Tips, Tricks, and Resources on How to Avoid Scams
It takes careful planning to build your home based business.
Avoiding costly mistakes beforehand will prevent you from losing
valuable time and money invested. In this day and age, business
scams are lurking everywhere. So how do we keep ourselves from
falling prey to becoming victims?
1) Research- It sounds so simple, doesn't it? You would be
surprised how many people just jump into a business without
researching a company's background. The Better Business Bureau
offers background information and reliability reports on many
companies. Not all companies may be listed unless the company is
a member of the BBB or an individual has filed a complaint. It
never hurts to try, and it only takes a few minutes.
http://search.bbb.org/search.html If a company is listed, then
you will get a general idea of how long the company has been in
business and whether or not there have been complaints, reports,
or resolutions to any complaints filed. The BBB also has a
section on current scams at http://www.bbb.org/alerts/Scam.asp.
These are not just business scams, but the information is
extremely useful.
2) False claims- Does the company make claims that just "sound
too good to be true"? You know how the old saying goes, if it
sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Amazingly
enough, there are a number of people on the Internet who are
lured into believing all the "hype". Why does this happen?
Because we want so badly to believe that what is written has to
be true. We want that "quick fix" or "quick income stream". I'm
not saying that the quick income stream isn't always possible,
but you have to know your stuff! If you are a newbie at
affiliate marketing or online business building, that "quick
fix" just isn't going to happen. It's a learning process. I've
been working on my business for 5 years, and I'm still learning
things every day.
3) Contact information- Does the business have contact
information available on their site? Can you call them? Do they
have a physical address? A legitimate business will have that
information posted on their site in an easy to find spot.
4) Ethical business practices- The Direct Marketing Association
has posted a set of guidelines for Ethical Business Practice at
http://www.the-dma.org/guidelines/ethicalguidelines.shtml .
These guidelines include such things as: *terms of the offer
*advance consent marketing *special offers and claims *marketing
to children *sweepstakes sites *fulfillment of orders
*collecting personal information and data on your website
*online marketing *telephone marketing *fund-raising *laws,
codes, and regulations
Know what to look for beforehand.
5) Does the company offer goods or services? Legitimate
businesses will offer some type of goods or services for any
fees they charge. A company that claims you can make money by
recruiting new members is an illegal pyramid scheme. If the
company charges a fee, they must offer some type of service or
product. Two great websites on fraud are the Internet Fraud
Watch www.fraud.org and the National Consumer's League at
www.nclnet.org.
6) Ask, Ask, Ask! If you do a search on business forums or
discussion boards, what will you find? Thousands of websites
where you can post and ask questions about business. Chances are
that the opportunity you are interested in has already been
discussed many times over. Seek the opinions of other people who
are building a home based business. The advice is priceless and
well worth your search efforts.