Ok, I’ll admit I didn’t believe it, but that would mean you can make $156,000 a year knitting things! That’s real money!
So when I saw the ad appear in my Google ads, I had to click. How could I help myself? Clicking sent me to the http://www.americancraftsinstitute.org1 web page which began
. . . If I Can Do It, So Can You!
Hi!
My name is Sally Nolan. . .
The site showed photos of women knitting on fairly fat needles and doing a variety of other crafts. Lots of text followed suggesting you could craft (knit, crochet, weave, whatever) and sell the fruits of your labor all sorts of places. Like say, the Pottery Barn or JC Penney. (Of course, I’ve seen US made craft items in both stores all the time. Isn’t that were you buy your hand knits? )
The article also assures the reader this is no scam. They have been vetted by a “major consumer protection group”. Anyone ever heard of consumerreporteronline.org? Not me!
But that means nothing. After all, I’m don’t know much about consumer protection groups like, say The Better Business Bureau. Consumerreporteronline.org has a domain name; it includes the words “Consumer reporter”; we know that domain names always match the content of a blog or web page; so they must be a major consumer group.
And if you have any doubt, look at their home page: It contains a whopping 7 links:
If that web page doesn’t convince you consumerreporteronline.org is a major consumer protection group, what would?
Of course, as I became more and more convinced, I read with greater and greater excitement. Imagine the thrill I felt when I noticed this offer highlighted in yellow:
BUT HERE’S THE BEST PART: When I started with American Crafts Institute, it cost me $179 for the Course. But they have lowered the price for everybody who signs up by Tuesday, March 28 to only $99!
This was followed by a visa / mastercard logo. I would have clicked, but I did something like that last week. Then Jim took away the credit card. . .
1. No, I’m not posting a live link. I don’t want to boost their Google rank.
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Lucia Liljegren: Copyright 2005-2007 Rights to all site content including knitting patterns, generators and haikus reserved.
Oh crush my dreams, why don’tcha?
Comment by spaazlicious — 3/28/2006 @ 3:58 pm
Oh, I”m sure you can make $3000 a week crafting only a few hours in your spare time.
But, doesn’t it make you wonder how much you could make if you hired a bunch of naive retirees in convalescent homes, gave them yarn, paid them $2 to knit an afghan and sold those to Pottery Barn?
Hmmm… I think I should write that up, publish it in a book and sell it for $99!
I’ve noticed those ads seem to have vanished. . .
Comment by lucia — 3/28/2006 @ 4:01 pm
That stupid ad is up on my knitting news blog right now. My business idea is to create a sweatshop for knit bloggers so that they could have more FOs to post and could therefore become more and more popular.
Comment by Amy — 3/28/2006 @ 4:23 pm
happy tattooed fat girl knitting. shit, that’s me!!
Comment by Inky — 3/28/2006 @ 4:27 pm
Oh my gosh, think of the work in progress sidebar you could create if you found 7 naive knitters and got them to snap photos every day. You could claim you just got a few rows done on each, say a few things about the wonders of each project, and eventually, FO!
You could make billions in google ads. (Well, maybe $3 a day.)
Comment by lucia — 3/28/2006 @ 4:30 pm
“happy tattooed fat girl knitting. shit, that’s me!!”
Holy hell! Inky! You’re my twin sister! Only I’ve got cat glasses. (This last round of socks is killing my eyes!!!)
Comment by Sachi — 3/28/2006 @ 6:12 pm
Gah! My blog is getting them too! Lessee, somewhere around in the AdSense Login is a way to “block competitive ads” — ah, here it is, and I’m allowed to click on *your* ads to get the URL to block . . . thank you.
(But I’d take the $3000 per week in a heartbeat!)
Comment by alwen — 3/29/2006 @ 11:47 am
Um….I spend $3,000 a week making crafts. Does that count?
Comment by purldiver — 3/29/2006 @ 9:30 pm
hhhmmm…spending $3000 is almost the same.
I see they are showing up on this article now, so I better go block them!
Comment by lucia — 3/29/2006 @ 9:49 pm
I read the ad today too and found it possibly to good to be true. I read through your correspondence, but missed where the answer was given whether is was or wasn’t too good.
what was the answer?
I figured 3000. per week was a bit much, but making that in month would be ok.
thanks for sending me the answer you got.
It looks like the person who was answering didn’t want to plug google. I may be naive, but I don’t know what that means.
Thanks again-connie
Comment by connie bedard — 4/13/2006 @ 6:44 pm
I have never heard of “Consumer Reporter”. I have heard of “Consumer Reports” though. Further more, I find it odd that a company dedicated to “stamping out internet scams” has only one apparent article on their website. If you go to the Consumer Reports website you will find thousands of articles. Also odd is the fact that none of the little pictures on the side are real links. In fact, the only real link on the entire page leads right back to the American Craft Institute. So, this organization, apparently devoted to stamping out internet fraud, has but one blurb about the American Craft institute, no links to any page that will verify it’s reputation, and no articles on any other website or scam.
To be frank, that seems like a scam to me. Keep your salt shaker handy when tempted to grab that credit card.
Comment by Sara — 4/19/2006 @ 9:51 pm
Sara, I also think it’s a scam.
Comment by lucia — 4/19/2006 @ 10:07 pm
I ran across that ad on About.com (knitting section) and clicked on it. Then I googled for it, and found 2 whole entries for it, one of which was this blog (thank you, Lucia!). The other had nothing to do with the ad. I also googled Consumer Reporter Online and found, to my amazement, several hits. Most were descriptive (”our consumer reporter online John Doe says”) and had nothing to do with the organization in question. One was a legitimate reference, assuming autopages.com is a legitimate site unrelated to any of this.
By the time I got to the googling, though, I was already convinced it was a scam. In addition to the points raised by others (lack of links, circular links, etc.), if you check the source code for the page (and I’m sure most people figured it out without that extra bit of effort), the red-colored date by which you must submit your credit card info is tied to your current system date. Thus, returning to the site tomorrow will give you an extra day to get all the freebies
Comment by Courtney — 4/20/2006 @ 6:25 pm
I would like to add that I have run across the Consumer Reporter site for another Work at Home “deal” and their link was also number one on the consumer reporter list. This leads me to believe that scams can pay to have their site listed to look legit.
Comment by Amanda — 6/29/2006 @ 5:02 pm
ahahahaha. i read that ad just now and thought hmmmm i don’t recall seeing any us-made handmade anything at potterybarn lately… but gosh 3000/week, that would pay for my fabric and yarn fetish, at least. so thank you, thank you for your wonderful blog entry confirming that yes yes yes this is a scam!
Comment by eva — 7/19/2006 @ 7:39 pm
I just wanted to say that I’m glad this blog is here, cause it’s such a tempting idea, but I worked for Sears, which is one of the places listed to sell goods, and not once did I ever see, or hear rumour of Sears buying handmade items. And yet… sigh, it would be so nice to MAKE money instead of always spending it while crocheting!
Comment by Jessica — 8/16/2006 @ 2:55 pm
Thank you, just came across it on the side bar of my email. Happily, while googling for it, your site is the first that comes up! Thanks for your blog.
If only there was some work at home opportunity that wasn’t a scam..perchance to dream
Comment by TS — 8/21/2006 @ 1:46 pm
Complete Scam
I say this as a slightly poorer (but much wiser)¨sucker¨.
The material they provide is useless, they don´t, of course, reply to emails and as for getting a refund (silly me).
I should have known better but hopefully this will prevent anyone else getting ripped off.
Comment by Mike — 8/31/2006 @ 10:00 am
Just as I thought.
Thanks Mike
Comment by Tom — 8/31/2006 @ 10:05 am
I am adding my thanks to the many posted here already. I hate to rehash what has been said by everyone here but….this is the first non-related site about this scam that I’ve found. My husband and I are starting a craft/art business at home and were hoping that this was on the level to help fund our own gig. Ah well. Thanks a million for the information, now I can get my husband to stop dreaming of what he’ll do with all of the $$$$.
Comment by Renee — 9/29/2006 @ 6:20 am
Dear Sirs,
We are a group of women from Peru, that knit in alpacril and peruvian cotton, sweaters, scarfs, chullos, vests, for women and men. Our products are completely made by hand, no machine in the process, so every product is different of each other. Its made of alpacril (alpaca wool with acrylic so this makes it hypoalergenic and easy to wash). We have stock.
cpflucker@gmail.com
If you are interested, we can send you some pictures.
Regards,
Cecilia Pflucker
Perú
Comment by Cecilia Pflucker — 6/27/2007 @ 10:06 am