Originally Posted by Agent 488

whose biz model does this sound like?

http://ftc.gov/opa/2010/12/iworks.shtm

The websites offer ?free? information at no risk and ask consumers to provide their credit or debit card numbers to pay for a small shipping and handling fee such as $1.99. When consumers provide their billing information, though, I Works proceeds to charge them hefty one-time fees of up to $129.95 and monthly recurring fees of up to $59.95 for the grant or money-making programs. I Works charges them additional monthly fees for one or more unrelated programs that consumers did not agree to.

To keep the scam going, the defendants tricked banks into giving them continued access to these billing systems by creating 51shell companies with figurehead officers, and by providing the banks with phony ?clean? versions of their websites.

"They have also attempted to drive down their chargeback rates by threatening to report consumers who seek chargebacks to an Internet consumer blacklist they operate called `BadCustomer.com' that will `result in member merchants blocking [the consumer] from making future purchases online!'