My post on the Magniwork free energy scam was so popular that there must be a strong need out there for someone to uncover all of these free energy scams on the web. With energy prices continuing to rise, it is an unfortunate fact that scams promising "Never pay for energy again!" or "lower your bills 50%" are going to always be around. I covered one such scam back in April regarding power factor correction. Check out the great job that my friend at Open4Energy has done with the Energy Saving Scams post.
Let me re-iterate this fact: The only way to lower your energy consumption is active conservation. There is no magic pill. Monitor, insulate, turn things off, use things less, etc. If you want renewable energy, you can have a professional install a solar system or wind generator, but it will probably be expensive. You will not save money building your own! You may end up with solar panels, but will they really produce a meaningful amount of energy? Do you want to put them on the roof that your family lives under?
If you see a product advertising itself as free energy machine, check out our post on "Why perpetual motion free energy devices don't work."
***Update 11/11/09 - So I decided to go on ClickBank and see if they had any "energy" guides that I could recommend that weren't scams. Guess what? Their top 7 "energy" related guides looked like scams to me. Here's a screen-shot of the first 7 energy scam articles:
So what is each item above:
- Magniwork
- Earth4Energy
- Power4Home
- GreenDIYenergy
- Home Made Energy
- Magnets4Energy
- Free Power Blueprint (another perpetual motion scam)
Of all I've seen, the GreenDIYenergy is the least scammish, but still a little misleading. But hey, if you don't want to take my word, go ahead an buy one of these plans. I wont say I told you so (yes I will). Basically, people scammers upload their "guides" to ClickBank, then other people can sell those guides and earn a commission.
***Update 09/02/09 - Martin was kind enough to try and post a comment on my Power Factor Correction Scam post, but when I did a little research I discovered Martin is involved in a new scam I have not heard about called magnets4energy. Guess what! Looks like it is the same people behind Magniwork and Ambigrid. My post on Magniwork has been so popular (now the number one hit on Google) that they are trying to get ahead of the game and come up with new names. Don't fall for it! If you want a good chuckle, you can find Martin's site at freeenergy2010.blogspot.com (WARNING: Scam Site!), but I am not directly linking to it. Here is his comment, just so you get a feeling for how these scammers and frauds are trying to operate:
Interesting post, i found very cool clips on you tube of free magnetic energy generators and was absolutely fascinated. These are worth having a look at. Marty.
*Original post below
Ambigrid
I found Ambigrid on one of the scam websites promoting Magniwork and was amazed at how similar the Ambigrid and Magniwork websites looked. After some help from www.selfseo.com I discovered that (ta da!) Magniwork and Ambigrid are registered to the same IP Address!
Brothers in Crime
Guess the con-artists realized that people were catching on to the Magniwork name. Now I dont know what material they try to present in the Ambigrid plans, but since it is the same group of people promoting the plans, they get labeled scam by association.
Earth4Energy: While I'm not officially labeling this as a scam, it's pretty darn close. I also did an IP address search and found that Earth4Energy is also registered in Germany, but it has a different IP address than the ones above. Could they be related?
I have been over to a friend's house and seen the plans with my own eyes. While there is more useful information than Magniwork, it simplifies most things a great deal. I covered these guys in a recent post titled: Earth4Energy - too good to be true? The guys over at NLCPR.com have a pretty thorough analysis on what they are calling the Earth4Energy scam. I did find it interesting that some of the diagrams in Earth4Energy were the same diagrams in Magniwork. Could they be developed by the same people?
Basically, any site that offers to sell you plans to build an energy system (solar, wind, magnets, etc.) for cheaper than what you would pay a professional is probably a SCAM! Now, if they offer to teach you how to build a generator as a hobby project, that is something totally different. Also, if the site claims that the "energy companies" have been hiding the plans because of a big conspiracy, guess what...SCAM.
Electricity is not stuff to play around with. Unless you are a professional, don't think you can buy some magic plans to save energy. If it were for real, some reputable company would be doing it already. If you have doubts, shoot me an email and run it by me. I have access to electrical engineers and reputable people in the blogosphere.
Look at it this way: All these sites claiming to "help" you are selling something. This blog isn't. We do eventually want to make money (off ads). We are giving advice to attract readers so eventually we can make money off ads. But in order to do that we need to give good advice and be trusted. If Mapawatt violates that trust then nobody would read us.
Below are the websites I've found that recommend Magniwork (which is a 100% scam) or products like it. If you represent one of these websites or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'd love to have a healthy debate.
SCAM Sites
Anything that promotes Magniwork or Ambigrid is getting a Scam site label. If I were you, steer clear of these sites and all products they recommend.
Hojo Motor (this is now one of our most popular posts)
makepowerathome.com/
ambigrid.com/
ecopoweredhome.com/
magniwork.com/
diysolarhomes.com/
easyoffgrid.blogspot.com
freeenergy2010.blogspot.com - added on 9/2/09
magnets4energy.com - added on 9/2/09
Our society constantly looks for the easy way out, but when it comes to energy, there is no magic device here. It all comes down to implementing proven technologies that are discussed on Mapawatt Blog and other reputable sites. Don't fall for any of these scams!
***Update - 9/17/09 - So I was doing a little research, and I found this mock scam site:
The web address looks like one of the scam ones, but it's not. It's worth checking out. The site actually makes fun of all the scam offers out there offering to teach you how to build your own solar panels. The best tip on diysolar.com:
Secret # 5. I know that I mentioned tax credits and rebates on my website but I never said in my video and guide book that your home made panels or wind generator would qualify for them. You see since your home made solar panels and wind generator aren't U.L. approved and would violate the NEC code (National Electric Code) if you installed them on an occupied dwelling, you can't get a permit to install them on your home or business. So if you can't get a permit then you can't apply for any tax credits or rebates.
***Update - 10/30/09 -- One of the Mapawatt team members sent a link for Power 4 Home. I won't say this is a 100% scam, but I will say they provide some misleading information. It looks like it is the exact same people behind a company mentioned above and something I've written about in the past, Earth 4 Energy (they aren't that original when coming up with different names).
One thing they say on their site is: "if you generate more energy than you use, the electricity company will pay you!". Which isn't true! Usually, the utility will just reduce your bill by the amount of energy you produce, but if you zero out they will not pay you any more! It is information like this that makes me add them to this list.
Another annoying thing about these sites, is they have an annoying pop-up like the one below when you try to leave their "scammish" site:
It seems like every single one of the sites utilizes this tool. I wonder if they are all working together?
***update 11/11/09 - I decided to actually see how this computer generated response works. Enjoy the conversation (it is just a coincidence that the computer sales person below has the same name as me)!
energy scam dialogue with a computer
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