|
Written by Vered Funk
|
How to avoid scams First of all I would like to warn the newbies on the internet marketing business that there are many scams all over the internet and one should be cautious in choosing a company or a business opportunity to work with. Please don’t let this fact stop you, but here are some measures you can take and things to pay attention to, just to make sure that you’re on the right path and avoid scams. When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.J If someone tells you that you will become rich in a few hours doing nothing (or almost nothing) and investing nothing (except what they ask you for) that’s probably a scam. People had become filthy rich through internet marketing, but they did work in order to become rich and they also had to invest some time and money as well. Of course, maybe in terms of the money, time and work needed to start an off line business, starting an online business is a joke, but still, it’s not that you will pay for some program, and after 24 hours, independently of what you do, you will find a $1,000,000 (or even a $1,000) check in your mailbox or in your bank account. If you find such program tell me about it, I promise to pay after the first 24 hours. One way to protect yourself from scam is to check, before paying anything if there is any guarantee, and under what terms you can have your money back (the terms will generally appear under the “terms and conditions” section). Because not everyone will give your money back even if they promise, I personally prefer to see if the payment is processed through Clickbank (you can see it when you click the button for paying). It is not that businesses working with Clickbank are necessarily more reliable than the others, and you may find scams also there, but Clickbank is very reputable, and even if the company will not regard your complaints you can approach Clickbank and they will deal with the company for you and give your money back (please also check Clickbank terms for canceling a deal). Take in consideration though, that Clickbank deals mainly with virtual products, which means that many companies cannot work with Clickbank, and that doesn’t mean that they are not reliable or that their products are not good. It also important to make sure that you have the time to try and check the product before the guarantee expires. Note also, that Clickbank protects both buyers and sellers. Don’t abuse the possibility to cancel your purchase; otherwise Clickbank may block you. A good place to check a product or a service or a person which is Internet marketing related is IMReportCard. It is a website especially for internet marketers. They offer you a search engine where you can look for any product, service or a person (in the industry) and get an overview and also gradings and comments by users. If the product you're interested in does not appear in the data base you can submit it for review and have an answer from other users in a few days. I found it to be exteremly useful website. The only limitation in using this website is that you have to subscribe as a member. The good news though, is that subscribing is totally free and you can also make money by participating. You can earn by submitting new products or services, writing comments about products and services that you've used, grading products, grading others' comments, reffering other people (if they share their experience)... practically you will be paid for every piece of information that you share with other members. Of course this is not something you can make real money with, it's just an incentive for people to share their experience. I found it to be a great resource and I don't buy anything before I check it there. Another way to avoid scams, especially when it comes to a company you want to work with, or an expensive product that you want to purchase, I would recommend checking the company with the Better Business Bureau. Click here to avoid scams. When checking with the BBB you should take in consideration that the BBB have information of businesses only in the US, and that the business should be operating for at least a year. Another thing to consider is that when a company operating for many years probably there will be someone who will file a complaint, therefore you should consider if the number of complaints is reasonable in relation to the time that the company is operating, and how the company dealt with them. If you cannot find the company in the BBB website you may conduct a search on some of the major search engines. You should search for the company’s name or URL + the word fraud / scam / cheating / complaint or anything that will help you understand if there are any problems with the company. To avoid more results than what you will ever be able to check out, try to specify as much as possible your search in the advanced search (searching for exact name of company or URL and including also the word fraud / scam etc… make sure that whatever you find actually related to the company you’re checking about, and also that the complaints are reasonable. Some other well known scams, just to make sure that you know of, are stuffing envelopes, assembling different products (that you often have to pay for) to packages (works that ultimately no one will pay for your efforts), and “a job” of sending out e-mails for $15 per email or so. This last scam is that to the email you’re sending for $15 you add a so-called product (that can be of 5 pages or so and hardly worth $1) that you have to promote and sell for $15 (and in this way cheat others). So the real work is not to send the email, but to promote that product, just that no one tells you about it before you pay. They also ask you $15 for the “training”. Since I doubt that you need any training in sending emails, it’s obvious that the real job is not sending emails. Avoid these scams, even if they sound good.
|
|
Last Updated on Monday, 14 December 2009 22:16 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Avoid Scams
