Come get your Obama money!
I was doing some research on the Web today for an editorial about the economy when I recalled something a Brookings Institute scholar told me a couple of weeks ago. The Tax Policy Center -- a joint effort by Brookings and the Urban Institute -- was putting together a report card on the tax provisions of the economic stimulus proposal moving through Congress. So I went to Google and did a search for Brookings stimulus. In addition to the results, up popped the following ad:
New Obama Stimulus Checks
I got a new stimulus grant I never
need to repay to start a business
www.officialpersonalgrants.com
There you have it -- even before the bill makes it through Congress, our wild-eyed liberal new president is already spreading the wealth around. Heh heh heh.The advertiser, who identified herself only as Jessica, said she used the $12,000 government handout not just to start a Google-based business ($5,000 per month in revenue on only 12 hours of work per week!) but also pay off debts and buy a new laptop. Schweet!! Oh, I want to believe ... but I don't.
You have to admire the clever topicality of this come-on. I mean, most people heard Barack Obama calling for a new stimulus package as a candidate and again as President-elect. And so few people pay attention to the details, there's probably millions of people out there who think the money's already in the pipeline. If we could somehow harness this kind of entrepreneurship, we'd be well on our way to recovery! Then again, this kind of entrepreneurship in the field of housing finance (stated income mortgages, pick-a-payment loans, synthetic CDOs, etc. etc.) is what put us where we are today.
For your safety, dear readers, I removed the links from the ad. Please resist the temptation to claim your stimulus check.
Excellent question, Nick. Since writing this piece, I've seen similar ads popping up all over the place. I even saw one on my Facebook profile page. :-0
My sense is that neither the sites displaying these ads nor the networks that distribute them can be held responsible for their content because the whole process is automated. There's no process for reviewing what's in the ads, just one for responding to complaints. But the FTC certainly could go after the person who places a deceptive ad.
Posted by: Jon Healey | February 02, 2009 at 11:12 AM
I am wondering if there's anything that can be done about promotions of these scams being present on things such as facebook, for example. It seems vastly wrong that such popular and mainstream sites such as that are propogating these scams.
N
Posted by: Nick | February 02, 2009 at 09:09 AM
if you want to earn money or start your own business, you must do it in hardwork, at least you will be proud of yourself that you did it all by yourself.
Posted by: long island girl | January 29, 2009 at 07:45 PM