Online Scams are everywhere, that is a fact! To help you spot these scams, it helps to be a little suspicious of anything online. That is the Way on How to Avoid Scams Online!
But, if you are to do that, we know that we need to be able to convince you quickly that we are people that you can trust. Know that we want to help you learn how to avoid scams online, and have a lot of online experience, that we want to share with you freely in this blog post.
So, why listen to us?
- We have personally reviewed hundreds of digital products on this website BestAffiliateMarketingTools.org
- We actually got caught out by a scam when we were first getting started out online and so we know exactly what things caught us out and we will share them in this post
- We have found the right system to earn a 4-Figure Online Passive Income Per Month
Just by going through some of the reviews we have on our site, you will see that we have exposed scams with real proof, and not just with our opinions.
In this post, let me reveal to you all the RED FLAGS that you need to be aware of and how to stay safe online.
But before that…
If you’re tired of Scams, Check out our #1 Recommendation HERE!
Table of Contents
Top 9 Ways on How to Avoid Scams Online
#1 Looks Too Good to be True? Then AVOID It!
What if I told you that we had a “secret system” you can use to make thousands of dollars per month, per week or even per day…
Not only that, you won’t have to do anything at all as All the hard work and heavy lifting and ALL the selling will be done for you…
What would you be thinking?
Most of you will be thinking that we are crazy and that we might be trying to scam you, right?
These kind of claims really sound too good to be true.
The problem is that these scammers are much cleverer than we give them credit for. They know exactly how to pay with your psychology and they use effective copywriting and sales pitch to convince you that their program will do all that, but in a less obvious way.
That is the reason why so many people are still being scammed despite such claims can be easily noticed.
Examples of such programs are Earn Easy Commissions, Fan Page Money Method and 30 Minute Money Methods, but there are plenty of others as well.
The problem is that they tell you exactly what you want to hear.
“We will solve your money problems with this program” “You won’t have to do anything to make money”
They always tell you lots of stories, or show you videos on how their lives were changed with just one automated system. The truth is the complete opposite. Nothing is achieved without time and effort.
Just Remember…
If something looks and seems too good to be true, it most probably is!
#2 Don't Always Trust Product Testimonials
When you start to review as many digital products as we have, you start to realise that FAKE testimonials are a lot more common than you might think.
When you take a look at programs like 60 Minute Profit Plan, Free Ad Cash System or Quantum Ad Code, these are examples of numerous scams with fabricated testimonials and success stories.
You will find two main types of fake testimonials:
- Fake Video Testimonials from Fiverr actors.
- Fake Image Testimonials using online stock photos.
Fake Video Testimonials
You will find that many scammers are hiring actors from a freelance platform like Fiverr to create fake testimonials about their program. These scammers can hire people who will record a video saying pretty much whatever they want, for a figure as low as $5 (hence why the platform is called Fiverr). If you watch the video carefully, you will typically see that they are reading from a script.
These actors are being paid to say that the program is working exactly as the scammer is stating and that the outcomes are exactly as stated.
But, we have found examples of these testimonials and a quick search on Fiverr will help you find the person who recorded the video.
Fake Image Testimonials
Lazy scammers, or those that are not willing to hire an actor from Fiverr, will tend to use stock photographs from platforms like iStockPhoto.com.
They take an image from the platform, add some fabricated text to make it look and seem like a real testimonial.
But, there is a very convenient way for you to find out the legitimacy of a testimonial, and it involves using Google Image Search.
All you would need to do is simply upload the photo and Google will tell you whether it is a stock image/photo or someone else’s photo.
It is important, that you don’t make any purchasing decisions based solely on any of the online testimonials you find.
The majority of these online testimonials lack any truth and are not real. Base a decision on other factors alongside a testimonial before you make a purchase.
#3 "Done-For-You" Systems Always Comes with a Catch
You will find that there are many programs out there that claim that they have a “done-for-you system” to help you make money online easily and even if you have literally zero experience.
But you need to know that this is purely a sales technique. There is no system that there that will be completely DFY in the make money online world.
You are going to need to invest time and effort into anything, if you want to see success.
The majority we have found are offering you a DFY system, but they tend to leave out the hardest part and that tends to be generating traffic.
There is little point having a website or system, if you don’t have any people coming to your website to make purchases. And yet, that is what they leave up to you.
If you are a complete beginner and don’t know how to generate traffic, then it is like having a fancy shop but never opening the door.
If you want to make money online, there is no shortcut. For all of these DFY systems, you still have a lot to do in order to make any money. That is why we say they will always come with a catch!
#4 When They Assign You a Coach or Mentor...
This is another common sales technique and it is when they assign you a coach or mentor.
With some programs like MOBE, Digital Altitude, Six Figure Mentors and Legendary Marketer, you will be assigned with a coach as soon as you sign up with them.
This can seem like a really good feature and level of support that is there to help you.
To be honest, it can be a good support network to have to a certain extent. But you have to understand that they is another (and real) purpose and intention to these “coaches” or “mentors”.
The majority of them are simply telesales people who are trying to upsell you their high-ticket membership in the background.
They are simply there to make more money, by getting you to spend more. They are not always focused on helping you, but making a sale from you.
Some of the people who are involved in such programs will probably disagree with me, but we have personally been through this process ourselves. We were pushed into purchasing more and more expensive products in order to make more money.
This will not apply to all coaches, but you do need to understand that many of these coaches are getting paid based on the number of sales they generate and not how many people they actually help.
So, persuading you to purchase their upsells is definitely one of their main goals.
#5 Not All Online Reviews Are Honest & Trustworthy
This is another controversial topic, but I stand by it…
We have taken the time to review hundreds of products online, so we are some of the internet marketers who are writing reviews online.
But you need to be aware that not all the reviews you find online are honest. We have seen too many product reviews online that have been written by marketers who are jsut there to promote the product, regardless of whether it is a scam, low-quality product or not.
For us, we always write out reviews based on thorough research and our honest opinion. That cannot be said for every reviewer online.
Our top recommended program for now will always be Wealthy Affiliate. This is because it is the best platform we have found so far for anyone who is looking to make money online.
We could choose to promote other high-ticket products to make even more money for us, but I choose not to do that because we want our readers to get access to the most cost-effective program to succeed online.
In other words, we care more about our readers than we do about making money ourselves.
There are those that will be sceptical or even criticise us, especially those who are critical of Wealthy Affiliate. But that will not benefit you at all neither would we allow it to affect us.
For beginners out there, you just need to remember there are many BS reviews online.
The obvious example is a website called GlennReview.com. This guy has reviewed tons of digital products on his website, but he is literally recommending every single one of them. He claims he can find no flaw in their platform and that you should join it, via his link and he will give you tons of bonuses.
He isn’t really interested in whether it helps you make money or not, as long as you buy the product he is profiting anyway.
Most of his content is just hyped up and simply not true…
#6 Think "More Than Twice" Before Buying into High-Ticket Products
The owners of these high-ticket products and their affiliates will always claim that you can make higher amounts of money with high-ticket products.
Their argument would be that selling 1,000 units of a $10 product against selling 10 units of a $1,000 product. They will then ask you which sounds easier to achieve?
I do get their argument, and we agree that selling high-ticket products is a good way to make money online.
However…
It is not necessary for you to buy into a high-ticket product.
The reason is that many of them are just high-ticket membership products. They will provide you with some training, but their ultimate goal is just to resell the high-ticket membership to others and earn high-ticket commissions.
Not just that, they will offer you a low-cost front-end product to you (typically less than $100) before they upsell you to membership levels that cost thousands of dollars, with some even being up to $30K like Digital Altitude and other similar programs.
You need to know right now, that making money online doesn’t require you to spend so much money. Please don’t waste your hard-earned money on empty promises.
If you lack online marketing experience, it doesn’t matter whether you are promoting products that cost $1 or $10,000. If you cannot sell the $1 product, what makes you think you can sell a $10,000 product?
From our own experience, we built our own 4-figure passive income business just by investing into an affordable program called Wealthy Affiliate.
If you don’t have much experience making money online, it is the place we recommend you get started with.
#7 Be Aware of ClickBank Products
ClickBank is an affiliate network or a payment processing platform that helps connect sellers, affiliates and buyers.
Those who are looking to sell digital products can sell them on ClickBank, and then affiliates can help promote these products to buyers.
When someone makes a purchase of one of these products, both the affiliate and the seller get paid.
ClickBank is one of the largest online marketplace for digital products. But it also notorious for the quality (or lack of) of the products being sold.
There are those that claim that ClickBank has improved its product inspection system before the product goes live.
But when you factor in the amount of low-quality products and scams that are being sold on there, we question whether their process is as robust as it should be.
Many of the product reviews we have done and exposed a scam are from ClickBank.
So, our advice is be really careful. You will probably see a ClickBank icon like the one below on the sales page. But that doesn’t guarantee the product is legit or not.
They will normally have at the bottom of the sales page a line telling you that…
“ClickBank is the retailer of products on this site…”
Don’t get me wrong, there are still legit products on ClickBank, but you should still be extra careful because there are also tons of low-quality products being sold through this platform.
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#8 What is the Refund Policy Exactly?
You must take particular note of what the refund policy is. The “Money-Back Guarantee” is again another prevalent sales technique with scams. It is being used in many products online.
It is a good feature to have, but is often just a sales technique used to make you think the product is RISK FREE!
Many of these products actually have a very complicated refund policy and they are designed to make it pretty much impossible for you to actually get your money back. They have very restrictive rules that stop you getting your money back.
So, it is really important that you thoroughly read their refund policy so you understand what it will actually take for you to get your money back. A legitimate program will not make it difficult to get your money back as they are trying to help people.
A scam product, doesn’t want to give you your money back.
The product you are buying is from ClickBank, it will usually have a 30-Day or 60-Day money back guarantee. But make sure you have a solid reason as to why you want your money back as sometimes they will keep questioning you and refuse to action the refund.
#9 Research, Then Research Some More...
This is probably the most important tip we can give you, so we have last the best until last…
The best way for you to avoid scams online is by doing thorough research before buying into any product.
It might sound obvious, but people hit these fancy sales pages and don’t think about whether they should do some other research. Many of these programs sound too good to be true, so can you find any real users who are saying the same elsewhere?
We all know we should do research, but there is a reason why these scammers succeed and that is proven by the number of people who are being scammed everyday.
So, please don’t be lazy and do some thorough research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.
Read online reviews, always question yourself and if it seems legit after thorough research then you are good to go.
If you find fake testimonials or conflicting reviews, carry on researching but you will typically have stumbled onto a scam or at least a low-quality program.
Reading reviews on our site is a good way of understanding the true identity of any digital products, that is because we always do our research and our reviews are written with integrity and we will always be honest with you.
Need Us to Review Any Products For You?
If you trust us, then please follow our recommendation to check our Wealthy Affiliate for yourself.
We credit all our success to this amazing community and training platform. They have helped us go from complete newbies to experienced internet marketers.
But if you have any products that you want us to investigate for you, then please write them in the comments section below and we will take a look and let you know what we think… 🙂
Many people come up on the internet talking about many different scam platforms and those that are good which I think is giving one fish, here you have taught us how to catch a fish by letting us know how to avoid the scams as a whole and also how to tell which is good. I will make sure that I use what I have learnt here. Thanks!
Hi Suz,
thanks for checking out our guide. If we can help just one person avoid an online scam than our job is done. There are too many of these scams out there and there are more coming online everyday. If we all remain vigilant and do our research, then hopefully these scammers will run out of people to harm.
All the best
John
Thank you for sharing this really useful tips on how to avoid online scammers. These days getting bamboozled is about as easy as walking down the street and it is a real shame that this is what the world has come to, where a person’s integrity has to be questioned endlessly. Nevertheless, I think these tips you’ve offered will be a great help.
Hey,
thanks for checking out our guide. These scammers are very clever and they play on people’s emotions. People who are desperate to make money believe the hype and lies surrounding scams. The problem is that we only have the word of these people telling you that the scheme will work…
We did get caught out in the beginning, and we felt like a right numpty when we did. But you learn from these experiences and if we can help others do the same, then we are doing the right thing.
All the best
John
Hello John, thanks for these tips you’ve given on how to avoid online scam businesses. Its true there are many scam businesses only e and daily they come with new testimonies to sway you into getting involved with them and it’s only if one can follow these tips, then you can avoid them
Hey Justin,
these scammers tell you exactly what you want to hear, and their methods change over the time as people start to suss them out. But fake testimonials and fake success stories are easy to replicate with freelancers willing to help out.
All we can do is research, research and then do a little more…
All the best
John