Scams and Information Overload - 7 Winning Tips

Although there are many legitimate offers out there, the murky waters of the Internet are the hunting grounds for sharks and scammers whose natural prey is the newcomer looking for an easy way of making money online.

These unscrupulous so-called ‘Guru’s’ make a handsome living feeding ‘Internet secrets’ to the beginner… for a price, thereby luring them in with convincing offers that promise to turn them into instant millionaires.

With the overwhelming mass of data available, Information Overload is one of the major deterrents facing the aspiring Internet entrepreneur. As a consequence, it often causes confusion, procrastination and in many cases, burnt fingers and skinny billfolds.

Untold thousands of beginners every week become willing lambs to the slaughter, and the overall philosophy of these false ‘Guru’ types seems to be that if the Good Lord didn’t want them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep in the first place.

There are seven ways to avoid this trap:

1. Look before you leap. Investigate every offer first. Run a Google or Yahoo search on the website in question, read investigative forums, look them up on Ezine Articles… and most important, visit the BBB online before jumping in headfirst.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
3. If the testimonials lack a phone number or contact email address, move on.
4. Do not fall for high-pressure sales and time related offers such as ‘Buy in the next five minutes or lose out’ or ‘Act now! Only 23 slots left’, and so on. Let’s face it, if they were legit, they’d have all the time in the world, so it’s probably a scam.
5. Beware FREE offers. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch! Look for the hook, because it’s usually there somewhere.
6. Never pay for up-front information.
7. And lastly. DO NOT give out your credit card details without first going through step 1.

To put it in a nutshell, don’t be a “Ready, Fire, Aim” sort of person. The truth is, there’s no substitution for work, time and sweat equity.

Don’t be discouraged. There are fortunes to be made and there are many legitimate offers available. Once you’ve carried out your investigations and vetted every testimonial you can find, concentrate on one that works for you and ignore the rest.

As someone once put it, “Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey”.