Who becomes an ideal phishing bait? Practically everyone, especially if you aren’t really careful with who or what you’re dealing with.

The term “phishing” has been around for a considerable amount of time in the World Wide Web. Hackers and scammers will utilize the Internet in order to gather valuable personal information that will surely break your bank and empty your wallet faster than you could possibly imagine. What they do is they send you a fake e-mail where they’ll request you to click on a specific link. This is to supposedly allow you to confirm any personal information.

Upon clicking on the link, you will be brought to a fake website (which, surprisingly, looks like the real one, with very minor differences). Once you supply basic essential details like your bank account number, Social Security number, and credit card number, they’re going to store in their database. Before you know it, someone will be using your details to make extravagant purchases, apply for loans and mortgages, or, worse, harm other people.

Indeed, it does sound like you’re dealing with professional con artist. The truth is you are. However, it doesn’t mean you’ll remain like a helpless puppy in the gutter or a damsel in distress. Here are ways to evade them before they even get to you:

1. Properly scrutinize e-mails that you receive, especially those coming from unknown or suspicious sources.  Majority of phishers pose themselves as lending institutions or credit card companies. You better start reading beginning from the To line until the footer. You can’t rely on the From line alone. After all, this is very easy to copy.

2. They sound too generic. Legal companies should have a database of your personal information. If they want to contact you about something, they must be able to state your name, your own account number or ID, as well as the reason for contacting you, such as billing or technical problem.

Fake ones sound generic, as if they don’t know you at all and so opted to address it to almost everyone. If you receive something like this, then you’re already forewarned.

3. There’s too much threat. Don’t underestimate businesses. Even credit card companies can give you enough leeway to settle your debts. They are very much open for any form of compromise.

Because phishers are so much after your money, they can scare you to death. You may be threatened to a suspended or closed account, unless you can verify personal details. This is to prevent you from having sufficient time to even think about the e-mail.

Phishing e-mails are highly rampant. If you’re not apprehensive with every e-mail you get, then you better kiss goodbye to your money you’ve worked hard for all these years. Your best form of defense is to only read e-mails from your friends, family members, or from well-trusted sources. You shouldn’t open attachments either. They may be viruses that will search for any information you stored in your computer—which is actually very scary. Outsmart them, all right? Don’t give them the satisfaction.

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Multilevel marketing has been in dire straits lately. Though there are legitimate ones, majority of the people are burned by various Ponzi and pyramiding schemes. All states in the United States as well as over 100 countries are into such kinds of businesses. They may present themselves as “home-based business franchise” or affiliate marketing. 

It’s not a question whether you’re going to earn money from a multilevel marketing because the truth is you can. The ultimate challenge is for how long. 

1. You don’t basically have to work on residual income alone.

It’s a common promise among alleged multilevel marketers that you only have to sweat once and you’ll be paid eternally. Such is not the case in the real world. Don’t rely on these misleading statements, much more if the person cannot present any solid proof.

Many depend on the “residual income” the newly recruited members can generate. Others even opt to sponsor one just to jump start the members’ career. The challenge is how to sustain them so they can give you the income that you need. Worse, they either jump ship or stop all together. It means cost on your part and damage in your stream of income.

2. There’s no such thing as automated websites or duplicated systems.

Heard of binary system? It’s a new MLM concept where you recruit only two people, each belonging to your left and right side. Each of these persons will be encouraged to recruit at least two people, which will serve as their subordinates. The process goes on and on. You earn a lot for every opposing pair you can make. For example, you pair A on your right side to B, who belongs to the left side.  

If you’re really smart, then you can certainly make quick and huge income about it. The dilemma sets in, though, once a number of these people stop recruiting. What will happen to your income flow? Or better yet, can you expect for more?

If the marketing system relies on such system, then you better look for other opportunities. Aside from real work, you cannot duplicate people.

3. A real MLM has quality products to speak of.

The real thrust of multilevel marketing should be to promote and sell products the fastest way possible—that is, enticing people to sell them while getting commissions and other forms of income on the side. An authentic MLM should have their own showroom where any prospective member can get to view first hand what their products are or how to use them, a product brochure or catalog, and quality products to sell.

If this has only become secondary in the business, then you better tell yourself to stop the craziness and look for business elsewhere.

4. Anyone can do the business.

Who says business is only for a selected few? If you have the gall and the guts, then you can take on the challenge. But if the marketing business relies solely on new recruits, then you’re on your way down. A legitimate business requires real hard work and solid experience. 

There’s no shortcut to any kind of business, unless you want to settle for fake ones.

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One of the most popular modes of payments today is Paypal. It’s been used by those who have merchant accounts, who are into home-based or freelancer work, or for families and friends who simply want to send money. With Paypal there’s hardly any money involved. Their system virtually accepts all kinds of credit card. But because it’s so uberpopular these days, it’s also been under scrutiny. Worse it’s been attacked by numerous Paypal scams.

A scam as it is, you’ll never know when you’re already hit until you get your latest credit card bill: exorbitant charges you aren’t aware of and not willing to pay and suspicious purchases from online websites you know you’ll never dare visit! So how will you ever be prepared of it when you practically don’t know how it goes, right?

Normally, online scammers aren’t really interested with your credit card per se. What they need is your basic information that will allow them to make electronic purchases courtesy of your card.

Warning 1. They will send you an e-mail, the sender disguising himself as a very important Paypal officer. The letter will appear like a very urgent request to confirm confidential information such as your name, your credit card, and your credit card number. The problem is they don’t give you the details. You’ll be the one to fill whatever form they attached or you need to send them a reply.

Warning 2. Haven’t you ever wondered why you’re receiving a Paypal e-mail in your Hotmail when you registered and confirmed with your Yahoo? But then, as long as you receive an e-mail in your inbox, who cares what’s in the To address, right? With Paypal scams, however, the To address is far different from what the company has in their file.

Warning 3. Scammers are smart. It’s either they can really penetrate into the system or they create fake headers. The latter is the usual case with Paypal scams. Fortunately, recent updates in e-mail platforms make them capable of recognizing fake headers and place them in Spam folders. So just click Delete and they’ll be gone forever in your mailbox—for now.

Warning 4. Companies such as Paypal know how to add great importance to their clients. So they send out personalized e-mails, not general ones. But since scammers basically don’t know who you are, they send out generic salutations like “Dear Paypal Member” or “Paypal User.”

Warning 5. As they say, if they can’t manage to get information as sweet as possible, then the next option is to coerce. Scam e-mails sound so threatening that your immediate thought is that it may actually be true. You’ll either have a deleted or suspended account real soon if you can’t give them the information they need. Paypal doesn’t do that. In any case, announcements are available in their website so check it out as often as possible.

Warning 6. There’s no security system in a sham e-mail. When you click any of the links, it isn’t a secured page, which is usually designated with “https” or a small padlock at the left corner of the bottom of the browser.

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The World Wide Web isn’t a safe place anymore. It is has become a perfect haven for those who thirst for more information or more income, it’s also an avenue for scammers to take advantage of other people.

The same story can be told to online surveys and GPT (Get Paid To) websites. Truthfully, there are legitimate ones. Yet it seems like for every 1 real site, there are 100 fake ones. So which ones should you trust?

• Real survey sites won’t ask for any joining fee.

If you’re trying to earn income through writing reviews of free offers or filling out surveys, then you shouldn’t be paying for any joining fee to a website which has a good list of paid survey or GPT sites. There are still websites out there which can provide you the same kind of information without any cost on your part. They simply enumerate all those paid survey websites, according to what the author thinks are real good. They can even provide you with techniques on how to generate more money through paid surveys.

Other websites do it the other way around: they pay you! Their signing bonus can even go as high as 3 to 5 dollars, once your membership is verified.

• They produce hard-to-believe income.

A lot of fake paid survey sites guarantee you of huge income just in filling out surveys. Their ads will claim that for every completed survey, you can earn as huge as $250. You may even get a staggering $150 just for an hour of criticizing free offers.

Now who wouldn’t be lured? Why sweat too much when you can simply sit in front of your PC and answer yes, no or rank characteristics on a survey? The problem, however, is that this isn’t actually true. In fact, what you can actually earn from real GPT sites isn’t even half or a third of what the ads are saying. Common payouts for filled-out surveys range between $1 and $3 only.

Some well-established consumer companies can give $25 or $75 for every completed survey. Yet this doesn’t happen regularly. They will only request for that 2 or 3 times per year. Furthermore, you should be qualified to answer these surveys. It should be based on your educational background, location, age, gender. So if you’re a woman, don’t expect you’ll be given $50 worth of paid surveys to answer about men’s cologne.

• There’s no such thing as free trial offers.

Free trials are only fitting for software and other computer programs but not on paid surveys. There are fake companies that will provide you of free trial offers. You only get paid if you make a purchase. Aside from this is highly illogical, considering that it’s the survey you’re actually interested in and not really on the product, you may even get billed repetitively if you push through.
Don’t think that all paid surveys are scams. As a matter of fact, it’s a great way to earn money on your spare time. Yet beware of fake ones too. After all, they’re only after your money.

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Not all people basically understand the term “page rank” and why their website should be optimized in order to generate a lot of visitors and hopefully increase their revenues. Thus, their best option is to rely on the expertise of SEO companies.

The downside is that World Wide Web—or SEO, for that matter—isn’t a very secure place. There are a lot of scammers lurking, waiting for their next bait. They normally pose themselves as legitimate professionals, only to wake up one morning realizing they’ve totally drained your account using your basic information. So how do you know which ones are authentic and which are only posers?

Too much advertising. There’s nothing wrong with marketing your services. In fact, it should be considered as your lifeblood if you want to earn lots of cash. But as they say, too much of something is bad. Fake SEO companies resort to mass emailing or cold calling just to get your attention. They bluff on their expertise and how wonderful their services are. This is so, so you’ll avail of their services right away. Successful ones don’t do that. They bank on testimonials of their previous clients or the quality of their services.

Results are hard to find. Well-established SEO companies have proven track record that you basically don’t need to search for any reviews about them. Your fellow website owners can already make attestations. Moreover, their company seems to come up every time you and your friends talk about the best ways in optimizing your websites. Fake ones, however, can’t do that. After all, they basically don’t do any services, so what’s there to speak of in terms of quality in delivering the goods?

You only get to rank in unique names. Supposing you have an online business you call John Doe Teak Furniture Collection. If you’re truly concerned of getting the best results, then you must belong in the first 10 search results of major search engines in generic terms like “furniture” or “teak furniture.” This is the real work of SEO companies. However, scam companies can guarantee you on unique terms, such as “John Doe Teak Furniture.” This is very easy to do since the more unique the keyword is, the better are your chances in ranking effectively with such term.

They bluff—nothing more. There’s a difference between exaggeration and taking pride in what you’ve accomplished. Fake ones do the former. They tend to bluff, even on projects they haven’t actually done. This may come in the form of websites, which they claimed they’ve worked on or on testimonials from clients which are simply created by their staff. So how do you know if their claims are real? You can do your own background check. For example, if it’s a website, then you can right click on its page and choose View Page Source. Try to verify any close association between the website and the company such as digital signatures. You may also use http://www.whois.sc to verify their authenticity of the company: if they have properly registered domain name and who owns it. You may contact the supposed customers, if details such as phone numbers and names are available.

Be forewarned and always on guard. Your money and the success of your business rely on this.

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