1. Job Hunter Scams
2. Debt Relief and Settlement Services
3. Work from Home Schemes
4. Timeshare Resellers
5. Not So “Free” Trial Offers
6. Itinerant Home Repair/Roofers
7. Lottery and Sweepstakes Scams
8. Identity Theft
9. Advance Fee Loan Scams
10. Over-Payment Scams

Now, let’s see take a look at the top ten scams of 2012.

1. Job Scams

Still topping the charts at No. 1 is the phony job scam. As if it wasn’t hard enough to crack into today’s job market, these scams will not only crush your hopes of being employed, but also steal your identity. How do they do it? In order to “start the job,” you’ll more than likely have to fill out a credit report or your “employer” will ask you to provide your banking information for direct deposit.

2. Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams

Climbing up from No. 7 to No. 2, sweepstakes and lottery scams remain prevalent in their many shapes and forms. No matter how you see it, fraudsters try to convince you that you’ve won a ton of cash. But wait — there’s more! In order to receive your winnings, you first have to send them a bit of money to cover taxes or other bogus fees.

3. Social Media/Online Dating Scams

With the growing popularity of online dating websites and social media networks, it was only a matter of time before fraudsters started using these platforms for scams. There are many types of dating scams, but it all comes down to one thing: the victim falls in love and trusts the fraudster, who then tricks the victim into sending money or even financial information. Social media scams are a bit trickier to catch, often involving links to videos that prompt you to upgrade your Flash player. When you download the file, you also download a worm that logs into your social media account and sends a similar message to your friends. The worm will also scour your computer for your personal information.

4. Home Improvement Scams

In the past two years, the number of natural disasters has significantly increased — and so has the number of itinerant home improvement scammers. Just like n tornado, they leave your house looking like more of a disaster than they found it. And just like an earthquake, they’re gone before you can blink your eyes. If a repair man comes knocking on your door, ask for a business card and do some homework to find out who they really are.

5. Check Cashing Scams

Also known as an over-payment scam — No. 10 on the BBB’s Top 10 Scams of 2011 —the check cashing scam involves one sender, one receiver, and one bad check. The sender “accidentally” mails a check to the receiver for an amount greater than what they owe. The receiver cashes the check and wires the difference back to the sender, immediately debiting the funds from the checking account. A few days later, the original check bounces, and the receiver is out whatever money they wired.

6. Phishing Scams

In 2009, phishing emails regarding the H1N1 virus were particularly widespread. In 2008, they targeted consumers expecting packages from FedEx or UPS, and tricked them into divulging personal information. What’s the top phishing email scam to look out for in 2012? This year, it comes in the form of NACHA — the National Automated Clearing House Association. The fictitious email claims one of your transactions did not process, and prompts you to click a on a link to rectify the situation. Once you click the link, you’ve downloaded malware that hunts for your personal data on your computer.

7. Identity Theft Scams

Whether it’s through phishing, vishing, smishing, security breaches, or good ol’ fashioned wallet theft, identity theft remains rampant. This year, be on the lookout for phone calls in the middle of the night — to your hotel room. That’s right. Scammers will call you up in the middle of the night while you’re sound asleep, pose as the front desk clerk, and ask for your credit card number. Their reason being their computer has crashed and your transaction won’t process. Don’t believe them. Hotel concierge more than likely won’t disturb you in the middle of the night unless it’s an emergency. It’s not hospitable.

8. Financial Scams

Rolling in at No. 2 as the Debt Relief and Settlement Services Scam in 2011, financial scams almost always leave you in more debt than when you started. We understand that times are tough. You may be in danger of having your house foreclosed on, or maybe you have too much consumer debt. Either way, do ample amounts of research before you decide to use third-party assistance for getting out of debt.

9. Sales Scams

From Ponzi and pyramid schemes to the door-to-door con man, sales scams come in a wide range of forms. Advance fee loan scams ranked in at No. 9 in 2011. This year, sales scams are taking form in penny auction websites. Although there are many legitimate penny auction merchants, some are under investigation as being an online gambling site.

10. BBB Email Scam

Just this morning I received an email from alerts@bbb.org stating one of our customers filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. The email included an ID number and prompted me to open the complaint report for more information. When I hovered over the anchor text, (“COMPLAINT REPORT”), the URL was not going to send me to BBB.org. Instant red flag sign of a phishing email.

Instabill is an online payment processor specializing in high risk merchant accounts.

image:clayton

• top online business scams 2012

In fact, people are getting so good at scamming others, that their websites look no different than any other website… on the surface.

So how do you keep your website from scaring off consumers by coming across as a scam?

Avoid pop-ups like the plague

Aside from being tremendously annoying, the very first thing a pop-up says to a consumer is that you’re desperate for their business. This makes you look exceedingly amateurish, something that will act against anyone looking to succeed in the world of online money-making.

And since the majority of spam websites include some sort of pop-up you will most likely immediately be lumped into that category and be forever fighting that stereotype. You should especially stay away from the pop-ups that ask potential customers if they’re sure they want to leave the webpage or offering them something to stay on the webpage.

Double check everything before going online

To ensure that people don’t question the validity of your website, you have to ensure that it is error-free. This means that you have double (and even triple) checked all of your content for spelling or grammar errors and that everything is properly formatted.

• Only use all caps if it is absolutely pertinent to your message, otherwise stay away from them.
• Having grammatical errors and employing all caps are two common signs that a website isn’t genuine.

Use verifiable customer reviews

Make sure to get consent from anyone you are using as a review before you post them on your website and make sure that the reviews sound authentic.

• Scam websites often employ reviews that sound too good to be true. You want to put up reviews that don’t sound exactly like the writing on your website – otherwise, people could come under the assumption that you wrote the reviews yourself and are trying to trick them into something.
• Write reviews naturally – explain both pros and cons of the product.

Don’t utilize “Free Trial Services”

Unfortunately even if you have the best of intentions, you can come across as a very unreliable source if you promise a 30-day free trial that requires customers to give all of their information and a credit card.

• A genuine business doesn’t need to trick people into paying for their goods or services by getting credit card information up front – particularly because people tend to forget that their free trial is up and they needed to cancel continuing the service and end up unhappy that they’ve been charged for something.
•  It’s better to keep your customers satisfied than to get a few extra dollars and a lot of complaints.

Provide full and valid contact information

One sign of a scam is that their contact information is nonexistent other than a random email address or a 1-800 number.

• Instead, make sure that there is a real person’s name they can ask for, a phone number that they can reach a person at and an email address that utilizes the domain name and not Gmail or Hotmail – both of those elude to unprofessionalism, whereas an email address at the website’s domain name comes across as much more reliable.
• You also want to respond quickly to any questions, comments, or concerns that your potential customers may have – if their email goes into a black hole and they never hear back from you they probably aren’t going to utilize your services or buy your product.

It’s unfortunate that there are so many websites out there that are trying to scam people out of money and thus making it more difficult for the legitimate business owners out there.

To quickly summarize:

• Don’t use pop-up windows in your site and also, don’t load wired graphics/sound in the background which annoys the visitor.
• Have original content and provide useful information to your visitors – don’t over promote the content (for example, avoid words with all caps).
• Never get credit card or other related information from the users before offering a service or product legitimately.
• When you are writing reviews, provide relevant information about the product. Add product images, review videos and don’t just force the visitor to buy. Keep it naturally flowing.
• Provide your contact information and say your visitor that you are available to support them anytime.

The online world can be a difficult one to break into, but by utilizing some verified tips and tricks you can ensure that your website is professional and reliable and not lumped into the category of websites to avoid.

Because there’s not much worse than when someone types your website into Google and the word “scam” comes up after it.

image:crashmatt

• genuine e-money web sites

Great as Alibaba is, though, it is not without its flaws.  In fact, as Alibaba grows in popularity it also becomes an easier, more vulnerable target for fraud and other scams.  With such a high traffic volume, there is extremely high risk.  In any venture, there will be those people who try to leach off your success and efforts, but in the online arena, it is just that much easier to cheat.

With that in mind, here is a list of precautions you should take when doing business on Alibaba:

1.  Use common sense.  This may seem obvious or even a bit condescending, but sometimes it can be very easy to abandon reason for a good deal.  The problem is, good deals are most often not what they seem.  When a seller is only charging $50 for an iPod, you should be suspicious, no matter how excited you are at the deal.  Conversely, sellers sometimes try to pass imitation products for the real deal and charge you full price.  And worse than outright ripping you off, you might get caught up in a copyright infringement lawsuit if you unknowingly purchase and then sell an imitation product.  If it looks too good to be true, it is.
2. Use trusted funds transfer methods.  Western Union is not secure, and scammers take advantage of this.  Almost invariably, if a seller asks you to transfer funds using Western Union, you are being had.  There are exceptions to this rule, but you really don’t want to take that chance.  Similarly, don’t send money to a seller’s personal bank account.  Professionals will have a business account with an established bank, e.g. Bank of China, and won’t try to scam you into sending them money for nothing.
3. Don’t take anything at face value.  Essentially, this means double- and triple-check everything about the buyer and the transaction information before it’s made.  Scammers will go to great lengths to get your money, so you have to be vigilant.  Don’t trust a sample image or even a sample product, because these can easily be manipulated—especially photos.  Have sellers take a photo of your item with a piece of paper that has your name (and theirs) written on it.  Sometimes you can’t even trust a company name; check to see if the business’ name is the same as the one on their bank account.
4. Be willing to visit your suppliers.  Even if it’s an international trip, verifying with your own eyes whether or not your supplier is who they say they are will actually save you a lot of time and energy in the long run.  Once you see the operation, you will be able to decide concretely whether you want to do business with that company or not.
5. Learn from others.  One of the best ways to avoid any kind of fraud or scam is to read, contribute to, and follow the Alibaba forum.  Users will post excellent, relevant tips to help guide you to the best vendors, protect you from the worst ones, and offer great business advice.  The great thing about Alibaba is that not everyone is out to get you, and if you seek the counsel of others, you will be surprised at how willing they are to help.

Any internet marketplace will have an inherent risk, just as any real marketplace has its own inherent risk.  Just because there are scammers on Alibaba is not a reason to abandon it altogether.  If you run a wise business and follow these tips, Alibaba can actually be a great income boost to your company.

image: dhl

• tips using alibaba

Buyers Beware.

Research the product. To avoid scams when shopping on Ebay, do additional research on the product you are hoping to purchase. What is its average price range? Or if it’s a rare item, what would a reasonable cost be? This is important to know because a dishonest seller may be overcharging you or giving you something of lower quality. Does the page contain photos from the product’s website or photos that they actually took of the product? Always be aware of what you are purchasing before you place a bid.

Research the seller. Does the seller have any negative feedback? How long have they been selling online? What other products do they sell? It is important to look into the seller and their history before you make any bids. If they have several negative reviews, read them to see if there is a trend among them such as slow shipping or products not being as advertised. Also, be wary of new sellers with little to no feedback. While every new seller is not a fraudster, scammers can create new Ebay names to perpetuate new scams. The legitimate sellers have plenty of experience selling and plenty of positive reviews.

Stop Scamming !

Research other bidders. Shill bidding is a common scam on Ebay but illegal Ebay offense where the seller either bids on his own products with another username or has a friend or employee do it. This drives up the cost of the bid and innocent shoppers end up paying more as a result. If you are outbid by an amount that seems strange or too high, look into the other bidder. What is their feedback score? If they’re a new user with no history, something underhanded might be going on.

Sellers Beware.

Research your high bidders. Shill bidding can also occur with bidders who first place a low bid, and then using another name go on to place a high bid later to scare off other bidders. They then retract the high bid just before the auction ends so that their low bid will win instead. Ebay has measures in place to keep this from happening, but you should still be wary if a bidder places a bid that seems too high. Contact them with questions about their interest in the product or research their history to see if they have any negative feedback from other sellers.

Ebay is a great way to shop and make money online, so be careful to avoid scams by doing the research.

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for the site best online college. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.

image: serdela

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• ebay scam buyers no feedback
• high bidder has new account and no feedback
• how to avoid scams on ebay
• is it a way to stop ebay fraud
• popular ebay scam

Many sellers import some or all of their products from China, as it is an option that can result in higher profit margins. In importing products from China, you buy goods directly from the manufacturers and thus pay much less. You can then sell them in America for up to 80% more than you originally invested.

Avoid Being Scammed.

However, there are some dishonest suppliers out there, and it is imperative to keep in mind some basic information to avoid being scammed.

• An extremely important tip to keep in mind when importing goods from China is to avoid purchasing brand name items, particularly clothing, purses, foot wear, and electronics. These run a very high risk of being fake imitations of the genuine items.
• DVD box sets are also to be avoided, as they are typically pirated and burned copies.
• Selling these counterfeit items can result in, at the very least, earning a bad reputation for yourself as a seller and your business in general. At the worst, you could run into some considerable legal trouble. Either way, you will be stuck with a lot of useless merchandise that you cannot sell.
• Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by attractive domain names that include brands such as Nike, Gucci, etc. Scam artists use this tactic to lure in foreign importers and to lull them into a false sense of security. If a domain name includes a popular name brand, it is almost certainly a scam and should be totally avoided. Many unfortunate importers have gotten sucked into this trap only to have the site go offline shortly after investing, and have then found themselves out of a potentially substantial amount of money.

Beware of Scams !

Research Before You Import.

It’s absolutely crucial that you do your research.

• Google the company you are considering and look into alternative business databases, as well.
• Even more importantly, look deeply into customer reviews. Even scammers can have shiny, appealing advertisements. By looking into customer reviews, you can be certain if the site is legitimate or not.
• It is also important to look into contact information, as scammers will usually not provide an authentic (if any) address, phone number, and fax.

Read more Ways to avoid money making scams.

This is a guest post by Corry Cummings.

image: peteswede

• import online from china
• import ripoff china
• some import websites from china

But in general, i could think of 2 reasons that strongly tells Search Engines Are Stupid, when seen from technical angle. With a software developer in mind, i could see search engines are stupids. How ?

Reason #1: Why Do You Optimize For Search Engines ?

Search Engine Optimization is one of the biggest fun for webmasters (web site owners). When you are designing a web site, you have to optimize it for search engines. When you publish a content, you have to optimize for search engines. Atleast, if you are serving 90% of the visitors needs, the remaining 10% webmasters are serving for search engines.

The point is simple, webmasters are optimizing their site & content for search engines because seach engines are not really capable to find out, what is useful ? what is useless ? We have to feed them with information in specially formatted manner. That means, search engines could not understand non-optimized content/site & they are stupid !

Do You Agree ?

Reason #2: Human Developed Softwares.

Even though search engines are solving our problems, its a piece of computer software development by humans. Humans are born to make errors ! And how you do trust that search engines are 100% right always ? They are controlled by a set of humans which in turn controls the rest of world. Because the service offered by search engines are valuable to the visitor and they may be incorrect.

People should not believe search engines 100% of the time. Like human Search Engines are born to error ! Because web sites & their content are optimized intentionally for search engines. You cannot blame the webmasters because they need visitors from search engines and search engine needs information.

Now Visitors are in between looking for the information which may go wrong or you may not get the right information ! Thats the reason, Search engines are stupid.

Wait, i am not against search engines and i know how valuable service they are making to the public.

But if you think from this angle like me, you will say Search Engines are Stupid because web sites are optimized specially for them & they are served to visitors (the actual stupid) who are looking for information.

What do you think ?

• how to explain search engines to an idiot
• why are all search engines stupid

This is a short article that reveals the methods for protecting yourself and your money from online business scams. Here are the 25 die hard easy methods to identify and avoid scams in online business.

Beware of Online Scams

image: d70focus

1. Always look for legitimate online business opportunities, don’t believe anything on the first look.
2. Don’t over react upon seeing an online business that offers you to make $10000 dollars in 24-hours.
3. Don’t open your wallet until you have the complete knowledge about that opportunity.
4. Spend enough time to analyze everything about the opportunity, before paying money or giving your personal details.
5. Do the online business website looks professionally built or looks crap ? keep in mind most of the online business scams are looking professional than the original legitimate websites. So give a full glance of the website and understand what they are saying.
6. Use your common sense and see do that system is believable ? or its something a faker.
7. Read the complete website with patience and that helps you to identify do that business gives you the trust ?
8. Don’t belive in any kind of testimonials mentioned in that website. Most of the testimonials are added for marketing purpose.
9. Check, do the business website have contact information ?
10. Check the availability of any money back offers or guarantees before starting.
11. Never pay money without understanding about what business and how that business works ?
12. Similarly, don’t give out your personal information without awareness, you should protect your privacy.
13. Do a complete web search about that business before joining and collect relevant information.
14. Read the reviews and find out what other peoples opinion about that business.
15. Never share your bank account information through e-mail.
16. Don’t open any of the e-mails from unknown person or mails with titles related to “get rich” or “pyramid schemes”
17. Read this article published by Google on how to steer clear of money scams ?
18. Discuss with your friends or peoples who are already familiar about online business before starting.
19. Read the terms of condition published in the business website completely. Identify any hidden points are mentioned that may help you to protect yourself from scams.
20. Better try to communicate with that business office and make sure they are really available before joining them.
21. Read these FTC suggested tips to avoid pyramid schemes.
22. Use Better Business Bureaue and find out any compliants are already registered against that website.
23. If you are seeing a free to join program, you must look for the terms and conditions. Because they may ask you to pay money after your joined their business.
24. Ask the experts opinion from related forums or blogs. Use google groups, yahoo groups and you will get help to identify these kind of scams.
25. Beware of forex based opportunities and investment scams. You must be proactive before joining these schemes.

Keep all these points and always look for trusted online business, to avoid scams and to protect yourself. Run a safer online business.

• methods to protecting a website
• online business scams
• website protection methods

Are you really looking for a better and trusted online business ? There are so many parameters that you could find out in the Internet from legitimate ones to Scam schemes. At any point of time, You have identify the best one by investing good amount of time in doing a research before opening up your wallet.

The most important part is to identify the legitimate business opportunity. You have to segregate the scam business from the trusted one. Failing here may lead to business failure.

The hardest situation is that most of the scam business sites looks too much professional and colorful. So in reality, visitors may fail to identify and they will end up losing the money. Are you seeing something like, make million in 3 days or 1 week with any online business ? If yes, watch out more. In reality, this is never possible and this makes no sense. So you have to take the steps careful. So don’t believe in these kind of business magics.

Usually, all the business owners are showing the income or earnings from their business to the maximum level. I mean, they are advertising with the maximum possibility of earnings. But in reality, a new joiner or an average worker in that business won’t earn that much of money. Secondly, they may advertise anything to change the visitors mind and to create a curiosity to join their business.

So you don’t have to overreact, when you are seeing a new and profitable online business opportunity. First, try to understand them and find out whether that opportunity is legitimate or scam. So you have to invest good amount of time. Go through all the information that is published in that web site. Try to understand that money making system.

One best thing to do is reading the reviews about those business program. Reading reviews gives other opinion about that online business. It helps to take the right decision before signing up for any business program.

Also, look around the website to find out what information they published about the company. Find out the contact address, contact phone number. Better try to make a call to them and check whether they are really active and alive in this world. If no such information is there then you have go into pause mode. Simply avoid that business opportunity because that is not better for you. You could even try to send out a mail to check the existence.

One way, you could visit the Better Business Bureau site to find the real face of that business owner. Use Internic to find out who is the owner and the web site registration etc. That helps to identify and see to the right view of that business.

In short, you have to make a complete analysis before joining any kind of online business. Take more time, find out what others are saying about and take the right decision.

Internet helps any one to start their own business without the need for any much of knowledge. Just a computer and an Internet connection is enough, right ? So learn how to find out the trusted online business and choose the better online business.

Do everyone believe in making money from Internet ? No. Why ? Because of the scams and frauds spread across the Internet to steal your money.

When it comes to online business, every one is fearing and taking a move back. It is true that there are more number of online frauds to cheat you. But in reality, you should not give a chance for the scammers to catch you. Now the question comes, how to find out the online scams ? What are the ways to avoid ? Definitely yes, you could easily identify and avoid the online scams with these easy tips.

Don;t over react.

The first and foremost thing to keep in mind, don;t over react on seeing a money making program (that guarantees to make $10000). You should not click any links or you should not show your credit card immediately seeing the program. Take time to analyse the program first before you react.

Don;t believe in look n feel.

Are you seeing flashy images and graphics running left, right through out the site ? Are you seeing money, money every where ? Are you seeing something like “become millionaire soon” ? If you seeing any of these then don’t believe in them. In short, don;t give importance to the colorful look n feel.

Awake up your common sense.

When you are trying new things, you should use your common sense. Thats the sixth sense in you, use it. Just go through that site and see what they have written or what they are telling is making sense ? Is it really believable ? Is that not a fantasy or illusion ? For sure, if you read the things more careful with patience, you could easily identify the trusting.

Beware of Testimonials.

Testimonials are something like members feedbacks. You could see most of these programs have fraudulent testimonials. Don;t believe in them. See a sample testimonial below.

Hi, I am Ross Joe, I recently joined this money making program. The day one I earned 500$ without any investment but I worked only for 10 minutes and earned this amount. Now I am doing a happy living with this excellent program bla…bla…

We don;t know how far these informations are true ? Even some sites are showing payment proof cheques. But we don;t know, is that a real cheque or fake one. Beware of it !

Terms And Conditions.

The important thing to read before joining any kind of online schemes. Don;t avoid, if the TAC is too lengthy. Take enough time to read and understand what they have written. Understand the program policy first, usually mentioned in the TAC. Better take a print-out and read. Because, if you joined the program without knowing the terms, you will suffer hardly in the future.

Use Better Business Bureau to find out the website in their database. you could search the websites URL and see any complaints are raised already against them. This really brings the truth about the money making program before you eyes.

Ensure This Short Checklist.

Check for the following items in that website.

• Do contact information (at least phone no.) is available ?
• Do they have support (at least via email) ?
• Do the program offers money back guarantee ?

Even more, you could try to contact them using their number or via email to confirm the existence of the provider or company.

Beware of Bulk E-mail.

Bulk emails are junk mails coming to your inbox. It may carry links to spam sites that is more intelligent to detect your activities like stealing your password, card numbers etc. So never open the mails in spam/bulk folder or don;t open the mails from unknown person or mails from unknown e-mail ids. Click on the links in the mail only if you have the trust.

Statistics released by BBC says, 95% of the mails floating over Internet are scams and only 5% are legitimate. So beware of bulk e-mail.

Read Reviews – Best Way.

Before joining any money making program, read the reviews about that program. This helps you to know what others are telling about the program ? You could identify how other peoples are doing with this program. Reading reviews helps to easily take the joining decisions and filters the scams away from you. So read reviews, read more reviews.

Sharing Account Information.

Never share your bank account information or credit card numbers through e-mail. High possibilities are there to leak your details to others. Don;t share.

If you follow these tips, you are completely free from online scams always. Have Scam Free Money Making.

Read this FTC Tips For Avoiding Pyramid Schemes for some more information.

• ways to avoid money making scams

1) Don;t buy a money making product without knowing exactly what the product really offers.

2) Don;t believe in the false promises of making more profit through a “magical no work business”. Keep in mind, in this world you can’t earn money without doing any work. Even for stealing, you have to plan and execute perfectly.

3) Don;t trust the Tributes/Feedbacks given by other customers, while purchasing a money making product from any website. That could be bogus.

4) Don;t give your money under forcible circumstances. Its like, asking money for unnecessary or unrequested services.

5) Don;t accept any online offers without getting confirmation from the Business Bureau.

The FTC requests everyone to do better investigation before buying any product or service through Internet especially for online business based opportunity. They have also suggested to do a preliminary investigation to first before reacting to any schemes. You must ask others who have already participated in a pyramid scheme or purchased such a product before taking a decision.

Have you got into any such difficulty ? Don’t worry, you could file compliant under FTC here to take legal actions. I would suggest every one to read this tips to avoid online scams.

• avoiding pyramiding
• federal trade commission pyramid schemes investigations