Income Institute
Complaint 128257 Details

I received an email from a close friend with only a link in the text box. The link brought me to an article, in what I presume was a fake newspaper, about a young woman who went from rags to riches by doing internet marketing In the article there was an imbedded link to the so-called "Income Institute" where there was yet another rags-to-riches story by what was supposed to be another young woman, Natalie Allen - which I found out is a pen name and is a composite, based upon an adaptation of the experiences of the parties involved, and therefore a lie by the scam artists to make the story believable. After about 16 pages of positive feedback there was an "Add To Cart" button inviting me to purchase a $97 USD membership in this "Institute". Once my credit card information was given and confirmed, I was linked to another information page where I was offered a series of goodies for a further $94 USD. The credit card information was automatically processed once I accepted the offer and then I was brought along to yet another link to a domain hosting organization called "BrainHost.com" which informed me that it would now cost me another $213.60 USD for a domain name and web hosting services which had been promised as "free" at the beginning of the process. Apparently my transaction had failed (as well as another of the transactions above) and I would have to get in touch with a Customer Service Representative to complete the transaction by phone. As it was quite late (past midnight at this point), there was no point in making the call... obviously; and it is certain that this is one of the methods used by the scam artists to steal the rest of the money from your account, if not to take it over completely or steal your identity. I will be getting in touch with my bank in the morning to cancel all of these transactions and will file a complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police internet crimes unit. I went through all of this process to see if this is a legitimate offer or just a scam, as was depicted in the "news service" article; obviously, it actually is a scam. Being a network marketing professional, I am often told that my company is a pyramid scheme (it is not) and a scam (not that either); most network marketing companies are legitimate businesses that have been around for many years. Often, companies that berate legitimate network marketing organizations are often scams themselves so, beware of GET RICH QUICK AND EASY offers. If it seems too good to be true, it is.