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.