Avoid Money Scams

So I came across this site, www.dont-get-scammed-again.com.  This is another of those sites that claims to have the one program that is the answer to all of the other work at home scams in the world.

Of course this is an abosolutely ridiculous claim.  Don’t be fooled by the ads or the long story claiming to have the answers to all of the world’s problems.

One of the interesting things that I found on their site was the Better Internet Bureau icon on the site.  If you come across this logo, you can rest assured that the site is most likely illegitimate or a scam.  It is nothing more than a business that makes sure there are no broken links.

GPT stands for Get Paid To, or at least that is what the scams tell us.  A more appropriate acronym would be Going To Pay.

GPT offers include fillng out surveys and providing market research.  Companies look for information about the consumer sector that they serve.  This is really nothing new.  Companies have been doing this kind of survey research for years.  I even once had a job for a company that did telephone surveys for various markets.  Often you can find these types of surveys at busy malls and shopping centers.  Companies will re-imburse you for your time with free product or a few dollars.

The hype about GPT online is that you can provide the same market information from the comfort of your home computer.  It sounds simple enough.  Unfortunately it does get a little more complicated than most GPT sites are willing to explain.

First, a couple of notes about the legitimate surveys.

• They don’t pay much.  Perhaps one or two dollars, if anything.  Often the payment is in the form of coupons or free product.
• Companies are looking for legitimate participants.  If you haven’t had experience with their market sector they will screen you out and you will get nothing.
• The surveys take time.  Often the hourly work rate calculates out to around $3.00 to $5.00 per hour, less than minimum wage.

Those are the legitimate paying surveys.  Now, for the true scams.  These are the sites that ask you to pay for the privilege of taking surveys through their system.  Of course, if somebody is asking for your money up front they are scamming you.  Don’t give them your money.  Odds are good you will never see it again.  One of the great dangers of the online world is that scammers can remain completely anonymous.  Never give away money, and never give away your credit card information without knowing exactly what you are getting in return and who you are doing business with.

A quick search about the company you are thinking about doing business with should reveal more of the truth about how legitimate their business really is.

Ok, I know the title of this post might be a bit confusing, but then the whole concept is a bit confusing.  There are a lot of “Avoid Scams” web sites out there.  Many of them offer excellent advice and tips to avoid the con men and keep your money where it belongs - with you.

Other sites, however, are nothing more than underhanded marketing gimmicks to get you to enroll in - you guessed it - another work at home get rich quick instant money SCAM.

This sort of advertising really gets under my skin.  I can understand why an advertiser would want to do it.  Afterall the engaging sob story about how some guy lost hundreds or thousands of dollars on scams is touching.  Then it leads to the improbable miracle of discovering the one (or two) methods that actually work.  Needless to say they fail to mention the dozens of others who tried the same programs and got nothing in return.

I came across this site the other day. Of course I can’t say that what he advertises is a scam, I’m not going to sign up to find out.  But it shows all of the classes signs.  Anyone asking for a telephone number just to be able to give you the introduction is not the kind of person I would give a second thought to if I met them on the street.  Remember that anybody looking to sell you a way to make money is making money by selling to you not by using their own system.

Ok, just for kicks, you should go and watch the video here. Am I the only one who thought of drug dealers while watching? Who else opens unmarked packages of hundred dollar bills?

Any reason why you can’t see the guy’s face? In general people with nothing to hide don’t hide themselves. I would have to guess then that this guy has something to hide.

Perhaps the extremely vague details about how the money is made makes him a bit uneasy about showing himself. Perhaps he just didn’t want to distract from the money that is sitting center stage. Notice that the focus is all on the money, not the means? Any legitimate business knows the details of how they will earn a profit long before they go out and get started.

I won’t go so far as to say that the folks over at http://www.hugemoneyfast.com/ are criminals, that would be inappropriate given that I have no such evidence. I will, however, suggest that you do not fill in the form at the bottom of the page. At the very least it is an excellent phishing opportunity for them.

Anyone who asks for your contact information up front is in the business of getting contact information for free. They may have some other business, but these days that business is probably secondary to their actual goal, which in this case is all about getting you involved where you don’t want to be.

Save yourself a headache. Save a friend a headache. Warn somebody today to watch out for predators like this. Then go and put a couple bucks into your savings account, where it should be.

In my quest to protect the world from scams I want to point out WorkHomeNow.com. Now, I can’t say for certain that they are a scam.  In fact I’m not going to say it.  What I will say is that I find a web site whose sole purpose in life is to redirect people to other websites that are scams is probably a scam.   At the very least there is a shady connection here that I would recommend staying away from.

The WorkHomeNow.com website is directly or indirectly involved with other services which are there simply to get your money.

Save yourself some time.  Save yourself some money.  There are better ways of earning a living.

Ok, aside from the fact that their site took FOREVER to load, I’m not terribly impressed. WorkHomeNow.com feels like a scam. The link I came to brought me immediately to a form requesting personal information without so much as indicating the type of “work” involved.

I don’t remember ever going to a job interview where I didn’t at least have some idea of the kind of business the company was involved in, yet here they are telling me they are willing to give me money.

If you followed the link (and I hope you didn’t), then you’ll see the fine print at the bottom “*** This is NOT a Job Posting or Data Entry Work , we are not Hiring Employees ***”

So what gives? Another invest $300.00 to learn the secrets of building your own business, or perhaps (more likely) simply a gimmick to get your email address so they can sell it to the thousands of scam artists out there?

If anyone has used their service, by all means post a comment. Believe me, if you can make all the single moms in the world have an easier life I’m all for it. I know it was rough with my mother working 2 jobs.

Once again, I am amazed at the absolute silliness that people will put out there to try to get your money. I wandered across this site the Plug-in Profit site the other day. I could hardly believe what I was reading.

First of all the presentation was completely unprofessional. Usually the scam artists are smart enough to polish their act. At least they try to put up a good appearance until they get your money. This guy didn’t even bother with that! Just throw some meta-tags on a page and watch the chumps roll in. Forget grammar, punctuation, and proper English. My first impression is that this is a foreign scam artist, not that it matters.

Yep, click on through and you’ll get the usual sob story. I was a washed up [dishwasher, teacher, mechanic, insert your a profefssion here], but then I started this program and became a millionaire. Odd how you don’t see Bill Gates throwing out a story like this. Invent an operating system an in just a few months you too could be worth millions!

In case you’re wondering, I don’t actually recommend you bother clicking through. It is a waste of time and money. Do yourself a favor and find a nice blog somewhere (have you given thought to the blogroll). Then go and put $19.95 into your savings account.