JustAnswer, the Scam and the Tax Jam... Irs... May be calling...
NO response to the recent articles about JustAnswer.com is Andy Kurtzig doing what he does best at JustAnswer. Sit back, and let his so called "Expert" Answer-givers rake in the dough and ignore what does not. Maybe I can s'plain the problems as I see it a little clearer. Problem #1 is Answer-givers that claim to be Experts and are NOT, and 2) those "non-employed" same Experts that do not report their enormous incomes. Yes, that is correct. Recently on Monster.com, JustAnswer placed an ad for legal Experts to answer questions on its venue, stating that the salary "earning potential was from 1-100,000. Dollars". I was amazed until I did some mental and paper spread sheets and figured out the results. And Andy is right, making 100,000.00 is not only possible, many are dong it. And others are coming damn close. My focus is the non-real Expert that pretends to be one on JA. Who are these people? Where do they come from? In my experience at JustAnswer most of the Experts are just like the jokes about people who do phone sex for a living. You would like to think some hot babe is stroking your ego, but in fact she is the size of a linebacker and smokes non-filtered while reading passages from a crappy romance novel.
Some of the guys are unemployable or unskilled. They have learned to copy and paste, use websites and parrot others' answers. It is amazing how a high school graduate became a legal consultant/advisor, medical advisor and expert in marital problems in just a few short months. I've seen it time and time again with many of these answer-givers.
The non-college educated Experts are self-proclaimed in their area that they answer. Most are graduates of the school of JA and dive into archival answers to steal or use from past Experts. But the monies is what this is all about, and most Experts will stab/climb over each other's back to get to the higher money questions and answer them whether they know the answer or not. I've seen this time and time again in the 2 years I have been on JA. The monies are the carrot that throws ethics out the window.
One "CSI" government guy recently posted a picture in the Lounge of his new house that he is building in Florida, courtesy of JustAnswers tax free dollars. I found this hard to believe, so I looked over his numbers of Accepts and Dollars and found he totalled OVER $1000. (his share!) in just ONE week in March. Now, times that by 52, plus the bonuses they all beg for and I bet 70,000.00 a year is not too far off the mark. Does Mr. Forensic and ex-FBI pay taxes on it? Humm... Don't know... Bet he doesn't... There is also a Lawyer that mentors the site that also does investments. Similar number crunching and she does over 100,000. A year. Bet she reports her 100 grand a year... Huh? Taking bets. Others have bragged about new cars, Harley motorcycles, trips to Disney World and new kitchens. All from the tax free monies from JustAnswer. And why should they report it? No one issues them a 1099Misc. And the monies are paid to a Paypal account and for that matter, very few use a real name or have an address, SS#, or town and State listed with JustAnswer. So the paper trail would make it a bit difficult, but for the IRS, I'm sure a look-see at JustAnswers.com, Serenade Venture LLC PayPal account would make the IRS some VERY happy campers with the fines and penalities added on. The JA venue has been around for at least 4 years, times the 1000's of Experts and million (s) of happy customers, Andy has some 'plaining to do, and so do the very happy "tax free" Experts.
But that is not the entire picture of what is ticking me off. What sent me around the ethical bend was an Expert that claimed to be REAL RN for over 3 years, giving very serious medical advise to a huge, huge number of customers, with over 5000 accepted answers and was NOT an RN, LPN or Nurse's assistant..in fact, I was told she worked in an office. But, something is obvious wrong because now she is a "medical assistant" in a wide area of exertize and NO longer a RN! But NOW an Expert in medical, sexual, Ob/gyn etc and answering away to beat the band.in the real world she would be in jail. Rightly so. Another "Expert" is still giving legal advise and he is a high school graduate that repeatively tells people what an Expert he is, even though he never went to college, bet he watches alot of TV like CSI guy. He constantly raves on the Lounge site that an Expert doesn't need an education, or a license or continuing education to be an Expert. He's right, as long as he is working for JustAnswers and making 60,000.00 reading other's answers from the past, that is all he will need to know. The real world would have him flipping burgers and sweeping the floors. And that boys and girls is where a lot of their so called Experts come from. They are unemployable, unskilled and uneducated. Many are the real deal, but those that are not, are there to stay. They are part of Andy's posse and sit at his feet and do his dirty work as unethical and as illegal as it is, after all, Andy is who he says he it. So Happy and Contented Experts, who ever you are, you know what you see when you look in the mirror. You know WHAT you really are. And you know you are scamming the government. Sooner or later... The IRS will be calling you with a question...
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