Internet Scams

“Make thousands of dollars a day online.” “Work from home.” “It’s easy, and you can double your income in days.” These are all things we’ve heard from so called online businesses. They claim to be marketers and sales sites. They claim to be able to substantially increase your income with little effort, and in a short period of time. Sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it is. The world has gone through its scammers, con artist, liars, and unethical business people. The internet is not immune. There are a wide variety of internet scams out there, allow me to go through a few of the more infamous ones, in hope that I can help inform and prevent you from being scammed in the future.

Advance Fee Fraud – When fresh out of college I was very naive, looking for extra cash, and almost fell into this trap. These can usually be found on craigslist. Someone usually asks for an easy service that anyone can do, such as driver. They go through a few emails with you in which you exchange business and contact information. In the last email, they mention how you will receive an advance check for X amount via Western Union. You will then be required to take a percentage of this amount and transfer it to an undisclosed account. This is called money laundering. Many people have fallen into this trap, and have been convicted for money laundering. Good thing that I didn’t go through with it. Also, beware of the Nigerian Scam that is very similar to this.

Online Auction Fraud – A good way to avoid these is to make sure that the auction site uses a credible ecommerce solution, such as PayPal or Google Checkout. If they seem credible then these can be great, but if not, you may lose your money on both ends. You can potentially ship your item and never get the funds you were to receive, or vice versa.

Online Business Opportunities – These are not hard to sniff out. They usually tell you all the benefits first, all the money that you can make, without really getting into the details of what is required of you besides a payment. They also don’t go into the details of how the profits are generated. Always remember if you are going to go into an online business / franchise with someone, have a lawyer review everything beforehand. Its better paying a lawyer’s fee then potentially losing vast amounts of money due to lack of preparation and stupidity. Also, according to the FTC, you must receive a detailed disclosure document 10 day prior to any transaction that has to do with purchasing a company or franchise.

Charity Scams – Simply make sure that the charity you are going to donate to is legitimate. There are ways to check for this. Sites such as Charity Navigator and Charity Watch can check the credibility of charities.

Gifting Clubs – These sites seem too good to be true, but if they have a great design and layout, you could be fooled. They offer you prizes, and rewards for the more people and donations that you get to the site. These rewards never come and you end up getting scammed.

My motto for internet scams is that if it seems too good to be true, then it is. Making money and earning rewards is not something that can happen overnight. It takes hard work and determination. If you do end up finding something that pays out fast and high, I guarantee that it is something that is not going to be a consistent form of revenue for a very long time. My advice would be to steer clear of any of these sites, inform yourself, and find something that you can excel at. It won’t be easy, but we should never be afraid of a little hard work. No one ever got anywhere looking for the easy way out; why should you?