Internet Business Scams

How would I identify internet business scams?

Any website that promises big and easy money is probably an internet business scam. Creating a lasting business is not easy. It takes hard work. If it was so easy to make $5,000 per month, everybody would do it and everyone would live happily ever after. Get real. Obviously, that makes no sense.

If the process is mostly automatic and requires little interaction from you, then its a scam. This relates back to them making it seem really easy. Anybody that tells you that they can plug in a formula and pop out a site that makes you big money is lying to you.

Anytime there's claim that you can get a business up, running, and making significant money in less than a month, its an internet business scam. Of all the internet business success stories I've read about, no one was successful in less than a year. And for many people it took as long as 5 years. Is it possible to do it in less time? Of course, but its very unlikely that you can build a lasting business in a short period of time. Maybe if you got lucky, worked really hard, and picked a good business concept, you could be making quit-your-day-job money in 6 months. There are just too many pieces to put together and too many roadblocks standing in your way.

What are some common themes found on the internet business scams?

• The website is one, long sales page. This is standard. Most of the sites that are one long sales page are scams.
• You buy and then are left high and dry with very little.
• A money back guarantee. Yes, even a product with a money back guarantee can be a scam. Often, they put barriers between you and your money back request. For example, you may have to perform a seperate, time consuming action or they make their refund system very hard to access.
• Testimonials from seemingly real people. This can easily be faked.
• You can't really say what their product or system really does. After reading their website, you're still confused about how you will go about making your millions. If you have to pay to find out, don't.
• They claim you will be making big money very quickly. If they have testimonials that say something like, "I made $2,345 my first week!" then its a scam.

What are some internet business scam examples?

• As of late, there seems to be a proliferation of $3 "make money with Google" ads. Usually they claim you can make $5-6k per month with 3-4 hours of work a day from home. "Its just $3!" you must be saying. Actually, its not. If you read the fine print, you will see that they charge your credit card about $60 per month and its very difficult to cancel. Again, promising quick profits easily should shoot up huge red flags no matter how little downside their appears to be.
• I've seen ads and looked into automated trading software. Basically, you leave the software up all day, everyday and its supposed to make money for you by automatically finding the best trades out there. Why would they share this with you? In all likelihood, even with a money back guarantee, the owners of the software could clean out your investment account by telling their software to make terrible trades (terrible for you, good for them) with their own software. Once again, it violates the too easy rule.
• I've seen ads for websites already setup and ready to run. All you have to do is buy and watch the cash come in! If its such a good deal, why are they selling it to you? Assuming the site is ready and setup to make money, you are likely getting the bad end of the bargain.
• Craigslist is a great tool for buying and selling used items. I've bought and sold several things on there. My wife and I got a great deal on a dining room set that we really like. The drawback is that Craigslist is crawling with scammers of all different kinds. Craigslist has notices about what you can be scammed about. Basically, if they won't meet you face to face, don't deal with them. How is this related to internet businesses? You can get scammed into working for the scammers to give them more credibility. Check this out (new window). A guy's "friend" is unwittingly working for a Nigerian scammer to make it easier for the Nigerian to mask his location from the targets of his scams.

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