Have You Been Scammed?

Do you want to make money online? 

Unless you have some insider advice or a great mentor, it can be very challenging to decipher all the offers and opportunities out there.  I call it getting lost down the Internet rabbit hole.

If you are anything like me, every day you’ll have an in-box full of emails telling you about the latest and greatest ways to make money and get rich on the Internet.   I’ve been in the home business industry for several years, and have found businesses that work and many that don’t.  Once I decided that the Internet was a fantastic environment to develop my business and make money, I began to do some research.  So I read a lot, joined many business opportunities and purchased a lot of systems and tools. 

I found an enormous number of so-called “Guru” packages that claim to show you the system, the secret, the one way to make money in home business and make you successful. There are launches of new systems and products everyday, all with the promise of quick and easy ways to make money. 

If you are like me, you’ll find that it gets to the point where you are really suffering from information overload, too many products, too many e-books too much software, and all those audios.  Have you found that you have even forgotten what you have already purchased?  Yet you are still looking for the perfect home business.  Because you know that there must be a way for you to make money working at home.

Now don’t get me wrong.  There are heaps of people who make money online from many home business programs.  And many are legitimate.  But some really should be avoided.

Here are some tips on what to do to help you avoid being scammed.

1. First, make sure that the business is being offered by a legitimate company.  This is easy to check – see if you can phone them and that they have a real mail address.  Do a Google search on the business name and the person involved, and check out related websites and forums.   Also search for complaints.  It is well worth spending some time researching. 
2. Check how long this business has been running.  You really want something that is established.  There are heaps of start-ups, and of course their selling point is get in now with a ground floor opportunity and make money online faster.  The truth is that 95% of these startups fail – some very quickly, some after a year or so.  And when they fall over, your business falls over too.  So unless you are willing to risk your money and a lot of your effort, it is best to steer clear of startups. 
3. There are a few types of home business that are suspect: these include home craft, “stuffing” envelopes, and typing at home. It appears that after paying the joining fee, no real work at home is actually available. 
4. An obvious type to avoid is the pyramid scheme – this is where you pay a fee for nothing of value, and get others to do the same, with a promise that you will make money.  You may have seen these on and off the Internet.  The point about these schemes is that they are illegal, and are not legitimate forms of making money in home business.

My research has let me to a conclusion and some advice.  Do some research on the home business opportunity you are looking at.  Avoid the pitfalls I have mentioned above.

Make sure you are getting something of value for the investment that is required.

And then focus to make sure that you make money with your own home business.