Saved Pennies How to save your money one step at a time

It’s hard to imagine that an entire corporation could be based off a scam, but that’s exactly the case for Amway and Quixtar. This article will detail exactly how Amway and Quixtar work, and why it is a scam you should avoid. Because Amway and Quixtar are the same company, I’ll just be using the name Amway from now on.

Like many scams, the Amway scam is based off people’s urge to be rich, drive a nice car, and live in a big house. People often want to live that lifestyle so badly that they will do anything and believe anything in order to achieve that goal. This is where Amway steps in. The main idea is that you become a salesperson and sell Amway products, such as vitamins, electronics, and various other goods. Of course, you won’t get rich selling knifes door to door, but that’s where the twist comes in. The idea is that the more people you recruit into Amway, the more money you’ll make because you’ll get a percentage of their earnings. If the people you recruit, recruit more people in turn, you’ll get a percentage of that, and so on. So the main idea is to recruit as many people as possible, and have an automatic stream of revenue. Does this sound like a pyramid scam to you? Well, it basically is. Technically, it’s labeled as multi-level-marketing, which is nothing more than a legal pyramid scam.

So where is the harm? So far, everything sounds legitimate, and harmless. That’s exactly what they want you to think. The fact of the matter is that once you’re recruited, Amway starts selling things to YOU. That’s right, anything from motivational tapes, to motivational books, to tickets for conventions and rallies, and even entire bus trips to rallies. Through a series of talks, basic brainwashing techniques are used in order to convince you that you will succeed and become a millionaire, but only if you buy motivational tapes which hold the key to your success. In fact, it is commonly said that Amway rallies resemble religious revival meetings more than anything else. Now, I’m not trying to knock on religious revival meetings, but Amway preys on your desperation, and preys on your dreams. They tell people over and over that they will become rich if they follow the Amway business plan. Unfortunately, virtually the only people making any sort of significant money are the people selling motivational tools at the rallies and so forth. According to Amway itself, the average amount of money people make at Amway is a measly $1,400 a year. This doesn’t include all the money for meetings, rallies, travel, books, tapes, and everything else. When all is said and done, most people actually lose their money, friends, and a huge amount of time.

Posted under Avoiding Fees, Avoiding Scams, Hidden Fees, Making Money

Some people claim that a miraculous new technology called HHO can dramatically reduce the amount of gas used in your car. The idea is to use electricity from the car’s alternator to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water. This gas, called Brown’s gas, or HHO, is then fed back into the fuel mixture which is then fed into the internal combustion engine. Supposedly, HHO make the burning of gas more efficient, and thus lowers the gas mileage of the car. This all sounds reasonable; there are some big questions that remain to be answered.

Why isn’t HHO made by any major car manufacturer?

Ford, GM, Toyota, Chrysler, you name it. No major automobile manufacturer has ever acknowledged HHO as a legitimate and proven technology. People who sell HHO related products have many excuses. Some say that the car companies are involved in some conspiracy theory with the gas companies. Unfortunately there is no evidence for this. Instead, what we see is that cars with higher gas mileage sell better, thus creating incentive for car makers to create low gas mileage vehicles. Other HHO sellers say that HHO is so new that it hasn’t been incorporated into vehicles yet. This argument is laughable, especially since scammers have been selling HHO products for years.

How can such a small amount of HHO gas improve gas mileage by so much?

This is another fun little question that HHO sellers have a lot of trouble answering. Electrolysis doesn’t make very much HHO. In fact, you would need a huge HHO system in order to produce barely enough gas to power a lawnmower on idle. Now think about this for a second; how can such a miniscule amount of HHO gas be enough to make any noticeable difference in a car engine? The answer is that it can’t.

Related Articles

Advertising tactics of HHO sellers and scammers

Why HHO devices aren’t made by major car manufacturers

HHO scammers bend the facts

Fake videos promoting the HHO scam explained

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Money, Technology

If you’ve read my article about videos made by HHO sellers and scammers in order to advertise their websites, then you already know that people who sell HHO systems are flat out liars, and usually scammers. Today, I’m going to focus on another advertising tactic of HHO scammers.

In order to make money, they need traffic to their websites so that people buy their products. One method is to spam thousands of websites with a little comment and a link to their website, where they try to rip you off. Virtually all of the comments I receive from this website are spam, so I moderate comments. But I do pay attention. Over and over again, people selling HHO related fraudulent products post to my website, and in return, I get their IP address and a copy of the link they are trying to promote. Here are some examples of spam I have received, all from the same person:

“It’s a shame we rely on foreign oil so much. Check out a great HHO system here”

“Is it possible to run your car on water? Find out here!”

“Read full reviews of HHO devices here!”

These all lead to different websites, which are owned and operated by the same person. That’s right, different websites are all owned by the same person. There are many HHO websites out there, and some people own several different websites in order to maximize the amount of money they can steal from you. The funny thing is that the IP address for all these comments is traced back to a hotel. It is impossible to tell who is running these websites because the owner is operating anonymously.

If you think HHO is a legitimate technology, I am going to ask you only one question. Why would someone own and maintain several different HHO websites, and take great lengths to ensure that he is entirely anonymous? Why is it necessary for the HHO salesperson to protect his identity? The answer is obvious; the person is a scammer who feels threatened by retribution from individuals, or the law. What’s really scary is that one of the websites is an ‘HHO reviews’ website which advertises his other two websites, and trashes his competitors. So the next time you read a review website about HHO and the website gives you links to sites which sell HHO devices, keep in mind that the review is probably written by a scammer who wants to take money out of your wallet.

Conclusion

People who sell HHO devices, plans and kits often maintain several websites, and several review websites which effectively advertise their products. Their methods of advertising are numerous, and include spamming thousands of websites such as this one with comments advertising their products. Most people who sell HHO devices operate from hotspots from hotels or cafes in order to hide their identity. These behaviors are all consistent with scam artists, thus it is reasonable to conclude that HHO is, in fact a scam.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Technology

Some people claim that HHO devices can make your car up to 50% more fuel efficient. These HHO ‘fuel savers’ are little more than a jam jar filled with water. A natural question for many people is, if it were so easy to make a car 50% more fuel efficient, why aren’t any major car manufacturers designing, making, and installing HHO devices in their vehicles? By major car manufacturers, I’m talking about companies like Ford, GM, Toyota, BMW, etc.

This reason, along with technical reasons, it is my opinion that HHO is a scam. The scam simply feeds on people’s despair at the gas pump. People may be willing to pay 50 dollars for bogus plans and schematics if they think it’ll save hundreds of dollars at the gas pump. Because HHO is not a legitimate technology, scammers are forced to make up excuses and explanations for some obvious holes in their advertisement. Some claim that HHO is a secret technology that the oil companies don’t want you to find out about. Take a step back and ask yourself if you think something you can buy cheaply on the internet is some sort of industrial secret. Obviously, the answer is no.

So why aren’t any car manufacturers making HHO devices? Scammers tend to claim that there is a secret conspiracy between car and oil companies. This is absurd, mainly because the automotive industry strives to have higher fuel efficiency in order to attract more customers. A popular example is the Toyota Prius hybrid, which isn’t made fast enough to fill demand. This means that you have to have your name put on a waiting list in order to get one! The only reasonable conclusion is that HHO isn’t made by any major automotive companies because it is not a legitimate technology. It’s nothing more than a scam which is carefully designed in order to take your money. Instead of spending your money on bogus and fraudulent products, consider changing your driving habits in order to save fuel.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Technology

In the capitalistic world of our, people look high and low for new ways to make money; unfortunately for us, these methods are all too often illegitimate. Some people even resort to scams designed to get your money.

For this article, I am going to focus on the weight loss with hypnosis scam. The scam is very simple and thrives on people’s desire to lose weight, and therefore be more attractive. First, let me say that weight loss is a complex subject involving physical, biological, physiological and psychological sciences. Ultimately, it all boils down to this simple rule: if you burn more calories than you intake, you will lose weight. The difficult part is either increasing the calories you burn, or decreasing the amount of calories you intake. Often, people try to lose weight over a period of years with little success. This often leaves us with a feeling of desperation, which makes us even more susceptible to scams. With this in mind, observe the following advertisement:

The people who created this advertisement are indeed very clever. “Lose weight with hypnosis” immediately catches your attention. Because hypnosis is such a non-standard method for weight loss, the advertisement immediately reassures you with a 100% guarantee. Notice how the advertisement gives 45 days to claim this guarantee, which is very interesting. Weight loss in the short term is very common, especially with people interested enough to spend money at a seminar to do it. Unfortunately during the long term, people often gain the weight back, but it is too late to have your money refunded.

Take a look at what the hypnosis scam is promising; no dieting, no hunger, and no cravings. Note how it is quite possible to lose weight without diet, hunger or cravings, as long as you burn more calories than before. This can be a change in lifestyle, or simple exercise.

The scam explained:

Enough time has been spent talking about the advertisement, now it is time to talk about the scam. Quite simply, you pay 60 dollars to attend a seminar. During the seminar, you will allegedly experience two hypnotic sessions. These sessions, magically, will reduce your consumption of sweets and your cravings. The cold hard truth is that these claims are outright false. There are no studies which have been accepted by the American Medical Association which support the theory that hypnosis can reduce cravings. The truth is that there are real, physical, biological, and chemical causes which result in cravings. Hypnosis does nothing to reduce your caloric intake, and does nothing to increase the number of calories burned. There’s really nothing else to this scam. You pay the scam artists money, and they give you false hope by trying to lure you into a state of ‘hypnosis.’ Obviously, any psychological affect people feel as a result of the seminal are likely to wear off quickly, resulting in repeat customers.

Is this a big scam? You bet! In the advertisement, they claim that over 500,000 people have attended their seminars. Let’s do a little math. $59.99 * 500,000 = $29,995,000. If the advertisement is true, and the average price is $60, then the people running this phony weight loss program have made thirty million dollars. Do yourself a favor and lose weight the right way. Don’t fall into tricks like trim2.com involving hypnosis.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Money

To sell a product successfully, people need to know about the product to begin with. This is equally true for scams. The HHO scam is highly successful for many reasons. One of the reasons the HHO scam is successful is because of its use of pseudo scientific lingo coupled with people who aren’t properly educated in science, at least in the fields of chemistry, electricity and thermodynamics. The advertising methods used by the HHO scammers depend on the fact that most people in the US do not have engineering or science related college degrees.

Confusion about hydrogen

Hydrogen is the most common element in our galaxy. Hydrogen has many interesting properties and is used in many different ways by many different types of technology. First, let me briefly explain the technology behind HHO.

HHO in motor vehicles - Massive amounts of electricity is used to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water. This gas is fed directly into the gas lines leading to your car engine. The new oxygen levels trick your car’s onboard computer into running lean. This damages the engine, but also increases your miles per gallon. If you want to destroy your car engine, or have a car which is going to die within a year anyway, HHO may actually save you some money.

Hydrogen in fuel cells - Unlike the HHO scam, fuel cells is a promising technology. The majority of this technology was developed by NASA in preparation for the Apollo program. Hydrogen in fuel cells is a vastly different technology than HHO. The idea behind fuel cells is that a device recombines hydrogen and oxygen to form water and electricity. This electricity is most often used to drive an electric motor. Even though fuel cell technology has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with HHO, the scammers promoting HHO post videos of fuel cell cars, and then proceed to claim that the cars are using HHO ‘technology’ when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

HHO torches - This technology is similar to HHO in the respect that the gas combination of hydrogen and oxygen is burned to produce a flame. Like HHO, these devices use electrolysis to separate hydrogen out of water. Unfortunately, the similarities end there. There are many sites claiming to make your car run on water, when in fact it is still running on gasoline. HHO torches don’t use gas at all, but just use massive amounts of electricity. The reason these torches are not mainstream is because it is often cheaper for companies to buy and operate regular welding torches, rather than pay for electricity. Of course, the HHO scammers don’t care. They continue to publish videos on Youtube and other sites claiming that cars can run solely on HHO gas just like the torches. The truth is that your car’s alternator can’t supply enough electricity to create enough hydrogen to even operate a lawnmower, much less a car.

Solar power - Solar power has nothing to do with hydrogen or HHO, but that doesn’t stop scammers from posting videos about solar powered cars, and then continue to say that the cars operate using HHO. This is one of the most egregious lies from people promoting HHO just to make a quick dollar.

In summary, there are very different technologies listed above which have nothing to do with HHO. However, HHO scammers post video after video of these devices and claim that HHO is being used in the video. Does this sound like legitimate advertising to you? The answer is no. Its false advertising at best and blatant lying at best.

Why are there so many videos promoting HHO on Youtube? The answer is simple. Most of the major HHO websites have an affiliate program. When you sign up for an affiliate program, you are encouraged to post bogus videos about HHO on Youtube over and over again, and include your affiliate ID in the video comment section.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Saving Money, Technology

Have you ever seen or heard about websites offering to sell you plans on how to make your car run on water? A general rule of thumb is if something sounds too good to be true, it is. This goes double for websites on the internet trying to sell you something.

Now back to the issue at hand. How does the HHO scam work, and why does it persist so strongly? What has made the HHO scam one of the largest scams operating on the internet today?

There are several key elements which allow the HHO scam to work. As gas prices rose sharply in recent history, people got desperate. Very few people planned on buying gas at $4.50 a gallon when they bought their vehicle. Scams thrive on desperation. The more desperate a person is, generally speaking, the more susceptible that person is to scams which promise to make that person’s life easier. The unexpectedly higher cost of gasoline and diesel introduced stress into people’s lives. These people, along with me, started looking for cheap easy solutions to save gas money. Of course, scams thrive in this type of environment.

Another key element of the HHO scam is panic and speculation. When gas was over $4 a gallon, people were speculating on how high the gas prices would go during the summer of 2008. Indeed, there were news reports and blog posts of people predicting prices of 8 dollars or more. Of course, this hasn’t happened yet, and gas prices are falling again. But the fear and speculation that gas would rise much more in the very short term forced many people to panic, and become more susceptible to scams promising to make their vehicles more fuel efficient.

The perfect storm had finally risen. People were hurting and the pump and feared the future prices of gas, which forced many to look for solutions. The original HHO scammers picked up on this immediately. One very successful strategy for scams is the use of fake science, or pseudo science. I have a master’s degree in science and engineering, so it’s fairly easy for me figure out what scientific explanations are valid, and which are using fake science, pseudo science, or good old fashioned invalid logic. The HHO scam’s success depends on people’s lack of understanding or misunderstanding of scientific principals. The list is too long to write here, so I will write another article about some of the fake science used in the HHO scam. For now, let me cite one example. HHO involves the production of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas from water. Many scam artists have posted Youtube videos with anything even remotely related to hydrogen, and then provide a link to their website to sell you plans and kits. Specifically, a car which uses a hydrogen fuel cell to create electricity in order to drive has absolutely nothing to do with HHO. However, the scam artists post videos about the hydrogen fuel cell car, and say the car is using HHO when nothing could be further from the truth. You can see how easy it is for someone to think that the car uses HHO because it uses hydrogen, but this is not the case.

Scams do not exist where there is no money to be made. Unfortunately, the HHO scam involves thousands of scammers all around the world. The scam is ingeniously designed so that the head scammers make millions of dollars for free. Here is how it works. There are a large number of websites selling electronic copies of a plan to build an HHO system. Below are some websites for example:

http://runyourcaronwater.com/

http://waterasfuel.com/

http://carsh2o.com/

The list is practically endless. These websites all have affiliate programs. The programs give commission in the range of 30% to 70%. This way, the people who own and operate these websites can actually get other scammers to work for free. One of the reasons this scam is so widespread is because people are attracted by the affiliate programs, and these people proceed to advertise the websites with their affiliate ID. Every time someone makes a purchase for bogus HHO plans, the affiliates and the website operators make cold hard cash. The people who operate these websites don’t have to work another day in their life as long as the websites are up and running.

That will do for this part of my series on why HHO is a scam, how it works, and more. In this article, I have explained why the HHO scam, also known as Brown’s gas scam, works. I explained the necessary conditions which created an atmosphere where the scam would flourish. I’ve explained how people are convinced that HHO works by use of pseudo science, although I will write a separate article with more examples of exactly that. Finally, I have explained why so many scammers have jumped aboard the HHO affiliate programs, and why these websites receive so much attention. Every time someone purchase plans for an HHO system, the scammers win.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Saving Money

If you hate paying money for gas, chances are you’ve looked for ways to lessen your pain at the pump. Sometimes, the best way to save your money is to avoid scams like HHO. These scams operate under many names, including water4fuel, and water4gas. If you’re not familiar with the scam, read on and learn all about it.

How the HHO scam works

The water for gas scam is rather simple. Websites claim to sell you kits or plans that involve you putting a jam-jar of water in your engine. If you’ve taken high school chemistry, you may have performed an experiment where you run an electric current through water to create hydrogen and oxygen gas. The main idea is that you can feed this gas into your fuel line where it dissolves into the gasoline, and magically gives you more miles per gallon. Many websites which promote this scam for tremendous profit make claims that you can cut your gas consumption in half. Is this really possible?

At first glance, these HHO systems may seem plausible, especially to those who want to believe. The only way to tell if these systems can really save you gas and money is to delve into the science. First things first; water is inert, much like nitrogen. It can’t be burned, and does not convey chemical energy in the same way as other molecules. In order to ‘burn water’ as these websites like to say, you need to spend about twice the amount energy in electrolysis in order to separate the hydrogen, oxygen and water. Where does all this energy come from? The alternator! What powers the alternator? The engine!

And there you have it, folks, plain and simple. In order to make hydrogen and oxygen gas, or HHO, you need to use gas, to run the engine, to turn the alternator, to make electricity, to make HHO just so you can burn it in the engine. Needless to say, the total energy loss for this system is enormous. Overall, you need to burn more gasoline than you will ever produce from water. The law of second dynamics forbids you from creating energy from nothing, in this case an inert liquid like water.

The efficiency argument

But wait; there is another part of the argument! The scam artists claim that the presence of hydrogen and oxygen make the gasoline burn more completely, those more efficiently, thus overcoming the amount of energy wasted in the electrolysis. This can and has been disproved by experiment, but there’s another way to debunk this argument. I like to call this argument a reality check. The amount of gas most HHO generates is less than 1 liter per minute, not even enough to run a 1 HP lawnmower on idle. Do you really think this amount of gas is going to have any impact on the efficiency of a 150 HP engine? The answer is a resounding no.

Testimonials

With a little searching, you should be able to find people who swear up and down that they’ve installed the system into their car and now they get 50 mpg. Of course, many people who write articles claiming HHO is not a scam, and then give you their affiliate links to several different websites selling HHO kits and plans. Ignore all testimonials that give links to any specific websites! When people make a purchase by clicking those links, the person who wrote the fake testimonial makes money…your money to be exact.

On the other hand, there are people who aren’t selling anything, and still claim it works in their cars. How can this be? As it turns out, virtually all modern cars have oxygen sensors in the exhaust system to determine how much gas to put into the cylinders. Hooking up an HHO system to your car won’t improve your fuel efficiency directly, but it will be enough to trick the oxygen sensor. As a result, the car uses less fuel, and begins to run lean. A lean-running engine will use less gas, and should become fuel efficient. As a result, people wrongly attribute the improved gas mileage to the HHO device.

Problems of running lean

If running your engine lean improves your gas mileage, then why aren’t automakers make all their engines run lean? The answer is that it does horrible, horrible things to the engine! The engine and valves can be permanently damaged, and cost you a pretty penny. This can even cause engine knock. To prevent these problems, automakers set the engines to use the proper amount of gas in order to improve engine reliability and longevity. Think about this for a second…is it worth destroying your car just so you won’t have to pay as much for gas? Actually, if you’re getting ready to ditch your car and get a new one, maybe it’s worth it to set the gas/air mixture in your car to make it lean. But if you want to actually use your car for more than a year, than hooking up an HHO device to your engine could cost you a lot of money.

Deceptive advertising

If you want to see something really funny, go to Youtube and search for ‘run your car on water’ and see what happens. You are likely to see the same videos posted over, and over, and over again. Each video will have nearly identical video descriptions with affiliate links. This is how people try to make their money. What’s really funny is that many of the videos have nothing to do with the HHO devices at all. For example, there are videos of people with a torch running with HHO, and the videos claim that it’s proof that the device really works. What’s even more funny is that some videos which depict actual cars which use hydrogen and fuel cells in order to move the car. Again, this concept is nothing like the HHO device, yet the scammers want you to believe that it is. The best thing you can do to protect your money and your wallet is to take these videos with a grain of salt.

Another interesting thing to note is that all the videos on Youtube are tagged with the word ‘scam.’ This way, if you try to find videos exposing this scam for what it really is, you’re much more likely to stumble onto videos trying to sell you HHO. This is even true for websites and fake reviews. Why else would people write an article about how great HHO is, and then proceed to tag their own article with the word, ‘scam.’ The answer is that it’s just one more layer of protection in order to prevent people from reading literature such as this.

In conclusion, if something sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. Right now, the RunYourCarOnWater and similar HHO scams are some of the biggest scams on the internet trying to get your money. The absolute best thing you can do is avoid these scams. If you drive a *lot* perhaps the best option for you would be to buy a hybrid vehicle. If you don’t drive very much and are looking for a new vehicle, try buying a lower end fuel efficient car. Toyota makes many efficient cars, and other manufacturers do as well, the Nissan Sentra, for example. For simple, cheap and easy ways to save gas, you can check out this page.

Posted under Avoiding Scams, Saving Gas, Saving Money