This hub will teach you:

• How to identify a scam site
• SEO - The Internet users' Biggest Enemy
  
• How not to fall for an affiliate marketing site
• How to exploit the free content provided by the scam sites
• How NOT to lose your Credit Card Number
• How to Stay Safe while browsing
  

Welcome to the world of the internet !

While the internet has been here for a while,little do people know that there are a lot of FREE content available on the internet and there is absolutely no necessity to pay for anything at all.

While there are genuine,legit sites and online stores like Amazon,E-bay,etc....we should admit the fact that there are also lots of Fake sites which get people's credit card numbers and Secretly suck their cash like a dirty leech.This hub will take you through the entire world of internet and its Pitholes,from which you should stay away.

Scam Sites

Now,what are Scam sites?

They are sites that either promise to deliver content/links in exchange for your credit card number/cash and ultimately steal/misuse it.

Examples may include sites like baydownloads.org, downloadnova.com, downloadprofessional.com and the list is endless!

There are also sites that promise you for something,which usually comes at a very,very small fee initially and then compensate for that little fee by charging you monthly with 100$ or so...

How they work:

Usually,these sites promise you that they have something that you're looking for and something that most of the other legit sites on the internet will charge you a huge amount.It could be a book,a software a download link or anything for that matter...

They promise to deliver what you're looking for,for just a small fee,usually - It usually ranges from 5$ to 50$

They require you to register with some adult sites which require your credit card information,and promise to deliver what you want after the registration process.

Once you've successfully registered,you'll find that the site actually has nothing at all - That also includes what you were looking for too!

The most disappointing fact is that,if you've registered with such a site,you'll notice that your credit card would be charged a minimum of 50$ every month By unknown organisations.

How to avoid Such Scams?

First of all,you must try to understand that:

Most of these sites are SEO-ed == Search Engine Optimized

For those who don't know what SEO is all about,here - SEO is a technique used for getting your Site ranked well in the Top Search engines such as Google,Yahoo and MSN.

This technique is misused/overused and/or automated by the scam sites which "Steal" the keywords you use to Search in Google,Yahoo / MSN and tweak them to Display them as Products/Results from their Site.To understand this,you can go to downloadprofessional.com (Use caution,DONT try to register or Provide any Personal Information) and search using any random keyword like "apwdneqwe" or something....You should be shocked to see download links even for those non-existent Products!

How to Identify Such Sites:

• The Search Results of these Sites usually have a "Download Speed" tag next to them..with nothing less than 300-700kbps
• The Download links would be labelled as something like "[Trusted Download]" or "[High speed Download]"
• When you click a download link on such sites,a "download processing" notification would be shown,with some cool animations and ultimately you'd be notified that you need to Register with them first to be able to download that file
  

The next in the category of scams are the Affiliate markting scams.These are usually based on a boring pattern which can be easily identified.I'll tell you how to avoid them,just read on...

How they work:

Under the affiliate marketing System itself,you have a variety of types - let me explain the most common ones:

Type 1:

Lets say there are people,named for the sake of our convenience as A,B,C...Z

"A" has got some marketing skills and a worthless product in hand,he wants to make a profit out of it and so,he goes on marketing his worthless product telling that it could do this,it could do that....and so on...

Now,"B" is impressed with the worthless product and purchases it,just to find that it was a scam.In this process,"A" recieves 100% of the product's price.Now,"A" explains some stuff to "B" on how to get back his money,so,"B",being desperate to get his money,markets the same worthless product again,just as "A" did and finally manages to Sell it to "C".In this process,the system is designed such that,"A" will recieve a percentage of "B"'s cash...lets say about 10% and "B" gets 90% of his cash."B" Explains the system to "C",and now "C" will be desperate to get back his cash...and he'll carry on the process..In this process,you may note that by the time the prouct reaches "Z","A" would have become the richest,"B" being the second richest and So on....This is one of the lamest types of affiliate marketing System and it is inter-depndent on the marketers(A failure).

Type 2: - The most Common and the most important one(You should try to stay away from these ones)

In this type,each affiliate marketer has a website of his/her own,where they campaign about their worthless product,giving false claims that the product will help you earn 200$ a day and so on.Most of these sites even attach an Earnings Screenshot as proof,which ,again most of the times is fake,edited.These are one of the most dangerous sites.These sites are quite convincing and they usually are designed in such a way that,anyone who visits it,will somehow make a purchase of that "worthless" product before they leave.How,you ask?Simple...Read this:

How to Identify an Affiliate Site:

• They have convincing Testimonials claimed to be written by people who have purchased that product(Most of those testimonials are fake).Some even give Audio clippings of people whom they claim to have purchased their product.

• They provide screenshots of "their" earnings(which they claim it really is) which'll show you nothing less than 100-500$ (depends on the site) every month.

• They have strategically placed "Buy Now" Green or Blue coloured buttons,designed to tempt users to click them

• Rest of all,they'll tell you that they'll provide that product for a dead cheap price.Again,here there are 2 types:Ones that claim to give you the product for just a dollar or two,and the other ones that claim to give it to you for exactly 37$ or so.Usually,these sites also mention that the regular price of the product is 100-200$ and they're giving it to you as an offer.Some even give you "Last minute Offers"

• The most important and Easiest way to identify an affiliate site - They usually promise you for something initially,for example,they'll tell you that you can earn from home without spending anything or something and they'll ask you to enter just your name and e-mail.If you learn to identify the color schemes and these patterns,you can easily stay away from such sites.

• Usual Color scheme is the white background with Blue text and Red text used interchangeably.Some even have videos for "Proof"

• Another Easy and important way to identify an affiliate marketing site - Post registration,if you recieve(you definitely will) e-mails from the affiliate sites,check the links provided on the E-mail's body.If it happens to contain the address aweber(dot)com,it is for sure an affiliate marketing site and you better not fall for it!But,not all affiliate marketing sites use aweber.com's service,so it is not the onlyy factor to consider

• Here's another method using which you can make out if its an affiliate site or not-Scroll down to the bottom of the page,and see if you have any link labelled as "Earnings Disclaimer".If you spot it,90% its an affiliate marketing site.Click on the link and read the disclaimer..you'll notice that while the main content of the affiliate site guarantees you that you can earn hundreds and thousands of dollars every month,the "Earnings Disclaimer" will tell you that they don't guarantee of any such things and they represent only the potential to earn that much,which indicates that these guys are clearly scammers.Yeah,right,even a cobbler has the potential to earn hundereds of dollars every month,if we were to argue...

Incase you've registered and purchased that "product",you'll find that you will be charged only the 1$ or 37$ they promised you,initially,but,every month you'll be billed anywhere from 50-97$.You can't blame them,since they've mentioned that they would do so.Where,you ask?The affiliate marketers have a very good strategy of Highlighting the benfits of their product/Testimonials in huge fonts with Red or Blue,but things like drawing 97$ a month from your account will be written in the smallest possible font,usually on the bottom-most part of the page...

My Personal Advice:Please,Stay away from Affiliate sites

Why do many,many people fall for such sites?

Its because,most of these sites use paypal as a means of getting your Credit card number.This is mis-understood by most of them who believe that paypal is a kind of security seal and the site is maintained by paypal.Please note,paypal is only a means for managing the Cashflow.

Though most of these sites are scam,you still can exploit the content provided by them for free.Here's how to get them for free:

First,register a seperate E-mail id for this purpose.DO NOT use your existing E-mail Id for these purposes.These sites send 2-3 mails per day and if you're the kind of person who happens to check your mails once in two days,it could get really frustrating.Once you've registered for an E-mail Id,use it to register with these Affiliate marketing sites.Register with as many sites as you like.Now,here are some free stuff to be exploited

• Most of the Sites provide you with a free video or Recorded workshops for just Registering with them with just your name and E-mail.Download and save those Videos if you feel they could be of some use to you

• Most of them provide introductory E-books on How to's etc for just registering with them with you E-mail.

• Some Provide free website templates too,download them while they're free

• Some websites provide Softwares for free and for evaluation,usually,these are mostly useful in getting your site ranked high..and so on...Download them if you feel they could help

Remember,the internet has good people as well as bad people.Most of the times,it will be difficult to distinguish between the two.So,the best thing to do is,stop trying to differentiate between the two and always assume that the internet is full of bad people.This way,you won't need to give anyone your personal information,including your credit card number.From what you've read above,I think by now,you would have realised how desperate people are to scam you off and get their hands on your money.So watch your back and try to exploit the free content provided on the internet as much as possible.Remember,It is not always necessary to purchase from the internet to get information on something that you need.Information that costs you a fortune in one site might be provided for free in some other.

Despite your efforts,there may still be attempts by hackers and other exploiters who may try to invade your PC and steal your personal information.For a safer browsing experience, here are some precautions:

• Though Internet Explorer is the most widely used browser,and though Microsoft releases regular patches and fixes,it still is'nt the safest browser on the planet.Hence,for security purposes,you may use other faster and reliable ones like Opera,Safari...etc

• Installing a good Anti-Virus alone does'nt ensure protection.Make sure you/your installed anti-virus has a good firewall.If you want better ones,you can get Sunbelt's Free personal firewall from here or you may try Zone alarm's new firewall from here .Both are pretty good.

• Make sure you install Mc-Afee's Site Advisor for your browser,so that you'll be warned when there's a suspecious/scam link/Site on your Google Search page.For newbies,here it is-Site advisor is a service from the Mc-Afee Antivirus makers which give you the details about a particular site.It gives you detials like if the site is safe or not,or does it contain any malware...etc..You may also try a combined installation of Mc-Afee's Site Advisor and AVG's Link scanner.Both are also available for free.However,do note that these softwares won't tell you if a site is an Affilite Marketing based site or not.

• Never provide your E-mail Id's to unknown persons or Don't post them in forums,comments,etc....that will never help you get what you want,instead,it will only expose it to the mutated hackers and exploiters.

• For more Information improving your PC's Security,you can read this hub by me,when you're free..

       Protect-your-PC-with-Premium-Security-Features-For-FREE

Have a Safe and Happy Browsing!!

This hub took nearly about five days to complete,with an average of 1.5 Hours spent on it,per day.

Hope this hub was of some use to you :)

If you liked this hub,please feel free to comment!

Thank You