Each day hundred of bloggers and website joins for online business to monetize their site, there are many who just open site for online earning purposes only with two of most common free earning resources; pay per clicks and affiliate program.
This craze of online earning is not hidden from the eyes of online scammers and so they are always active with their hook looking for those who are in hurry to earn fast. These scammers easily make them preys who are always in hurry to earn huge online income. They can really give you a good lesson on how they are earning fast by making you a victim.
Let me explain in short on what scam is and what scammers are up to and then I will give you some really worthy tips on how to protect yourself from getting in the hook of scam.
In short: Scam is online fraudulence and scammers are doing what a fraud business man can do. They disguise themselves as a professional business man and offer you to buy some good promising business plan, schemes or products (almost anything, you name it they get it)
Follow the below simple tips and step away from Scammers.
Tip no.1: Be suspicious before making dive.
You are in hurry to start online business and looking for more and more online opportunities, either with Google or Yahoo search, and lo finally you have discovered a website where your entire search stops. You find a website where it is promising to give you a great money making program, offering you to earn 10000 dollars every month. You can’t stop; you goes clicking link over link and finally come to a page where it is asking you a joining fee. You have already taken your decision so you fill the joining form and paid the fees with your credit card. When you click submit button you goes to another page where it is giving you a grand welcome to their business, there they request you to look in your inbox for their email. You leave the site and goes to your inbox, you wait for a minute but no message, you wait another minute then again another and then an hour and again another hour then a day and then again another day then a week and then again an another week, this goes on and on and then month elapsed. Finally you become conscious and realize that you have been cheated and you have lost your money.
So the lesson is: do not over react or hurry to go for such promising site without looking back and forth.
Tip no.2: All that glitter is not gold.
Do not go for appearance of the site, a site may look professional and promising with lots of graphic, images and information, after all scammers can too build a professional looking site. Almost most of site promising you to give quick earning comes with a banner like “Become a Millionaire” or “Earn dollars from home”. Think twice before going for them, all that glitters is not gold.
Tip no.3: Do not go with testimonials and FAQ.
Site with scam business will show you many testimonials even with thumbnail of their fake customers. Their testimonials often go like this:
“Hi, I am this- this and have joined this program and earning this much dollar daily without investment and blah… blah… blah….”
Secondly they may show you some frequently asked question (FAQ) where they will tell you how to do this and that. To avoid falling in hand of scammers do not trust those two links completely.
Tip no.4: Look for 'Contact us' link and their numbers.
Before going for deep relationship with any website look for their Contact us link. Did they have mentioned their business address, email address and most importantly contact number? If they have provided contact number then do not hesitate to make a call, remember you are going to put your money with them. When calls look who is receiving your call, is it any call center receiving call on behalf of the company and providing you information or any direct staff of the company.
A genuine business will attend all the customer call by their own, they will not rely on any third party call center.
Tip no.5: Read 'Terms and Condition' and look what they are saying in their Disclaimer.
Before joining business with any website, look for their Terms and Condition and if you do not find it then do not join and if found then take time and read it full, if possible make a print out of it. Look for a link commonly named Disclaimer or Term of use, many website (especially site providing information and promising something) provide this link, if it is there read what they are saying.
Tip no.6: Look for secured online payment making system.
If you are buying something or paying registration fees online then definitely you will asked to mention your credit or debit card number, beware. Before doing so look for secured paying system, did the website provide valid SSL certificate? Did the website link start with HTTPS://? Read privacy policy how they are going to use your information. Remember if scammer get your credit card number not only they will misuse it but will also put you on road.
Extra tip: if you often go online to buy or making payment then better sign-up with PayPal or Google checkout, they not only protect your card number but also help you to protect from making any fraud payment.
Tip no.7: Junk mail; be careful before you open it.
Junk mail or spam mail is sometime very dangerous; this kind of mails comes with many promising offers and website links which when clicked takes you to scammers’ site.
Some spam mail can be too dangerous, they often come with attachment. They may tell you that you have won money or have courier waiting to deliver and have send the statement with the attachment. When you believe them and disclose the attachment, a spyware get installed in your computer without your knowledge and send all the secret information which you have saved in your computer and browser such as password, bank a/c no, credit card no and etc (In one word they gain control over your computer).
Tip no.8: Do you go signing up for newsletter with everyone.
You have seen that your inbox go filled with lots of email and if looked you may find that there are few from your friends and relatives and most of them were from unknown person or website. Have you ever wondered how they got your email address?
Let me tell you how. You always go online and when sees some good looking website with some information you rush to sign-up with their newsletter. I do not mean to say that you should not sign-up for newsletter, going for newsletter is good to equipped with lots of information. But do you know what most of site do with your information (your email id by which you signed for newsletter). Let me tell you; they sell your information to third parties which were commonly scammers. They are earning by selling your email id. So before signing up for newsletter look their privacy policy, if they do not have privacy policies then do not signup.
But keep in mind- privacy policy is just to show up, it do not mean they will not cheat, so better avoid unnecessary newsletter sign-up.
Tip no.9: Go for reviews and forum for self help.
You find a website for which you are looking and want to join for business or make purchase, wait before doing so if you have not deal with that website before. Do little research with search box, type that site name or business program and click to go, you will get many search result which by reading you can know what others are saying for that website or business. Also you can join some forum site related to such business and ask your question and opinion for answers, Yahoo answers is a good platform to put such opinion which gives quick reviews of others.
Well, all in one I would like to say do not easily put your trust in any website when it ask for money either for buying product and any business schemes. Do little search and remain always scam free.
