SCAM 101 - How To Stay Away From Online Scams
What is a scam?
At first glance, this may seem like an unnecessary question. After a pass through Scam 101, however, you may think otherwise.
A closer consideration of common terminology will make your efforts at pinpointing dubious products less frustrating.
Why are the semantics important? The simple answer , sliding definitions.
As with most words, the definition of a scam varies from individual to individual and region to region. You may soon find that some people are very liberal with the word usage (quick to call fraud) while others are more conservative (reticent to call fraud).
The Federal Trade Commission's criteria for advertising and marketingoutlines illegal behavior, and any company or person violating these rules has (by virtue of his or her actions) committed fraud. The average consumer, however, will likely have a much looser set of fraud qualifiers and be much quicker to cry scam.
So, where should we worry about drawing the scam dividing line? The answer, like it or not, is highly subjective. Instead of trying to see things as black and white, you may want to think in terms of a continuum.
After examining a product, consider where it would fall on the continuum. Let loose the reins of your conscience. If something on a sales pages looks suspicious or untrustworthy, don't ignore it.
Once you've placed the product on a continuum, you should have a pretty fair idea of how trustworthy a sales page is.
Let the FTC and other legal bodies concern themselves with the legal dividing line - that's they're job. Our concern is spotting and avoiding BAD products, illegally marketed or not. That is the true goal of any Scam 101 lesson.
Putting a Site on the Continuum
Once you've found yourself looking at a sales page for a work-at-home product, say an ebook, you'll want to see where it falls on the above continuum. Depending upon the product and the sales page, the difficulty of this varies. Here are a few Scam 101 tips to help you along the way.
Understand what a sales page is. This goes beyond the obvious. There is most certainly more to a sales page than its content. What the page is saying is important, but don't overlook layout and navigation (or the lack thereof).
Pick up on scam commonalities. WAH scam sites typically share a handful of traits. Even though these aspects may vary across sites, they are almost always present in some form. Spotting these will help keep you from making unnecessary purchases.
Use your resources. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. The Internet can be a useful resource.
Spending the time to do the detective work up front is always worth the extra effort. After doing the three items above, you should have a more critical viewpoint on WAH product pages. Fortunately, now that you're able to better evaluate a site, you're also less prone to fall for their tricks.
Feeling confident in your judgment? Good. But if you still find yourself feeling tempted by the occasional advertisement, I have one last bit of advice for you...
Set Guidelines. Don't allow yourself to be your own worst enemy. Put a few rules in place to prevent yourself from making regrettable purchases. If you follow your guidelines, your impulse to BUY!, BUY!, BUY! will be greatly curbed. The Scam 101 Investigative Resources page will provide you a few good places to start your digging.
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