What is the Next Big Scam?

The net is rife with scams such as government grants, making money on Google, teeth whitening, and the Acai/Cleanse scams. There are also endless phony “review” sites for the products above. But that leads me to wonder, what will the next big scam be, and can we see signs of it already?

First of all, most of the people creating these sites are lazy. That’s right, I said LAZY. Otherwise, why else would there be dozens of “Kevin Hoeffer” clone sites with the same color scheme, same layout, same text, and same comments?

So it only figures that these scammers will start off using the same templates and url naming conventions to test out their newest, or revisited, scams.

In looking through the avalanche of fake blogs, I have happened across a few new ones out there. And that makes me wonder if we’ll start seeing any of these taking over as the other scams become more and more exposed. Here are some candidates I’ve run across:

Renewable Energy – powerbillblues.com
This one takes the typical “Kevin Hoeffer” template but instead of making money on Google or government grants, it sends you to another website pushing solar and wind energy plans. In one very long page you are told how you can reduce or eliminate your power bills. Of course we’re shown a small solar panel that probably couldn’t power a microwave oven. I am guessing that powerbillblues.com is an affiliate of that site, but whoever set up the affiliate account is familiar with the Kevin Hoeffer template, including many of the same reused comments. It was set up in late December 2008, so it is a recent endeavor. The traffic ranking sites have it ranked very low, so it’s probably either just a test or has not yet been advertised.

Renewable energy is a growing industry, so it only makes sense to see a lot of new “systems” or vague ebooks cropping up for it.

Debt Relief – janetsdebtblog.com
I ran across this fake blog while researching some of the other fake blogs I’ve written about. This one has the familiar blog template and layout. Typical “mother of 3″ and name “Janet McClure.” Typical “Dynamic Duo” of products, which in this case are DebtRx and Debt Avenger. I can’t say that either of these products are good or bad. The point is that janetsdebtblog.com is deceptive. The template on this page is familiar and phony. <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> In fact even the comments are the same as mywrinkleblog.com. Personally, I would never do business with a phony blog offering a “Dynamic Duo” of “free trial” products.

With the economy in the cellar, it only stands to reason that scammers might try their hand at the debt relief industry. This site appears to be the only one, and I am guessing is also just a test, and probably just an affiliate. Again, I can’t say at this time that the actual products being pitched are necessarily bad, just that this blog is based on blog templates used by scammers.

Wu-Yi Tea – karensdietblog.com
I ran across this one while looking for clones of the Acai/Cleanse scams. I had seen a couple of the Acai/Clenase sites including this product as an additional item, but this particular website is dedicated solely to Wu-Yi Tea. There were quite a few Wu-Yi Tea scams going a couple years ago – and like the Acai/Cleanse scams of 2009, they dropped names like Oprah and Rachel Ray for an implied association with these products. Wu-Yi Tea scams tapered off, but they still manifest on occasion. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Acai/Cleanse scams are operated by many of the same people who have peddled Wu-Yi Tea.

Excellent article and extensive comments here

So what will be the next big scam? Only time will tell, but the list above is a sample of some of the items scammers might start peddling once their current crop of products becomes more widely exposed.