How to Keep From Being Scammed
Recently I conducted a survey of my newsletter readers, asking them what their
biggest marketing question is. I received a long list of questions so I
decided to post them here, along with my answers, to help ALL my readers.
I’m answering 4 questions today because they’re very similar to each other…
"With a ton of products being offered on the internet everyday, how can you be
sure you’re buying a genuine product and not just falling for another scam?"
"How do you determine what is truly a trustworthy resource and exactly how do
you choose honest products and honest vendors to represent?"
"There are thousands of opportunities on the internet that promise the world.
Is there a way other than, ‘this sounds too good to be true’, to distinguish
the genuine versus the quick buck artist?"
"Denise, what is the best way to overcome the fear of being scammed again,
which leads to inaction and hesitation to do anything, for us newbies who don’t
have money to throw away on hype and misleading promises of many internet
marketers?"
This is definitely not an easy question to answer. Much of it is gut instinct,
and the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" does
hold true here. But there are certain measures you can take to keep from being
scammed, too…
For one thing, steer clear of outrageous claims like "make $10,000 overnight
with no work." Not only does that sound too good to be true, it also sounds
totally absurd. Don’t even join something like this to satisfy your curiousity.
You’ll be wasting your time and possibly losing money. When you see something
like that, close your browser window - fast.
But the more subtle scammer won’t make such ridiculous income claims. He’ll be
more likely to tell you a story you’ll believe so you’ll join his program. And
these are the ones that are much harder to know if they’re good products or if
they’re scams.
The best thing you can do to figure out how good something is, or whether or
not it’s a scam, is to research it. Visit forums like Scam.com and see if there
are any posts about it. If not, ask if anyone knows anything about it.
You can also visit the Better Business Bureau’s websites. There’s one for
offline companies and one for online companies. See if there are any reports on
the company you’re researching. The BBB posts both good and bad reports that
they receive from consumers.
You can do a search on Google or any other search engine for the name of the
product or program or even the person running it to see if there are any review
sites listed in the search results. You may find the answers you seek by
reading someone’s review or blog or forum comments.
If you’re specifically looking for information on Internet marketing related
products, I’d suggest a site called RatingsHub.com. The site is run by David
Vallieres and he has hundreds of associate editors who review products. If you
don’t see a product listed there, you can request that it be reviewed. You can
even review products yourself if you’d like other people to know your opinion,
good or bad.
Never be afraid to ask for a refund if a product isn’t what it claimed to be on
the sales page. Always go to the person you bought the product from first, but
if they won’t give you a refund don’t hesitate to contact PayPal, ClickBank, 2
CheckOut or whatever payment processor took your money. Most of the time
they’ll grant you the refund.
Honestly, the best thing is to do your own due diligence. Check on products or
programs before joining them and if anything smells fishy, stay away from it.
I’ll answer more readers questions tomorrow, so check back here then.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Hi Denise, scam.com, says no site configured at this address. Just thought I’d let you know.
P.S. I always open YOUR e-mails! :)You’re one of the people I trust!
Angel
March 16th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Thanks, Angel. I appreciate your kind words.
Thanks, too, for the heads up about scam.com. I don’t know what’s going on, but I swear there used to be a site there.
Denise