Internet Marketing Scams Explained

Internet marketing scams are as real as it gets – they lurk around every corner, waiting to rip off honest and unsuspecting people of their time and hard earned money.

The networks of scammers are too large and spread globally. They almost work like a big conglomerate, using various means.

Further, it is a common perception that Internet marketing scams are done mostly by unethical affiliate marketers. How true is this?

Below we dissect the most common types of Internet marketing scams and ways you can spot them. Next time you feel tempted to buy a so-called Internet marketing product, check its authenticity first. How will you check? We will discuss that at the end.

Let’s begin.

Types of Internet Marketing Scams

[1] Craigslist Insurance Scams

Suppose you want to sell a used car online and you post your offer on Craigslist. Among the replies you will receive, some will be genuine and some will be downright fake and some (this is important) will be seemingly genuine.

These seemingly genuine ones that are actually ways to gain insurance leads are difficult to understand. If you reply to them with an insurance quote, they will reply saying their net connection was bad and they could not see the insurance quote, and finally, forward you a link suggesting that you visit the site and check out the average insurance price.

The link that they forward is an affiliate link. When you visit there, you have to sign up to see the insurance quote. As you do, the affiliate earns commission.

I am not saying that the insurance company behind this is a fraud. It is possible that the insurance company is not at all aware of the ways and means employed by its affiliates to get them faulty leads.

This is a classic example of unethical affiliate marketing. Stay away from them.

Again, stay away from Craigslist requests that ask you to escrow / wire transfer funds before sending the purchased product or requested services. Most of them use the name of Amazon and eBay to scam people; however, both Amazon and eBay do not offer escrow services.

[2] Hundreds of Search Engines and Thousands of Directory Submissions

Sounds good, right? So where is the scam? The entire prospect of submitting your site to hundreds of search engines and promoting your site on thousands of directory submissions is an unbelievable offer designed to scam you.

First, there are five major search engines – Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Bing. Five years back, submission and indexing of websites was a time consuming job – but not anymore. In fact, you don’t have to submit your site manually sometimes.

If the incoming links on the website are many and of quality, the search engines will index the website automatically. Further, the indexing procedure is a matter of few days at the most, so there is basically no need for re-submissions, which is contrary to what SEO scammers love to claim.

Secondly, submitting the website to thousands of directories is a tall claim. Why would you need thousands of submissions? How can you be sure that the directories are credible and in good standing?

Yes, there are both free and paid directories out there but you have to be really careful before entrusting anyone with this job.

If the person is a scammer, he/she will submit your website to link farms which will definitely hurt the website’s search engine rankings. The best way to differentiate between a scammer from an original is to ask for a list of directories where the SEO person intends to submit.

[3] Black Hat SEO Techniques

These techniques include gateway, doorway, mirror pages, invisible pages, cloaking, page redirects and others. The term black hat implies a computer security hacker and to the act of spamming the Internet for making money online under false pretenses. A person who does this is called a Black Hat SEO.

Boosting the rankings of a website through black hat SEO techniques is a touchy and complicated issue. For all you know, you may be kept in the dark when you are not told of the techniques the SEO professional you hired is using for promoting your website online. Identifying Black Hat SEO spammers is difficult.

There are many SEO firms that openly claim to perform such services. However, do it at your own risk because the website may get banned. Who suffers? YOU! Not the black hat SEO guy!

[4] Social Games Subscription

Have you heard of games like Farmville and Cityville? These are popular social games on Facebook. If you know how to play them, you probably know that players need virtual cash to purchase “items” while playing.

Players have two options – purchase virtual cash by paying real money or complete offers. The second option can sometimes land you in real mess. You can be asked to complete online surveys or an online quiz to get social networking game cash. What is the scam here?

If you wish to view the survey or quiz results, you have to enter your phone number and confirm the number through the PIN texted instantly. Once you do, be ready to get billed every month automatically for “subscriptions.” The amount of the subscription is at the mercy of the scammer.

Stay away from “offers” that ask you to enter personal details / emails / contact details / credit or debit card details. They are scams all the way.

How to Spot Internet Marketing Scams?

I will not explain much in detail here. Just ask yourself these questions before you purchase or subscribe to anything online:

1. How realistic is the offer?
2. How much work are you expected to do?
3. Is the offered business model blueprint credible?
4. Does the company / website have a DMOZ record?
5. How the website / Internet marketer generates money?
6. What kind of offers am I subscribing to?
7. Are they offering insane amounts of cash for little work?
8. Do I have to give my bank details?
9. Are they asking for my PayPal account email to receive payments from other countries?

If you want to know more, read the Affiliate Marketing Scams.

Have you been scammed before? Share with us how.