How Do I Tell if an Online Opportunity is a Scam?

An opportunity can only be considered a scam when it is out to cheat you of your money. In my opinion, if no monetary terms are involved, I will not label it as a scam. Since there have been so many reports of people getting scammed, why is there still a rise in such cases? All boils down to 2 things. Greed and fear.

Scammers target people who are greedy and who are looking for an easy opportunity to make money online, without any hard work. They make us believe that there are really such opportunities, and all you have to do is to 'do this and earn money', 'invest some money to get bigger returns' , 'pay me and I will tell you how', etc. There are countless ways to get scammed online. Here is a quick guide to tell the bad eggs from the good ones.

Common words used in scam opportunities:

~ Earn while you sleep. Yawn!
~ Work in your pajamas or underwear.
~ No work needed. Oh, really?
~ 200% money returns. You can try robbing a bank! You get much more!
~ Let your money roll & roll.....yea, then banks will have to close down.

Common scams:

1. High Yield Investment Programs (HYIPs). They require you to invest a large sum of money, with the promise of high returns in a very short time. This usually involves investing in some kind of 'future projects'.

2. Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) opportunities. Don't get me wrong. Not all of them are scams. They are genuine companies that market quality products and members get paid for sales of the products/services. Take note that if there are no real products/services, and you earn only by asking people to join, it's most probably a pyramid scam. It's illegal of course.

Other Online Scams to take note:

1. Lottery scams. Congratulations! You have won a new full HDTV (or PS3, iphone, fridge, etc.). All you need to do is visit the website and provide your credit card number and PIN to cover "shipping and handling" costs. You are right, the item never comes. You have just exposed yourself to identity theft.

2. Phishing scams. You receive an e-mail that looks like it came from your bank, warning you about identity theft and asking that you log in and verify your account information. Your login details are recorded and sold to other people.

3. Auction scams. You won the bid for an item and the item never arrived after you have made a payment for it. Auction sites like eBay have made strict regulations against such scammers.

Do you know that you can actually make money online with these legitimate ways? Discover how you can quickly build a successful home-based business for yourself and your loved ones!