There are thousands of scams online. We can easily say that people have lost millions of euros in the pocket of online cheaters who are earning money illegally or with unethical ways.
I have written this article to help you avoid online scams and save your money from the cheaters. You should only use your money for the reliable online programs. I also made a video where I walk you through these 5 tips to avoid scams online and I give you some very practical tips. I believe you will enjoy it.
Tip 1 Avoid Too Big Promises
The old saying goes, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is”. There are online programs with the false testimonies like, “I earned 10,000$ within the first week.”
That kind of promises may sound appealing but as far as I know that kind of promise is never true. Everything worthwhile in life requires efforts and it’s exactly the same with the online business.
Would you imagine to earn $10,000 within the first week in the normal business where you don’t invest a single dollar (or $10 maximum)? Don’t imagine to make $10,000/month right after starting in the online world. That’s not the reality.
I know that you can make $10,000/month, $20,000 or even $100,000/month online because many other people are doing it honestly. But the point is that all of those guys have made lots of work to achieve their online success.
Tip 2 Read the Reviews
There are a lot of reviews about the reliable online programs. If the program is legit and you can benefit from it, the chances are that someone else has used the program before and wrote the review about it.
I write reviews here in YourOnlineRevenue to tell you about the legit products and warn you about the scams. I write my reviews as honestly as I can, so you can trust in my words about the programs.
I have one experience when I didn’t use this principle. I went to one website that promised me a lot of Twitter followers for free fast.
The page looked like the scam and I thought that probably I need first to search more about this website in Google.
I was so excited about the possibility to get more followers that I didn’t read the reviews. The result: The website sent 2 spam messages to all of my Twitter followers.
The good thing was that I didn’t use any money there and I learned the lesson that it’s always important to investigate first if something seems a bit suspicious.
Many times I have been about to try the interesting product but then I have realized read some honest reviews before and decided not to waste my time.
Just make a quick search in Google, “Is PRODUCT_NAME a scam?” or “PRODUCT_NAME review”.
NOTE: Some people are writing positive reviews about the scam products because they may earn the commission if you join. Be careful and read for example 3 reviews before joining or find the reliable source where you can find the product.
Tip 3 Investigate the Founders
Everything depends on the leader/founder. Is the founder reliable? Does he shows his face and identity or is he unknown like the mystical Q in “TooDamnEasy” program.
Can you find information about the founders on the internet? What other people say about them?
Do they have a long experience? Do they use their own principles in order to succeed?
Tip 4 Ask Reliable Online Entrepreneurs
In Wealthy Affiliate, you can find persons who have a very long experience in the online business. Some of them have been doing online business even 15 years.
You can contact them personally in WA and in my experience they have always answered the questions.
Their eyes are experienced to see which one is a scam and which one is a legit program.
You can also always ask us in YourOnlineRevenue.com and we promise to give find you the honest answer. Just leave the comment below and most of the time we will come up with the answer within 24 hours.
Tip 5 Investigate the Free Material First
Usually, you can find the free material from the program. In Wealthy Affiliate, you will get 10 free lessons, 2 free websites and other features for free. You can try if the program is really legit or not.
All of the programs don’t provide free material but you can find it from the other websites.
For example, Chris Farrell Membership (a legit program) has free teachings in Youtube. You can see if the program is really providing value.
Niche Blitzkrieg is also a legit program but there is not a free trial. Still there is a full money-back guarantee and you can find a lot of reviews on the Internet.
My #1 recommendation Wealthy Affiliate provides 20 free videos lessons for free. After studying their free material you can well decide if you want to continue to their premium program or not.
BONUS Insight!
I have been in the online business for a good while. One natural thing I have noticed is that the more I review”Make money online” -products, the faster I spot scams.
Many scams just follow same patterns and they give you the same story in a little bit different covers.
Let’s take for example three programs Phoenix Power Rising, Pure Leverage System and My Lead System Pro. All of them are based on the following idea:
1.You join to their program
2.You invite other people to join
3.You make money when your referrals buy something.
All of them have very high membership fee which will motivate you to refer other people so you could earn back the money you have lost to the program.
When you gain experience on your online business your eyes will spot scam products much faster than before. In addition, you will see what it really takes to make lots of money online.
The Ways to Avoid Scams Online – Summary
Using these 5 ways to avoid scams online
1 Avoid Too Big Promises
2 Read the Reviews
3 Investigate the founders
4 Ask Reliable Online Entrepreneurs
5 Investigate the Free Material First
You will never fall into the scams.
If you can’t find any information about the program from the Internet, no one of the online entrepreneurs know about it, the program doesn’t offer any free material I would say that the programs are a scam. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY IN SCAMS.
Tired of scams? Try #1 online business program today!
What are the signs you think the program is a scam? Have you used the money on the scam program? Leave a comment below.
These are really helpful tips. Thank you for this article. Scams are popping out in internet everyday. It takes longer to search for legit sites and apps because of this types of schemes. Even though the promises they make are not believable some people still gets scammed because of the lack of knowledge and information regarding this scams. Beginners usually fall for this.
I’m glad that you found these tips helpful!
This is a good tips on how to avoid scam. It’s always nice to read and learn on something before taking a decisions. It teaches me to be more careful and resourceful. This is also an awareness on how online concept works. I treasure every information and learning i get from every article you reviewed. Thank you for your good work. God bless you @Roope.
I’m glad you enjoyed the tips!
One peculiar thing that is existing in all scam deals online is the promise of using $5 to make $10,000 or even getting to win $10,000 for free without doing any reasonable task that can fetch you that amount of money. If it’s easy to make money online in such manner, I doubt if anyone is still going to be poor and even the founder of such project would be willing to offer it for free to the public. Never look for big gains for doing nothing is one of the best ways to prevent yourself from falling into online scams.
That’s true!
Ponzi is a typical example of an online earning scheme that will promise you that 200% profit from investing with a specific amount of money and once you have invested, there is 90% chance of not getting any profit at all. I have been a victim, so I know exactly how it works.
Yeah, that’s true.
This is a really an informative article about scammers. I was once scammed before but I took the initiative to get my money back since I use Paypal to buy the services with them. I just told Paypal that I was scammed and never received what they promise.
I would like to ask you for a favor Roope, since bitcoin is very in demand right now and its price is now roaring up to $5k, can you take a look at this website if it will follow their promise to give it when it’s already time? The site is BTC Heat. Hope you make an article for it.
Hi Melvs,
sorry to hear that you got scammed once but I’m happy that you received a refund.
Bitcoin is really going up. Today I noticed it has gone over $6,000 per one Bitcoin. My good friend has become a millionaire with Bitcoins and I have also earned thousands of dollars with cryptocurrencies. That’s crazy.
I took a look at BTC Heat. My first impression is that it looks like a scam site and also some sources said it’s a scam. Have you cashed out money from BTC Heat?
How lucky you are to have used PayPal to pay for such and getting back to support that you had been scammed, they helped you to get your money back. This is one of the reasons why most people prefer using PayPal as their payment processor, it’s more secure in all aspects.
In searching online job is a hard thing to do. It is hard to take risk because you wouldn’t know what will happen. This 5 tips is a great help for me to find a trusted job online. In my past searches, I always look for tip #1. And I am glad I made the right choice. Thanks for this blog.
It may be challenging at first but when you gather experience it become always more and more easier. I recommend that you don’t solely rely on #1 tip. There are some opportunities that are better than you could believe. I didn’t believe that I could make a living online and travel around the world before I found Wealthy Affiliate. But now it has become a reality because I know how to make money online.
Some great tips that I’m sure a lot of people will benefit from. It’s disgusting that people still scam innocent people to be honest and it would be so nice to live in a world where you don’t have to worry about scams. I think you need to be careful with reviews though. Some sites/people will put a lot of fake reviews out there to try and make it as if the website is legitimate. Make sure to find reviews in a reputable place.
That’s true. There are many fake reviews on the Internet so it’s always good to read them carefully and check several websites. The more experience you have, the easier it’s spot the difference between a scam and a legitimate opportunity.
If you are the religious type, I’m sure that you are going to be very familiar with the saying that in every twelve, there will always be a Judas. I’m sure Roope is well aware of this quote because he quite the religious type (winks). It’s just why we still have people that have decided to be the 12th Judas when it comes to online business, as they are always working effortlessly to scam the vulnerable ones.
🙂
Haha, I know that you are going to smile about my calling you the religious type Roope. If you remembered, I get to find out about it when you told me about how you dropped your gambling habit and burnt all documents used for such purpose because it was against you religious beliefs. It takes strong conviction to take such decisions against something that actually yield funds to someone.
You remember well 🙂
Of course I do remember well especially when it’s one’s life story and experience. I see them as the best teacher because something which someone have passed through can equally affect another person’s life in the same manner but if you are opportune to know about such occurrence before hand, you will most likely be well prepared for any outcome whatsoever.
I want to know if Rory Ricord’s Link Post Blogging is a Scam. Please respond as soon as possible. Thank You!
Hi Sandra,
thank you very much for reaching out.
I don’t recommend joining Rory Ricord. Have a look at our Rory Ricord review here.
If you are interested in making money online, I can highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate. When you join through my website, I will offer you a free 1-on-1 mentoring and offer my helping hand for everything you need.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers
Roope
These are great tips! I actually was able to avoid a very reputable looking scam using your tip on looking up the founders. I’ve been looking for some sources online for anxiety support and help. And I across this site claiming to offer all of these magical videos that will reduce anxiety in 1 month. They seemed super reputable. But then when looking into the founders – I found that one didn’t exist as far as I could tell and the other was using an image of a guy found on shutterstock…Surely enough after looking through some reviews, I realized it was all fake… Still don’t understand how some people can do things like this. So immoral.
Hi Martina,
I am glad that you didn’t fall into that scam. Sometimes it can be a bit challenging to notice a scam at first but when you take a closer look into a program, it will become obvious. One site had fake founders, fake testimonials and fake everything.
But without making a research I wouldn’t have known that it’s a scam because it looked like a real program.
If you are thinking if some program is a scam or not, you can always ask me and I will find an answer to you :).
Wish you all the best Martina!
-Roope
Hi there! Another great article, I really enjoyed reading this one as I could relate to a lot of what you were saying here.
There are tons of online scams that claim to be able to lead you to quick online riches. But when you take a close look most of them follow exactly the same patterns and offer exactly the same advice. As you have said here, the big promise of loads of money within a short space of time is generally the first sign of a scam!
Make money online takes time and effort, the system that you recommend definitely works, I know because it’s the same one that I have used personally. There are no quick fixes when it comes to starting a real online business. If you are not prepared to put in the effort, you definitely won’t get the results.
Thanks again, I look forward to your next article.
Hi Andrew,
I am glad to hear that you enjoyed reading my article on how to avoid online scams.
“EARN $100,000 in 3 weeks! READ THE TESTIMONIALS.” You know what this means, my friend ;). Translated to English it means, “We want to take your money. Just sign up to our program. Then send us some money. Send a little bit more until you are frustrated enough and quit.”
Even with legit “make money online” -programs it takes hard work to start generating passive income online. But when sowing seeds into a ground, at some point one can reap the harvest.
Always good to know the best ways to avoid from being caught up in a scam. As you mentioned, there are thousands of scams and being able to differentiate between the good and the bad is crucial to being able to have an online income.
You five tips are great to use in the process of making the proper distinction to what would be a legit opportunity.
I also like the fact that you offer a great recommendation with Wealthy Affiliate.
Thank you for the comment Travis.
Before, when I didn’t have any experience of making money online I couldn’t differentiate between the good and the bad program. But now as I have gained experience and expertise I have more knowledge and confidence to say which program is a scam.
When you see many different products, over the time course you will have “antennas” that will alert you when the product seems a scam.
Wealthy Affiliate is great because it gives you lots of knowledge to stay far away from the scams and stick to the right ways to make online income.
Good to know there are five ways to avoid being scams. The one I am always looking into is reading reviews. But, most of the reviews were written by their affiliates, so they will in a way wrote more positive stuff about the products. I think, using all your five methods will help us to get a better picture of whether to buy the products.
You are definitely right Jenna. Most of the time there are lots of positive reviews about the scam products. Some people love money so much that they are even willing to lie to make money. I can’t stand that kind of action.
Nice article. I agree that one of the first things you should look for when avoiding a scam is if there is a free trial or some way to try the program first before buying into it. I have bought into the idea before where the outcome sounds too good to be true. But I am glad to have found a program that is not a scam.
Hi, Ben thanks for your thoughts. Yes, it’s true that sometimes you can find a program that sounds too good to be true and it can be true. It’s just very rare but yes, it’s possible.
Still I would recommend to be aware that most programs that sound too good to be true are usually false. (But not all 🙂 ).
I wish you all the best Ben
-Roope
Hi Roope: I enjoyed reading this blog and wish that I had spent the time researching info like this before I spent a lot of time and frustration looking for a get rich quick scheme. It’s unfortunate that those of us who have fallen for these too good to be true opportunities do it because we really need a break. Thank you for offering your experience with a legitimate on line option.
Hi Bethany: I’m glad that you enjoyed reading this blog. But as you say it’s really unfortunate that there are scam programs out there. But I believe that little by little raising awareness of how to recognize them, people can have good guidelines to avoid scams.
I wish you have better programs in the future!
-Roope