How to Avoid Online Mentor Scams

I have had two run-ins with online scam artists

I have been working online for almost one year. I have experienced a degree of success and financial freedom with reputable online affiliate sales programs, mostly with the eBay Partner Network (EPN) and some AdSense. I have done this through a mix of my own websites and right here on hubpages.com. During the past eight months I've encountered guys who presented themselves as "online mentors". I met one guy when I just started marketing online and another one more recently. Through the experiences with both of these guys I have learned a lot about making money online and how to be a successful online marketer. Read on...

Scams promise to make you millions and deliver nothing

First of all - without looking at the dictionary - what is my definition of a scam? I would consider an online scam to be some sort of product or service that promises to make you get rich quickly, make unlimited money or somehow significantly boost your online earnings with little effort on your behalf. The scam element is that the product does not work or is either impossible or extremely difficult to return tangible financial results. Online scams can come in the form or MLM (multi-level marketing) pyramid programs (schemes), ebooks or software that promises to make you millions "instantly" or "on-autopilot". Note, MLM is refered to by industry insiders as "Network Marketing".

Online mentor scam artists use silly online nicknames

There are some obvious red flags which should make you realize instantly that an online marketer is simply peddling scams. First if somebody calls themselves crazy names such as "get rich", "instant riches", "millionaire", "make millions", "instant success" in either their YouTube channel, Twitter, or Facebook names turn your back in RUN! There's one guy I came across on YouTube who called himself something like "Joe Millionaire" and "Really Rich" on Twitter. Somewhere in their description these guys claim to be "online millionaires" - yeah right! Nine times out of ten guys calling themselves such silly names like this indicates strongly that they're pushing some sort of online scam - RUN!

Avoid websites with mansions and fancy cars - they're probably scams

When you land on somebody's website from their YouTube channel or Twitter account and see mansions, fast sports cars, swimming pools and yachts chances are they're peddling a scam. Most often these scams are MLM-related where they want you to buy into a scheme ranging anywhere from $97 to $997 or in the thousands. You're promised unlimited "residual" earnings for bringing people into the program. Your new online scam artist "mentor" friend will promiss he or she will teach you exactly how to do this - yeah right! Monitor his YouTube channel for 3 months. I'd be surprised if he updates it ever week. If you can name one person you know who's making a halfway decent living peddling one of these MLM schemes and you've confirmed they're not lying about it please let me know in the comments section. I'd be very, very surprised!

Avoid people who stick their phone number on their YouTube and Twitter accounts

If you see somebody has put all of their contact information in their YouTube or Twitter accounts chances are they're trying to lure you into an online scam. They want you to call them so they can start making their sales pitch. In MLM network marketing industry speak they want to "get you into their information funnel." The moment you see somebody's contact info come up on their account a red "scam alert" light should start flashing in your mind. If somebody posts all their contact info up there - RUN!

Beware of smooth talkers - they turn NASTY!

If you do find yourself calling one of these online marketers listen to the tone of their voice. Usually he or she will have a very friendly, smooth, and soothing tone. This is meant to make you feel good and comfortable with them so that you buy their product or service. All they are doing is trying to "build trust" so they can get their hands on your hard-earned cash. But, the minute they perceive that they've "lost you as a lead" in their "program" you'll notice that their previously kind and soothing voice has suddenly turned nasty and mean. This is HUGE tip-off for you that they were peddling a scam! RUN!

Learn to recognize typical online mentors' "boiler room" sales lines and selling pressure tactics

These online scam artists have a whole arsenal of lines they'll use to pressure you to get your into their programs. Here are the two lines that were used on me. Maybe you have heard some other clever and funny lines. If so I'd love to hear them in the comments section. 1) "If you're serious about making $200-500 a day then XYZ.com is the program for you!", 2) "You have 24 hours to make the most important decision of your life." In both instances these online scam artists are playing with your emotions. They're trying to push you into a corner and pin you down so that you feel insecure and they make a sale. When you hear any sort of line the "scam alert sirens" should start sounding in your head. RUN!

Mentioning of fall-outs with other online marketers

If an online marketer is on the phone or chat with you and starts bad-mouthing another online marketer or another online product or program chances are that he or she is selling scams. Basically, they're revealing to you that they have a PATTERN - they move on from one program (aka scam) to the next and one victim (aka lead or target!) to the next. After a while they start to get frustrated and start bad-mouthing previous programs and people they've failed to do business with. If you hear anything like this is an immediate RED FLAG that they are trying to lure you into an online scam. RUN!

Online scam mentors say you'll fail without them

Often online scam artists will use certain lines with you in which you actually end up believing that you will not be successful without their help and mentoring. These are nothing but psychological games and we all know they're full of cow dung! I strongly suggest that you remind yourself that all of success and profitable Internet marketing campaigns that you've already done. Think of all the stuff you've learned on your own before you met this "mentor". Then ask yourself, "Do I really NEED this person in my life?" If you're thinking rationally and logically the answer will be NO. This brings me to my last point - Always remember that you can be your own self-made success without an online mentor!

Have faith that you'll be an online financial success!

In closing, as a successful online marketer you need to have confidence in your own ability to market products and services online. You have what it takes to read and learn from video tutorials every day! You have to know deep down inside that some guy who pretends to be your "mentor" or "friend" isn't going to help you make once cent online. Ultimately, whether you win or lose in the online marketing game is up to you. If you have unconditional faith, trust and love in yourself there's an extremely high chance that you'll be very successful online!

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them in the comments section.

Cheers, Dawei888 :-)