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Can You Be Scammed? You Bet You Can!
By Mike Flynn
Added on 31/08/2007

The internet market is like a whirl wind gaining momentum soon to be a tornado. More and more people are developing an affirmative attitude towards the internet. Their sole reason is to create an online source of income in the comfort and safety of their own home. Endless options are available for anyone creating a website to offer a service or sell a product. It's absolutely mind boggling the number of people that are now using the internet. As of January 2007, according to internetworldstats.com, there are over 1 billion internet world users and over 232 million of them are in North America. During the last 7 years, the number of users has grown by 114.7% in North America and by 240.7% in the world. The present number of users only make up a mere 16.6% of the world population. Can you imagine what lies ahead. Scam Artists With this tremendous internet user growth, of course, summons both the good and the evil. Unfortunately, scam artists have wormed their way into the internet. You may have even fallen prey to one or more of these perverted predators, selling you their latest \"get rich quick\" program. The dictionary's definition of scam is \"a ploy by a shyster to raise money, a fraudulent business scheme, deprive by deceit\". In the internet world the word scam to me is best described as an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons into buying a worthless product for the sole purpose of taking their limited supply of money. Elie Wiesel said, \"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest\". We must protest against those who deceive us. Protect Your Self To identify a reputable site operated by a honorable owner/merchant, your undivided attention is required. Remember the old adage - Don' t Judge The Book By Its Cover. Well, it applies when you're selecting a merchant. You need to judge the site, judge the company behind the site and listen to your feelings and impressions operating at your subconscious level. Secrets Of A Reputable Site To judge the site, you ask yourself does the site look professional. To make this determination, you look for the following: * Does the site format to your screen; * Does it redirect to another site; * Does it take to long to load; * Does it have an intro before the real page; * Does it have auto play videos without closer; * Does it consist of only test pages; * Does it show loading bars; * Does it show very uninformative text; * Does it show mostly ads on top; * Does it include sound without closer; * Does it contains broken links; * Does it have spelling and grammatical errors; * Is it not easy to navigate; * Does it have unorganized pages; * It does not state price until ordering; * The ordering is not quick and efficient. If the web site has any of the above, then by now your elevated antennae should be resonating. What Is Hidden Behind The Site The second part of the equation is to obtain a sense of who is selling you the product. A short description of the person and a photo is helpful. If it is a company, then a link to \"About Us\" is very useful especially if it provides history and who is involved in the company. To acquire a better sense of what is behind the site, gather the following: * Look on the website for one or more of the logos issued after submission and close scrutiny of the site by truste.com, BBonline.com and Better-Internet-Bureau.org; * Make sure there is a privacy policy; read it and determine if it is vague or wishy-washy; * If user information is required, does the policy state exactly how your information is going to be used and will the forth coming email from the owner or merchant have an opt-out mechanism; * Make sure there is an owner or merchant's contact page. Does this page provide the merchants address, email and phone number; * Search for unbiased reviews. Don't just rely on testimonials. Best place to obtain 3rd party review is to check latest reviews on forums. If you are dealing with a company and not an individual, check the BBB (Better Business Bureau); * See if the product owner offers a fact page (FAQ). Is the fact page helpful; * Send an email and see how long it takes the owner to respond or does the owner respond at all; * Ask the owner how often the product has been updated and if future updates are free; * If the product is digital, check the products owners status on ClickBank in terms of average net dollar amount earned per affiliate, average percentage commission earned per affiliate per referred sale, fraction of publisher's total sales that are referred by affiliates and the number of distinct affiliates who earned a commission by referring a paying customer to the publisher's product. If it is not digital, check the owner's status at Commission Junction. How To Listen To Your Inner Self The third part of the equation is to listen to your inner self. To listen to your feelings and impressions operating at your subconscious level, you need to ignore the constant analyzing, rationalizing and out right arguing, your conscious mind does stop you from relying on your inner voice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was quoted as saying, \"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole stair case, just the first step\". Your first step of faith is listening to your inner self. Dr. Ronald C. Bissel of selfgrowth.com says that each time you listen to the wisdom of your voice, you are given new insight and are taken deeper into the spiritual aspects of your consciousness. Your inner voice creates a connection with your Creator that transcends our physical world. Understanding its value in your life will lead you into a deep level of trust. How does this apply to buying a product? Your first impression of a Sales Page should not be your only guiding light. It may have the right colors, say all the right things and have great testimonials, but before you buy be a diligent shopper. Just to reiterate. Conduct an intensive observation on how the site looks, how organized is it and is the site functional and efficient. Then investigate as to what is behind the site. How reputable is the merchant and what do third party opinions say about the product and merchant. Then, of course, listen to your inner voice. Remember, your money matters, so be a prudent purchaser. Warm regards, Mike Flynn

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