you ordered. If that is the case, you should do so at the earliest opportunity to halt the monthly subscriptions fees and prevent yourself from going over any free trial period. Be sure to return the product for a credit and refund if that is required. Once again, make sure you document all returns as well. Note that some reward provider programs limit the number of product cancellations you can make - so keep that in mind before you cancel a product. You don’t want to violate the terms.

Final Thoughts About These “Free” Gift Reward Programs

Keep in mind that you are responsible for all federal, state, and local taxes for rewards that you receive since the rewards will likely be deemed taxable income. While tax reporting policies vary, many legitimate reward providers will report your gift receipts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to comply with federal and state tax codes. On your own tax return, you will likely have to report the fair market value of the items received.

In my next post about How To Get A Free Laptop, I will review the Gift Reward Center. They run a whole bunch of online websites that you may have seen before but never paid much attention to. They’ve endured a whole slew of legal and customer complaints, but after changing their terms and policies, they seem to have stayed in business. Currently they are deemed a legitimate business by the Better Business Bureau despite numerous complaints. Their business practice leaves a lot to be desired but so long as they are a legitimate operation, their gift reward system can be beaten.

I often work on the computer late into the evening and most of the time I keep my television set on as background noise. Usually there isn’t much programming going on in the wee evening hours - that is, except for the inescapable torrent of Girls Gone Wild commercials which seem to flood their way onto the airwaves after midnight whether you like it or not. The other types of shady programs that seem to craw their way onto my TV screen at night are the sleazy late night infomercials selling all sorts of silly products from male enhancement pills, to expensive audio tapes on how to get rich quick while working in your pajamas. While some of the commercials are tastefully done, hyping somewhat useful products like fruit juicers or portable infrared ovens, most them are repetitive scams designed to get you to part with your money fast.

Exposing Money Making Get Rich Quick Infomercials

When most people have gone to sleep, the roaches come out to play. The vast majority of late light commercials fall into the slummy get rich quick category. Most are slickly produced sales pitches for useless packages containing rehashed literature and DVD tapes about how to earn big bucks flipping houses, dabbling in cash flow notes, or making money on eBay. Of all the late night infomercials, the one that really sticks in my mind is the so-called Shortcuts to Internet Millions gimmick being hawked by a guy named Jeff Paul. It’s not the fact that he is selling information that can easily be read and obtained online for free that makes me mentally nauseous and annoyed, it’s the gratuitous visual sales tactics that he uses to sucker gullible consumers into buying his promises of money making fortune. His commercials are full of ridiculous and extremely misleading assertions. Simply after watching his commercials for a few minutes, I felt my own IQ slipping down a few notches.

Without a doubt, it’s mostly the targeted male viewers, who despite their better judgment and gut instincts, still blindly succumb to the song of the financial siren. I guess many men find it hard to resist the message and promises of making millions when they are being flirtatiously whispered by beautiful curvy women surrounded by other attractive visual displays of lavish pools, opulent mansions, and luxury vehicles. Despite a world where society and the media continue to be pressured toward political correctness, in the world of advertising and product promotion, several sad truisms still ring true - “there’s a sucker born every minute” and “sex sells.” Much of these tactics are keenly and specifically demonstrated by the Shortcuts to Internet Millions infomercials.

Here are five of the more exploitive (but very effective) infomercial tactics used:

1) The Use Of Flirty Female Hosts To Mesmerize and Make The Sale - Without a shadow of a doubt, the use of sexual imagery is very effective at capturing the attention of the mostly male target audience. For the record, I want to make it very clear (to minimize email complaints), that I am moderately liberal in my social views. I don’t think there is anything wrong with women dressing up the way they want in real life. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is the use of this sleazy and blatant form of exploitation and allure to sell a product that frankly has nothing to do with the associated imagery - something I feel insults my intelligence.

The Shortcuts to Internet Millions infomercials feature two noticeably attractive and perky hosts, Kelly Britz and Tina Milano, as they gush and chat about how much money they are each making on the internet using the program. They go on and on about how it’s so easy and magical, and how all their (presumably very attractive) girlfriends are all logging on and getting into the online affiliate money making business without so much as breaking a sweat. Right……

The attempt at sexual innuendo is not even subtle. It’s not merely two attractive women sitting on sofas having a pleasant discussion about their unbelievable passion for internet marketing. We are talking about two very, very, very prominently endowed women bearing their bare cleavages, while gushing about how easy it was for them to make thousands of dollars a week through eBay with just a few mouse clicks - without having any knowledge or prior experience with computers or the internet. It’s like Jeff Paul swiped two girls from the preceding Girls Gone Wild commercial and handed them microphones so they can blab away about how they magically made money on this thing called eBay. Wearing extremely low cut tops as they chatted away on screen, the stereotypical bombshells offered zero credibility in my eyes and likely in the eyes of most serious consumers as well. However, in a warped way, their mere presence got my attention and likely the focus of many male viewers, and sadly, perhaps even luring a few into handing over their credit card numbers to order the ridiculous product.

2) Obsession With Associating Everything With Magic - Why do they insist on making the attractive female hosts seem so naive and brainless? “Do you really know how your e-mail magically appears on your computer screen?” one of them quizzes. The female genius then offers a few more “magical” references, concluding her powerful and persuasive argument of, “If you can type on your keyboard and click your mouse you can do this.” By golly, she’s right!

In the world of the Jeff Paul Shortcuts to Internet Millions’ infomercial, everything seems to magically appear - especially with the program’s so-called “3 Clicks To Cash” process. You type in your information and voila, your new business website “magically appears on the internet”. You send an email, and the words get “magically sent”. You don’t even need to do any work or online promotion because money will just “magically get earned” and checks will “magically come flying to you”. After all, the internet is just one magical fairyland where everyone magically makes money right? Try telling that to all the multi-million dollar dot com startups that went bust in 2000.

3) The Joke That Computer and Internet Illiterates Can Still Become Online Millionaires - I’m sorry to burst the combined delusional bubbles of Jeff Paul and his two babes, but making money on the internet requires a lot of computer and internet knowhow. Getting started online is easy - anyone can start up a basic template website. But to truly become a successful online entrepreneur requires substantial amounts of trial and experience, as well as committed dedication towards effort and learning, whether it be with eBay or any other online medium. It can be done but the process requires skills beyond mere flipping through a few book pages or clicking a few mouse keys to get your simple turnkey website on the web. To successfully promote your site and make money, you have to rank high in the search engines, particularly Google, which is a competitive and time consuming task. It requires that you not only roll up your sleeves, immerse yourself in the subject, but also dedicate lots of time to developing the business. No one makes money on the internet overnight. Those who think they can will be taken for a magic carpet ride that ends nowhere. If we were to buy into the program’s sad and misguided logic, then even computer newbies like my mom and dad could easily become internet millionaire tycoons with just a few instant mouse clicks.

4) The Idea That You Don’t Need To Have Your Own Line Of eBay Products Because You Can Easily Make Money From Drop Shipping - It’s so sad that people fall for this particular sales pitch. Drop ship products are merchandise that the manufacturer agrees to ship directly to the consumer without the merchant having to take possession for shipment. The fallacy is that it is lucrative and allows anyone with a website to make a ton of money. The reality is that drop ship products are the absolute worst when it comes to profiting from eBay sales and making money online. Sure it’s convenient, but because there is little buying risk to you as the eBay merchant, the so-called wholesale prices you obtain are not really wholesale at all. As such, profit margins are virtually non-existent and in fact, after eBay fees and transaction costs, you will almost always lost money or simply break even if you’re lucky.

Furthermore, most of the drop ship products are items that already face saturated competition on the internet and eBay, further driving down the selling price and negating any profit potential. Most of these drop ship products are also pretty lame and you will almost never find any hot products like top of the line electronics for drop shipment. To truly get eBay wholesale product prices, you need to buy in huge bulk from the manufacturer, which obviously requires tremendous upfront capital investment and the unavoidable carrying of substantial inventory risk.

5) The Sales Gimmick That Revolves Around the Giving Away Of Free But Traffic-Less Websites - The Shortcuts To Internet Millions program seems to be feel that they are providing the buyer a great offer by giving away ten supposedly free websites as incentives. The reality is that most of these sites are template turnkey sites that can be easily and instantaneously cranked out and given away - a million of them at a time. Without organic internet traffic, which takes weeks, months and even years to build, they are useless.

Do the hosts ever talk about how the new website owner is going to successfully drive online traffic to the site? Of course not. Because if consumers knew how much work they would have to put in, they would lose their greedy interest. Free websites are worthless if you don’t have the knowhow to generate links and build online traffic. Big companies spent thousands and millions of dollars promoting and advertising their sites all over the web. Do you think a simple consumer with 10 free template websites is going to somehow trump them all and rake in the sales overnight? Of course not.

There is a reason why although thousands of new online entrepreneurs jump onto the internet money making bandwagon every second, only a tiny percentage of them ultimately survive. Internet success takes a massive amount of online advertising and social link building to generate traffic. It takes a lot of time to investigate, research, and learn from others as well. Having a new commercial website without traffic, even one given to you for free, is nothing more than taking on a piece of trash. Even if the infomercial promised you a thousand free websites - all you would be getting in your possession, without weeks and months of computer training and internet expertise, would be a thousand heaps of trash - nothing more.

My Recommendation If You Really Want To Make Money Online Or Become A Successful eBay Entrepreneur

For one thing, you should stay away from the late night infomercials. Watch them for the eye candy entertainment whatnot, but don’t even think about buying products through those late night shows. With the wealth of free information that’s available on the internet, there is no need to buy the information from some late night salesman. Please don’t be gullible and let your sense of greed cloud your better judgment. If you want to learn something about making money on the internet or want to know more about internet marketing strategies, you are better off following the blogs of proven online entrepreneurs such as John Chow, Darren Rowse, or Shoe Money. You’ll learn more about affiliate marketing, online blogging tips, and search engine optimization tactics from them than from any product toting guy or hot female hosts on TV. At least you won’t have to deal with the subsequent and continuous upsell attempts to get you to buy more expensive package upgrades, paid training, or costly mentoring services prevalent among these get rich quick infomercials. If you must throw your money away, buy one of those As Seen On TV Magic Bullet fruit blenders or something.

Updated List Of The Best Gas Rebate Credit Card Offers To Help You Save Money On Gasoline and Fuel

Want to save money or earn extra cash back when you fill up your vehicle despite high gas prices at the pump? It doesn’t matter if you’re an ordinary consumer, a business, or even a student - I’m sure we all wouldn’t mind getting what essentially amounts to a cash back discount at the gas pump. If you are a frequent driver, you definitely will want the edge when it comes to taking advantage of the best possible card reward and cashback opportunities available for drivers. Gas prices have skyrocketed recently so anything you can reasonably do now to lessen the cost burden would be a wise financial move on your part as a gas consumer. Of course, only those who can handle the responsibility and burden of credit management should apply for and use credit cards. The rewards and rebates they offer are certainly attractive but they’re not suitable for those with a shaky credit usage history.

Currently, many reward credit cards include gas station purchases on their special list of places that yield extra high bonus cash back credit card rewards. When you use the card to purchase gas, you’ll frequently earn much higher reward rates than ordinary purchases made at other locations. If you strategically use a combination of reward cards like I do, you can designate higher rebate gas credit cards to be used specifically and primarily for gasoline expenses, and use your other reward cards for other general everyday purchases. After scouring all online offers, here are my top gas credit card choices to help you earn rewards and save on gas money. You might feel just a tiny bit better the next time you fill up.

List Of the Best Cash Back Reward Credit Cards With The Highest Purchase Incentives For Gas Rebates

1. Chase BP Visa Rewards - Earn 10% cash back for gas at all BP gas stations and 4% back for all dining and travel purchases for the first 2 months. Thereafter, earn 5% cash back for BP gas, 2% for dining and travel, and 1% cash back for everything else.
2. Chase PerfectCard - Earn 6% rebate on all gas purchases for the first 90 days. Earn 3% rebate on all gas purchases thereafter. Earn 1% for everything else. Rebates are automatically credited on your monthly statement towards future purchases made on your card.
3. Discover Open Road Card - Earn 5% cash back for gasoline and auto maintenance
4. American Express Blue Cash - Earn up to a tiered 5% cash back on all purchases at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores, and 1.5% cash back on all other purchases. See my Blue Cash review.
5. Chase Freedom Visa Signature Card - Earn 3% cash back with this credit card on your top 3 shopping categories that may include purchases for gasoline. Earn 1% for everything else. See my Chase Freedom review.
6. American Express True Earnings Card From Costco - This card is for Costco warehouse club members. It offers 3% back for gas, 3% for restaurant dining, 2% for traveling, and 1% for everything else including purchases made at Costco clubs. The card has no annual fee with a paid Costco membership. Rebates are awarded as Costco vouchers redeemable for cash and merchandise.
7. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card - Earn 5 reward points for every dollar spent at gas stations, supermarkets and drugstores for 12 months. Earn 1 point per dollar for purchases thereafter.

The Top Business Gas Reward and Cashback Credit Card Offers

Keep in mind that you don’t have to actually own your own small business to qualify for lucrative business credit card programs. People can become a business unto themselves (it’s legally referred to as a sole proprietorship) - just enter your own personal name when prompted for the business name.

1. American Express TrueEarnings Business Card From Costco - Earn 5% rebates for gas, 3% cash back for eating out, 2% for travel, and 1% for everything else including purchases made at Costco. This excellent reward card is meant for Costco members. The card comes with no annual fee if you have a paid Costco membership.
2. American Express Simply Cash Card - Earn 3% cash back on gas, and 5% cash back on office supplies and wireless services. Get 1% for everything else. Offers an introductory 0% APR on purchases for 12 months.
3. Chase Business Rebate Visa - Earn 3% rebates for gas stations and office supply stores.
4. FNBO Business Edition Plus Visa Card - Earn 3% reward back for select purchases (3 points for every $1 you spend) and 1% for everything else. With this credit card offer from the First National Bank of Omaha, you get the high earning rate for money spent at gas stations, restaurants, office supply stores, and home improvement stores.
5. Discover Business Card - Earn 2% cash back on gasoline, 5% cash back on office supplies, and 1% cash back for everything else.

If You Are Looking For The Top Student Gas Rebate Credit Card Picks, Here They Are:

1. Citi Driver’s Edge Visa for College Students - Earn 3% rebate at gas stations, supermarkets, and drug stores. Get 1% for everything else. Send in your car’s updated mileage report everytime you get an oil change and earn extra rebates for just driving your car. Earning extra rebates for miles driven is how I accrue almost half of all card rewards that I earn per year.
2. Discover Student Open Road Card - Earn 5% cash back bonuses on gas and auto maintenance purchases. Earn 1% for everything else.
3. Discover Student Card Clear - Earn unlimited 5% cash back on rotating bonus purchase categories including gas, restaurants, movies, travel, and more. The bonus category selection rotates four times per year. Cardholders also earn up to 1% for general purchases.