Rory has a good post about online scams and how to avoid them. Here’s the advice he gives:
- If it sounds too good to be true it probably is
- If you have been offered a work from home opportunity be wary of web sites that ask for money up front.
- If you are on a web site that claims not to be like any of the other get rich quick scheme web sites they probably are.
- If you are on a web site that claims to have the secret to getting rich quickly with hardly doing anything in most cases they will have a very long what I call “Sales Piece” about how this secret changed their life until they eventually ask for money or ask for your contact details.
- In most cases their secret to getting rich which they will divulge to you is actually a web site just like theirs, you pay them $50 (or what ever the amount is) and you get a site just like them to lure in someone else and it starts all over again. This is in fact a pyramid scheme which effectively is a non sustainable business model and in most countries this is illegal . It relies on people bringing more and more people into the scam to keep it going. These kind of schemes have been responsible in the past for destroying small economies.
- How long has the site been around? You can often check this by looking at the WayBackMachine, who else has talked about this site? Google the site and see what others have said about it.
- If the scheme is genuine the person running it won’t mind you asking them many questions. After all you are the investor you have something they want – your money.
Read all about it here
These are all common sense things. Yet, the best of us sometimes get pulled into these scams.