Miss Gullible

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Type in “home business” and you will get pages and pages of results. How can you tell a real business opportunity from a scam? We will help you find out here.

I hate the phrase “if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is”, but I guess in most cases it is true. I just don’t like to give up on the idea that there may be something really good out there for each and every one of us. I guess that’s why they call me Miss Gullible.

Most of the time the sponsored searches that come up when you type in “money making” or “business opportunities” will be scams. People are paying for those ads in the hope that you will buy something from them and will make all sorts of outlandish claims to get you to their site.

Look out for promises of high gain with little effort and no risk. Guarantees usually don’t mean much as there is usually criteria you have to fulfil before they will consider refunding you.

Look at the website and see whether it matches up with this checklist. If you check things off the list it may be a scam:

1. The website makes outlandish claims
2. The offer is low risk, low effort and high gain
3. The website does not really tell you what the opportunity involves
4. The website shows “screenshots” of income made by the website owner. Think about this: They are probably making that income from people like you, who they have scammed.
5. There are many different ads for the same opportunity – this means it is probably at saturation point anyway.
6. The website has highlighted areas and many exclamation marks.
7. The website owner tries to identify with your situation and says that they were also like you, until they found this opportunity and it all changed.
8. Ask yourself if the opportunity is so great, why are the website owners bothering selling the idea? They could be making more money themselves.
9. The website promises that you will make money within a certain timeframe i.e.: “you will make $100 by the end of today”
10. The website has outlandish testimonials. Think how easy it would be to make those things up.

Remember that if you have doubts, you have them for a reason. Check the opportunity by Googling it. Also check scam.com and MissGullible.

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