Have you ever been searching the Internet, and all of a sudden, an ad catches your eye? An add that claims without a doubt that you will be rich in ten minutes. These ads may be annoying, but let's face it, we fall for them every time! It's sure is hard to read, "Make 1400 dollars per week working an hour a day," and turn down the offer. The most maddening part of these offers is that they always start out being convincing, you read through the site for a long time, and finally, you realize it's way to good to be true.
Did you know that there is actually a much faster way to check and see if a site is really legitimate or not? I call them, "The Ripoff Words," and they can be seen anywhere. It all starts with an asterisk, placed beside a claim or an amount of money. This asterisk means that whatever claim is being made is either false or has a ridiculous catch to it. To find out what the catch is, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page. You should find an identical asterisk, and this time you will see very small words beside it. This is that catch. The gimmick. The trick. Whatever it should be called.
The identical "system" is used in a lot of T.V. commercials. Don't believe me? Turn on your T.V. right now and I bet that if you look to the bottom of the screen on almost every T.V. commercial, you will see very small words explaining: a) That the price listed is after applicable taxes, shipping and handling charges, as well as other expenses. b) That what is happening in the commercial is a dramatization and cannot or should not be done. c) That you must qualify and/or complete some type of survey or contract before you can participate in the specified offers.
Sometimes scamming websites and companies should be the least of your worries. There are lot's of people today that send emails to innocent people, trying to get money from them. These emails can be detected though. The person who is sending the email usually claims to be a foreigner who has a large sum of money that needs to be transferred. They usually claim in their emails that if you provide information about yourself, you will get a percentage of there money. What some people don't understand is that if you provide your personal information, they can sell the info to companies who want to scam you as well, and they can also steal your identity. Be very careful. If you receive one of these emails, block the sender, report the message if you feel that you are in danger or that you are being abused, and delete the message.
Why would companies want you to visit their website anyway, if they know only a small percentage of people will actually fall for their tricks? As mentioned above, they can sell any personal information that you give them, which brings them money. Even something as harmless as your email address can earn big bucks for big companies, because they can send you scams in the mail. Another reason that a lot of websites make the big money is that they advertise for other companies on their website. So how does it all end? The website makes money after you click on one of the other site's ads, and start the never ending cycle over again!
