The U. of Iew

Losses Rise In Online Scams.

According to this article, scammers are preying on “the good will of people.” Now, I’d like to talk about network marketing, work at home opportunities, and all of that fun stuff in future posts. So this article caught my eye for various reasons. I wish I could say that the news supplied by this article surprised me, but really… well, what can I say? When it comes to money, a lot of people are desperate for a quick solution to an immediate problem. The immediate problem being, of course, a lack of financial wealth. Take it from me- there are a lot of legitimate business opportunities available on the internet. Not everything is a scam or a “pyramid scheme” (one of my sweetheart’s favorite terms). Some thoughts on this article:

1. People really need to use their common sense. Ironically, common sense is an uncommon trait for a person to possess these days. If you stumble across an offer that seems too good to be true, well, there’s probably a reason for that. Don’t believe everything that you read. Unscrupulous people will say and do anything to turn a profit. Don’t become a victim; use your head.

2. On that note, make sure to research any opportunity that you are legitimately interested in. Utilize search engines, forums, and social networking sites to contact other people who may be involved with the company or organization that you’re interested in joining. Another good idea is to check the company’s rating with the Better Business Bureau. It can provide you with a nice, objective view of a company’s business practices and overall behavior.

3. BE WARY OF ANYTHING THAT ASKS YOU FOR MONEY UP FRONT. Now, look: I’m not saying that every single organization that requires some form of payment is a scam. Unfortunately, many of them are. This is where you encounter PYRAMID SCHEMES (capitalized for Jackie’s amusement). Here is the definition of a pyramid scheme according to the American Heritage Dictionary: A fraudulent moneymaking scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to others above them in a hierarchy while expecting to receive payments from people recruited below them. Eventually the number of new recruits fails to sustain the payment structure, and the scheme collapses with most people losing the money they paid in. I’m not going to elaborate on pyramid schemes too much in this post, as I wanted to devote a later post solely to this subject. Needless to say, you should determine whether or not you will be selling a legitimate product or service; if not, then you may want to back off and find a better opportunity.

4. E-mail scams. Wow. Phishing, too. I still don’t understand how people fall for these. The e-mails are so poorly written and are generally full of typos. I have fun reporting all of the phishing e-mails that I receive. Does it do any good? Who knows. I just derive some sick pleasure from it. Come on, now, this should be obvious: don’t trust every e-mail that you receive. The chance that some rich, dying foreigner wants to leave you all of their money is slim to none. I promise.

There’s more that I could say about this, but this entry would get pretty long… I think I’ll just devote some future entries to various topics that I touched on here.