5 Online Scams That Rip Me Off

1. Teaching English Certification

This is the first online scam mentioned because it rip me off the most with more than $900! Are you thinking of teaching English abroad? Well, listen carefully because what I have to say come from my personal experience: you do not need any teaching English as a second language or foreign language certification. I repeat, you do not need any sort of certification whatsoever! I paid about $900 to an online school called Worldwide Teachers Development Institute because I was afraid that I would not be qualified enough to teach in Taiwan. Guess what?! I spent months looking for a teaching job in Taiwan but as far as I could recall only one school asked to look at my certification. You know what schools in Taiwan and other countries in Asia required for their English teachers? The Caucasian look. I am serious, one lady even asked me on the phone if I was Caucasian. It did not matter if you ever went to school or that you look liked a slop (one of my coworker did) as long as you are white then welcome abroad. Well, in fairness it did help to have a Bachelor Degree of any sort for the purpose of getting a working visa. But I doubt they check if the school you got your degree from is accredited. So lucky if you are white, you will get better salary and treatment even if do not show up all the time and when you do you are a wreck cause schools in Asia are desperate. And I am sure the so-called institute know about this so they come up with some sort of certification to rip people off.

2. BloomsToday

Anniversary. Just wanted to surprise my hubby with a bouquet of roses sent to his office. Should have used the popular 1-800-flowers but I got scam by BloomsToday's big 50% off sign. What I did not know was that in order to save 50% I got myself sign into a so-called "rewards" program that charged me $9.95 every month til I am buried!!! "Does it make sense to you that to save a 50% for some flowers I have to pay $10 every month for life?!" I screamed at the supervisor. And, of course, the scam companies predictable reply, "You agreed to it when you check out." Sure, if it's written the size of ants, you witch. If not they can always add it in later! Anyways, after hours of arguing she "Katherine" finally agreed to refund me the four months that I was charged but with another catch: I will have to pay for the bouquet full prize ~ three sorry roses will now cost me $51. Stay away from this company! Many people had been scam by them and you can read about their complains at http://www.ripoffreport.com/

Lesson learned: Once you give your card number especially online you are at the company's mercy.

Update: Bloom Today has since refunded all the months that I was charged.  I wasn't charge the "full price" of the bouquet afterall.

3. Greencard Lottery

Do you know what is the best way to win the green card lottery? Marrying a U.S. citizen. That's it. I had met people who immigrated here by winning the green card lottery but most of them were from country with very few immigrants like Bangladesh or Nepal. So if you are from China, Mexico or Philippines you certainly know why many of your fellow countrymen 'immigrated' illegally or become a mail order bride. Anyways, adhering to the topic my sister and I spent fifty dollars on an online SCAM:usafis.org (No doubt the domain was intentionally selected to look like the U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services' uscis.gov) to win the green card lottery because we barely read or write Chinese so it would be hard for us to survive in our own country. This online site and many like it looked really legit but the fact is that the real green card lottery is an U.S. government program so no third party can make you any luckier no matter what they claim. Annually, you must apply directly to the U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services at an appointed time so check its website each month at www.uscis.gov. I heard that some people are so scared that they might fill out the form incorrectly because of their poor English that they pay a 'professional' to do it. Do not fall for such scam because unless you absolutely can not find a capable and trusted relatives or friends you are better off asking legal aid for help. Do not pay for citizenship class either. Churches or community services offer them for free and there are also various media like CDs, DVDs or books in different languages. The test according to my friend was more like an easy history test.

4.Free Wii, laptop, iPod, Xbox, etc.,

Anytime a sign flashing or an animated voice comes on and say, "Congratulation! You've won a Wii!" Run for your life. Unless you want to get spam like I am you better stay away from this clever advertising. My friend claimed he won an iPod once but when I tried my luck for a laptop it just kept on and on about whether I want to receive info from this and that company. All those companies are well-known so I kept filling out the survey for what seemed like an hour until I gave up and BANG! They got me! Their strategy to get my e-mail and consent inorder to spam me for life with trillions of junk mails worked. Really, everyone must know about this by now. I do for one cause those hundreds of e-mail I have been getting everyday spawn from this gullable instance of mine. Do they really have the intention of giving you a laptop or iPod or Wii? Of course not, that was why it surprized me that reputable company like Wal-mart was part of such hoax. And I doubt my friend was telling the truth about winning his iPod online. I bet his reckless spending prompted him to lie lest I would tell his parents about it.

5. Iofferbuy.com

Iofferbuy.com is the last one mentioned because it is the most recent. Right after I wrote the previous four I managed to fall into another scam! Now I am a pretty paranoid person so there must be a lot of scam out there in the universe that it was hard for me or anyone not to be victimized!

I had recently been an ebay-crazed seller slashed wannabe business woman. So upon searching for things to resell I came across Iofferbuy.com that was selling "Disney" DVDs for only $7 each. Well, too good to be true given that even used Disney DVDs were selling more than $15 online so I e-mail the company to be sure they weren't selling pirated ones and here was their reply:

"all does come with original with new factory sealed etc,and works great in us..."

Needless to say all DVDs were obviously pirated when I received them. And when I opened and tested one of them it would not play. I panicked. I had spent $64 while being unemployed for 9 useless DVDs. So I contacted Iofferbuy.com about shipping them back to get my refund but low and behold here was their respond:

" grace,we are doubted that u are lying,we sells thousands of it,but yours problem i never seen why have so many?? confused!! "

If you don't understand her broken English she basically wrote that how dare I doubted her company when they sold "thousands" of those pirated DVDs and therefore, I was a liar. Liar?! What was she talking about! It wasn't like I wanted to keep her merchandize. I offered to ship them back!

Anyways, I had to file my case to Paypal and they, true to their reputation, refuse to refund my money back. For those of you know don't know what Paypal is it is basically a way to pay for stuff online instead of using your credit card. Unlike credit cards no company like BloomsToday can charge you for anything in the future without your approval. Wonderful system? Not really, unlike credit cards Paypal get commission from the seller so if the company send you shit or none at all then you are sure out of luck. Why would they demand the company to give back your money when that also mean Paypal will have to give back their commission!

Well, in the end I had to open and test all DVDs. So the moral of the story is don't be clueless like me.

In conclusion there are many other scams online (Working at home and make thousands a week being the obvious ones) but fortunately, I do not have much experience with them so I could not be certain. Whatever they are just do not forget the old saying: If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. So were you scam online? Be kind and share it. Don't let those bastards get away with it!