Jeff Paul Internet Millions Scam

I haven’t updated this site in a while because my Jeff Paul Internet Millions experience came to an end about a month ago. The director finally got fed up with me and asked if I wanted to be taken off the list. He wizened up to the fact that I was just taking information from them, and I would never actually buy anything. But in the past couple months, this site alone is making me $50/week through Google Adsense. (thanks readers ;)) And I haven’t even looked at my Amazon account. You’re not going to support a family with that, but programs like Jeff Paul’s are about creating 10, 100, or even a thousand sites. Think about it. If I made 100 sites such as this one, that is $20,000 a month, $240,000 a year. Heck, 20 websites would get me close to $50,000 a year. That is an honest living, plus I could get a real job since I don’t even look at this website anymore. It is completely automated income. And honestly, this site here probably took me a grand total of less than five hours to create and write (I skimped on the proofreading, I know guys). So I might start working my way up to 20 sites, as I only have a few now. It’s definitely worth a try. And I can write about it on here. If anyone needs help learning how to start a simple, moneymaking site from scratch, I can make a really uncomplicated, step-by-step guideline. Let me know what you think in the comments.

So this week, once again, Andrew calls me wanting to put me through to the director. Normally, I politely say I need more time to think about it or I’m busy at the moment. But I decided to entertain him because I wanted to try an experiment. Normally, when he asks me how much I am willing to spend on making Internet Millions, I act like a high roller and say I have $15,000 cash. This time I said I only had $1000. For some reason these guys haven’t figured out if already been run through the system a few times. He also asked me some odd questions, like if I’m married or have kids, what my interest rate on my credit card was, if I’m happy with my life and whatnot. Kind of creepy…

But anyway, I get through to the director 5 minutes later and he is actually a pretty eloquent man. Addison was his name. He tells me to write down this:

$910- 100% tax deductible
gets me:
9 online training sessions
unlimited reactive training sessions
website software (online)
$99 per month
30 day money back guarantee

Once again, I ask the director if he can show me an example website. Instead of sending me to hotbargainstores.com like the last one, he tells me to go to outdooractivitystore.com. As you can see, it the outdoor store is much more professional, like a website I would consider browsing for supplies. I told him I would consider. But I probably won’t.

On a serious note, I’ve gotten a few emails from people who are concerned about getting scammed by the Jeff Paul System. Well, I want to help, so if you get anything from this blog, this is probably the most important post. Losing 50 bucks is not bad, which is how much the initial Jeff Paul Program costs with its “10 Free Websites”. And honestly, the information in the packets that you receive is probably worth that much. But losing $3,000, $5,000, and even $10,000 to this program means you are probably getting scammed. This is how they do it.

So about a week after my debacle with the first “Director”, I get another call from the Jeff Paul guys. And I’ll be damned, they have a short memory, because once again, Jeremy, or whatever, is asking me a few “preliminary questions” to see if I’m qualified to talk to the director. They never stop trying to take your money. I told him I had already done this, and the director told me I was not the type of person they were looking for. Jeremy was really confused, a director has probably never said that to a potential mark. Cause they will take anyone’s money. So Jeremy insisted I got a bad director and started asking the preliminary questions like I hadn’t heard them before. I said, “Listen man, to save you some time, 10, 10, 10, $50,000 in my first 3 months, and I can spend up to $15,000.”  I told him to tell the director to call me at 7.

This time, the director was nothing like the suave, businessman who had talked to me before.  I heard a nervous kid on the end of the line, who was obviously in a room of telemarketers reading the same junk of a computer screen. I swear it was the kid’s first day. There were so many awkward silences, I actually started whistling during one, to which he responded, “Are you whistling??” I replied that I wasn’t. Shoot, it’s not my place to make your job any easier, I’m enjoying how awkward you are. He said the same junk about the original 50 dollar package not being the real system, just to filter out those who “really want to succeed”. And unless I upgrade I will never make the “real money”. With the real system you sell actual products apparently and are affiliated with fortune 500 companies like Yahoo and Amazon. So I said, “Show me… Show me what my site will look like with this system.” So he asked me if I was at a computer, and of course I was, and tells me to go to this site.

Hotbargainstores.com… Showing me this was a BIG MISTAKE. You know what this is? This is just a link farm using Amazon’s Associate Program. You can just sign up now and put these links anywhere and it’s FREE. The point is, you get a few cents to over a dollar per click on each link. You don’t need a $5,000 “success coach” to figure this out. Look, I’ll put some links below here:

Wow! I’ve created my own internet marketplace! This is what the Jeff Paul System teaches you to do, and it is not rocket science.

By this point I was pretty much done with this “director” so I decided to mess with him. I went along and acted like I was interested. He said for $5K, $8K, or $10K, I get a “marketing partner” to help guide me through the process of creating sites like Hotbargainstores.com. Those numbers were obviously made up after I said I had $15K to spend. I’m sure they would have scaled accordingly if I said I had $800 bucks. I think I’ll say that when they inevitably call me again. So I said to the director, “What? I gotta pull out a futon and feed this guy?” The director thought that was pretty funny, but no, you are paying somebody potentially 10 grand to speak with you on the phone. Probably the same high school dropout I was speaking with, under a different name. I noticed every time they call me it is the same voice with a different suspicious alias.

I waited until the last moment to say I wasn’t ready to make the commitment. I heard people around him groan, because evidently they don’t usually get this far, especially with a big fish like me and my $15K. So to this day, Jeff Paul and his cronies still call me acting like I just got the box yesterday, ask if they can get me to take their “preliminary interview” to see if I’m qualified to talk the director, who will ask for an exorbitant sum of money for a marketing partner who teaches me how to use Amazon’s affiliate program. Is this a scam? I dunno, I never laid down the cash to see what the next level is all about. But if Hotbargainstores.com is the end result of a $10,000 investment, you’re getting hosed.

Guy above- “Hi I didn’t graduate high school and I may or may not have a permanent record, but I’m gonna tell YOU how to become a millionaire!”

So if you buy the Jeff Paul System, chances are you had to give them your phone number at some point along the line. Big mistake… You will probably getting a a call from Tom or Justin or Jeremy or whatever for the rest of your life (they all sound like the same 20 something-year-old guy, mysteriously). He is going to ask you a few “preliminary questions” to see if you are “qualified” to be graced with the presence of the director. In these questions he is going to ask you, on a scale of 1-10 how committed are you to making money with the Jeff Paul System, some other 1-10 questions I can’t remember now, how much money do you want to make per month, and how much money are you willing to spend achieving this goal. This last one is important, I threw out the number $15,000 because I’m a high roller like that.  That made me DEFINITELY qualified to talk to the director, and he would call me at 7 for our “appointment”.

So the director calls me.  Sounds like a pretty suave guy, real businesslike.  And he’s like, “So far you’ve only been selling e-books with the base package, how would you like to be selling real products.”  And I respond, equally businesslike, I’m not gonna let this guy talk down to me, “Listen, I’m already selling car electronics and I am concerned that you do not know the system you are selling.” SEE:

And he has the nerve to respond, “No, I believe you can only sell E-books with the base package.”  I say, “Well I believe there has been some miscommunication within your organization, because I already have my site up. I am concerned that you do not know your own product.” That really got him going, he said, “I do NOT appreciate somebody telling me I do not know my own product.  You are not the type of person we are looking for.  Have a good day.”  So ended my first encounter with the Director.  But we would meet again soon…

I figured, Ebay would be a great way to get my products instantly exposed to thousands of people.  Rather than trying to submit my crummy site to some directory or spam or attempt to get backlinks, people looking to buy electronics could see my products.  I already have an ebay account.  Never sold anything, but I bought an Atari 2400 (gonna be a collector’s item someday).  The process is relatively straightforeward and I thought I was moments away from making good cash with this system.  Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like, they fill out the product description for you so that’s really nice.

Everything was going swimmingly, I filled out my minimum bid, shipping cost, some other aesthetic options. Then I clicked Finish… I clicked it again… And again, and again. Nothing happened. The button did not go anywhere. So I called the technical service lady and all she said was that the site was currently having technical difficulties and it would be fixed in a couple days. It has been a few weeks since that day. It still doesn’t work.

So yesterday I finally found the website builder. Today, I’ll walk you through what these “10 FREE Web Businesses” actually are. If you are a member of this prestigious Jeff Paul Players Club you can follow along at jeffpaulclub.com.

First, you select from really a wide variety of items. Car stereo equipment, GPS, eBooks, here is a screen shot of the three catalog providers:

Now, for my first couple sites I chose to use Sunrise Wholesale, because they sell real, tangible items, whereas the other two are just selling $9.99 ebooks. I figured I would get a bigger commission with expensive items. So I picked a GPS system.

Notice the bright Red dollar sign with cost next to it.  After I called a specialist for some help, I learned that you do not make commission on items, but you have to upsell them.  The Cost is what you will have to pay to sell the item. So unless you sell for well above the MSRP, you will not make any money for a sale.  That is the understanding I came to from my conversation with the kindly young adviser, Lauren I think it was.  I was surprised, the people you call for help with the site are actually quite knowledgeable, but the people who will call you, who try to sell you the lectures, really have no understanding of their own product.

Next, you pick a domain name.  Unfortunately you are limited to prefixes before totalwarehouse.com.  So mine would be gpsnavigation.totalwarehouse.com or something.  This was a big disappointment, as I wanted a quick way to utilize the domain names and hosting I already have.  But in the end, after literally a few clicks you will get a website that looks like this:

Cute right? Not exactly an “Internet Business” but more like an internet item, that you will have to actively force people to actually look at.  And you have to sell it for over the MSRP to make any money.  And you have to talk to Paypal and Sunrise Wholesale to get your site registered to even get any of the money if you were to ever make a sale.  Now those directions would have been useful somewhere in the Jeff Paul System, but they are nowhere to be found.  You probably have ot pay $5000 for that advice.  However, I’m not saying they make it impossible to make this work.  They give you the option to put your item on eBay.  Now that is a great way to sell your product on a highly trafficked site.  In my next post, I will go through that ordeal.

Ok, I’ve actually done a few runs through the Jeff Paul Internet Millions to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth and a good investigation of the process. The first time, I found jeffpaulclub.com through a google search and some evidence from all the fliers that the “Jeff Paul Millionaires Club” was where I would find my 10 free websites.  Why they would not just put the damn url somewhere in the fliers and packets, I don’t know.  Maybe so that you can call their Start-up specialists first.  Whom, basically funnel you to “directors” that will try to suck as much money as possible from your bank account for these “internet coaches”.  More on that later.  What I really want to talk about is the website builder they give you with the $39.95 product.

JeffPaulClub.com starts here. Oddly, enough when I put my customer ID and from my invoice, and the password, PASSWORD, I didn’t get in. So I broke down and called Jeff’s staff at 1-877-807-6005.

Honestly, when I eventually got through, the guy was very helpful. I gave him my name and customer ID and for some reason, when I put in PASSWORD again, I got in. After going through some customization of what I wanted my username and password to be, I was in. Here is what I saw:

Not much to it, the tabs on the left include the success team, which is their start-up specialists, or what I call “the hook”.  Notice the two training materials tabs, both direct you to pdf’s of the packets, in case you lost them I guess.  There is only one newsletter and daily tip so that’s worthless.  You saw the success stories in the infomercials.  Then and obligatory contact form.  Next, I’ll tell you what the “10 free internet businesses” are really all about.

So the packets are not that bad…

It appears that Jeff Paul Internet Millions purposefully overloads you with noise and numbers so that you will call his motley crew of counselors, internet experts, advisers, start-up specialists, and success coaches before you ever get to looking at the actual product. I mean, where do I start, I’ve got a handful of flyers and a video all telling me to “CALL NOW!!” So instead of calling, because it was after 7 pm, I opened up the Quick Start Guide.

The basic principle of the guide is to tell you what to do without giving you the critical information as to HOW to do it. So, according to this packet, first of all you need to pick a topic that you will enjoy working with on your website. Ok, next you need to choose a domain name, like bartsimpsonpublishing.com is the example they give you. Keep in mind they give you no advice on HOW or where to buy these domains. You know, they could have just given me a url to go to like GoDaddy.com to get my domains, but no, you gotta pay for that advice. Next they tell you how to set up a Paypal account and such. Then, finally, I reach Chapter 6 “Setting up Sites”. Here we go this is what I was looking for.  It appears to be a tutorial on how to use some kind of a program to easily select a category of product to sell, i.e. art, automotive, betting, antiques. Then you choose a template, and the thing pretty much sets itself up for you. Great. The only problem is, there are no directions on how to find this program. Why would they not include a website or directions to start what they are giving you directions to do? The rest of the handbook is about affiliates, writing articles, and buying google adwords. Fairly useful, basic internet marketing guidelines but still, the Quick Start guide just made me more frustrated by showing me the software without telling me where it is. I had to rely on my own resourcefulness to find it, without paying more money.  In my next post, I finally find my “10 free internet businesses”.

Are my Internet Millions in here?

I was really hoping the package would include some kind of software or tangibly valuable thing that could get me my “10 free internet businesses” Unfortunately, the Quick Start DVD only contains a video of Jeff Paul’s ugly mug yappin at me.

The first five minutes is Jeff Paul telling you how pathetic he was/is: homeless, buried in debt, with a wife and kids, living in his sister-in-law’s basement. Wow, that’s a little disheartening, I mean I know you’re trying to tell us how down and out you were before “discovering” this program to make it look like any moron can do it, but you’re not making yourself into a credible source of financial advice. Anyways, throughout his long-winded spiel, a number is running under the screen with the message, “Call NOW for your FREE consultation!” As you can remember, I already have to call like, 5 numbers, NOW:

So basically, after Jeff Paul goes over what a loser he was, he reveals how he made his millions.  Through mail order. Then in the mid 90’s he started using the internet to push his products.  After that he goes into how his friends and family are struggling to pay the bills because they followed “conventional wisdom” and got a regular job.  Good to know you’re looking out for your poor relatives, Jeff Paul, since you are supposedly a million billionaire with your system.  But he also starts making a lot of sense, since the economy is rough now, conventional jobs are tough to rely on anymore.  And the internet does provide a useful tool in exposing your product to the masses automatically.  Total financial freedom is what he offers, I’m getting PUMPED…almost.  He then gives you more filler, generic motivational speech,  about achieving your dreams and ambitions. Yada yada yada.  So he wants me to call a “Internet Success Coach” I suppose that is what they mean by a free consultation.  Here’a an excerpt from the movie from one of these Internet Success Coaches:

Coaching gets you to your destination…faster. Uh, sometimes you’re on your way to a certain place, and you have the address but your don’t have the direction.  You may get there, but it may take a long time, and then you have to be careful because you run the risk of giving up, because you’re taking so long to get there when the destination is right down the street.  But with coaching, you’re being told, ok, turn left here, stop sign.

Hmm, maybe I’ll hold off on the Internet Success Coaching for now and look at what else came with my package. And find my 10 damn free website.

Sooo, this is it.

So I dumped the contents of the box on my bed. I was a bit disappointed by the thinness of the manuals, only two cds, and a shitload of flyers telling me to CALL NOW and GET STARTED NOW in bold letters exclamation, exclamation.

A lot of fucking flyers.

I already called you, Jeff Paul, I already bought the package, therefore I already started. Where are my ten free internet businesses? I figured there would be a cd with data I could FTP to my server and start my websites with. Right? If the trailer trash, hillbilly, too stupid to keep themselves out of debt, can fall for these things, there must be an easy way to get get this started.  I mean, I already called, Jeff, for the 10 free websites, why would I call again? And I WHO would I call? Look at all these goddamn numbers.

Attack of the Toll Free Numbers

I looked at the two CDs, Quick Start DVD and Shortcut to Offline Millions. Neither looks promising to contain any HTML. WTF would I want a CD that tells me how to make millions offline. Are they so sure their Internet Millions is so useless that they give people CDs telling them how to make millions “Offline”? So I popped in the Quick Start DVD, maybe that community college dropout, genetic bottom dweller, Jeff Paul, will give me an explanation.