Don’t Fall for Internet Business Scams

By Maren Kate On February 5, 2010 · 14 Comments · In Blogging

So you’re obviously interested in entrepreneurship since you are reading my blog on how to escape the 9 to 5, heck, you are probably even bent towards online entrepreneurship… and why wouldn’t you be? It freaking kicks butt… I get to work anywhere, anytime and make as much as I want (or better am willing to work for). But, and this is a big one, when you are starting out PLEASE don’t fall for internet business scams!! Sometimes people ask if there is such a thing as an internet better business bureau, too bad there isn’t but to help you out I put together this list of scams NOT to fall for.

Get rich quick schemes:

If you ever read “You can make $5,000 a month with absolutely no work” run for the hills. I can’t tell you how many of these scams I see daily and the sad thing is people buy them and then ‘surprise, surprise’ they DON’T work. Don’t be stupid, if it was that easy to make money don’t you think the people promoting it would just keep all the money for themselves?

Pyramid schemes:

A popular new one I have noticed on the radar is called Blast Off (I won’t even provide the link because I don’t want to drive any traffic to these people). It is a classic pyramid scheme, you have to buy into the business (by purchasing prepaid legal of all things) and then you are supposed to get more people under you and soon you’ll be rich! No, instead you’ll just end up spending money on marketing and have nothing to show for it except a lot of crappy prepaid legal fees.

Making money via adwords:

If you don’t know what you are doing you will lose your shirt with this scam, the idea is that you get a pre-built website that sells product X, you use your own dollars to promote the site via Google’s adwords and presto = MONEY! In reality, you’ll spend hundreds or more in adwords and get a fraction of the sales price of the product if anything. Usually they’ll ask you to buy the ‘resale’ rights which only puts you more upside down.

This will be easy scams.

It won’t, no matter WHAT kind of business you want to start, let me tel you one thing. It WON’T be easy. It’ll be hard, you may cry at times, it’ll be scary and it’ll kick your butt… but if you make it through the dip (as Seth Godin coined) you’ll succeed, big time.

Reselling eBooks on eBay or other sites.

This doesn’t work, often people say it does but trust me it doesn’t! Buying resale rights, or paying to join clickbank.com will not make you rich or even build a successful business unless you are marketing genius. So instead of selling other people’s crap why not make your own, make it special & grow a solid fan base that will buy it.

The bigger picture…

If you want to be an entrepreneur good for you, I know you’ll succeed if you want it bad enough and truly expect to win. It isn’t easy, its very hard, you’ll think you may go broke and be thrown out in the cold several times. You may even fail, in an epic way, several times before you hit your cash cow. But if you continue to fight, to crawl, scrape & hustle towards your goal you will succeed in an amazing way.

Side Note: I have been a member of an AMAZING online community called Internet Business Mastery Academy for a long time, it is what got me STARTED in entrepreneurship for goodness sakes! It’s not cheap, $97 a month, but the academy is TOTALLY worth it. Since I listed a bunch of internet business scams I thought I talk a bit about Internet Business Mastery which is totally not a scam. It provides truly an online University for anyone interested in escaping the 9 to 5 for good… some of it’s alum include pro blogger Pat Flynn and Mark Mason of Masonworld.com.

If you are interested in Internet Business Mastery you can download their free gift here, well worth the 2 seconds it takes to put your name and email address in… plus they are real good about only sending you things of value.

http://www.cartermason.com/ Carter Mason

Ummm… Blastoff is free. Pre-Paid Legal just supplied the venture capital, and their associates get a larger downline.

By calling it a scam, you're actually keeping people from receiving discounts and cash back without having to recruit a single person. I don't have hardly anyone in my downline, but I've saved about a $100 using Blastoff. That's not much, but in this economy every bit helps.

There is absolutely no cost to sign up, and you get cashback on purchases made much like an affiliate program.

I agree with your general sentiment, but please get your facts straight when singling out two companies.
http://twitter.com/LeJonR LeJon Ratchford

Winning in the cash flow business. This is ran by a gentleman named Russ Dalbey!
Russ claims all you would do is find Real Estate Notes post them on their website and you get money. The infomercial is misleading! The last paragraph described me all the way, lol. I wont give up! Great Post!
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

I have done my research on Blast off and was approached twice in the last month by random people trying to pitch me on Blastoff… they said that to join all I had to do was buy prepaid legal, which immediately sends of warning bells. In talking to other people who have joined they've all said they paid money up front to get in on the 'ground floor'… maybe its changed recently and I will check it out to see if I'm mistaken. Thanks for the comment Carter!
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

Yeah I agree… it is just sad to me that so many hard working people get lured in by the promise of easy money & actually end up losing money Instead people don't realize if they just keeping fighting for their dreams they will get there, just not the 'easy' way usually.
http://subject2.com Nick Johnson

Maren, love this post because it hits a topic that my readers know I'm passionately opinionated about.

I sincerely with all my hearts desire HATE (btw, I was called a hater today) Scammy Internet Marketers and what they call 'Internet Business'. I get tired of hearing all the same 'ol excuses, well it's 'passive' income and so and so made X amount last month and his friend makes X amount each month.

blah blah blah blah. I totally agree with you. The new trend is selling your own 'product' on your 'blog' now. Gone are the days (or they're on the way gone) of having a squeeze page and promoting affiliate products that don't pay out commissions. People end up spending more time, money and effort to fail at IM not realizing they're the exact targeted market that the products they are buying (how to make money on the internet) are meant for.

I could go on and on but this isn't my site, I just enjoy connecting and communicating (true business marketing techniques btw) with you regarding our similar interests.
http://subject2.com Nick Johnson

Maren, love this post because it hits a topic that my readers know I'm passionately opinionated about.

I sincerely with all my hearts desire HATE (btw, I was called a hater today) Scammy Internet Marketers and what they call 'Internet Business'. I get tired of hearing all the same 'ol excuses, well it's 'passive' income and so and so made X amount last month and his friend makes X amount each month.

blah blah blah blah. I totally agree with you. The new trend is selling your own 'product' on your 'blog' now. Gone are the days (or they're on the way gone) of having a squeeze page and promoting affiliate products that don't pay out commissions. People end up spending more time, money and effort to fail at IM not realizing they're the exact targeted market that the products they are buying (how to make money on the internet) are meant for.

I could go on and on but this isn't my site, I just enjoy connecting and communicating (true business marketing techniques btw) with you regarding our similar interests.
http://www.cartermason.com/ Carter Mason

Hey, I get defensive when it comes to Pre-Paid Legal, because it is my business. I have no doubt you were approached by idiots misrepresenting the company. I seriously would like you to give me their names, so I can report them. I am an associate with enough standing my case will at least be heard. These people are not doing right by PPL or even Blastoff.

When I first saw the Blastoff company presented at the PPL convention in Vegas last September, my thoughts were, “Great idea, but we're going to get screwed.”

The reason I thought this was that the people like you've been approached by will be attracted to a get rich quick idea (which it wasn't meant to be) and abandon what made a 37-year old publicly traded company on the NYSE great: We have a great product, with a great need.

And worse, you're negative opinion of PPL because of Blastoff is discouraging entrepreneurs from a service they need. I'm not talking about the MLM or network marketing opportunity, I'm talking about access to affordable legal advice from top-rate attorneys.

The truth is, Blastoff has NEVER charged to join. The ONLY advantage a PPL associate gets is a bigger downline in Blastoff. Anyone who tells you that you have to pay money is a liar, and they would be in violation of their associate agreement with PPL for misrepresenting the company and recruiting new associates under false pretenses. I sincerely hope their associate agreements would be terminated.

So I truly apologize for being defensive, but I do want you to know the truth. I work with small biz owners, new and old, to help them get quality, affordable legal services and access to business consultants. 90% of my income is from my own sales, and I do not need the network marketing part of the business to make a good living.

Since you have a good voice for biz people, please take the time to take an open look at the PPL biz plan. It is something you should be recommending to your readers. Ironically, the membership itself would help protect entrepreneurs from true scams.

I would be happy to send you sample contracts, brochures, or talk to you on the phone and give you a true presentation of what we do, so you can have the full information. This is a service small biz owners need, not one that should be evaluated solely on their decision to provide venture capital for a company some have chosen to misrepresent.

Thanks for your time and your thoughtful response. Please consider taking a much closer look at Pre-Paid Legal for business owners.
http://www.theemotionmachine.com/ Steven | The Emotion Machine

Very sound advice for any aspiring entrepreneur. I notice a lot of people still fall for those “easy money” schemes. There is NO SUCH THING as easy money, people! You have to earn every buck – so get with the program, take action, and create something valuable!
http://www.theinfopreneur.net/ TheInfoPreneur

All excellent points, I would rather pay $1,000 for a business which clearly states you have to put the hours in to make it work than $5 for a ebook saying you can do it with an hours work a week!

Maren Like you I put the hours in, but it's paying off big time and will ultimately be the big factor when I start to monetize in a couple of months. Hours and hours or hard works and passion, none of this garbage these try and pump on us
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

Yep, yep, I am totally for buying REALLY great products or seminars online for big bucks vs. a cheap eBook that is a scam. But I have invested thousands myself in stuff that has been EXTREMELY useful.
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

Steven I agree, being an entrepreneur is HARD HARD work. I have an aching back to prove it… too much computer time But heck it is 100x worth it, I'd rather work for myself for 12 hours a day vs. someone else for 4 hours.
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

You are right Nick, I like that people are being forced to build up a community around their brand and if they can't hack that then they aren't making the money they used to with the pump & dump method. Like what you and I are doing… building a blog, growing a community & then maybe in the future profiting from that… but profit isn't number 1.
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

No problem Carter, I am now researching Blast Off more because I do feel bad if I blasted a legit company… but like you said I seriously have had 3 people come up to me in Starbucks totally spamming the Blast Off sign ups. Which is really unfortunate since like you said a lot of legitimate people are also involved because it automatically rings the 'spam' bells in my head… but I will be looking into Blast Off more to validate the points you made.

Thanks for the response Carter!
http://www.thecynicalcustomer.com/ the Cynical Customer

This post + some comments made me actually curious about Blast Off.
If nothing else it will be good post for my blog .