Spot an Online Scam
"You could be making $$$ in the next two hours! I'll give you everything you need to start making $1000/day! All you have to do is pay a one-time fee of $34.95, and you'll be on your way to making six figures a year!"
Does this sound familiar? You've almost certainly seen at least one of these if you have ever searched for a way to make money online. There are some simple ways you can determine which websites are scams.
Contents
Steps
- Ask yourself: do they require you to pay money up front? If they are requiring any sort of up front payment to use their services, it is almost always a scam. Many of them will claim that it's for the cost of training, etc. Most of that is just lies. More often than not, the scammer will take your money and run.
- Ask yourself: do they promise that you will become rich overnight? Let's face it. Very, very few of us are ever going to make thousands of dollars each day. However, scammers prey on our hopes and dreams of being rich without moving a finger. They tell us that our dreams can come true, but only if we do what they tell us to do. Our emotions shove aside logic, and we want to believe what they say, even if they are shady characters. Thus, the scammer's greatest weapon is you. Always keep your logic handy.
- Ask yourself: what's in it for them? Are they trying to help us out of the goodness of their own hearts? Are they making a selfless sacrifice of their time to help us become rich beyond your wildest dreams? Not likely. Very few people in the online community are going to volunteer vast amounts of their time and effort just to help someone else succeed. Most of the time, they are doing it for their own benefit. When we ask this question, we have to see through the lies. We need to recognize the reason behind false statements. For example, when they say that we could earn "$1000/day", they actually just want to draw us into their web. Their ultimate goal is for us to give them money in the form of an up front "registration fee."
- Ask yourself: how are they making money? There are only two different ways that websites can make money from you: independently of you or dependent on you. In other words, websites making money independently of you don't need you to succeed for them to succeed. On the other hand, websites making money dependently on you need you to succeed in order for them to succeed. A website dependent on you for their own well-being is much less likely to be a scam, since they cannot survive if you don't make money. They will have more incentive to help you make money, rather than hurt you.
- Another sign of a scam is a buy-now statement like "I can't keep this information online forever, so you have 3 hours to make your choice." Creating a feeling of scarcity helps make the item seem more valuable. Sometimes the website *does* go dark after a day or so ... but that's probably because it was pulled by the web hoster for being an illegal scam.
- In almost every single case, if you order the scam, you will discover that you'll get a how-to for creating your own scam, which can open yourself up to legal issues and your internet account being investigated and terminated.
- Truth is, scammers usually don't get rich on their scams, either. There are a few who do, just like there are a few small businesses that make it big.
Tips
- Download the WOT (Web of Trust) tool to check the reputation of websites before committing any money or information to them.
- Always search for reviews of a certain website or program before you decide to jump in. Especially search "<name of scam> scam" in Google to see negative reviews (and people who use that search term to direct you to another scam!)
Warnings
- There may be some legitimate ways of making money online that require up front payments or promise you lots and lots of money. Just be wary and think things through.
