The shocking part of this review of Countdown Profits is just how big of a scam it turned out to be. And yes, I did buy it.
Quick Report on Countdown to Profits:
Creator: Richard Paul.
Price: $97 then an $87 into a program which revealed that the whole Countdown to Profits is a front for another program and a bad one too at that!
Overall Rating: 0 out of 10 stars.
I’ll be explaining everything that is “shocking” about this program in this article, but the goal isn’t to just explain that but to also give you a good alternative that is shockingly good and legitimate. So here it is:
Countdown to Profits in a nutshell:
So this program isn’t really the program you’re getting, it just redirects to another scam program called Automatic Edge, that I had already purchased in the past, reviewed and gave it 0 stars (and I’ll tell you why) and it’s for the same reasons I gave Automatic Edge a 0 score, that I will also give Countdown to Profits the same, deserved score.
So just so you know:
Countdown to Profits and Automatic Edge are the same program, but listed under 2 different names. And there’s other programs like Online Success Plan, which are also tied into Automatic Edge.
Yeah I know it can be confusing but I will explain how the funnel works shortly.
You’ll see that this whole thing is one big mix up, but a carefully planted one that makes sense to those who make money of doing it and no sense for those who stumble on it, that being people who will eventually be scammed by it…
But…
What I want to say in this review is 3 very important things:
1) I would rather not repeat what I already wrote about Automatic Edge which is the real “brains” of these programs but you can read that review of it separately to understand what’s really inside the system and why it’s bad in my opinion.
2) What I would prefer to do in this article is explain how the sneaky funnel of Countdown to Profits works.
3) Finally I know that most of you reading this probably want to know if there’s a program you can trust. And if it’s not Countdown to Profits (it isn’t), then what can you trust to work? So here it is again, in case you missed my point on alternatives above:
Before the scam was spotted, this is what happened:
I found this program after reading one of those spam comments you find on high traffic websites. I refer to them as work at home special report sites and they are basically scam sites too.
You know the ones where the person posting says they or someone they know is making so and so from an “easy system”.
Typically most people ignore those types of comments because they are nothing more than spam and they are right to do it, but I always seek to find the next scam program to warn people about, so I decided to click it, and it took me to Countdown to Profits.
And so the 500 second wait period began (so annoying…):
On that page, I had to sit for over 500 seconds and listen to Richard Paul deliver his speech about how every second I’ll stay on his site, that I’ll get $1 so in 500 seconds of waiting, I should have been eligible to receive $500, but the catch was that I had to contact a coach, buy the program and do the lessons that were given.
And these “contact a coach” pitches are usually scams because they are just salesmen, not actual coaches!
Get real coaching here for free (obviously from a different, legit system).
Obviously to have someone pay pretty much anyone to just watch a video is absurd to believe but this is how many programs catch you.
Where the Countdown to Profits video actually revealed that it was promoting a big scam:
And I’m not just talking about Automatic Edge again. I’m talking about an even bigger scam, that all of these programs are centrally tied to: MTTB.
Once I heard Richard Paul mention a $500 cash back if I didn’t succeed, my first though was “Oh no, this is going to be another program recommending MTTB” (which by the way is one of the most horrible programs I’ve ever reviewed AND it was taken down by the FTC too) and it just so happens that one of the scams promoted inside the AE program is MTTB.
That program would have people spending $1,000’s on it and I explained why that was a scam. Coincidentally, in the Countdown to Profits sales video, Richard was mentioning $1k-$5k profits. Oh what an interesting coincidence no?
Everything spelled scam, but I still went for it. I purchased Countdown to Profits:
Though I knew better, I had to be 100% on this…and after I purchased what I consider to be the “illusionary” Countdown to Profits program, an up-sell page was provided where the person on the video mentioned AE and that’s when I also though “Wait a second, didn’t I review that?”
A quick search on my website led to that review which I did link above…
So here’s how it works:
- Countdown to Profits is just a sales funnel into Automatic Edge.
- Once you buy it, Automatic Edge will promote you the MTTB/MOBE program and that is the super expensive one.
- So in short…if AE and MTTB are scams (which I reviewed and say yes they are!), therefore Countdown to Profits is ALSO a scam!
I provide even MORE evidence below on Countdown to Profits…
There’s also something VERY sneaky going on here…
And that is that there are fake websites/programs such as Countdown to Profits posing as real programs seeking to promote other scam programs.
I call this the back door method and it is a very deceptive means by which many scam companies continue to make money despite having a bad reputation.
How scam companies continue to thrive through a “back door” method:
When a big name program gets a lot of bad reviews, it is either common for that program to either stop doing business or continue thriving by having it’s affiliates (promoters) either create positive reviews for it or create their own separate sales pages where they create their own name for a program, but link it back to the original bad company.
This is the bad type of affiliate marketing I am against.
In the case of Countdown to Profits, it links to AE, but here’s a funny add on, there’s actually 2 backdoor techniques going on here because AE actually redirects back to the real heart of all this which is MTTB.
A quick recap of MTTB and MOBE:
Originally MTTB was the controversial program that had many skeptics including myself not recommend it based on what I saw (it may be a pyramid scheme and it is my opinion). And overtime it did develop a…let’s just say…a questionable reputation.
What I believe happened is that because the commission rates were so attractive to affiliates (People could make potentially $1,000’s per sale promoting and by the way, they require you pay those prices to promote them, so it’s a high ticket scheme), regardless of the controversy, they continued to find ways to sell MTTB and did it by making their own pages/fake programs promoting it (Think Countdown to Profits).
What are the benefits of them doing this?
Well for one, if someone was promoting MTTB directly, a lot of people visiting that page may end up looking at reviews on Google for it and since it is controversial, they may find more than a few websites and comments which may not favor the program.
But what if an affiliate created a website with a different name, but linked it back to MTTB? In that case, most people who would look up reviews would probably not find many negative ones or make the connection and thus that attention would be taken away from MTTB and increase chances of it continuing to make sales.
And that’s exactly what’s happening in the case of Countdown to Profits ladies and gentlemen. It is just a made up program in my opinion that takes people through the whole backdoor funnel into AE and then MTTB and most people don’t even realize it.
In fact, I don’t blame them. It took me some time to understand this web but it’s only because I expose these things for a living that I figured it out.
Oh and I’d like to add, when I purchased Automatic Edge a long ago:
They charged me for…well nothing.
Originally when I first discovered Automatic Edge, it was through another program that functioned exactly like Countdown to Profits. It was called Online Success Plan.
I paid an extra amount to buy Online Success Plan ($97 I think) and it took me to AE and inside there, all it basically did was take me through a series of steps to eventually upgrade to MTTB. When I found that out, I got the heck out of there and I was fortunate to collect a full refund too!
With Countdown to Profits, when I also purchased it:
It ended up being the same exact thing.
In other words, it took me to AE’s membership site (again). But this time it was different…they remembered me…
Well let’s be honest, they did “downgrade” me because I cancelled and got a refund, but now, I did pay an extra fee to enter it again (because I purchased the Countdown to Profits program which isn’t even a program).
I tried to contact the support for a refund but got errors. So either they didn’t really charge me because of the original refund I got back long ago or I have to do it again…
Final Rating: Countdown to Profits
0 stars
Red Flag
0 out of 10 stars. This program in my opinion isn’t even it’s own entity, it’s just an affiliate page, but an affiliate page to what has been PROVEN to be a scheme (remember, the FTC took it down!).
My final thoughts:
I really don’t like seeing any websites that end up being back doors to others. Because once I do, I immediately question why this is happened and frankly, it seems deceptive to me.
If the program being promoted is good, then there’s no need to create another layer under a different name to mask it. And if it isn’t, well then it makes sense, but it’s not justified…
Let’s take a really good program: Wealthy Affiliate and if it would make sense to do what Countdown to Profits did…
Since there are good reviews about the WA program, why would there be any reason for people, aka affiliates to create their own different programs and redirect to WA? There isn’t because the program’s legitimacy speaks for itself. There’s no need to go around or behind to promote it is what I’m trying to say.
Unfortunately with Countdown for Profits, as we already know, the program behind the door is AE and then MTTB and I have seen many other websites like it do this to promote those programs and like I said, if they have to, what I consider “resort” to promoting this way, it says a lot of bad things in my opinion on what they’re actually promoting…
I want to thank you for reading this far:
It wasn’t easy to write this review and it took a lot of stress, money and time. That being said, I hope it was informative for you and helped you find a better solution to making a real living from home!
Thank you! When I bought into Countdown… (Aug 2017) it led me to a new company DES which uses myinternettraining.com. It must be the replacement for MTTB, because on Step 6, you see the proposal to join MOBE. So many people have mentioned WA as an alternative, so I’m enjoying my trial with them!
Hi Lori, the website you listed sounds more like an affiliate page for MOBE/MTTB and the reason I say that is because I’ve also come across similar pages like that. Either way, I’d avoid it.
I have also been scammed and it hurts like a bad tooth to know you just threw your money away? So glad I found you, while I was listening to the speech on my iPad, I got my phone and googled and found you, thank goodness I caught it before I have them my hard earned money. But I do have a very important question, ARE THERE AND LEGIT SITES WHERE YOU CAN HONESTLY MSKR MONEY, I’m so desperate to find something I can do at home, PLEASE ADVISE ME, thanks
Hi Cheryl, I have pointed to a legit program several times in this review. Here it is. Please be sure to check out my reviews fully as I get your type of question very often.
Hi Vitaliy
Thank you for this useful post. I do hope it will save many people from wasting their time, money and nerves.
What I do appreciate is that you have paid and joined the program to give honest review from your own experience. These are the most valuable reviews as you can give the insider’s point of view.
What seems interesting for me is that when Googling “countdown to profits a scam” all of the reviews says it is a scam but still there are people falling for this…
That’s because they find these sites not on Google, but on various forums which run ads which link to it Arta.
It really starts getting old when product after product promise so many things and don’t deliver. What’s worse is that no one is held accountable. All these shortcuts never work. I’ve seen friends searching for a way to get ahead throw good money at scams like this.
You can never take a shortcut to success.
Nice post.
Thanks so much for your comprehensive review of this well known scam. I can’t believe the number of people out there who continually fall for this nonsense – which is why scams like this continue because people feed them without intending to!
When you read their material and watch the videos, it’s so clear they are not transparent!
Keep exposing them and other scammers and direct them to the program/s that actually teach you something and not promise you the world and give you a piece of steaming…coal! 🙂
Hi Vitaliy,
That is the first ever I have heard of the term or strategy “back door”, what’s more worrying is that it occurs and is used so often that it has it’s own terminology!
Even thinking about I have seen it many times! Anything where you are entering via the backdoor has got to be as shady as it sounds. (and that includes a few clubs that I know in my city!)
Thanks for the review. As i was reading through the article, I had remembered how such scams have taken my hard earned money before i join Wealthy affiliate. It’s really sad! Those guys know how to attract newbies and once you set your mind that you want to get rich overnight (Which is a lie from hell) with just a click of button as they always spread the word,the chances are you get into the trap, they wash your bank account and then you give up on the idea of building an online business.It’s really sad and that’s why i always find such articles very useful as they help a lot.
This is the first time I’ve heard of “backdoor” methods for online scams, but I guess it shows that I am still relatively new to making money online.
It seems people will try and find a way to pull a fast one on unsuspecting customers. The problem is that you can only do that for a while before people find you out. I guess that’s why they had to use 2 backdoor techniques.
That’s a possibility Tej, but I also know that Michael has a good list following so each time he makes these “new” products, he has a new influx of leads, sales and more people to join his higher up sales funnel. it works like a stimulus but in online marketing instead.
Wow! Yeah so this is definitely a scam! I’ve seen lots of programs and mlm companies try to redirect themselves into another program once their name gets tainted.
These are the exact type of programs that I have to warn my audience to steer clear of! So often people are attracted to these types of advertisements because of the promise of getting a ton of money for not doing any work. We all know that working towards a goal and putting in the effort in whatever is chosen will work every time.
I really had no idea that people changed the names of failed scams and redirected to them through their sites. Shows how green I still am, I guess 🙂
But it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. I can’t help it but notice that scams are getting on whole new level as of late – so there’s this type that you described in your post, and now mobile devices are becoming the new targets: scammers are creating fake apps and promise great riches to those who join them for just a small fee. I just can’t stand it.
Thanks for the post. I have had some experience with MTTM or MOBE as it is also called. Your article is very informative and one that people should read so as not to get sucked into this program. Very revealing the strategies this company used to get people linked to the program. Also how they layer one into their programs was clearly discussed.It is appealing at first glance with the ostensible high profits to be made. Then the very expensive up sells start with no guarantee for profits. I researched what profits an average person made on this program. After investing many thousands, the average person made $502.
Hi Steve, I’d like to know where you learned about this $500 average return and if that’s monthly or overall because in many MLM programs, I personally know that most people do not break even.
Oooh! I paid over $500 for that MOBI thing, got home and cancelled. I’m sure, somehow, you can make money online, I just haven’t found a legit one yet! I, too, have spent x amount of dollars in various programs, I don’t anymore, I investigate first. I like the affiliate idea, and I think clickbank is ok.
Clickbank is OK but if you don’t know how to market products, there’s no point in being involved with any affiliate program Diana. I would recommend you check out Wealthy Affiliate which has the whole marketing of internet products topic nailed down (and it is legit).
It’s pretty scary to think that these types of scams are actually working, that there are people out there who don’t know any better and get sucked in.
These reviews are so important, and I feel that even though you sometimes have to pay to properly review these “services”, you’re driving more people away in the long run!
It’s scary to believe that people are so gullible that they would just give thier money away at the promise of making more money.
Hey there!
We all know that there are scam websites out there connected to pretty much any niche. But what surprises me the most is that they continue to exist.
Even after reviews like this one, they continue to get money out of honest people.
Do you know if Google or any other companies do anything to prevent their search engines from offering the website to the people ?
And why aren’t this websites being shut down, by some higher authority ?
As far as I know, these companies do not show up for major keywords which people look for because they are typically low in quality and lack content, thus Google doesn’t allow them to reach high positions which, while not perfect still prevents these programs from reaching more people.
So instead, these places just advertise themselves “back handedly” like I said through comments, ect… and this is how they get visitors. Also there’s other ways they advertise, but it is confusing to explain. The point is that directly through Google, they are severely limited in their exposure which is good.
The other good news is that there are more and more companies and websites reporting on these places so that itself is also a form of regulation..
Hi Vitaliy I’m interested that you believe it is affiliates doing this and not the company owners themselves, either way it is a scam as you point out.
I wonder how search engines that are supposedly so sophisticated in monitoring spam sites don’t spot these type of backdoor sites – I thought that was whole point of their more recent algorithms? Although I suppose affiliates are constantly looking for ways to reach audiences directly and bypass any search engine.
That’s an excellent question Marie! I believe these kinds of websites don’t really get traffic through SEO. I do believe they attract traffic through other third party sites which may have good authority. I have also seen those sites act as PBNs for promoting these programs.
They may also be using Solo Ads or some kinds of traffic exchanges as well, basically not direct SEO.
My goodness! Of all the trouble Countdown to Profits goes to scam you so that they can send you to other scams to lose more money, they could’ve offered something of genuine value and gotten people’s trust who would have gladly given them money for something that isn’t a scam and of real value.
I had never heard of Countdown to Profits nor Automatic Edge. Now that you’ve mentioned them here and I certainly intend to steer clear of them. Thanks for posting this review and why you should stay away from them!
Layers and layers of lies and deceit. It seems like a lot of work to go through.
Why do the people behind these layers of programs go through all that work. Couldn’t they put that much work into a legitimate program and make honest money?
Is it true that people that do these types of program pay others to plant good reviews and comments?
So all this is a smoke screen that goes back to My Top Tier Business?
Of course they can promote other programs Barry, but this one pays them so much more than most other offers so it becomes a money thing.
As for paying for “planting good reviews”, I can’t speak for MTTB, but I do think there is a lot of incentive for people to promote it because of the money.
Thanks for your honest review. I’ve seen this website promoted on a PTC site before. I did not and will not join a site that relies on a sales page. That just screams scam to me. Hopefully people will see your review before they purchase anything that redirects to another proven scam.
Well most products do rely on a sales page David, the question is what they are offering and for how much. Typically I trust sales pages more which show me exactly what I’d get, whereas with these sales page, I received not information until after I went in.
I’m SHOCKED that these companies continue to thrive with how much knowledge there is in the world. They are so deceptive and sneaky with their tactics. I’m so grateful there are people like you that will research these companies and tell the world the truth about them.
You saved me a lot of money by one post. It’s good that there are people willing to tell the truth about these thieves.