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Scams, Bad Deals & Outright Lies

get rich buttonThe web is a wonderful place filled with good and bad ideas, products and services. It is also filled with scam artists. Online scams are nothing new, but their presentation has become more sophisticated, targeted and devious. In fact, while doing research for this article I found so-called scam exposing articles that were scams themselves! They'd call one product a scam and then add a link to their product which is the "real deal." But it was just another scam.

I've been designing websites online for twelve years and I never thought I'd fall for one, but earlier this year I did. It is now one of the biggest scams out there. I'll tell you my cautionary tale at the end of this article, but right now let's learn how to avoid getting scammed on the web.

 

danger sign10 Red Flags of a Scam

  1. They promise to give you a product or service for free, but ask for your credit card information. If it's free, then do not pay for anything, including the shipping. And please, don't make the huge mistake I made of giving them your debit card information. Never do that, even for stuff you know is legit.
  2. You pay a small amount of money for a high cost product (but then you have to give them your credit card information and that's a bad idea).
  3. They ask you to wire or transfer money to them.
  4. They promise results that are much faster and much greater than common sense tells you they should be. For example, losing over 30 pounds a month or earning $1,000 a week for a job that requires no experience.
  5. The offer sounds too good to be true. Your mother was right, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
  6. The offer comes from overseas. A lot of email scams in particular are about overseas work or transactions that need to happen from another country. Beware, these are almost certainly a scam.
  7. The product or service is "free" but you have to pay for shipping or a membership.
  8. You get an email saying you've won a cruise or a lottery, but you never entered the contest. And if you really had won a contest, they wouldn't just email you.
  9. They say they're your bank, credit card company, etc., but are asking for your account number or username and password. This is called Phishing.
  10. Their email address is generic and not from the company. For example, they are offering you a job at ABC Corp, but the email is from janedoe@yahoo.com. Fishy.

Great Article: 9 Red Flags for Artists To Watch Out For

How to Prevent Becoming a Victim

Do your homework

Checking out the reputation of a company, product or service through the web is usually very easy. Go to Google and search for the product/service name, website address and/or telephone number. That will usually bring up all the websites and chatter from people who have had good or bad experiences with them. If I had done that, I would have saved myself a lot of money.

Choose Well

Be very selective with the companies you do business with on the web. Online transactions with reputable companies are often very safe, but make sure you know who you are dealing with before giving anyone your credit card or bank account information.

How to Report a Scam

Most Common Online Scams

Money Transfer Scam (aka Nigerian 419 Scam)

Job Scams

weight loss/supplements scams

Banking/Financial Phishing Scams

These are usually spam emails that look like they come from your bank, credit card, the IRS or some other financial entity. They want you to "update your account information" immediately or your account will be closed. By updating your account they mean give us your account numbers, passwords, etc. If you fall for this, you'll see your accounts drained of all their funds.

Multi-Level Marketing Scams

Not all multi-level companies are scams, but most of them require at least a second or third look before dipping your toe into the world of MLM. Multi-level Marketing works on the premise that you only make money if you get other people to sign up as distributors (and sell a lot of products) and in turn they get others to sign up as distributors and so on. This does work for a handful of people who are good at convincing others to become distributors, but most aren't able to get enough distributors to see a significant amount of money for their efforts. Pyramid schemes are illegal in most states and sometimes disguise themselves as legitimate MLM companies.

Websites, Hosting, Domain Names and Search Engine Optimization Promises

blue keyboardAs a web designer I see clients falling for this EVERY day. "We'll do your site for free!" or "A full commercial website for only $500!" Well, guess what, that is a bunch of hooey. This is a bait and switch scheme that involves designing a site (usually just using a generic template and filling it in with your information) and oh, by the way, in order to get the free site you need to do our hosting through us. Don't worry, it's only $99 a month! And we'll even give you a domain name address for only $50! Wow, that's great except most people only need hosting that costs under $10 a month and a domain address shouldn't cost more than $10 a year. When you add up what you're paying for the hosting, your site ends up costing a lot more than it would if you had used a legitimate web designer in the first place.

Another scam that makes me crazy is the wild search engine optimization promises companies will make. "With us, you will be ranked #1 on Google!" Please, nobody can promise that. That's a downright lie. You MAY be #1 on Google, but that could change or vary from day to day.

Another deceptive promise is, "With us, your site will always be at the top of the search engine results!" Okay, that's doable because you can get to the top of Google by having a pay per click ad. Depending on what keywords are used to find your site you could be paying $50, $100 or even more per month for that privilege. It might be worth it for a 3 month blitz, but all year? Unless you are a huge corporation, that's too much money. The truth is that having your site ranked high requires ethical search engine optimization techniques and excellent web content. In other words: hard work. And scams love to tell you that they can give you something without you having to work for it at all.

Urban Legends, myths and Bad Advice

man talking on cell phone while drivingOkay, this is my pet peeve! I can't tell you how many of these I get a week and they infuriate me. Some of these are just annoying misinformation (usually to push some agenda) and others are downright dangerous. For example, one email said that if you found yourself in trouble on the highway you should dial #79 to get a faster response (from the highway patrol) than 911. This was bad advice on many levels. First of all, it is usually a better idea to call 911. Second, #79 works only in a handful of states so you could be calling for help with a number that doesn't exist in your area!

Another big urban legend is that margarine is one molecule away from plastic. Um...no. | Get the Whole Story |

Best site for checking out these chain letters, cautionary emails, urban legends or "true stories" is SNOPES. Please check out any story before you send it out to your friends. You could be doing more harm than good.

My Story

I consider myself a very savvy web user, but even with all that I know about online scams, I fell for one.

acai berryI was preparing to have major surgery in a few days when my husband told me there was a really good deal on acai berry supplements. For months we'd been taking acai in powdered drink form, and although we hadn't really seen any real health benefits, we did think it gave us more energy and many people were touting it as the next big thing. For months I'd been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight and the website I saw said that you could lose several pounds easily by taking a combination of acai supplements and a colon cleanser supplements. I honestly didn't think they'd work, most things that sound too good to be true are just that, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try since these were FREE samples. The first red flag came up when they asked me for my credit card information. Why would I need to give that if the samples were free, right? Well, the samples are free, but the shipping costs a mere $5.95. It was easy to swing that, but still I had a flutter in my chest that made me a little uneasy. I ignored it.

To make a very long and ugly story short, they took my credit card information and charged me over $400 for a monthly membership that I had inadvertently "agreed" to by requesting the free samples. As hard as I tried to get my money back, it was to no avail. It got so out of control that I had to change my bank account information (I had stupidly given them my debit card info). Then, to add insult to injury they called me back angry saying that my bank account no longer worked. I told them exactly what I thought about them and they argued with me until I finally hung up, furious and frustrated.

The Acai Berry/Colon Cleanse Scam has since exploded over the web and through spam emails. I'm sure you've seen them tout that Oprah and Dr. Oz both recommended these products. Of course, that's a lie.

I hope this article has given you the tools you need to prevent becoming a victim of a scam, bad deal or outright lie.

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