Learn How to Spot Internet Marketing Scams a Mile Away! 

Internet marketing scams are a sad reality of a legitimate industry that offers you a great chance to earn a living online.

Many people, first-timers in particular, fall for several  scams and end up losing their valuable time and money.

They end up being severely burnt financially and failing to get back on their feet. I know exactly what it is like to fall for one of these scams.

The worst thing is that they can mercilessly deplete you of all your hard earned money when you need it the most.

I remember once buying a product online that I thought would really help me out. In hind sight, I’m not sure whether it was a wise move. But anyway, you know how things go sometimes.

It was back when I was in University in Western Australia, the “wild wild west” as some from the eastern Australian states call it.

I only had about $700 or so in my account (after weeks of hard work) when I came across an online offer I could not refuse. It cost $500 and appeared to be exactly what I was looking for.

My commonsense went out of window. At $500, I thought I was getting a real bargain so greed kicked in and I fail for the scam.

You should have seen me when I realized I had been scammed. I lost it. Seriously. I tried to call the scammers but of course their fake phone number did not work.

I sent email upon email of threats to call the “international police”, the FBI, the CIA, you name it.

But the silence was deafening. The scammers had disappeared into thin air forever, never to be heard from again.

And unfortunately, it was near the exam period so I had to study more and work less. Worse still, my young sister was coming to visit and now I was broke. True story.

Anyway, needless to say, I was really annoyed, frustrated and every other negative emotion you can think of. Worse still, I couldn’t tell anyone about it.

I couldn’t offer anyone any good reason as to why I was broke. Too embarrassing. They would all think I was severely stupid.

My parents have never bought anything online so losing $5 online is something they would view as silly. Losing $500 on the other hand? That would fall waaaay outside the range of anything they could call reasonable.

But anyhow, I somehow managed to wing it. I think I sold some of my gadgets at a nearby pawn shop.

The point I am trying to make is I know what it’s like to be a victim of internet marketing scams. They really hurt, no doubt about that. So I’ve since gone to some trouble to figure out how to avoid them.

The good news is that if you follow the tips that I share in this article you can avoid internet marketing scams quite easily.

Once you know exactly what to look for in an online marketing business or program, you can easily tell if it is genuine or a complete waste of valuable time.

So let’s look at 7 tips that can help you easily avoid internet marketing scams.

Firstly, legitimate internet marketing programs have products and services that you need to sell in order to make money. If a program promises to pay you for bringing in referrals alone and there is nothing to sell, stay far away from it.

It's most likely a pyramid scheme, which is illegal. The absence of tangible products or services is usually a clear sign of an internet marketing scam. So, avoid such programs by all means.

Secondly, if an online business says that you can make truckloads of money with little or no work, avoid it like the plague!

Genuine businesses do not make such outlandish claims. Building an internet marketing business takes work and dedication.

It takes consistent effort and a commitment to learning more and more about several aspects of internet marketing. Of course it is easier than building an offline business but it still takes effort.

Thirdly, legitimate online businesses offer legitimate products. Internet marketing scams on the other hand, involve products that no one in their right mind would buy. Usually, the price is too low for what is being offered.

If there is one thing I have learnt about internet marketing it’s that, if it’s too good to be true then it’s most likely not true at all. Of course there are exceptions.

But personally, I only buy “too good to be true products” from people I already know and trust like Rich Schefren, Dan Kennedy, Armand Morin, Ryan Deiss, Eben Pagan, Jeff Walker, Mike Filsaime and other such renowned internet marketers.

I have already bought lower priced items from some of these marketers and experienced the high value they provide. So I can trust them enough to spend a bit more money with them.

Fourthly, legitimate online businesses usually have a detailed, professional-looking website that tells you all you need to know about the products and services offered.

Internet marketing scams, on the other hand, usually don't have a proper website or have a poorly-designed, run-of-the-mill website that looks like it was created solely for the purpose of ripping you off.

Remember – a website is the identity of an online business. The lack of one or a very poorly designed one is a telltale sign that something is wrong with the program.

The next thing is that genuine programs have excellent support teams that can be reached 24x7 via email, phone, or live chat. If a program offers no support or if it takes ages to respond to your pre-purchase queries, avoid it by all means.

This is perhaps one of the simplest ways to spot internet marketing scams because you can actually test the support system before you buy anything. Send a couple of emails and see how they respond to you.

Are they rude? Are they pressurizing you to buy? Do they take weeks to get to you? Do they ever respond? Such things will help you identify internet marketing scams.

Sixth on the list is that genuine programs offer products and services that come with a money back guarantee. An iron-clad money back guarantee has become a basic requirement for selling products on the web today.

A product or service without such a guarantee is not likely to find any takers. So, if there is no money back guarantee, the program is likely a scam or substandard.

Either way, it is not worth spending your time on. There has to be a guarantee.

Last but not least, it is a good indication that an online business is genuine if it has several positive reviews about it. All you have to do is type the name of the business into Google and look at the results.

If there are several complaints or accusations that an online business is a scam, then it probably is.

Of course, people sometimes falsely accuse others just to put them out of business. But not too many people will attack a genuine online business.

Another thing is that affiliates of a product sometimes advertise it by saying “Is Product X a SCAM?”That’s just a clever way of making people curious and getting them to visit the affiliate’s website.

When they get to the website, the affiliate then says, “Actually, product X is the best thing to hit the planet since the electric light bulb”.

So you have to have an integrated approach when investigating any product or program. In other words, it is advisable to use each of these 7 tips rather than focusing only on the seventh tip.

But remember, where there is smoke there is fire. So, too many bad reviews is a warning sign that something is wrong. Equally dangerous is a situation where there are no reviews whatsoever!

In this case you need to ask yourself why no one knows about the online business or program you are investigating. It could be that it has just started out.

But it could also be that it's just a quick creation whose sole purpose is to rip you off and then disappear into oblivion before reappearing in another slippery form.

So those are 7 tips that can help you steer clear of most internet marketing scams.  I suggest you always have them at hand when deciding whether an online business is a good one to do business with.

When it comes to online marketing, the most important thing you should remember is that you must always know what you are getting into.

Make sure you do your due diligence before you buy any product or sign up with any affiliate network or program.

If you do that, you will save yourself untold heartache. You will avoid losing money unnecessarily and you will save time by only buying legitimate products that help you achieve your online goals faster.

And that’s a Beautiful thing indeed!

To Your Success

Bruce

Learn more about Internet Marketing Scams here.