Monday, January 21, 2008

Get Rich Schemes and Fake Review Websites

Some websites are themselves scams; claiming to offer you a good deal, a warning about scam business plans or reviews of other websites and get-rich schemes. The overwhelming majority of the time, they are shams, actually promoting their own (or others) prices or products, which are terrible and at worst, they're identity thieves! Some use that a variety of convoluted businesses to skirt the laws and regulations, as many, if not most Multi-Level Marketing companies do, some are blatant rip-offs.

What Defines a Get Rich Scheme or a Scam WebSite?We all intuitively know when we are being conned or scammed, but there are some clear warning signs to watch for, that we use to define scam websites:

Hyperbole - The first and most obvious clue to this type of scam is hype. If the website uses exaggerated claims and hype phrases like "earn passive residual income", "for only pennies a day", "now you can get slim in just minutes" or "Get rich now!", "Earn big bucks in minutes per day!" you can bet it is a scam. A simple rule of thumb is if you see multiple dollar signs like "$$$", you can be certain that a scam is at work!

Hidden charges - When they offer something for free, but you have to enter a credit card to pay for "shipping and handling", watch out! Once they have your credit card number, they can bill anything they want to it. Of course, you can dispute it, but they've prepared for that; the fine print usually says that you have also agreed to try their product or service, and if you don't follow their complicate return rules exactly, then you've bought it.. something you don't need, didn't want and doesn't work, often for hundreds of dollars.

No details - They won't give, up-front, you the slightest clue about HOW you'll make all this money in no time and for almost no effort. Guess what? You have to buy their magic book of their secrets or sign up to their program! Ooh!

Bait-and-Switch: If the website's advertising, or domain name are clearly different from the intent of the website once you get there, it's a scam.

Misdirection - if you type in a web address, but it redirects to a different web address, that is usually a sign of a scammer.