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How To Spot A Scam And Stop It Dead In Its Tracks
by
John Karnish
According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission the internet is an extremely easy place to promote a scam. The internet allows people to reach a large populace with a very
small amount of money. "Anyone can reach tens of thousands of people by building an Internet web site, posting a
message on an online bulletin board, entering a discussion in a live "chat" room, or sending mass e-mails."
It's extremely hard to spot fraudulent opportunities from the real ones and you can end up losing a large sum of
money.
Message boards are an extremely easy way to post a scam. All you need is an alias. The scamster simply creates a post under a false name. He then starts creating a thread. For instance, "Has any one heard of xyz company, I heard they offer a great opportunity." A bit later, he'll follow up with something like this. "Yes, I heard of them. I've only been an associate for a month and have already made $2,000 dollars."
He'll keep on creating threads with different aliases to create false credibility.
Email is also an easy way to promote a scam. A scammer can reach hundreds of thousands with little money or effort.
One popular email scam lately is the "Nigerian Scam." Emails are sent to business owners, claiming that the sender is a high official in the Nigerian Government. They claim
that they need move a large sum of money out of their bank, and with your cooperation, they want to deposit it in your business account. They require either an up front fee or your banking information. As you probably can guess your bank account will get depleted.
Whether the Nigerian Scam actually originates in Nigeria is unknown, but the US SEC suggests that investors should be wary of off shore investments. Because of the difference in laws, money and so on, you'll have a hard time getting yourmoney back, if you do at all.
One last scheme is the classic Pyramid Scheme. You can easily spot these with headlines like "Turn $5 into $300 in
3 weeks. These programs never work unless you're the one who started them. So stay away from them.
To sum up, if anything sounds too good to be true it probably is. Through hard work and time there is money to be made on the internet, but there is no "easy money." At least I haven't found it.
