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We've all seen them in the tabloids.... "Grandma Gamboli's Legendary Spaghetti Sauce -- Secret Ingredient Revealed! Send $2 and an SASE.... "  (Oh come on, don't tell me you've never even thumbed through a National Enquirer at the checkout stand.)

The SAME ads over and over again.... week after week after week.... and obviously no fool is going to run the same ad over and over if it isn't making a ton of money.

That makes sense, right?

Sure it makes sense, but believe me when I say.... "It ain't necessarily so."

This doesn't fall into the category of "biz op scam" because nobody comes after people like me trying to convince us to run our ads in their paper.  Quite the contrary.... WE seek THEM out because we read those little ads and drool over their success. 

So is it a scam?

Nope.

Misleading?  False advertising?

Nope.  Can't say that it is.

It's up to you to learn HOW to check up on these these before you put a bag over your head and jump off the cliff.

But if they're not raking in the bucks, why to they keep running their ads over and over?

I really don't know, but I have a theory.

Maybe they signed a contract for several weeks to get a better price.  (That's what I did.)  I advertised in "The National Enquirer," "The Globe," and another big one I can't think of offhand.... you know, the one with a furry kid on the front saying, "My mother's lover was a cat." 

I chose very carefully.  I did my homework.  I followed the ads for weeks, making sure that the same ones were there again and again and again.... A testament to their success!! 

I paid just over $1,000 to test (Stupid Move Number One). 

Oh do tell us!.... What was Stupid Move Number Two?

I never actually contacted any of the advertisers and asked how they were doing.  I'll bet they would have LOVED to tell me!

So what's a typical response?

Three orders. 

(No kidding.)

And I know it wasn't "just me" because I got letters from other people who tried selling their recipes this way. And if you're lucky, you'll get these nice letters too.... HUNDREDS of them!!.... telling you the RIGHT WAY to sell your recipes....

And THIS is where the "SCAM" word comes in.

At this point, you've just GOTTA get your $1,000 back so the family will never find out what an idiot you are.... so before you know it, you'll be mailing thousands of chain letters.  You dutifully order a recipe from every person on the list so that 18,724,623 people will order recipes from you.  And because you all "want to help each other" and "this program is monitored" (which makes it different from all the other rip-offs and therefore SAFE).... you're ALL going to follow through til each person on the list has to stay up all night counting those 18,724,623 crisp one-dollar bills.

Right?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

But I have to admit the chain letter did pull more orders than the tabloids.  I've still got my box with 28 not-so-crisp one-dollar bills in it....

A monument to my FIRST very bad year.

Take me back to the Scams 101 Index!

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