In early February 2025, I observed some advertisers on Meta promoting a product known as Cash Phone Original — also known by its shorter name “Cash Phone” or as the “7-minute phone trick.” This offer stood as simply the latest scam in a long line of scams promising easy money. Unfortunately, these sorts of “get rich quick” schemes dominate the world of scams. This article presents my fully-researched review of the marketing for the Cash Phone Original app or course — a purported “7 minute phone trick” moneymaking product with all the makings of being a scam, not legit. I noted that some users searched Google for reviews about Cash Phone Original on Consumer Reports, Reddit and other websites.
The product’s name features “Cash,” as if a special ability of the “7 minute phone trick” enables your mobile device to print easy money. As I reported in my YouTube video about the same product with a different name, at least hundreds of online video advertisements for these types of programs appeared in the final months of 2024 as sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram. The ads showed people telling fake and sometimes conflicting stories in an effort to entice users to click a link to visit websites like cashphoneoriginal.com.”
If you’ve had difficulty in finding any legitimate reviews of Cash Phone Original (again, under the short name “Cash Phone”) or “7 minute phone trick” on Google, you’re not the only one. Unfortunately, scammers are likely attempting to flood Google’s search results with fake positive reviews. With my article, you’ll hopefully find the most honest and thorough review available anywhere online. To help crush the scammy articles and videos attempting to promote this product, please share my article on Facebook and other social media platforms. Also, record videos. Show my article in your clips. Post those videos to Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Let’s do whatever we can to get the word out there to help raise awareness about the fake and not-legit Cash Phone Original reviews.
Here’s the table of contents for this story:
- What Is Cash Phone Original (‘Cash Phone’)?
- Cash Phone Original Facebook and Instagram Ads
- Meta Accepts Money for Scam Ads
- The Cash Phone Original Reviews Video
- Genuine Cash Phone Original Reviews
- Sound Publishing’s Scammy Sponsored Content Articles
- Promises of Low-Cost Courses Changing Lives
- Scam Victims: Call Your Credit Card Company
Editor’s Note: My name is Jordan Liles. I am a Senior Reporter with the fact-checking website Snopes.com. In addition to my work on Snopes.com, I author additional reporting here on my personal website, JordanLiles.com. My goal with this story is to provide all of my research regarding this product. I want to ensure I do whatever I can to help warn consumers about potential scams.
What Is Cash Phone Original?
Cash Phone Original is the name of a supposed moneymaking course or program claiming in Facebook and Instagram video ads to be a “7 minute phone trick.” According to my research, the actual product appears to be a digital download that may teach users in a “one-page guide” either how to build an online business selling digital products such as e-books and courses, or how to harness social media to earn revenue. Or, as one Reddit user put it, similar guides already exist for free in YouTube videos.
Up front, people appearing in online ads promise that Cash Phone Original is an easy way to make tons of extra money, no matter the disclaimers or other statements featured on the resulting websites, including cashphoneoriginal.com. Such promises might remind readers of investment scams. Case in point: The footer of the cashphoneoriginal.com website displays the tiny-sized text, “The average person who buys any ‘how to’ information gets little to no results.” Again, “little to no results.” Why is the text tiny? Because they don’t want you to see it, of course.
On the Cash Phone Original website, a pop-up on top of a lengthy video says of the purported $47 purchase for the “7 minute phone trick” course, “WAIT! In Just 1:47… I’ll Reveal The 7Min A Day System That Makes Me More Than Most CEO’s, Doctors & Lawyers Combined! My wife and I were on the brink of divorce. This new system not only mended our marriage. But allowed us to give our daughter Jenny the life we never have. It takes us just 7 minutes a day. First thing in the morning or last thing before bed!”
Within the first few seconds of the lengthy video — a video that lies to users saying it will only last just under two minutes — an AI-generated narrator voice tells viewers how the product works. According to the very beginning of the video, all people need to do in order to make thousands of dollars per week with Cash Phone Original is open the product, whether an app or a course, on their phone, do something simple and then they’re done.
Seconds later, the video states that you will need to do some work to set up the program. Then, it promises that once you complete the setup, you will earn money on “autopilot.” In some iterations of similar scams, an AI-voiced narrator claims the company already completed “90 percent of the work.”
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published in March 2024 a news release about a similar-sounding scam promising users could “generate passive income on autopilot.” The FTC added, “The truth was that few consumers ever made money from these schemes.”
Always remember that if an online offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Cash Phone Original Facebook and Instagram Ads
During the course of my research of Cash Phone Original, I reviewed several Facebook and Instagram ads promoting similar products. All of them appeared to promote various “phone trick” scams, including fake “7 minute phone trick” reviews.
One such Facebook and Instagram ad featuring a brief video displayed the text, “Have You Heard Of The ‘7-Minute Phone Trick’? Thousands of everyday moms, dads and grandparents are experiencing life-changing transformations thanks to this ‘7-Minute Phone Trick’… But how? People spend millions of dollars online. All day, every day. The internet is a raging river of cash flowing right by, that’s flooding with potential ($730B to be exact). You just need to know how to look for it, and where to find it…”
The ad’s text continues, “A simple ‘7-Minute Phone Trick’ that’s allowing regular folks to tap into this ‘source’ without being tech wizards… The breakthrough was initially developed for the world’s most powerful tech billionaires. But it was recently leaked by the genius behind the project.”
It’s not entirely clear whether the people appearing in the advertisements had involvement with the product itself, worked as affiliate marketers or were simply actors paid to tell fake stories as spokespeople. According to what I’ve seen in the past, some of the people clearly lived in regular apartments with unremarkable kitchens visible in the background. In other words, if Cash Phone Original made them tons of money, why would they still be living in modest apartments?
Further, let’s not forget these ads featured some of the same tropes someone might find in other online scams, not to mention pyramid schemes whose participants claim their “businesses” aren’t pyramid schemes. For example, the ads displayed phrases about “quitting your 9-5” and “retiring early.” The video on cashphoneoriginal.com also showed flashy cars, beautiful people, travel destinations, expensive homes and other misleading promises.
Think about it. The idea suggests you’ll achieve financial freedom by spending only $47 and following a supposed set of instructions. Again, there’s a reason why they placed in tiny text the bits about how this probably won’t do anything for most people. Marketers promote what they claim is a groundbreaking moneymaking strategy in Facebook ads. This isn’t how life works. This doesn’t reflect anything genuine in the real world.
Meta Accepts Money for Scam Ads
Another fact I don’t want to leave out, especially with how this tech giant has been in the news recently: Meta, the parent company of the social media dinosaurs Facebook and Instagram, has accepted money for thousands of scam ads. Meta asks users to tap the “report” button if they view ads violating their policies, as if users are on the company’s payroll.
Here’s the thing: As The Associated Press and others have reported time and again, Meta regularly reports to investors on a quarterly basis revenue numbers in the tens of billions. Even so, the company still has not chosen to invest in staffing up with enough credible moderators to manually review all Facebook and Instagram ads before they display on users’ devices. Instead, the company only manually reviews some of the ads, with the majority processing through a seemingly (and conveniently) broken automated review process.
In 2023, Fox News reported about the prevalence of scams in Facebook sponsored posts, writing, “The way [scammers] do this is by buying accounts that have already gone through the verification process, such as business manager accounts that are allowed to post lots of ads. Once hackers take over these accounts, they can charge thousands of dollars in ad spending to credit cards associated with the compromised accounts and post whatever ads they want. So, it’s really a flaw within Facebook’s verification process that allows these ads to come to life.”
The Cash Phone Original Machine Reviews Video
I watched the video on cashphoneoriginal.com. The video began with its AI-voiced narrator saying, “Hi. I’m ‘Ben.’ And this is an iPhone. And while it might seem like it, this is no regular iPhone. This is a Cash Phone.”
“In a few minutes, you’re gonna witness this weird little iPhone pulling cold hard cash off the internet and putting it right into my pockets on command. Thanks to this iPhone, I’m pulling 1,000 a day on complete autopilot. I just turn it on first thing in the morning. And in minutes, money starts pouring in. When I’ve made enough, I turn it back off.”
“It’s practically hands free. In fact, it actually works better when I just leave it alone and do nothing. And if you do what I’m about to show you in this short video, your phone will also start to feel like your very own personal Cash Phone, spitting out weekly paychecks of $1,000, $2,000, $5,000 or more each and every single week.”
The narrator then claims Cash Phone doesn’t exist as a “push button system” and that “it does take some time to set up.” Then, it promises a lifetime of riches.
The video basically promises you’ll become rich, quit your day job and relax on a beach sipping drinks. It also uses the same tropes as other scams, such as falsely claiming someone with similar interests keeps trying to remove the product from the internet. Another scam trope seen with similar scams is the reassurance of a strong level of security and encryption. Too much reassurance is a red flag.
After the video ends, the website leads users to a checkout page asking for a $47 payment via the payment method ClickBank. The ClickBank page on the BBB website displays an average review score of 1.56 out of 5 and more than 200 complaints.
I located no information about the people who created Cash Phone Original. If the “7 minute phone trick” was legit, why wouldn’t its founder or founders make themselves known? If the product worked and the people who created it were proud of it, where are they? Wouldn’t they be beaming with joy in online videos?
If you’re looking at a potential scam and can’t find any information about the people who designed the product, ask yourself why and you’ll have more clarity about the matter.
Genuine Cash Phone Original Reviews
For my review, I did not purchase Cash Phone Original for myself. I don’t typically hand my credit card information over to people running potential scams. After all, a YouTube user under one of my videos providing a review of the information about a product similar to Cash Phone Original said, “I paid $154.22 for this program and have never heard from the company. Scam.” Keep in mind that these products are apparently the same as Cash Phone Original. Cash Phone Original is simply the latest product name scammers devised for marketing purposes.
A user posting on Reddit had this to say about a similar product: “My credit card company flagged it as a scam so I came here. I bailed on the purchase for now. Too many unanswered questions.”
In other words, it’s a very good thing I did not attempt to purchase the product myself. I hope readers understand this. Sometimes, I receive inane and negative comments from people who are mad I didn’t provide potential scammers my financial data. I hope readers see I am attempting to help consumers by compiling information and attempting to dominate search results in order to save consumers money.
In the same Reddit thread, another user added, “I bought it knowing I could get a refund… which I’ve already requested. It’s another affiliate marketing gig.”
The Outbrain advertising platform — which also hosts some scam ads — has a blog that defines affiliate marketing as “when you earn a commission for the online promotion of another company’s product or service.” The article also adds, “Essentially, affiliates perform online marketing on behalf of a merchant, to drive traffic and conversions for the merchant’s website. For every click or conversion earned, the affiliate is paid by the merchant.”
Meanwhile, back in the Reddit thread, at least one user seemed to genuinely offer this advice about these sorts of products: “It’s not a scam but also not worth buying. It pretty much tells you to make an Instagram account, and repost certain things on it. It’s definitely a long-term kind of thing, but not something I would get into, especially if I’m not guaranteed money.”
In other words, these online users did not witness the same exciting opportunities presented in the Facebook and Instagram ads or in the video on cashphoneoriginal.com. Offers that seem too good to be true — pyramid schemes included — often make big promises like flashy cars, vacations and millions of dollars, only to end up costing users an enormous amount of time for little, if any, monetary gain.
Sound Publishing’s Scammy Sponsored Content Articles
Aside from the Facebook and Instagram ads, other ads promoting products similar to Cash Phone Original reviews of promises like the “7 minute phone trick” might soon appear in sponsored content articles.
Reviews for scam products often appear in Google search results, linking to websites owned by a publisher named Sound Publishing.
Sound Publishing is one of the companies responsible for promoting fake reviews of products similar to the Cash Phone Original course. The publishing company owns media outlets located in Alaska and the state of Washington. Some of their efforts involve promoting apparent paid-for articles for scammy products. Such stories are better known as sponsored content.
For example, the following Sound Publishing websites hosted past sponsored content articles promoting fake positive reviews for products similar to Cash Phone Original: BainbridgeReview.com, CovingtonReporter.com, CourierHerald.com, BellevueReporter.com, VashonBeachcomber and two additional stories also hosted on CovingtonReporter.com and VashonBeachcomber.com. The authors of the misleading stories — not people associated with Sound Publishing — hope to fool users into believing the websites host genuine reviews. Also, they all read like someone generated their text with AI. Further, other than the very bottom of the lengthy articles, the only indication of the articles existing as paid-for sponsored content displays as a small “sponsored” label at the top of the stories. Some users will undoubtedly not see that label.
The benefits of scammers turning to a company like Sound Publishing to promote their schemes are threefold. The publishing company’s media outlets provide an overall trustworthy appearance, prominent placement in Google search results and what you could consider the “holy grail” for scammers: trustworthy-looking placement in Google News. Some users looking for genuine reviews about scam products might see Sound Publishing’s sponsored content articles in Google News and assume credible journalists authored those stories. How many consumers fell victims to scams because of these scammy sponsored content articles?
While Cash Phone Original hasn’t yet popped up on Sound Publishing’s websites, I wanted to point out that the publisher previously promoted sponsored content articles containing scams about keto gummies for weight loss, CBD gummies and even a purported “Genius Wave” scheme claiming that listening to specific sounds on a CD or phone can magically unlock a person’s “superbrain,” purportedly leading them to “financial freedom” — in other words, the exact opposite of sound publishing.
Promises of Low-Cost Courses Changing Lives
Marketers have for several years promoted products similar to Cash Phone Original, claiming that downloading a special program or course — whether in the form of a video, PDF or other deliverable — could dramatically change individuals’ lives or increase sales with online businesses. These marketers present their purported solutions in the form of short video ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms. Their short videos lead to landing pages hosting longer videos. The longer videos might then lead to either a digital download or a 1-on-1 meeting. The strategy of marketers offering a meeting usually indicates an incoming pitch to pay a lot of money for “executive coaching” or other products.
While it’s true some of the people offering these products might have an impressive background in online marketing, their promises of “secret methods” or coaching to help random online users achieve “financial freedom” usually smell strongly of scams. Again, let’s not forget the tiny text at the bottom of the Cash Phone Original website, cashphoneoriginal.com, which basically told people they probably would earn little or nothing at all. That information was absent from the flashy video presentation.
On the same subject, the FTC reported in August 2022, “How can you tell if a business offer or coaching program is a scam? If it promises guaranteed income, large returns, or a ‘proven system,’ it’s likely a scam. Even a free or low-cost ‘system’ to get your business started can quickly turn into a money pit — costing you tens of thousands of dollars for mentoring or other services that promise to increase your business’s success but leave you deep in debt instead.”
After all, if an online marketer holds the key to achieving an abundance of wealth, why would they be spending time attempting to share their moneymaking strategies with other people who might later compete in the same space? Wouldn’t they be traveling the world on luxurious vacations? These product pitches usually make no logical sense.
Again, if an online offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Scam Victims: Call Your Credit Card Company
If any readers fell victim to a scam like Cash Phone Original, please immediately call your credit card company. Notify them of the misleading and scammy title of the scam (ex. Cash Phone Original or “7-minute phone trick”).
Readers scammed by any fraudulent schemes can file a complaint with the BBB and follow sound advice from the FTC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Lastly, be vigilant. Don’t fall for scams known as refund and account recovery scams. These scams involve deceptive users claiming they are experts with a special toolset to help victims recover lost money or get access back to a lost online account. Basically, they’ll come in after you’ve already been scammed and will try to scam you a second time. They’re only after your money and have no special technical skills.
My comments are open below. They require approval from me but I will approve your comment shortly. Please submit your story if you know more about Cash Phone Original — the nonsensical “7 minute phone trick.”