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Top 5 Ways to Spot an Internet Scam

Have you ever bough a product online with a promise to teach you how to make money online from thin air? I know I have. For more than a decade the sharks, charlatans, and shills have converged on the web waiting to grab your cash. Did the product you bought live up to its promises? I guess not or you wouldn’t still be looking for ways to spot a scam. But now you can fight back.

I’m not the type of person to point fingers or cast judgment, but if you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, particularly if your looking to learn how to make money online, you’ll have seen some of the these crook’s websites.

My favorite example comes from one of the most well know and prominent internet marketers out there. A couple of years back he released what the sale letter described as the answer to anyone’s prayers. He was selling (name changed to protect the innocent – if any exist) an online business in a box.

It all sounded so great. No prerequisite marketing knowledge, no website, no list, and no product required. And get this. It was all free!

Anyone could be forgiven for thinking “I’d be mad not to take up this offer”. But that’s exactly what the sales letter was designed to make you think. Like the saying goes though, “if it sounds too goo to be true, then it probably is”.

And it was!

Would you like to know what you got with your business in a box. Are you eady for it … ?

NOTHING!

Seriously. You got absolutely nothing. The box was completely empty. This marketer was simply building his email marketinglist. He offered to provide you with, and show you how to start your own internet business from nothing. So I guess it’s fitting that you’d get nothing either.

Well Okay that’s not completely accurate. You did get an affiliate link of your own with some banners to advertise the business in a box. The idea was that all you needed to do was promote this scam and you’d get paid if they ever bought any of his other products.

So it was a twist on the relatively common affiliate marketing model but, it did nothing to teach anyone how to make any amount of money or start any kind of internet marketing business. Although there was a lesson in scamming in there so perhaps that’s something.

Oh I almost forgot. You also got the honor of recieving some of the most spammy marketing emails in existence.

But what about all those other promises? Simply put, it was all hype, false promises, and without any intent to support the customers. In this case the only consolation was that it didn’t cost anything more than a little bit of time. But there are still thousands of other products that do cost good money, and deliver about as much value as this empty box.

Fight the Scammers at Their Own Game

The best way to fight those con-men, is to take away what they love most. Take away their profits and they have nothing.

But how do I take profits away from these internet con men?

Simple! Learn how to spot a scam. It’s actually not that difficult. Once you’ve learned how to spot an internet scammer, your B.S. detector will be running on overdrive and you’ll never buy another dodgy, overpriced, false promise, get rich quick scam ever again!.

In almost all cases, if you spot any of these things, take my advice, and run like the wind!

1. Guaranteed!

Why does this one go first? Because it should be just so obvious. No doubt you’ve seen this on a sales page. But the truth is that in life, nothing is guaranteed except death and taxes. Well there is one other thing. We’ll be always guaranteed to have scammers.

2. No Website Required

OK so maybe it’s somewhat true that without your own website you can make money online. The catch with this one though is that no one tells you just how much money, work, and effort will be required to get your new business off the ground without a website.

3. No List Required

Hold on one second. Don’t ALL the guru’s tell you that “the money is in the list“? HELLO!

4. I’ll Hold Your Hand

OK common sense should have already told you that this is clearly s scam. What this actually means is “I’ll show you all the steps that I think you’ll need to know about, but I won’t be there to help you if things don’t work out as planned”.

5. FREE Access

While it’s a great sales and marketing model, the fact is that when it comes to online products, nothing is free (except in a few rare cases). The free offer certainly helps to boost sales, and often comes with some type of trial period. If it’s a genuinely good offer then this is a great way to attract more sales.

More often though, free trials are simply the entry point to the sales funnel where, once inside the funnel, you’ll usually be forced to buy something else in order to get the free access you were promised. Or as one prominent tried and got a lot of flack for was offering a product for free and in fine print telling you that you just signed up for a monthly subscription that will be billed to your credit card.

Keeping an eye out for these tell tale signs will save your sanity, and your wallet.

Have you ever bought a product that didn’t make the grade? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

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Tags: Affiliate Marketing, charlatans, con men, false promises, home based business, internet business, internet fraud, internet marketers, internet scam, make money blogging, making money online, marketer, online scam, scammers, shills