I’m sure you already know this, but for those of you who think that the world is all rainbows and sunshine – you’re wrong. We live in an age of hopes and promises, where people dream about making billions of dollars, having many girls and affording the luxuries of life. Thankfully, we have the Internet that gives us an opportunity to get closer to our dreams.
But where there is hope, there is always deceit. There are people out there who make money by scamming people, websites, businesses; in one word – everyone. In this article we will discuss some of the scams that are happening right now and how to avoid them:
1. Fake Escrow Services
When buying or selling something online (e.g., a website, an eBay product), scammers might try to convince you to use fraudulent escrow services. I’m not sure how people fall for that, but it happens. Once you send the money you’ll never heard from the person or from the service again.
The only way to prevent you losing money – use escrow services that actually have a good reputation (like
Escrow.com). If the other party is still nagging you about using their services, just tell them “no” and report them (unless, of course, this service is legit).
2. Domain Names with Fake PageRank
People try to sell you domains with false Google PageRank. This is a well-known scam that makes people lose money, but if you haven’t purchased many domain names in the past you might not have heard about it. What happens is, people have a domain A with high PageRank and redirect it to a domain B with PR 0. As they do that Google will match the PageRanks, so that when someone checks the PR of B it will show the same number as the PR of A. After that the scammer will sell the domain B claiming it has a high PR, when in reality it doesn’t.
How to avoid this scam: Well, if you search for domain B in the Google search, you should see this domain on the first position; if it’s not the case – you are dealing with a redirect.
3. Overhyped Products
People sell you overhyped products. If you are a newbie internet marketer you tend to buy everything that promises you mountains of gold. The sad truth is – most products are an overhyped, rehashed scam. Here is how you check whether a product is solid or not:
a) Never ever type in Google “Product name + scam” or “Product name + review.” Internet marketers are optimizing their websites for exactly these keywords. They twist this search phrase into “Product name is maybe a scam!! Do not buy it until you’ve read my review;” and when you start reading their review, you will see affiliate links all over the place.
b) A good strategy is to search for “Author’s name + review,” “Author’s name + scam.” You will find much better and relevant results.
c) But the best strategy is to seek out forums that are in the same niche as the product and ask people whether it is a scam or not. Chances are that it has already been reviewed.
4. Inflated Prices
4. People will try to sell you stuff for inflated prices. I’ve actually seen people try to sell PR3 domains for $70 (they had only a few backlinks and weren’t really catchy). Here is how to avoid buying overhyped products:
As in the previous example, it would be a good idea to ask folks on forums (
Warrior Forum is the best place for such questions).
5. Stuff That Breaks Rules or The Law
If a person tries to involve you into breaking any kind of rule or law – run as fast as you can! Here is a good example of that:
Not a while back, Flippa had (and maybe still have) a huge loophole: you could actually create several accounts and bid on your own actions, therefore encouraging other people to participate. Well, I know someone (no names) who asked his friend to bid on his auctions, and they earned a lot of money. But one day Flippa caught on their scam and banned them. Now they both regret losing a very precious income stream.
6. Scam Info Products
If you are on a sales page and read or hear the following things:
- I have a secret that guru’s don’t want you to know…
- Money machine stolen from big gurus…
- Push button money system…
- Bullet proof system that is guaranteed to work…
Run away from this website faster than the roadrunner from the coyote.
7. Pay for Traffic Services
Stay away from offers that promise to bring you 1000, 2000 and 10000 visitors in a short amount of time. People are actually naïve enough to believe that, because it’s easier to pay $5-$20 than to use their brains. I mean, it’s obvious how this system works:
a) Traffic exchanging programs. This just a BS network where some random people have to look at your website to get some credits. As you may imagine, these visitors convert worse than the ones from Stumbleupon (which speaks volume)
b) They use software like Scrapeboard with installed proxies. This software is usually used to spam blogs for backlinks, but it can also be used to increase the traffic number.
8. Fake Testimonials and Screenshots
Never believe testimonials and Clickbank screenshots. It’s easy to buy these testimonials on Fiverr for $5. Even video testimonials are easily available these days!
But what’s most scary is that you can create your own Clickbank screenshots. Here is a video of how a dude did it in Photoshop:
There are a lot of ways how people can scam you out of your money. The methods described here are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s only up to you to stay smart and vigilante. If you are unsure whether you are being scammed, visit this website:
http://scam.com/
This forum has a lot of information and helpful members that can answer your questions. My only advice would be: use your common sense and do not trust anyone, unless you’ve verified their credentials.
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