Nitroclicks Scam
By Kay King

There are some internet scams where the "scam" is so well disguised that the scam artists can keep it going for quite some time. Nitroclicks is one of those "businesses".

According to a recent newsletter published by acidics.com, Nitroclicks is "Dead - site set to redirect". Not quite so. The "redirect" is nocs.com and is simply the same site run by the same people....with the same scam alive and well.

Created by some Russian students and set up on a very slow server in Estonia, the programming of Nitroclicks was so poor that it seems clear it was meant to be a scam from its inception. The use of custom script provided minimal password protection .

The appeal of Nitroclicks was that it would PAY new members to sign up...and then PAY them for completing "tasks". Members were told they would be paid to complete "assignments" -- and those assignments were well within the range of even a beginning internet user. The different assignments or tasks carried different payment amounts, usually ranging from $0.50 to $8.00 for completion . New members were told they could expect about 30 assignments or tasks per month.

This sounded VERY good, especially to new internet users with limited computer skills. They
felt they had found a way to make "easy money" using their computer and didn't bother to ask
too many questions. They didn't notice, for example, that the only way to contact Nitroclicks was through an e-mail address...or question the legitimacy of no payment until an account reached $500. They saw only what they wanted to see -- $$$$$.

Members were urged to sign up other members with Nitroclicks as "referrals" on the premise that they would also earn a percentage from the assignments completed by their referrals. They could refer up to 100 other members and the referral "commission" was a 5 step payment plan.

The tasks were very easy to do and members were excited to see the $$$ piling up quickly in
their Nitroclicks accounts. This was part of the planned scam. Nitroclicks paid its members
ONLY through E-Gold...and ONLY when the amount due to the member reached $500. Very few new members had a problem with that as they could see how quickly their Nitroclicks account was growing.

When a member's account reached $300 - $450, the assignments slowed to a trickle...or
stopped completely. Nitroclicks answered complaints by stating that they did not currently
have many assignments -- that it was a rare occurrence, but it did happen.

When asked how it was able to offer such high payments for simple computer usage, Nitroclicks would bluntly state that many members quit working before they reached the $500 minimum payout. Thus, they said, they could offer good pay rates to the members who continued to complete assignments or tasks.

As months went by, fraud sites started to carry comments about a "scam" called Nitroclicks.
Members who had reached $350-400 in their accounts suddently developed "glitches" in
their accounts. For months at a time, the fees from those they had referred to Nitroclicks
simply didn't appear in their account.

See some of the complaints:

http://www.acidics.com/alert_nitroclicks.htm

http://www.workingwounded.com/jobs/display_message.asp?mid=1172

Members who had almost reached the $500 payout minimum found themselves "cancelled"
for cheating and their accounts were closed out without payment. No reasons were given for
the "cheating" charge and members had no way to defend themselves. Attempts to contact
Nitroclicks were futile and most just gave up.

Scamming the scammers!

One site has taken advantage of the Nitroclicks scams. It provides Nitoclicks members with
the ANSWERS to the Nitroclicks questions used to determine whether an assignment was
completed. http://www.nitroxchange.b3.nu?refid="MrJones"


Where, oh where, IS Nitroclicks.?
.
Many of the websites are in Russian.

http://www.scumoftheweb.com/wwsn/24hours.htm compares the current and previous domain registration info for Nitroclicks, noting that it is currently registered out of California ... AND ...

MarketBoosters,Inc announces its "take over" of "Webstrategies (a/k/a Nitroclicks) at www.geocities.com/nitroclickjob .

The second Nitroclicks site promoted by MarketBoosters and reviewed by "scumoftheweb" -- http://www.24hours.net -- is now carrying the message "this domain is for sale"!

Nitroclicks was designed to appeal to newcomers to the internet and to those optimists who think they've found an "easy" way to make money with little effort. They saw $$$ in their Nitroclicks "account" and signed up friends by telling them how much they had "earned".

It's a rude awakening when they realized that the money "earned" was only a number on a website...and would never be $$$ in their pocket.