Beware Of Scams And Scamps

On the internet there is a plethora of scams and scammers just waiting to get a hold of your money or even your identity. Most people, surprisingly, do not really know what a scam is. You may say “How can I say that. Everyone knows what a scam is.” I beg to differ. I read where many people vehemently state that such and such a program is not a scam because they got money from it and that with a scam site they would not earn money at all. Now that kind of reasoning is what helps scammers to prosper. If you owe someone $50 US and you only give them $25 US, is that not a scam? Even if they give you $49 US and keep back $1US that is still a scam though you may be profiting from it. Many people also say that such and such a program is free so it cannot be a scam as it does not involve money. The thing is not only cash can be robbed. Your identity and passwords can be robbed and the next step will be to take your money. Now that that is out of the way, let us look at how to avoid scams.

(1) Google it!

When a program comes along offering a certain amount of money for a certain type of work online or at home Google it! Now, do not just type in the name of the program but type in quotation marks “Name of Program”+scam” and that will usually bring up the possible negative articles on the program first. Websites that are definitely scam websites usually have mainly negative comments, so many that you know that these are not just the comments of those without goodwill or those who have were just not successful in the program through their own fault. Bear in mind though that companies often have articles written that have a title that says that their site is a scam and in the article they state that it is not a scam! That is so that you would be directed to their “truth’ that their site is not a scam rather than hear the real truth when you Google the word scam concerning their program – talk about slick!

(2) Google part of the article’s sales’ pitch

There is a particular work at home scam saying that a particular person from a particular place got a certain amount of money by following their program. I googled that part of the article and realized that the place that lady was from kept changing from site to site. The name changed at times too. This is often a good indication of a bad site. Of course it may also be a false positive as the site may have given everyone the same template to work with as their sales’ pitch or probably they copied an idea from another site. However, when you see the same name with different locations all the time that is certainly a red flag.

(3) Ripoff Report

One of the best sites that will give you a good indication of whether a site is a scam or not is the “Ripoff Report” website. Instead of typing “scam’ in the above example type “Ripoff report” after the name of the program.

(4) Get information on the owner of the site

There are many sites and even Firefox add-ons that give you “Who is” type information, telling you when the site came into being, who owns the site and their contact details. This will give you even more information to research since you will then be able to Google to see their past track record.

Well, now you have more tools with which to know for yourself what is a scam and what is not. Beware of the scams but at the same time do not rule out a good venture just because of one or two complaints or because it sounds too good to be true. Not everything that is too good to be true is a scam though they usually are. Weigh the comments that you have read and pray before you decide to get involved.