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Renewable Energy Scams

energy scam alertMy 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:

clickbank_energy_scamsSo what is each item above:

  1. Magniwork
  2. Earth4Energy
  3. Power4Home
  4. GreenDIYenergy
  5. Home Made Energy
  6. Magnets4Energy
  7. 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

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.

earth4energyEarth4Energy:  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:

http://diysolar.com

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:

Power4home_earth4Energy_sales_popup_scamIt 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

energy scam dialogue with a computer

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Comments

Howdy Chris - Enjoyed this visit to your useful website. I've been interested in alternate energy and various of its applications since I came upon "Brown's Gas" stuff some years ago. These "free energy" scams are really getting to be thick and fast on the Internet scene. Perhaps better days will come along some time. A friend has gotten into messing around with the Tesla "free energy" things and has built a little version of it, using Tesla's patent information, that produces a very low EMF for him - so I know that the concepts are OK, but the scammers and their Clickbank books really put out tons of BS about such things. I guess I will be an interested observer and, after I do a lot of looking at what is happening in this Tesla free energy scam area, I will put an article together about it. It will be on the Website mentioned in my reply to you, so if you,Chris, want a copy to use as you like, let me know by way of my eMail address. Best of 120/60 to you... Gus
ckmapawatt's picture
Sounds great. Let me know when it is up.
Great post! Thanks for sharing! I am always looking for ways to save energy, so I am glad I know what to look for in scams. I am thinking of getting a <a href="http://electricsaver1200.com/powersaver.html" rel="nofollow">power saver 1200</a>, has anyone heard of that before?
ckmapawatt's picture
While it may not be an all out scam, I think their claims are grossly exaggerated. My personal advice is that I dont think the product will save as much as they claim. I've written about similar products here: http://mapawatt.com/2011/07/27/proof-that-power-factor-correction-devices-save-little-energy/
There are ways to save on electricity and that is by conserving its usage. Mindless usage would naturally cause higher bill but mindful usage can bring that bill down. However, using gadgets which claims to lower electric bill might or might not be a scam, but I reckon that there will be more that will fall on the former. The only other sure thing to save on electricity bill is by using other alternative source of energy.
Thanks Chris, thank goodness for google. I actually went to Magnets4Energy and Earth4Energy Think there is a lot of gullable people out there that would love all th B.S. I learned my lesson to investigate before I buy anything on the internet.
I had heard through a friend about an energy saving product sold by Energy4Energy but before looking at their site I decided to check out some reviews.Seems to me most of the first 3 pages I checked were not written by an independent company's at all, but sites made up by Energy4Energy reporting how great the product is. Wow what a scam. Thanks for your impartial review.
Dude, you really think all of the companies you named are scams? I mean, you do have some valid points, but I'm not sure they're all scams. However, I guess it wouldn't surprise me too much b/c obviously there are scammers out there.
ckmapawatt's picture
I think 99% of them are! I'd be happy to take a company off the list if they can make the claim that what they are selling isn't a scam, but so far, I've had no takers. The public is just too ignorant when it comes to advanced energy concepts, so the scammers are able to have a field day!
Thanks for all the info and direction. I am one of those who has been scammed. I am sure its not easy for everyone to admit it who comes this way. I have not built anything but wondered again, so I am here. Dreamers sometimes look for the easy way! I guess its like everything, you have to the work. Sometimes you get lucky but I have found even after luck you to go back and do the work for consistency/results. I guess I will hire an expert or befriend one, etc.

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