Is This Business A Scam?

"A fool and his money...You've heard it before. In a world wide web of opportunity here's how to protect yourself from online business scams..."

Jun 17 2007

Online Business Scams vs. Real Opportunity

I'm sick of it. Online business scams are at an all time high.

Worse yet, the 'scam-bags' promoting these opportunities are raking in the money from people who truly can't afford to throw money away. And the scoundrels are laughing all the way to the bank.

You'll likely never read an article this personal from me on a web page (I keep my personal rants and upsets on my marketing news blog, but since this area of my site gets so much traffic and since this message is vital to anyone seeking opportunities online I had to write it here for you.

Friends, family members, and strangers who email and phone me - from Canada and the United States, a few from the Philippines and even more from Germany and other parts of Europe - have been sucked in and over-extended their available credit by a multitude of opportunists and 'proven' online business training (i.e. scams).

As a person who has been working online since 1995, working first for others and now solely for myself, I've seen them all. And I'm about to blow the lid off most of them here in an effort to save you from financial ruin.

• Every day there is a new 'get rich quick' scam popping up on the Internet.
• Every day there is a new 'sign up with us and we'll help you grow your business'.
• Every day there is a training product launched promising, 'even my 6 year old can do this - it's that simple...' 

And all any of this is doing is distracting you from learning how to build a real business online while it sucks money out of your savings account or mad money.

The only ones who make money on these online business scams are the scammers!

They sign you up, take your money, and are off to their Bahamas playground long before you realize you've been had, long before you realize it's not simple enough for a 6 year old, long before you realize that thousands of other people just like you were taken for a ride.

To be clear here, I have written about products and systems and tools on other pages and said things like "it's dead easy" or "my 9 year old daughter has done it" - and that's the truth in every sense - but only about that particular system or aspect of online business. It's never been about an entire business model or a path to 'untold riches'.

What To Do If You've Fallen Into An Online Business Scam

It's important that you don't beat yourself up for falling into the online scam trap. These opportunists are very slick and prey upon people's momentary weaknesses and your desire to believe in the internet lifestyle dream.

The internet lifestyle is real - I know, I'm living it - it's just not in the same light they portray it, nor is it by buying into their system, tools and 'network'.

Hopefully you paid by credit card and no more than 30 days have passed. If so, phone your credit card company right away - explain that the online business opportunity product you purchased was not as promised and they will remove the charge from your account (if any extra steps are involved they will walk you through the remainder of the process to retrieve your money from the scam business).

An Antidote to Opportunity Scams

The best way to fight back (after getting your money back) and to really take charge of your online business future is to educate yourself.

• Educate yourself about what it really takes to own, run and succeed at an online business.
• Educate yourself about what opportunities to run screaming from.
• Educate yourself enough to spot them a mile away and avoid them.

Here are some of the ways I investigate potential opportunity scams before I even read their sales pitch:

• Research them on google - type their business name or personal name into the search box and see what comes up - spend 5 minutes following and reviewing every link you can. Now try it with quotes around their name followed by the words review, then scam, then money - and spend 5 minutes following and reading those results. These 10 minutes could save you thousands of dollars and hours of following some scammer's business advice.
• Email them - See if they reply to your request for more information personally. To be fair here many legitimate internet marketers get thousands of emails every day and often we miss some of our personal mail as we sift through thousands of spam, joint venture requests, review requests, etc. For this reason you might want to try emailing again in a few days and by all means ensure you use a brilliant subject line to your email (I can't tell you how many people email me with generic subject lines that I might have missed like "Is this for real" or "Please respond". Subject lines like that are seen too often in our spam folders without our even knowing. The ones that work? "Laura, it's Bob from Chicago and I was..."
• Phone them - Every real business has a real phone number with someone on the other end to answer your call. You'll find mine on my contact page and the legitimate reasons why I'm not always available to take your call - I am, after all, not trying to take thousands of dollars from you for an online opportunity and as such do not promise to answer all questions free of charge. If I was, you can bet I'd spend more time at my phone or have an assistant to do so.   

Red Flags On Online Scams

There are a few tell-tale signs that an opportunity might be a scam.

Here are a few I consistently run from:

1. You pay, they give you a website to promote, on their server. Your 'website' looks something like this: www.scams.com/~yournamehere - which, I'm sorry, is not 'your' website by any means. It is a cookie cutter, cookie-setting version of their primary pages and chances are you are paying them to find more suckers for their scam opportunity. Not to mention the fact that hundreds, thousands maybe even tens of thousands of people are also promoting the same opportunity scam. Not a fun way to compete for an income online.
2. You pay to sell their products either by purchasing an expensive 'starter' kit or pay to be an elite product reseller of a consumable. If any online business says you can sell their product and they will pay you a commission from each sale, chances are it's a scam. Reputable and profitable commission-based opportunities are free to sign up for.

The Best Ways to Stay Safe from Online Business Scams

Use your business sense. Use your common sense. Trust your instincts.

If you've never had a home business or had any business training then I do understand you are at a disadvantage.

You're also at a disadvantage - like thousands of us - in that finding these online scams you're often alone. Sitting at your computer alone, reading that sales pitch alone, making that decision alone. I know this - I was a single mom living in a new community down a dirt road (it's really true!) when I started working online. There was no one to turn to for business advice.

That opportunity you just read about, the one that might be a scam, will be there tomorrow. In the meantime, perform your online scam research (as above), email me for advice, ask your spouse, parent or trusted business-minded friend, and sleep on it.

My hope is that this saves you from losing money with online business scams. If it saves just a few people, I will have done my job.