Category Archives: Fraud

The Secret Shopper Scam

Posted on by The Old Wolf

An ad recently appeared on the KSL.com jobs page for a “Mystery Shopper” opportunity. I’m sorry I didn’t copy the original posting right away, because apparently they keep an eye out for such things and it was deleted immediately. But here’s what happens when you respond. Note: “Critique International, LLC” is a legitmate shopper evaluation company, and they are well aware of the scams being perpetrated using their name.

Hello [Name],
Thank you for your swift e-mail response , Your information has been accepted and input into our database.
FIRSTLY:
Your information has been submitted and a payment will be issued out to you for your First Assignment. Your information submitted is as follows:

[Name]
[Address]
[Phone]

I’ll need you to confirm that the above name and address is correct.
A payment will be issued to you as soon as your details have been reconfirmed. Information about the payment and instructions will be sent to you later. Please do check the above information and re-confirm to me that its your correct information .
Kindly be consistent with your email,because all updates shall be send to you via email.I await your reply.
 
Regards,
David Schlotthauer
Critique International, LLC
Note: This is already sounding Nigerian. One gets used to their peculiar grammar and spelling.

To: mysteryshopper008@hotmail.com
From: {me}
Subject: Re: RECONFIRMATION OF DETAILS FOR YOUR SECRET SHOPPER

This information is correct, as is my email address.

I’ve received your reconfirmation. Kindly be consistent with your email because all updates and instructions shall be send via email.

Regards
David Schlotthauer
Critique International, LLC

Note: “shall be send by email”

Good Morning ! You must take note that your mystery shopper payment delivers tomorrow, as soon as you have received it, confirmed on email for more details about your assignment.
Regards
David Schlotthauer
Critique International, LLC
Note: “You must take note…” – stilted, Nigerian English

A check arrives in the mail. Certified, no less.

Secret Shopper Envelope
Secret Shopper Bogus Check
Phony as a $3.00 bill…
I respond,
I have received a check in the mail. It is significantly larger than any possible payment for a Secret Shopper job. What is this about?
-C
Hello,
 
The Evaluation Team invites you to run a survey on two prominent Western Union Locations in your area.
Note: Bingo. There’s the proof of the pudding. Any time Western Union crops up in a transaction, you know someone is trying to steal your money.
 
Your First Task is to Evaluate two different Western Union Locations outlets around your City,since you have received your first official assignment payment. Kindly find a list of Western Union outlets around your location online at http://www.westernunion.com/ { HERE PROVIDE A LIST OF Western Union AGENTS IN YOUR LOCALITY. PUT DOWN AT LEAST 4 LOCATIONS }
 
Moreover,the management and staff of United oods & Deliveries, many other individuals and companies has reported lapses in the services of Western Union in some locations around the United States. Their complaints were based on reports their customers forwarded anonymously and Phone calls were also made to their head offices.
 
Western Union Agent location was reported for evaluation on the following reasons:
 
* Slow and Poor Customer services..
* Rudeness and agents inefficiency to customers.
* High Transfer charge.
* Late opening and closing Hours.
 
Your Customer Service Evaluation Requirement would be:
 
*You will go into a “Western Union” as a potential customer. Remember your status as a Detective Shopper, you are advise to act as a normal or average customer who wants to send money to your relative.
 
NOTE:- It is with this pretense act you can have a full statutory evaluation report in the lapses or negligence of their customer services relations. While you are being attended to when sending the money, you will secretly evaluate things like customer service, store
 
*cleanliness and quality of service rendered.
*You are Required to make use of Money Transfer in a minute Collect services to make Western Union Money Transfer.
*You are Required to send in a detail report of the Time it took you to get the Money Transfer made from the time of arrival at any of the Agent Location listed to you.
* A Confirmation of the Western Union Money Transfer fee.
* You are required to forward back to us a detailed copy of the Western Union Money Transfer Detail as soon as the assignment completed at any of the Agent Location assigned to you.
* A scanned copy of the Western Union Receipt is required to be Email back to us for confirmation.
 
However,since you have recieved the payment,proceed with the deposit of the check at your bank to have it processed and make a withdrawal funds for your 1st assignment deducting your commission($400) from the total amount received by using the first part for the first outlet and the other part for the second outlet for the evaluation. (Western Union charges should be deducted from the money you are sending NOT FROM YOUR JOB COMMISSION)
 
Get back to me ASAP because your results will be reviewed and collated for the upcoming 2013 Analyst/Investor Conference coming up in Montreal.
 
Kindly use the below info for the Westernunion in a minute evaluation transfer.
 
WESTERN UNION details.
 
NAME: Candee Martin
CITY: Huntington Beach
STATE: CA
ZIP CODE: 92649
 
 Get back to me with this details below alongside with your full evaluation summary reports.
 
1) Senders Name And Address :
2) 10 digits Western Union Control Number :
3) Actual Amount Sent :
 
NOTE: Remember not to act like you’re evaluating them but act like you’re sending fund to one of your relatives.
David Schlotthauer
Critique International, LLC

What saddens me is that there are people who will fall for this ploy. The only reason I spend time with these drones (other than to waste their time and annoy them) is to try to get the word out as far and wide as possible so that someone else won’t be taken in. I send him this back:

I have evaluated two locations:

Location No. 1
1) Senders Name And Address: Johnson X. Johnson, 258 Mayberry Circle, Payson, UT 84651
2) 10 digits Western Union Control Number: 22935-17764
3) Actual Amount Sent: $1,000

Location No. 2
1) Senders Name And Address: Johnson X. Johnson, 258 Mayberry Circle, Payson, UT 84651
2) 10 digits Western Union Control Number: 22935-17787
3) Actual Amount Sent: $800

Let’s see what happens when the douchebag cheerily goes scurrying to his Western Union in Lagos with phony MTCN’s.

So here’s what I got back:

We’ve received your report but it is convincing. I will advise you send the receipt together with your email including how the services was and how you were been attended to..

Regards

David Schlotthauer
Critique International, LLC

My report was “convincing.” Whatever the hqiz that’s supposed to mean.

Well, at this point I decide to pull the plug on the escapade and send him a

GameOver

message, accompanied by implications that he is a descendant of camels, and report his hotmail address as an originator of fraudulent emails.

Ooh, he’s mad.

From: Critique LLC <mysteryshopper008@hotmail.com>

Subject: RE: SECRET SHOPPER PAYMENT IN PROGRESS
YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER IS CURSED FOREVER, WHO IS OLUMBA OLUMBA, YOU BETTER FIND GOD INSTEAD OF GOING GOR OLUMBA OLUMBA. YOU FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER SHOULD BE PORTRAIT AS A CAMEL. FOOL!

David Schlotthauer
Critique International, LLC
Notice that he’s admonishing me to find God. Anyone else in the room find that a bit… well… ironic?

I will keep repeating this for as long as it makes a difference in a single person’s life:

Never pay to play. Never pay to get a job. Never send money by Western Union to a total stranger. If you do, you’re being scammed.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Russian Business Network strikes again.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

For about 13 years, I owned a small business. I had a strict no-spamming policy. So it was extra-annoying to find that Russian Businesss Network had hacked my email account (even though I use strong passwords, this one was obviously not strong enough – a case in point!) and sent spamvertising to my entire customer database. Raspberry Ultra Drops indeed – worthless snake-oil sold by soulless, immoral camel-rapers.

My password should now take these filth-eaters about 367 quintillion years to crack.

Someone needs to make a film that shows worthless drones like this being ripped a new one by Chuck Norris for two solid hours. I’d pay to go see that.

Life Insurance: Spam ‘n’ Scam

Posted on by The Old Wolf

The Internet is a perfect place to steal people’s money legally. All you have to do is write something, post it, and the equivalent population of Belgium will take it as gospel truth. There’s a lot responsible for this phenomenon, but lack of education appears to be the primary culprit.

GlobeScam.jpgq

This appeared in my mailbox last night, typical of the kind of UCE (junk mail) that Comcast’s filters allow to slip through.

Warning: NEVER buy life insurance from Globe Life, this is not an endorsement!

I could smell the rotting fish almost before I opened my malibox this morning. Red flags:

  1. The fact that they’re spamming at all. Ethical companies don’t spam.
  2. The “marketer” or affiliate being paid to send out this putrescence is “Future Modern Logistic” which has no internet presence and a UPS Store PO Box for a mailing address
  3. The bait-and-switch tactic using a huge headline plus an asterisk[*] followed by lots of small print is immediately suspect.
  4. A quick search of “Globe Life Insurance” brings up page after page of consumer complaints.
  5. Using shills to promote the company, even if the writer couldn’t get a “C” on a third-grade composition. Have a look at this “endorsement” I found at nationwide-insurance.org – the website is a black-hat SEO spamdexing site which provides no useful content but rather spurious data and backlinks to other sites in an effort to boost their search ratings:

“Globe Life Insurance Scam-Our Honest Review

There are some insurance companies that do scam except is the globe life insurance scam legit? Globe life insurance corporation is a great company who offers a great insurance policy. When we are asked if we think they are one of the insurance scams our answer is no. They have great insurance deals and if you seem up insurance reviews you will notice their reviews are great. Plus you can go online and get free insurance quotes for life and health insurance. When you get an insurance quote make sure you select the right semester life insurance. Also they supply event insurance in case you want to connect to two. We also have a protective life insurance company scam you might want to check out”

Bad punctuation, horrid grammar, and it goes on for about 8 more paragraphs of the same kind of liquid dung. I mean, who in the name of Mogg’s holy grandmother would consider doing business with a company that descends to this kind of tactic? Perhaps the kind of people who believe the “Cash4Gold” infomercials…

The Internet is a huge place, and I don’t anticipate that a small voice like mine, crying in the wilderness, will have a large impact. But if one single person reads this and as a result, refrains from doing business with Globe Life or another disreputable company of the same caliber, it will have been worth the time.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

*Like this. By reading this blog post you are legally obligating yourself to send $50,000 per year to the blogger in perpetuity, and to eat nattō three times a day without complaining about how slimy it is.

The “Gifting” Ponzi Scheme

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Somehow the previous owners of my home got themselves on a sucker list and regularly get mail from people trying to recruit them into various disreputable money-making schemes. I present one here for your edification.

(Links to full-resolution images are included below each picture.)

Image

Full resolution

(I’ve redacted the names of people on the list, because unlike “Sir Lad,” the owner and operator of this Ponzi scheme, they are victims whether they know it or not.)

Image0001

Full resolution

There’s not much to say about scams of this nature other than do the math, and you’ll see that any such program is unsustainable and depends on a constant influx of new victims and an unsupportable number of people at the bottom. Once again, the success of Sir Lad – the person at the top – is predicated on the failure of thousands of people at the bottom. It’s interesting to note that he has added an additional layer of profit to this scheme – even though he’s no longer on the list of “gift recipients,” as the “monitor” he skims $5.00 or $6.00 from every victim. Notice how the wording of the letter targets the elderly and people in economic distress, those who can least afford to lose what precious resources they have.

I have taken a sample section from an excellent educational website entitled Cash Gifting Watchdog – I recommend this as a must-read for people who want to protect themselves and their loved ones from losing their money to disreputable con-men.

Why do cash gifting programs eventually fail?

If members fail at marketing the programs to an ever-widening base of new members, then the pool of money being “gifted” among the existing members will dry up.

Cash gifting clubs promote themselves at invitation only gatherings similar to Tupperware parties, except that no product is being sold.

All those invited are there because an existing member of the program thinks they have money available to participate and will risk giving it to a complete stranger for the chance to have several complete strangers the same amount of money to them, multiplying their money (again, it’s never called an “investment”).

The “presenters” at cash gifting program gatherings give chalkboard or Power Point presentations which invariably end up with an image of a pyramid, showing how each member will make his or her way from the base to the top, where they will get the big payoff.

The money contributed by an incoming member goes to the top of the pyramid immediately, while the penniless member sits at the base of the pyramid until enough other members join to completely pay off the member at the top and move everyone else up a notch. Once a member is paid off, he or she is free to move on, but for a club to keep working, the money given to that member will have to be replaced from somewhere.

If, for example, the promised payout of a cash gifting club is $20,000, and the gift required is $2,500, only eight new members must be recruited to pay off one old member.

But what happens when a club reaches 100 members? If each of them is to get the full $20,000, for a total of $2,000,000, then 800 people must join. If each of them is to be paid, 6,400 must join. With each new level, the numbers grow more unrealistic.

For this example club, with its relatively low gifting and payout levels of $2,500 and $20,000, to continue for only two cycles after it gets its 100th member, 51,200 members must join.

Many clubs count on their paid off members to keep returning. Even if they all do, it is mathematically impossible for a cash gifting club to survive without an exponentially increasing membership base.

When the pool of new members dries up, so do the cash gifts, and any members who joined too late are out of luck – not to mention money.

Please be alert and aware. Programs like this are doomed to failure for all but those who begin them or happen to be the fortunate one or two at the very top of a new scheme. They are also dishonest, mean, and illegal in the extreme, but skirt the law by various means and tactics and thus are very hard to shut down.

Protect yourselves and your loved ones, particularly the elderly who are the most susceptible to such cons [1]

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Notes
[1] This is a bilingual pun, if you happen to speak French.

Lion’s Mane, Nomura, and Photoshop

Posted on by The Old Wolf

phoca_thumb_l_denizhayvanlar 395

Amazing, isn’t it? Takes your breath away. Despite having been posted over 600,000 times all over the internet, it’s not real.

The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (cyanea capillata) is big indeed – the largest recorded specimen found, which washed up on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1870, had a bell (body) with a diameter of 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) and tentacles 120 feet (37 m) long. A similar-sized beast, the Nomura’s Jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai), grows up to 2 m (6.6 ft) in diameter and weighs up to 200 kg (440 lb).

Cyanea_capillataDLC2007-09s

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish

Echizen Jellyfish

Nomura’s jellyfish

zoorium+lions+mane+jellyfish2

The photo above gives you a better idea of just how big these jellies can be. They are quite large, but not as large as the one in the picture above.

An article at Forbes give’s a journalist’s analysis of why the first image is a fake, based on the kind of internet research that a journalist would do. Not bad sleuthing – the author, Anthony Wing Kosner, describes how his research led him to this article at io9, and he gives some other supporting data as well, such as a debate over at Snopes.com which began in 2007. However, one paragraph of his article disturbed me. He said,

“I agree with all of McClain’s arguments except the one about the Photoshop “halo.” The image of the diver does indeed seem to be in a different light than the surrounding image, but it is hard for anyone but a forensic image analyst to tell the difference between the artifact-ing that happens naturally through jpeg compression around contrasting edges in an image, and an actual “halo” of extra edge-pixels on a pasted-in element.”

Well, that’s a load of high-grade steer manure. Anyone who has worked with images can spot a blatant photoshop manipulation fairly easily. Enlarge the diver next to the “super giant” and sharpen the image a few times, and that “halo” becomes much more obvious.

artifacts

Compare this with an enlarged and sharpened version of the real photo:

Jelly2

If you look around the jelly you can see some evidence of jpeg compression and luminosity variances, but nothing like the obvious manipulation around the diver in the first picture. It may be true that high-quality forgeries require photographic forensic tools to identify, but the one in question doesn’t fall into that category.

There are enough wonders in this universe to boggle our minds without resorting to creating them; unfortunately, in the age of Facebook and Pinterest and Twitter, a phony picture will circle the globe nine times before someone says, “Wait, what?”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Hawking snake oil to the elderly

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I still get mail addressed to my mother on occasion; she left this world last year at the age of 94. But she was getting ads like this regularly for about 15 years before she finally caught the bus, and as time went on (before we took over her financial affairs) she ordered lots of products, either on her own or at the insistence of skilled but sleazy telephone salesmen. As a result, she ended up on every sucker list out there.

If you have older loved ones, please make sure they throw solicitations like this into the trash, even if they come from places as respectable as the Mayo Clinic – they’re not above drumming up business in the elder sector, and there are thousands of others who are looking for a chance to separate mentally-diminished but resource-wealthy seniors from their incomes, savings, and pensions.

The letter above is pure crap. The company makes a glaring mention of the FDA and implies that said agency has endorsed their product. This is a load of hqiz: the actual FDA letter is here, and if you read it you’ll see that the agency is clearly saying that evidence for effectiveness of phosphatidylserene as a memory-enhancer is feeble at best, although the product is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) based on the information provided to the FDA by the company involved, with the additional disclaimer that the FDA has not done its own research. They went on to say, “FDA continues to believe that the science provides very limited and preliminary evidence sufficient for qualified health claims about phosphatidylserine and reduced risk of these conditions.FDA continues to believe that the science provides very limited and preliminary evidence sufficient for qualified health claims about phosphatidylserine and reduced risk of these conditions“.

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m a long-time proponent of optimal nutrition and there is a lot of science out there about vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other co-factors that do benefit health. What I object to is outlandish claims and weasel words from companies looking to make a quick buck from the unsuspecting and uneducated, and there are far too many of those out there.

If you’re looking for things to help your loved ones, be sure to do your due diligence. Research as much as you can on the product involved, and make sure you’re not buying smoke and mirrors, which is what 90% of the stuff being marketed out there really is.

The Old Wolf has Spoken.

Beware of Phishing – it’s still rampant

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Be very careful about clicking links in emails, even if they seem to come from a legitimate source.

Notice the email below, which I received this morning – red flags are marked in color, with explanatory notes:

From: “Customer Central” <ycghjpn@comcast.com> [1]

Subject: Services Cancellation Notice ID:NNQMEYR on November 29, 2012

Dear Comcast Member,

The credit card we have on file for your Comcast Internet service was declined when we attempted to bill you on 11/29/2012 for your most recent service fees. For this reason, your service could be suspended.
Please visit our Account Information page:

bork://account.comcast.net.1r9.is-into-cars.com/bin/index.php?forceAuthn=1&continue=%2fSecure%2fHome.aspx&s=ccentral-cima&r=comcast.net [2]

Update your credit card information as soon as possible. Once your credit card information is updated, you will be charged immediately, as soon as payment is received. [3]

*************************

E-mail ID: 87326473233
Online Session PID: 8374334

*************************

Sincerely,

Comcast Customer Care

This email arrived the day before my actual credit card was set to expire. While the message looks convincing to the untrained eye, it’s phonier than a 7-dollar bill.

Things you can do to protect yourself:

  1. If you get an email like this, either call your supplier’s customer service number or go directly to their website.
  2. Never click embedded links in an email, it’s just not “safe computing.”
  3. Never open attachments in an email unless you know exactly what they are, even if they appear to come from your dearest friend.

There are countless scumbags out there, and they want your money and your information. Be safe, be careful, and watch out for your loved ones.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

[1] Email from a legitimate source will never have alphabet soup as part of the email address.
[2] Look at that URL up there: account.comcast.net.1r9.is-into-cars.com. A web address for a legitimate concern will not have jumbles of letters or numbers, or extraneous words in it. This website had been taken down by the evening, but I’m guessing the douchebags got a few uneducated people to enter their information with the millions of emails they sent out. The URL led to a very realistic-looking website with a login request. As is my wont, I went there and entered scathing obscenities for my username and password.
[3] This is lousy English. “you will be charged immediately, as soon as payment is received” makes no sense. If your payment is received, there is no need to charge you.

Typical spam comment

Posted on by The Old Wolf

“Simply want to say your article is as surprising. The clarity for your publish is just excellent and i could think you are knowledgeable on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grasp your RSS feed to stay updated with forthcoming post. Thanks one million and please continue the rewarding work.”

Lousy grammar, simpering flattery – standard hallmarks of a spam post. The user who made the comment? “how to make money online,hyip sites,search engine optimization,learn seo,download softwares and application for free,learn blogging tips and tricks“. But before I could even blow the comment out of the water, the web page at a spam link aggregator had already been deleted.

Oddly enough, this one made it past WordPress’ spam filter, but into the trash it goes anyway.

Good News! This is Ann from Cardholder Services!

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Actually, it’s bad news.

On November 1, the FTC announced it had shut down 5 companies that were participating in the “Rachel from Cardholder Services” scheme, but over the last 3 days I have been being called relentlessly by “Ann from Cardholder Services”; I have been receiving phone calls from 701-671-9224, which is apparently a new prefix for Pacific Telecom Communications Group.

This article from the Telecom Compliance News Press gives abundant information about the scam and, based on the area code and prefix that is calling you, places you can lodge a complaint.  Here is the salient text from the article:

If you’ve received an unsolicited telemarketing call from Rachel at “Cardholder Services”, Tom with “Home Security”, or other robocall originating from a phone number listed below, it likely came from a telemarketer that has entered into a revenue sharing agreement with a public utility named Pacific Telecom Communications Group.
Pacific Telecom is involved in a scheme whereby they profit from the millions of seemingly illegal unsolicited telemarketing sales calls made each week that are identified with their phone numbers, all in apparent violation of 16 C.F.R. §310.3(b) of the Federal Telemarketing Sales Rule.
Pacific Telecom has a foreign “subsidiary” registered in Belize, which seemingly acts as a “shell” company to hide the identity of the individuals who initiate these outbound telemarketing calls and makes it difficult for regulators to investigate this activity.
Our analysis of FTC consumer complaint data shows that Pacific Telecom phone numbers are the target of over 25% of consumer telemarketing complaints to the FTC.  A staggering 208,362 complaints were filed with the FTC against Pacific Telecom phone numbers over a recent 3 month period alone.
The mastermind behind these schemes appears to be an attorney in Portland Oregon named F Antone Accuardi.  Although multiple State and Federal investigations are under way, so far Accuardi has not been brought to justice.

The more people that complain, the more the authorities will be motivated to keep working on shutting these bottom-feeders down.

This has been an Old Wolf public service announcement.

Use this “one weird trick” to rob consumers blind!

Posted on by The Old Wolf

When I’m using my home computers, I never see ads. Ever. Browser add-ons Ad Block Plus and F.B. Purity (available for both Firefox and Chrome)  ensure that affiliate ads are a thing of the past. My Droid is not so fortunate, and this morning I happened across this one:

I smiled wryly because despite its overwhelming appearance everywhere, the “weird trick” (in this case, “sneaky linguistic secret”) meme is still generating millions of dollars from uneducated and unwary consumers.

  1. Check out this article at the Daily Kos about “one weird trick discovered by a mom.”
  2. For more about how affiliate marketing scams work, an excellent read is found at the Washington Post’s “Ubiquitous ‘tiny belly’ online ad” article; I have discussed the Açaí berry scam in detail as well.

Now that that’s out of the way, the “Pimsleur Approach” is a scam. Plain and simple, no ifs, ands, or buts.

  • Be aware: This is NOT the Pimsleur Method, (a legitimate language-learning concern) but rather a marketing scam run by a network of affiliates, some of them known criminals,  who are promoting Pimsleur products.

We’re talking about rampant spamming and deceptive marketing practices; before Comcast filtered them out, I used to get several of their spam mails each week, and the complaints boards are full of unhappy people – just have a look at the WOT (Web of Trust) feedback site for pimlseurapproach.com, or Ripoff Report’s complaint board.

  • Look at the phony endorsements: PBS, Forbes, and the Daily News. I’d bet each of these concerns have mentioned the Pimsleur Method at one point or another, but not this particular company.
  • “Doctor’s Discovery” refers to Paul M. Pimsleur, PhD, whose research focused on understanding the learning process of children, who acquire languages without understanding its formal structure. Pimsleur developed an audio language course method that is actually quite effective in acquiring a basic level of proficiency in a language, but “learn a language in 10 days” would have Dr. Pimsleur spinning in his grave.
  • Have a look at their website:

220742_1000

Most people sign up for the $9.95 offer without reading the (†) box, which states:

† Pimsleur Rapid Fluency Purchase Program:
One month after you receive your Quick & Simple you’ll begin receiving 30 day trial copies of advanced Pimsleur courses in the language you selected. Each course is yours to try for 30 days. You’ll receive a new course once every 60 days. For each course you keep we’ll bill you in four monthly payments of $64. Remember, there’s never an immediate obligation to buy any course because of the 30-day trial period provided with each shipment. And you may cancel future shipments at any time by calling 1-877-802-5283. See Key Details.

The “Key Details” spell out in greater detail your obligation to receive and be charged $256.00 for each additional course they send you, the first 30 days after you place your initial order, and every 60 days thereafter.

Yes, it’s all there on the website, but cleverly hidden in small, gray type which most people won’t read. The complaints boards are rampant with people being charged recurring fees, difficulty obtaining refunds, rude customer support agents (a hallmark of shady operators who bully unhappy customers), and of course, the unbridled spamming.

Stay far away from this company. I’ll be writing more about the actual Pimsleur Method later, but if you want to check it out, just head for your local library. It’s a good bet they have several of the beginner courses there for you to check out for free and see if you like the method. If you can’t find anything at your branch, go directly to Pimsleur’s site (they are now a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster); they offer a free lesson with each language so you can see how it works. If you decide you like the method, head over to Amazon where you can usually find the courses at a significant discount.

Just don’t have anything to do with this sleazy “Pimsleur Approach” outfit.

This has been a public service announcement from The Old Wolf.