Swoopo what a clever name....for a clever scheme

2008-10-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

The other day I came across a Google Adword advertising an Xbox 360 sold for a mere $34.50. Knowing me, and my make money fast attitude, I jumped at the link.

Now think about it, if you can buy an Xbox 360 for that low of a price and sell the same item on eBay, you would make a great turnaround profit. An Xbox 360 goes for an average of $300 on eBay, so I'd be making a $265 profit. Now that's good money, especially when you're a college undergrad student like me, just trying to make a few extra bux on the side.

So, the link took me to a site I've never heard of: Swoopo.com. Be warned! This site is very enticing! If there was one thing that gave it away it would have to be the subtitle "Entertainment Shopping". But really, who am I to say? So here you can decide what you want about the site.

And in saying that, I'll explain how I fell into the Swoopo trap.

The site is essentially another auction site. You basically make an account and bid on the items placed up on the site. But this is where the normality ends and the scam starts. To actually bid on the website you have to purchase your bid. They offer "Bid Packages" which are convenienly packaged amoutns of bids. Convenient, would be a good marketing term since in essence its only convenient to the owner. The packages come in sizes of 20 to 500 bids. Each package costs from $20 to $500 dollars. So if you did your math correctly, each bid costs $1. Okay not bad right? One dollar per bid! I can easily make up for that with the money I save on actually purchasing something.

Once again I have bad news. The site doesn't stop there when it comes to ways to scam you. Sure

Get into the boss's mind

Swoopo what a clever name....for a clever scheme