Were You Hyped Or Scammed?

by Lucas Heijn

Are you looking to start your own Internet business? Are you thinking of starting with something ready-made? I want you to imagine you’re looking through the newspaper in the advertisement’s column. And you come across an ad that says, “Profitable Business Ready To Go”. It explains that it is a very profitable franchise in ice cream.

This sounds a really good business. I could really enjoy this. This is for me. You find that it comes with a brand-new ice cream van, plenty of ice cream and chocolate topping. The area that your franchise is assigned to is a new suburb, so new in fact; there are no houses, no people, no customers. This means you really have no business.

Does this sound familiar? Have you bought ready-made websites with lots of products, and been told that you will make a profit within 24 hours? Well, you went ahead and bought the product set up the new site and fixed up the payment buttons. What happened next? A big fat nothing!

Just like the ice cream van your website is beautiful, well stocked, but there are no customers.

You were told this product is selling like hotcakes. You will have your money back and more within 24 hours. That was just hype. Hot air.

So is there a difference between hype and being scammed? Well, there really is some difference. Hype is often not total untruth. It often stretches the truth to make something appear better than it really is. The thing that makes hype similar to scamming is the fact that both are after your money. Hype is used to convince you to buy.

The difference is a scammer is much like a con man. The scammer uses totally dishonest means, total untruth to get you to part with your money. They often pose as something they’re not. I’m sure you have received e-mails from people posing as PayPal asking you go to the site and fill in your login details. With this information, they can fraudulently use your account your money.

Hype is often not total untruth. It just stretches the truth. So you think you are getting more than you are really getting. Any product on the Internet that promises you instant success is using hype to get you to buy. There is no such thing as instant profits.

Whether you run a business online or off-line, it takes time to build it. You need to build a customer base. You need to convince your customers that you are there for the long haul, that you’re not a fly-by-night operator.

The new website, you have set up is very similar to the ice cream van mentioned earlier. You have a beautiful website, some really good products, but you really need some customers. Another name for customers is traffic. This is the most challenging part of your Internet business. It can be a long slow process that takes a lot of work.

How to go about getting traffic to your site is a subject I will discuss in another article.

About the Author:

Email Phishing - What Is It?

by Sandra Wilson

Simply put, email phishing is a trap that has been set to catch the receiver unawares and get access for the sender to your financial information. Most of these type of email scams are easy to recognize but every day the scammers get more and more sophisticated with the emails they send out. These phishing emails, therefore, can become harder to recognize as time goes on.

Basically, most email phishing scams are an attempt to gain your information, both personal and financial. With this information, the phisher can assume your identity in order to, for example, set up fraudulent accounts or he can just outright steal money from your banking or other financial accounts.

One type of common email phishing scheme is where someone from another country supposedly needs to transfer funds to a bank account in the U.S. He requests you please help him get his inheritance, or whatever he claims he needs, out of his country. You can do this by allowing him to put the money in your bank account and for this service, you will receive a percentage or set amount. To show good faith, a small amount of money will be transferred to your account. Looks good but the next thing you know, most, if not all, of your money will be drained out of your account. This scam works by addressing your greed - do next to nothing and get paid for it.

Other phishing techniques include sending an official looking email from what one is led to believe is the bank of that individual. This email is requesting that you update the personal information on the website that they have provided a link to. When you hit the link, the website that they have listed is not the website that you goes to, although it often has the same appearance of a bank website. This type of email phishing is of a much higher level of sophistication than other types and can be harder to identify. You should be aware that many, if not all, financial institutions will never request that you update your personal information via a website.

One of the most important things that one can do to help prevent email phishing is to report each and every email that one gets that appears suspicious. It is far better to be too safe with your identity and finances than not safe enough.

About the Author:

Avoid Home Business Scams That Only Want Your Money

With the job market continuing to tank more people are looking at starting a home business as a means of supporting their families. Unfortunately, many offers for home business opportunities are being made by individuals preying on the needs of others. Many internet users are finding their inboxes deluged with offers of making bog money with little or no work. Secrets to making big money on the internet are available from many different companies, offered only after they “unlocked the secret” of hitting it big on the internet.

In most of the internet websites attempting to get people to send money for a guaranteed successful business, will be filled with success stories about ordinary people who were nearly broke and facing bankruptcy until they signed up for this program. Now they have more money than they know how to spend and they offer enthusiasm thanks to the person who unveiled the tricks to making an obscene amount of money for doing nothing.

There are a few aspects of internet advertising for moneymaking opportunities that should raise red flags and sound some loud bells before sending any money or worse, entering your credit card information.

Beware of limited time offers that will expire in a couple of hours, if not in minutes. People needing to find a home business are often duped into signing up for a worthless program, wanting to make sure they secure their place in line before the opportunity is gone. Go back and visit the site later in the day or even a day or a week later, and chances are the same ad will be there with the same time limit warning.

Read through the entire offering in the initial ad and when you reach the end, go back and read it again. Usually there is nothing to indicate what product or service you will be selling to your friends and neighbors. If, after reading the ad a third time you still have no idea what the company is offering, close the page and delete from your online history.

It is not unusual for companies offering what amounts to a franchise for their business to request money up front. Legitimate brick and mortar businesses have been doing it for years and it’s an acceptable practice. However, before you opt in to a program, find out exactly what you will get for your investment. If it is only the right to use the name, move on. If the company wants you to pay for training materials that may be the only thing you get for your investment.

Ask for contact information about those in the testimonials to get your own take on their success. Chances are that will be “confidential” information and not available. Additionally, contact information for the company wanting you to send money now should be clearly available in their website. Hiding behind an email address is a common ploy for those looking to take your money and offer nothing substantial in return. It’s your money they want, demand answers before sending it.

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opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.onlinebusinessresource.net
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