Twitter’s Biggest Scams, Part 3: Building Wealth Through Twitter Followers

Feb 10 2010

Twitter’s Biggest Scams, Part 3: Building Wealth Through Twitter Followers

Part 3 of a series

“EXTREME traffic and EXTREME income!” the tweets scream at you. How is anybody making money off of this ridiculous offer? Let’s investigate the “Build Twitter Followers” scam:

There are many sites dedicated to this scheme, but the one I investigated was The MLM Mastermind System.

After submitting your name, email address, and phone number (we used fakes), you are redirected to one of the longest, strangest web pages I have ever seen. It goes on for miles! There are dozens of testimonials, anecdotes, and metaphors to explain why it’s imperative for you to expand your network, create new leads, and brand yourself to start earning money.

The spam-meisters explain that if you use their system, you can do all of these things on “COMPLETE AUTOPILOT” and start raking in the cash for free, with zero effort. As you work your way through the page, there is not a single mention of a product of any kind. You grow your business by suckering other people into growing their business, which is growing more people to grow their business, ad infinitum.

There are all the telltale signs of a pyramid scheme—promises of get rich quick, low risk, high gain, work from home, etc. The system they describe for building this network consists of software tools that will perpetuate the type of spam Twitter messages we frequently receive. These are the terms to buy into the system:

“So here’s the thing, After your 7 day trial period for only $1, the ENTIRE system is still only a measly $49.77 a month. And you don’t even have to pay that until you’ve already started USING the system, and seeing how profitable it really is. After that, for literally a buck and a half a day you will be at THE cutting edge of this industry, and using technology to build your business easier than most could imagine.”

Unwilling to surrender my credit card or Twitter account information, I can only guess at what happens next. There are volumes of reports across the web about how companies like this use your information — charging exorbitant fees, signing you up for other similar services, and other types unsavory exploitation.

Since it’s all automated, as their network expands, they can tweet these messages every few seconds, and only a very small fraction of the people that receive the messages need to click through and sign up for it to become profitable very quickly. As it grows it creates a large, viral, financial ecosystem of its own.

Tomorrow: The Trump Network.

Part 1 in the series: Multi-level marketing

Part 2: The teeth whiteners

Part 4: The Trump Network

Part 5: What to do about Twitter scams

Filed in Corruption on social web, economics of social media, ethics, twitter | Mark

12 Comments

By Marc Winitz, February 10, 2010 @ 1:07 am

You would think in this day and age people would see through this, but perhaps not. Or perhaps some people just don’t wish to see through it. Amazing that digital snakeoil still sells (or tries to).
By Mark, February 10, 2010 @ 7:22 am

@Marc There is a whole subculture at work here that is strange and frightening. The scammers prey on the elderly, the vulnerable, the under-educated. They dodge regulation and adjust their tactics apace with the technological breakthroughs. “Best practices” spread at the speed of light and the pyramids can disappear behind their cloak of anonymity and web of fake accounts. Honestly, this has been a depressing series of articles to write.
By Steve Dodd, February 10, 2010 @ 8:25 am

Mark, I’m glad you are writing this series. I know it is depressing but these are things that need to be said. It’s unfortunate that the people who really need to read this will never likely see it. Here is another reference you may find useful (http://www.scambusters.org/). This is an organization that will validate any internet “Business Opportunity”.
Also, now you’ve had some experience with this research, have you run a virus / spyware checker on your machine? Did you notice any strange increases in tracking cookies or other viruses on your system?
By Mark, February 10, 2010 @ 8:32 am

Thanks for the lift, Steve! I was aware of that organization and will mention it in closing post Friday. I have been deluged with spam-meisters to the point where it has been difficult to keep up but no ghost in the machine so far!
By Jon Buscall, February 10, 2010 @ 9:57 am

It’s a shame that these kind of people prey on others. But it doesn’t surprise me.

They’re hard to combat but hopefully by sharing small communities of goodness, like Grow, we can all do a bit to counter these.

I just wish Twitter would nuke them though.

I can imagine how this series would get to you though, Mark. The underbelly of the Internet.
By Mark, February 10, 2010 @ 10:00 am

@Jon. Such a nice compliment. I like that. “GROW: A community of goodness.” That should be the group’s new tag line.
By Glenn Taylor, February 10, 2010 @ 10:26 am

Great series Mark! I knew it would be.

It’s sad that every great technology leap has to bring out the worst in a lot of bad people. I hope the people that need to see this, will. How can these crooks sleep at night trying to make a living this way? Boggles the mind. Still, for everything wrong, there are many wonderful people and stories that make it all worthwhile and gratifying.
By Carla Bobka, February 10, 2010 @ 1:38 pm

I can’t tell you how sick I am of getting follows from these creeps. Thanks for exploring it, though. I’ve been curious how they work, but too creeped out by the scam-spam to poke around myself.
By Anne Kenney, February 24, 2010 @ 10:28 pm

Mark, love this series.

These ads crack me up because the picture of the smiling girl on the right of the page is from istockphoto because I have photos from the same photographer on my site.

And, if you change cities, the same ads pop up. How pathetic this is and a huge waste of our precious time.
By Mark, February 25, 2010 @ 7:49 am

@Anne I’m so glad you enjoyed the series. It was painful work. There is so much joy on the social web and it was disheartening to immerse myself in this widespread corruption of the human spirit.
By mose, March 9, 2010 @ 5:51 pm

Preying on the vulnerable has been around since the dawn of man. This is no different. Faster, yep. More visible, sure. But no different than the snake oil salesmen of old. Where there are eyeballs there are folks looking to cash in. Whether it be nefarious boiler-room telemarketing, Nigerian money scams or groups phoning claiming to be Police or Fire Fighter Associations wanting donations.

Buyer beware. Sadly, greed wills out in the end.

Rule of thumb … if something is too good to be true? it is.
By Mark, March 9, 2010 @ 6:27 pm

So true, Mose, but sad nonetheless. What a world!