by Lilian Okado

What to look out for

From the onset of “An introduction to Internet money making for newbies-Part 1,” we introduced you to the importance of doing a background check on the numerous internet opportunities that permeate the internet. We also provided you with a few links we felt relevant to check out and are useful in busting online scammers out to get your hard earned money.

Falling prey to internet scams has become even more common especially with the global crisis threatening to overwhelm most individuals. People are becoming even more desperate as fear of hard financial times becomes a reality for many. Nevertheless despite the doom and gloom surrounding the recession that is hitting the shores of numerous countries worldwide, existing online entrepreneurs as well as newbies looking to start a career working from home still have a hope of making a steady and lucrative income online if the have the following in mind:

a)     Do not be desperate. No matter how badly off you are and in need of some serious financial breakthrough do not become desperate. Have some dignity; desperation only makes it easier for you to get scammed as you are ready to take unnecessary risks that you would not necessarily take if you were in the normal frame of mind. If you research on people who do get scammed a majority of the ‘unsuspecting victims are usually desperate.

b)     Avoid paying subscriptions to sites that charge you to access their ‘top dollar’ job sites. A case in point is that witnessed in October 2008 of the Louie brothers: Eric  and Calvin,  who “knowingly took in consumers with false earnings claims for work-at-home schemes involving free government grants, mystery shopping, online surveys, and data entry” (See full article at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/08/mmsecret.shtm). Luckily they got caught but only after scamming quite a huge number of innocent and desperate people. If someone is willing to offer you a job, they will not pay you to get the job, they will simply look at your credentials or interview you and make their employment decision based on that.

This by no means discounts the legitimate sites out there like www.elance.com,  www.guru.com,  www.freelancewriters.info, and many other that do ask for subscription fees to access their numerous jobs on offer. Again if you do your background check on these companies you will realise that they have been successfully been in business for several years and there is a lot of positive feedback as concerns their validity. REMEMBER: the key is research.

c)      You cannot make thousands of dollars in a week doing ONE job. But yes, you can make thousands of dollars a week doing MULTIPLE jobs. I am sure you have seen such headlines as:

Data Entry Jobs-Easy Work From Home
Data Entry-Make $500 Per Day!

Or

Work from home. No Experience needed
Make $500 Per Day filling out forms!

If you can avoid looking twice at these ads as they spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R! But if you must respond to these ads avoiding doing so more than once in your lifetime.

I must confess that I have fallen prey to one such ad where I found myself posting ads on numerous sites and inviting people to join my link and only getting paid once someone joined under my affiliate link. Of course I went nowhere with this site and others like it; and neither will you.

Legitimate work at home/online jobs and companies do exist. But it is important to know when to say NO! Genuine online or work at home jobs  often ask for evidence or proof of some type of skills be it typing, writing, research, web design, etc. They will also require a resume from you and should have a working phone number and email address where they can be contacted by you.

In essence, I am not in doubt that responding to an online advert that does not fulfill any of the above basic requirements is likely to  you get you scammed!

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