Is Google Money Tree A Scam?


Remember the old saying that moms and pops would preach anytime you would ask for some ridiculously priced toy or sneaker? "What do you think money grows on trees?" You already knew the answer was no. So it amazes me that I've been getting a lot of questions regarding this whole Google Money Tree opportunity. The name alone should make you skeptical.

Here are the facts.

1. Yes Google is a great company that makes billions of dollars a year.
2. Google can make you money directly with their Adsense program or indirectly as an advertiser promoting other companies with their Adwords program or just because of search engine optimization (Preferred by yours truly).

By the way, you can research this on your own searching for these terms in or visit

Google Money Tree Claims:

You could be making $107,389 in just six months by filling out forms and doing searches on Google and Yahoo. All you need to do is pay a shipping and handling fee of $3.88 for some kit that you can use for 7 days. If you've recently read my grant scam article, you already know this sounds very familiar & how it will to turn out in the end. But shhhh, don't ruin it for the new people here.

Now back to the conclusion of our scam soap opera which is already in progress… What the "kind" folks at Google Money Tree fail to make abundantly clear on their sign up page is the fact that immediately after the 7 days is up, you will be charged $72.21 per month for access to their Google Money Tree system if you fail to cancel. Excuse you? I didn't sign up for this. Oh yes you did! But you probably failed to realize it when you agreed to the terms and conditions. Unless you read it carefully, you'll totally miss the mention of the fee. This is very easy to do because Google Money Tree mentions the fees in words rather than numbers. So your eye will probably glance right over it as just a block of usual text to be ignored. Sneaky right?

You're almost guaranteed to be charged that exorbitant monthly fee because these shady folks start the clock right when you've ordered the kit not when you actually receive it. Or the kit is never sent. Either way you can't really evaluate it within the allocated 7 days. This is what they're literally banking on. When you call to cancel, that's when you discover that your credit card has already been charged this ridiculous fee. To make matters worst, you no longer qualify for a refund. Needless to say this is why folks are running around calling Google Money Tree a big fat scam!

How is Involved?

"They ain't!" But it's still tarnishing their "good" name to the unwitting victims. Many are under the false assumption that Google is behind this company because of the name. However this is far from the truth. If you actually look at the bottom of the Google Money Tree sign up page it states: "Internet Money Tree is not affiliated with, endorsed by or in any way associated with Google." I guess that's why Google has failed set it's corporate pitbull lawyers on them. But strangely they do provide you a way to report these companies. You can snitch on these companies by clicking here!

Ultimately these scam artist are offering to teach you about internet / affiliate marketing which are legitimate and great ways of making money. But when you have people duping you into learning about this opportunity you can't help but conclude that it has to be shady since dishonest folks are promoting it.

But the fact of the matter is you can make money with internet marketing if you're being taught by honest successful people (ie. Wealthy Affiliate). In fact these guys played of this & used the picture of a successful straight shooter Internet Marketer Jeremy Schoemaker (Owner of ) who has a picture of himself holding a substantial paycheck from Google which he made with Adsense. Jeremy wasn't having any of that and set his lawyers on the company and that stopped that nonsense! My kind of dude! (Totally in a straight way.)

Forced Continuity

Just so you know, the strategy of charging you a small shipping fee or nothing, then being slammed with recurring higher monthly fees is called "forced continuity". Sadly a lot of internet marketers do this with their products. Now there is a debate about the ethics of this practice. Personally I think it's a bit shady when you bury the fact that you're going to do this. Some marketers argue, it's in the terms and conditions and you're responsible for reading it. But seriously how many of us do that? (And they know this!) I think established companies like Netflix & Blockbuster do a great job of "transparent forced continuity" (Yeah I just made that up). They flat out tell you during the sign up process: "Hey we're going to charge your credit card $14.95 after the 30 day trial period". They even send you an email to remind you of this just in case you missed it on the site. If more marketers followed suit, then I think people would be less likely to label them a scam. So keep this in mind when you run into these type of offers. If they're transparent about it then I'd be more inclined to work with them. But if you see that they're burying their forced continuity practices, then chances are they'll probably make it really difficult for you to cancel and you'll end up losing more money than you anticipated. If marketers don't clean up their act I think forced continuity will be dead. There is already some recent talk that it is. Ultimately it's going to be harder to use this tactic as people wise up. None of us want to feel like we're being suckered.


At the end of the day, I don't recommend Google Money Tree! Yes you can make money with Google using affiliate/internet marketing but you don't want to learn it from people that are using shady marketing tactics to line their pockets.

Internet Marketing requires the proper training, guidance, support and unwavering dedication to succeed. It's not as simple as just filling out forms as many of these products will have you believe. It's not easy work! But it does pay very handsomely if you're willing to put in the time & effort into making it work for you. After all I was able to quit my full time job in Corporate America a year ago because of my affiliate marketing career. So I know you folks can become successful too.

So if you have been duped by these guys, don't let it warp your opinion about Google or Internet marketing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the world that can taint things that were meant for good. For instance fertilizer can be used to grow crops that feed people. Or it can be used by a nut like Timothy McVeigh to make a bomb that kills people. So keep that in mind if you've concluded that Google or internet marketing isn't something worth looking into. If you are still interested in embarking in this type of career then click here to read about my recommendation of how to get involved with honest people. If you want to learn about more scams to avoid, then just head over to our scam section by clicking here.

Good luck either way. What are your thoughts about Google Money Tree or "Forced Continuity"?

Update has been busted & fined for their deceptive practices! Click here to read more.

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