Thursday, September 25, 2008

PartnerWithPaul, another deceptive scam like site

I was reccommended to this site by Steve Albright, creator of reviewopedia (you can see what I think of that site here. I haven't tried partnerwithpaul, so who knows if it works. All I know is his page is covered with lies and he sells your email address to spammers. I confirmed this by using a unique email for his service which resulted in receiving spam.

So after signing up for the newsletter at reviewopedia, which promised to let me know what the best system of making money online is, I got an email telling me to look at partnerwithpaul and some other site called project payday. Since the email made a bigger deal out of emphasizing Partnerwithpaul, I decided to look at it. The first thing that caught my suspicion was the fact that Paul claims repeatedly to be a normal guy who is just creating this system to help himself expand his business, rather than opening an office and hiring employees. Despite having no employees and just looking for a handful of partners, the site is very elaborate and has a very strong marketing feel to it. Everything on the site is done so carefully, even the video showing his screen when he showcases the sums of money he has made seems quite professional. Paul himself is extremely careful to conceal his identity. He covers his face and modifies his voice in all videos, and a whois report on his domain reveals that extra services have been used to conceal the owner of the site.

The next damning example of outright lying on the site is something at the bottom of the page that says that Paul intends to close the offer in a couple days. It states a specific time and day when the offer ends, however after googling the site, and looking at the cache, I saw that the deadline HAD AT ONE TIME been the date BEFORE I was looking at it. So in fact there isn't any deadline, it keeps getting pushed back. So do you really want to trust someone who is trying to trick you? It's made all the worse by the fact that he keeps trying to come off as a friendly guy. Kinda makes you not wanna trust anything he says anymore. But just for the sake of investigation, I signed up. I didn't pay anything of course, I just crossed the first hurdle of his site by offering him my email address. I don't reccommend you do this with your personal address, use a cjb.net domain and make a new address for each site you sign up, or else use gmail and use the + to make a note of who is getting your email address. I did this, and sure enough I began getting unsolicited messages to partnerwithpaul@{myusername}.cjb.net.

So once you get in, you get to see another video about how he has made even MORE money. Of course he still doesn't trust us enough to see his face or know his full name, but that's ok. He's only asking for our money after all. Wait a sec, didn't he say he wouldn't do that? Well of course it's only $10 in comparison with the large amount of money that we should, at this point, have "no doubt" is around the corner. Although fortunately his disclaimer is honest enough to say that there is a chance you may lose money, despite his site constantly claiming you will make at least 5k per month. At this point I also found an FAQ, which didn't add any transparency to the situation, as expected, and surprisingly a contact page. Unsurprisingly, no "live representatives" (hey didn't he say he didn't like to hire people?) were available, and I have the lurking suspicion that none EVER are. So it redirects to an email field which lets you write him a message without finding an email that you can really use. (most of the emails he sends out come from noreply@partnerwithpaul.com) The form guarantees he will or a representative (hey??) will get back to you within 48 hours. So I figured, why not give him a fair chance to defend his offer before I completely trash him on my blog? Here is what I wrote:

Let me first say this, I am very interested in the opportunity. That being said, there is one thing that bothers me, which is the very first transaction occurring in the program.. the payment of $9.95 for shipping of the starter kit. If you are willing, I would like to pay FedEx directly rather than pay you. This is not out of spite or anything like that, I would just enjoy the peace of mind of knowing beyond any shadow of the doubt that your primary income is not just charging people for "startup kits." I'm aware that this is a small amount to pay but the nature of the transaction, as I'm sure you would understand, makes your offer somewhat suspect. Please understand I mean no offense by this, it is just a fact that people seeking business opportunities with strangers must be cautious.


I didn't receive any response back, all I received was a form letter signed "Rebecca Hoffman/Paul's Support Team" asking me why I hadn't paid up yet. The letter contained yet another lie:

You can take the next step with no out-of-pocket costs, so this
really should be a no-brainer for you.

Paul has made millions online, and there's no better person to
help you get started and help you reach your own goals.

If there's something holding you back, please let me know?

Sincerely,

Rebecca Hoffman
Paul's Support Team
http://www.partnerwithpaul.com

P.S. Please do not reply to this email as your response will not
be received. To contact us, please use the contact form at:

http://www.partnerwithpaul.com/contact.cgi


So a few days later I get tired of waiting for a REAL response, and I send him the following letter to followup:(once again, through his contact form)

I thought I had made my question fairly clear, however you haven't answered back at all. It's been several days. At any rate, I have another question for you. Of those that pursue this program, what approximate percentage do indeed make $500 in a month? and what percentage struggle to do so or in fact lose money? (of the people who actually pursue it, i'm sure many people will give up after the first or second steps.) Please note, I am writing a review of your site for my blog. Both of the emails I have sent you as well as any you send me may be included in my review.


All I received after this was a nearly identical letter again from Rebecca Hoffman, but this time with an ominous warning at the beginning that the window of opportunity is "closing," followed by an endorsement from Paul himself about someone named Nick Marks about something equally irrelevant to my questions. I sent him one last pleading email asking him for some support.

I have already sent you 2 emails. You have answered neither, but that's ok. I just want a confirmation that you are open to communicating with me before we start. That's all. You keep sending me emails about how to get started, however you fail to aknowledge the fact that I have asked you a question, or even that I sent you anything. I hope these generic letters are not what was meant by "get back to you within 24 hours." Please let me know if I should continue or not.


"Poor me" I didn't get a response. Until Rebecca finally sent me that form letter again on our "month" anniversary.

It's been about a month now since you first created your account
at http://PartnerWithPaul.com, but you never really got started.

Maybe you've found another opportunity that is working well for
you and you're making money. If so, great!

Maybe the timing just isn't right and you're busy with other things.
I know how it goes, and that's fine too.

Mainly I just wanted to touch base and remind you to bookmark our
site so you can easily find your way back if and when you're ready
to take the next step at some point in the future ...


Followed by the same exact junk as before. Well good luck Paul and Rebecca. It would've been nice to know whether your company is run by human beings. But I guess that's too much to ask of making money at home "opportunities" with flashy websites.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's Herbalife. It is a new scam put together by the founders of Vertical Skip Marketing. Paul is an owner. He is a complete pyramid scam artist. He will never show you the real him as he is not an average joe. He makes his money off signing people up not for Herbalife but for the other services like their pre-made cookie cutter sales website and a recruitment website. Once you sign up for those you get to buy a spin on the lead wheel. Its all lame and you wont make any money unless you sell your soul. period.

Unknown said...

Well, I must say that I too had my suspicions but kept trying to sign up for Project Pay Day by signing up with partner with Paul. Although as of yet haven't given any monies.
I was very glad to see your blog which has made me even more confident that these two sites are every bit of a scam as I was beginning to think.
Thanx tons!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for your insight on the Partnerwithpaul scam. I was also looking into it and got the same feeling, like all the others, just a scam. I also received the same letter from Rebecca. Again thank you!

Unknown said...

must say very slck guy! I myself had doubts. god bless your heart that there are people like you that can help the rest of this world w/some knowledge before someones goes under w/this struggling economy. I too had a feeling this was too good to be true!

Anonymous said...

hi - the presentation was very convincing... and i wud have fallen for it - but for googling and your blog. thanks mate for the warning...

Anonymous said...

It is a complete scam, it is Herbalife, and I know this for a fact.

First of all, the recording you are hearing is in fact, not Paul, but someone else.

The way that I know this is that I worked with Paul personally over one decade ago at his office in Encino at Gable Drive.

I came there as a member of his downline because he promised he would help me build my Herbalife business.

Not only did I find this promise to be false, I also discovered other deceptive practices as well, not to mention his extremely abusive nature.

Another person I got to know in his downline had quit her job over the promise that she would be financially independent. She was struggling severely as a result of this scam and as a result, was facing a forecosure on her home and mounting debts.

I seriously believed Paul would help me to build my Herbalife business, especially since I was part of his "downline."

I ended up leaving and seeking a better way, because this was not the case and I needed to eat and pay the bills.

I am very sorry to read about what is happening here, although to be truthful, I am not surprised based on what I witnessed in Encino,CA.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I figured it was too good to be true!! Glad to see Im not the onlyone out there that almost fell for the scam!! I ALWAYS google any of those things before I make any decisions on joining them....I have yet to find one thats not a scam!!!! Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

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This person emailed me back in reply to a LIFE CHANGING BLOG that'd saved her life! I'm such a saint and so flattered. Guess who's website: Paul. I mean... isn't Paul such a fabulous guy! *SARCASM of course*:

From:
"Evonne Rodney"

To: sale-2#$#%
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html


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Khan Krum said...

he is right on his website his not a spammer, only he is spam master - do not go there ....