The Warning Signs of Online Scams and how to Avoid Them
Have you ever gone to a website that promised to show you how to strike it rich? Showed you how much money he is making in his PayPal account using his “special system”? Told you that he would show you how to do it yourself? Then once you are “in the system”, you quickly find out that most (if not all) of what he told you was hype?
That has happened to me before. People lying through their teeth, preying on unsuspecting people – many who probably do not have a lot of money.
I’ll give you some things to be cautious of when looking at services found online (e.g., like how to make money every day). Please note that just because a business falls into one or more of these categories, does not mean they are a scam. You will just have to use common sense.
1) Watch out for long, drawn-out webpages
If someone is advertising their product, and their webpage seems like it has no end what-so-ever (the page seems like a small book), then this is a very good sign that this service is a scam.
No one who is professional is going to go on and on taking up 30-45 minutes of your time to show you something that can be shown in 10 minutes or less.
2) Watch out for repetitive words
Scammers love to restate things over and over again. Like “you will make money in no time!”, “my special system…”, “this unique system…”, “…spend less time…”, etc.
If you get the same words, basic ideas, maybe even whole phrases repeated to you over and over again, mark it down that it looks like a scam.
3) Watch out for “testimonial” videos
Several scammers use “testimonial” videos to try to convince you that real people have tried out his service, system, whatever, and it actually works. Problem is, there is no way to know if these testimonials are in fact 100% true, and not just some actors being payed to say certain things for money.
4) Watch out for “No Cost” services
These scammers will typically try to get you to think that you do not have to spend ANY money with them to get these “services” or learn about his “system” of doing things.
Problem is, how does he make money if he does not charge anything? Something is wrong with that. Why would someone spend their time and money showing you how to make money (or whatever) and not get anything in return?
5) Watch out for “make money with Google Ad-sense” type of services
Google Ad-sense is a service from Google that allows webmasters to put Google ads on their websites. Basically if someone comes to your website and clicks on one (or more) of the Google Ad-sense ads, then you make a little bit of money. This really is not the way to make serious money online, but it can be a start for some people.
In my experience, every single “make money with Google Ad-sense” type of services I have come across has been a scam. No kidding! If the person wants to sell you Google Ad-sense “services”, be very cautious. There is a 99% chance that he is a scammer.
6) Watch out for “website building” scams
There are scammers that will promise to build you a website (for money) that will make you money. Well these “services” will more than likely turn out to be a scam.
I know because I had two people scam me before with this type of scam. A little over 6 years ago, I trusted two people to make me a website that would make money. Well I found out that these people were scammers (they built a one page website that made them money 😆). Thankfully PayPal gave the money back.
7) Watch out for web-hosting scams
A lot of people are duped by web-hosting companies telling them that they are getting unlimited disk-space and unlimited bandwidth. Folks, these hosting companies that advertise such things are lying to you (I should know, since I do web-hosting myself!)
Even the word “unmetered” (a term a few web-hosts use) while technically is different from “unlimited” is still riding on the edge as being dishonest.
Have you ever heard of an unlimited hard drive before? How about unlimited bandwidth on an Internet router? Nope! No web-hosting company in the world can give anyone true, honest-to-goodness unlimited disk-space and bandwidth. It just will not happen.
It would be much better to find a host that does not offer any kind of unlimited hosting and has reasonable web-hosting packages available for purchase. Of course, that is your business whether or not you go with an unlimited web-host.
8) Watch out for “just run my software program, and it WILL make you money” type of scams
I have seen one such scam that if someone would use this “specially written” software, you will make money. I think you were to set it up a certain way and then “turn it on”, then it would make you money. I am sure everybody would like to have a money making solution like that. What a bunch of hogwash!
9) Watch out for “article website building software” (wow, that was a mouthful)
This type of scam is rare, but non-the-less real. I came across a software that built you a website full of articles at no cost.
Basically the idea is to have a bunch of unique content on the Internet for Google to index. Then when people find your article websites on Google, they have an opportunity to click on Google Ad-sense (or whatever money making ads you have) and make you money.
Well what the program was doing was taking other people’s articles (without their permission) and putting them onto your website (at least, the software put the name of the author for each article it copied). Google might ban your domain name if you put on duplicate content that was originally found on other websites. So much for unique content! 🙂
So basically there was a very small chance of making money (dishonestly), and you were risking Google banning your domain name that you used for the article website. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
10) Watch out for “I am tired of scammers too” sales pitches
I watched a video of this guy claiming that he was “tired of all the people who would scam you”. Basically he was trying to get people to believe that he was not a scammer. Well 2/3 into the video, it was real evident that he was promoting a “pyramid scheme” scam. So much for that.
Posted in Shopping
Making Fun of the President?
There have been MANY times I have seen cartoon illustrations making fun of American Presidents. While a lot of these cartoons are actually funny, did you know that making fun of the President (or any political authority) is wrong? Yes, the Bible says very clearly that we are to not make fun of government officials.
“3 But Paul said to him, “God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite! What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that?”
4 Those standing near Paul said to him, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”
5 “I’m sorry, brothers. I didn’t realize he was the high priest,” Paul replied, “for the Scriptures say, ‘You must not speak evil of any of your rulers.’” – Acts 23:3-5 NLT
It is interesting that the Bible talks about this very frequent occurrence in today’s American culture. The Bible applies today just as much as it did back in Bible time!
Posted in Christian
“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.”
“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.” – Proverbs 12:15 NASB
The Bible is very clear, a fool thinks that only his way is the right way. Nobody else can be right. Only my opinion on the matter is correct.
First I want to make something clear from the start. Just because someone disagrees with you does not make them a fool. Everyone has a right to their own opinions. If someone has an honest opinion that is different from mine, that is ok.
What makes someone a Biblically-defined fool is when they want to have an opinion (that they usually try to pass off as a fact when there is no evidence), and they do not want you to have an opinion yourself. They just want to talk, interrupt you, not consider other ideas, etc.
Well I had this experience a while back with someone. Basically there was information posted online that people were debating whether it was true or not.
Well this person thought since he had found other information on the Internet that contradicted the first set of information that was given, the first set of information had to be false, since his trusted sources said otherwise.
My argument was that he could not actually know if the information he gathered was in fact true since there was no way to verify that the information he found was accurate, even though I never said that he was wrong.
Well that did not go over well with him. He just argued and argued (while laughing at me and never really had any argument that I could tell), until he just dropped himself from the debate and did not want to talk anymore. Basically his attitude was…agree with me, or we are not going to talk anymore. I did my best to be civil and polite with him.
When I thought about it later, I realized that I had been arguing with a fool. He did not care who was actually right (which since neither of us could prove what we were saying, it was just our own opinions), and he didn’t want me to have an opinion of my own.
The Bible talks about people who will laugh at you making statements about something as being a fool. “If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.” – Proverbs 29:9 ESV
Posted in Christian, Society
Difference Between Residential and Business Internet
You may not have realized it, but Internet Service Providers (ISPs) usually offer both residential and business Internet plans for customers. For the typical Internet user, residential plans should suffice. However, for business people, server enthusiasts (people who like running their own Internet servers), film makers, and people who download a lot (ie. Netflix or YouTube), a business plan would be more appealing.
I am going to give you typical benefits of both residential and business ISP plans. Please note that these are just generalities. Your ISP may differ with the way they run their business.
Residential Internet Plans – Benefits
- You usually get faster download and upload speeds for a lower price than a business plan.
- Save money with lower prices.
- With faster Internet speeds, technically more household members can be using the Internet at once before a major slowdown happens (not always true though).
Business Internet Plans – Benefits
- Should be allowed to run your own Internet server (self-hosting, when done in the right conditions, is better than paying someone else to host your websites Think: Who would value your website data more…the web-hosting company…or you?).
- Should not have any bandwidth limit per month (great for running servers and watching many online videos; don’t have to worry about going over some bandwidth limit per month and possibly getting disconnected!).
- Should get faster/better technical service when you have trouble.
- Should get free repair work done on your line (if it is not too extensive).
- Should be allowed to purchase a static IP address (a MUST if you want to host your own e-mail server or DNS server!).
- Should be allowed to run a VPN between two or more networks (you might be allowed to do one or more VPN(s) on a residential Internet plan, but I have never tried).
Summary
Basically if you want just cheap and fast, a residential Internet plan should do fine for you.
However, if you are running a business (offline or online), want to host your own server, want a static IP, and/or want a very high (or no) bandwidth limit per month, a business Internet plan should be want you want.
Posted in Internet and Servers