Protect Yourself From Scams - Do a Little Homework!
SCAM - - a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation...
We are all afraid that some business we get into might
turn out to be a scam. But sometimes the personal needs
of individuals outweigh the thought process needed to
recognize that something could be fraudulent. Many people
are looking for ways to make extra money and the Internet
can provide many ways to accomplish that need. But it can
also provide an easy vehicle for individuals to lose
their hard earned dollars.
We recently did some research on a program that we were
interested in and found that the entire operation was
quite questionable. While we couldn't prove that it was
outright fraudulent at this point, we saw enough risks
to say no, we are going to put up any money. We also
advised the 90+ people who joined based on our referral
and most have told us that they are passing it up too.
Sometimes all it takes is to do a little checking on your
own behalf. Sure it takes time but if you invest a little
of that time up front you may save a lot of future
headaches. Sometimes when you do a couple of checks you
may find that a lot of the work has already been done
for you and is posted on sites that are available for your
review.
The following are some sites and suggestions you might
consider in checking that program out that you are
considering. These are by no means all that are out there.
You can go to one of the major search engines and search
on scams and find many more resources.
Victims Against Scams
http://pub31.ezboard.com/fvictimsagainstscamsfrm60
International Council of Online Professionals
http://www.i-cop.org/pledge/1029.htm
In an effort to keep fraudsters from slipping through the
cracks, the US government has created The Sentinel. It's an
online database of all sorts of information regarding Internet
scams and fraud.
http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/
The Better Business Bureau Online
http://www.bbbonline.org/
Internet ScamBusters
http://www.scambusters.org/
The National Fraud Information Center
http://www.fraud.com/
The Federal Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov
Look at a program and ask yourself some of these questions:
Is the product something that I would be
proud to sell
or promote? If the answer is no, then stay away.
Make sure that there is an actual service or product that you
will be selling. If you are just going to get paid for every
new member you recruit, then it may very well be an illegal
pyramid or ponzi scheme.
Is there contact information easily available at the site?
Do they show their email addresses, street address, names of
principals, company name, telephone number? Send them a
question and see if you get an answer or an automatic reply.
If you have a address or telephone number go to
www.yellowpages.com or www.whitepages.com and check them out.
You can use the telephone number and do a "reverse directory
check" which checks the telephone number and gives you an
name and address if one is on file.
Check out the web site's domain name at
http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
Just enter the domain name i.e., whatevername.com
and you can determine who the administrative contact,
normally the owner, where they are located and how
long the site has been registered.
Do they offer you a free promotional site for your
use with your own personal referral code? If you have to
pay your entry or membership fee and then find out you have
to pay another $100 or so to get a promotional site and
email advertising package, and that is the only way they
allow you to promote it, be leery. They are making their
money up front. I don't believe that you should have to
pay a company for basic promotional tools to promote their
company. They can take the expense off as a business expense
if they are for real.
Of course you will still have to make an informed decision
on your own after doing your research. But you may find
enough information from any one of these resources or all
of them to sway you one way or the other. Just make an
informed decision before you spend your hard earned money
and resources.
About the Author
Joe Reinbold, Publisher of Home Income Quarterly
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