I have a confession to make. I've been scammed twice for sure.
On both occasions I did not do my due diligence - I got carried away with the hype that was being generated in the market and followed the herd over the cliff. Neither time cost me a great deal of money, but both times could have and they could have cost me a lot more.
Human behavior never changes
We all would like to think that there is a simple easy formula that will make us rich and sometimes it's easy to believe the get rich quick scheme will work.
As long as we continue to live in a commercial reality there will always be people who devise schemes to relieve you of your hard earned cash, and the internet has provided fertile soil for the con men and criminal elements of our societies. Yes we've all heard of the Nigerian letter scam and wonder how people could get tricked in to that but things aren't always as clear and transparent.
Let's consider the Auto-surf "industry" and the amazing events that surrounded 12 daily pro.
Auto surf traffic exchanges had been in existence for a while - the concept is simple. Log in to the nominated program and the system will display a series of websites, there is no manual verification system to say you're watching and after you've surfed a sat number of pages the program would pay you a sum of money for "viewing" the websites. Theoretically the money was a return on advertisers revenue.
Think about that - what advertiser in his right mind would bother advertising a site to somebody who doesn't even have to look at it. So where did the money come from? Viewers were encouraged to "invest" in the business and paid a return for surfing the pages. Initially these auto-surf programs ran quietly away paying a 1% return on members funds, then it just went crazy. A website offered 4%, then somebody offered 5% until 12 daily pro came out and offered this incredible deal. 12% daily return on investment, surf 12 sites only daily.
It was an obvious scam, I thought.
The Internet marketing world went crazy - all the forums were full of success stories, the safe lists were full of justifications for the business model. Every man and his dog seemed to be in on the act except me and I kept saying to myself that it was a scam. Anyway, the herd mentality pressure beat me and I put some money in - not much - just enough to test the water.
Seven days later Storm pay refused to process 12 daily pro withdrawal requests. The internet world went berserk - "it was Storm pay's fault they were ripping off 12DP." In fact the FBI were auditing Storm pay and then moved in and shut down 12 Daily Pro, charging the owners with fraud and many other associated charges.
Here is the bottom line.
Many "investors" in 12DP lost thousands of dollars.
Many affiliates who actively promoted 12DP and earned commissions from that promotion are liable to criminal charges.
Nobody did their due diligence.
IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE
So what does the whole experience teach us?
Here are some basic rules to follow.
"If it seems to good to be true - it almost certainly is."
If your gut instinct says scam - leave it alone
Stay away from HYIP (High Yield Investment Programs)
Stay away from Auto-surf programs
Stay away from Doublers, triplers. randomizes, cyclers - they're all illegal.
Check out the owner and the program - do a Google search on both you may be surprised at what you find.
There is a difference between a scam and a program that doesn't work for you - sometimes for whatever reason you'll find that people will label something a scam because they paid money for it and didn't become wealthy overnight.. Duh!
There is no substitute for hard work - if you're not prepared to work and are seeking an easy dollar then you're ripe for the picking. You will be scammed. Save yourself the trouble - get out of Internet marketing today. By all means, dream your dreams - buy a lottery ticket or take the casino option - at least you've got some chance
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Contributor's Note
This was part of a course that I was developing but never saw the light of day.
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