Work from home...

BY CHOICE!

Home

Online Security  What EVERYONE should know 

Firewall Recommendations

Canadian resources for scam alerts and complaints

Investment Scams

"The most successful con artist will have you believing he is the most ethical person you will ever know."

~ Dirk Buchmann

How do you recognize a scam?

Doing a few minutes of work BEFORE you join a program could save you hundreds of dollars.  Remember, it's YOUR money!  

A product no one really needs, wants or asked for, sold at an outrageous price, which is pure profit.

MLM pyramid scheme designers are clever enough to use a phony product sold at a high price which pays large "commissions" to new recruits. In fact what is happening is that people are making money by simply recruiting new people and being paid from their investment in the new "business opportunity" and nothing else.

Their only income is from an ever-expanding network of new people being brought into this shell game, until the largest leg and the lowest level of the MLM pyramid collapses and the whole game ends.

The people at the top get rich, the folks in the upper levels do well, but the majority of the people get burned.

Once the MLM expands as far as it can and the money stops flowing, the owners will vanish to an island in the Caribbean, the ISP will turn off the servers, and the entire community will vanish in an instant. No refunds, no commissions.

Every bad MLM opportunity makes money for the people who start it. And where does that money come from? From the thousands of people who do not research these companies and their products before investing their hard-earned money into them.

KEEP YOUR MONEY!!!!

Click here for examples of scams

What should you look for and which questions should you ask when considering a work at home opportunity?

• Before even looking at what the program offers, look at the names involved whether as owners or as a marketing scheme. Sometimes that's enough info to make you run the other way without digging further.

• Is the opportunity country specific or available worldwide?

• Identify the product(s) and/or service(s) - is there one?

• Is the product something useful, helpful, and do you really want or need it? How much does it cost? Is it a realistic price or is it off the top?  Would you buy it at the same price at a store if you were not part of the program? If you wouldn't, BEWARE!  If you wouldn't buy it, odds are that others won't either.

• Is the product available today or is the affiliate program in pre-launch with many promises for tomorrow?

• Where is the product available? Is it downloadable? Can it be shipped to your country without extravagant shipping costs?

• Can the product be retailed?  If no retail sales are made and only members are buying from the program and the program is not a shopping club, BEWARE!

• Look at the compensation plan... If there is a fee, what are you paying for? A service? Product? Or just a fee to belong to the program?  

• Does the opportunity pay for referrals?  Paying commissions for bringing others into the program without buying anything is ILLEGAL.  When a program relies on new members to pay commissions, it's a definite scam.

• Do any or all of the commissions originate from the money paid by others to enter the program without getting a product or service?

• Are commissions paid on time every month? The full amount?  To everyone who earned them?  If commissions do not get paid on time, or worse, not at all, BEWARE!  No excuse can justify not paying members their earned commissions.

• Look at the TOS and FAQ and see if anything raises your eyebrows.  

• Do they have a spam policy? Somewhere to report it?  If they don't and you get plenty of spam for this program, they will get shut down sooner rather than later.

• Is there a phone number, street address or just an email address or PO box number?  Is the phone number a land line or is it a cell phone?  Postal boxes and cell phones are a sign that they don't expect to be there long, they can be cancelled anytime without leaving any traces.  With YOUR money!

• What is the payment method?  If they don't accept cheques or credit cards and only allow payment processing for both buying and paying commissions through Paypal, Stormpay, E-gold, or any other internet based programs, BEWARE!  They do NOT want to leave any paper trails.  This has been proven time and time again!

• Whose name and contact info are listed there? VERY important!  You want the contact information for the affiliate to whom the referral site belongs to, NOT the owner of the program or the corporate office!

• Send an email to the contact and ask questions - see how long it takes to get a reply and who replies. Did they answer your questions or did they beat around the bush just pushing the opportunity and pressuring you to sign up? Did they "bribe" you?  Did they offer you extra incentives to sign up?  If so, BEWARE!  You might have to do the same thing to recruit others.  The program itself is probably worthless.

• When was the domain registered and when does it expire? Go to www.register.com and type the name of the domain with the appropriate extension (.com, .net, .org, .us, etc.), then click on "who is" to find out who owns it, when it was registered, and when it expires.  It the domain is only good for one year, the owner probably doesn't expect the program to last beyond that.

• How long has the company been in business?

• Do a search for the owners and the name of the program on several search engines.

• Are they listed with the BBB? Many legitimate companies have had claims with the BBB - look at how many employees/customers they have, how long they've been in business, how many claims against them, and how each one was resolved.  A company that has been in business for many years and doesn't have any claims against them is just as suspect as one that has too many.

• What types of logos do they display on their website? Verisign?; Scam Report - red flag! (Scam Report will give anyone permission to use their logo as long as they pay the appropriate fee, even if the opportunity promoted is listed on the Scam Report site as a scam - Money talks. A website that displays the Scam Report Certified logo means DIDDLY SQUAT!)?;  BBB?; BBB Online?; Others? Are they clickable?  If they're not clickable, BEWARE!

• Does the program tell you there's no work involved? No recruiting? No advertising? Just sit back and collect the cheques? BEWARE!

• Does it promise overnight riches?  BEWARE!

• Does it tell you that it will take years before you see a profit? Do you need to continue paying them every month for all those years? It does NOT take years to make money online!  BEWARE!

• What is the possible return on your investment and the timeframe? Does it make sense? If you can turn $5 into $1,000 in just a month, BEWARE!

• Do they GUARANTEE your success? Your income? BEWARE!  Did you know that if you guarantee anything (income others will make, the timeframe to earn a specific income, or what the product can do for them), even if you're just repeating what the main website says, you can be held responsible in a court of law to pay damages to all the people you have referred?  Before you guarantee anything, you'd better make sure you can PERSONALLY sustain all your claims and you have all the backup to prove it.  If you can't do that, do NOT make ANY guarantees!

• Is there a refund policy? Money back guarantee?  Is there a deadline?  Most legitimate programs offer at least 30 days.  Make sure you read the fine print.

• Do they claim that their product cures every disease known to man?  If they do, do NOT repeat this in your advertising and BEWARE!

• Does the company offer some kind of training, free of charge? Or do you have to purchase more stuff to train yourself?

• Use and trust your gut instinct and your own judgment; if it sounds too good to be true, IT IS!

• Anyone not willing to take any of these steps before spending their money deserves to get scammed.