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Why do people fall for get-rich-quick schemes? Right? Have you? If you haven’t you’re a better person than I am. I’ve lost track of the number of times I have. Hence, I feel I am fully qualified to talk about this topic. But it gets worse. I’ve even fallen for legitimate opportunities that I talked myself into believing would make me rich quick. The desire to get-rich-quick is a strong emotional state in most of us. We have so many unfulfilled dreams that only money can make come true.
It’s all about taking the easy way out. Wanting to travel on the path of least resistance. For those in golden years, time is slipping by and finding ways to earn money becomes very urgent. Scam artists know this and prey on these emotions. I’ve written about one of these scams I’ve fallen for in my Blog.
Our desire to believe there is always an easy way conditions us to be vulnerable time and time again. It’s common for people to hop from one shiny object to the next always hoping that this next one is IT!
When we see others achieving huge success we assume they were just plain lucky. Let me give you one definition of being lucky. Luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness. And herein lies the rub.
To be prepared means working long, hard and smart. Being patient for that right moment to appear. And when it does, they pounce on it. Working long and hard is not something most like to do for the reasons I stated above.
Does any of this strike a chord? I’d like to discuss a few categories of scams and so called easy opportunities.
Bait and Switch
You are enticed to read a money making article where a plan is presented that by following it you will be able to earn a sizable income every month. A litany of success stories is then paraded to gain your trust and confidence that this indeed works. In small print you are told that past success is no guarantee of future results. But their success rate has been consistent for the past 10 years so the probability of success is very high.
There is a low annual subscription fee of $499.00. But they offer you a special deal that if you act now, you will only be charged $39.99. And the annual renewal will remain unchanged if they can charge the credit card you allow them to keep on file. Sounds amazing, so you make the purchase, Within minutes of your credit card going through you receive a welcome Email that makes you feel really special for having faith in them.
You start to follow the course sent in that Email. About a month later you receive another message to inform you that although it is possible for this program to work for you, if you want to speed up the process there is a more advanced course you can purchase an annual subscription for $1999.00. And they have a record of customers who were able to earn upwards of $10K a month starting from the very next month of using this system.
To soften you up you are told that this purchase will be risk free. If within one month you do not like it, you can ask for your money back, no questions asked. And if you go past that month and still don’t like the program, they will renew the program for another year for FREE.
Once you have paid the initial $39.99 and find the plan has made you some money, isn’t it worth it to pay the $1999.00 for the option to earn over $10K a month? Tell me, what is wrong with this picture? Doesn’t it smell of bait and switch?
My advice is don’t waste your valuable time when you come across offers like this.
Free Webinars To Reveal Money Making Secrets
This is the one that drives me crazy. You are expecting that they are going to reveal secrets of a stock that is about to skyrocket. And is you watch the whole webinar the secrets ON HOW TO LEARN ABOUT THIS STOCK will be revealed at the end.
So you come to the end of the Webinar. You will most certainly be given information on how to learn about that stock. By subscribing to a costly newsletter that can range from $199 a year to $1999 a year and more. I find wasting 30 minutes to an hour watching the webinar so infuriating. Often they give you the option of reading the script. If so that is what I do and scroll to the end to see what is the cost to get these secrets so I can make a quick decision that is usually not to spend any money on these programs.
Free Mentoring Sessions
I once registered for an Affiliate Marketing training course for $19.99 a month. That seemed very reasonable. One of the benefits was a free one hour mentoring session. Great I thought. I was contacted by a text message (I had to give my mobile number) as well as by Email to set up a time for the mentoring session. I was so excited.
The session began as I expected. I was initially made to feel really special. They wanted to know what prior experience I had in Affiliate Marketing, or any other online ventures. Did I have any websites. What did I know about Email Marketing and driving traffic to my website. I answered honestly that my knowledge was skimpy at the most.
That was the moment they introduced me to the fast track course that included one on one mentoring. They informed me that every successful online entrepreneur had a knowledgeable mentor behind them. But this was an added cost of $4999.00. Yikes! I thought that if I had that money why would I want to take this course in the first place.
I started to hedge saying I didn’t have the money. Then they started to use psychology on me by saying if I really wanted to make it in this business I had to be committed. That meant finding any means possible to get that money. Like get a bank loan. Ask friends or family to invest in me. Sell stuff I didn’t need.
The bottom line, they implied that if I wasn’t willing to do any and everything to find the money, I was a looser. When I was about to hang up, they asked me if I would be interested in working with them on an installment plan. So I listened to hear what they had in mind.
If I was able to send $500 now and the rest within three months I could start this course right away. By then, I was drained and just wanted to hang up. In trying to take the high road, I said I would get back to them. Bad decision. They kept calling me almost every day. I the end I blocked their number.
Using Hijacked Friends Social Media
This one almost had me fooled. I received a message in Facebook Messenger from a friend who I had a high regard for. He asked me if I had received the Facebook Bonus of $100,000! He had, and wanted to know if I was interested in finding out how to get what he received. I was definitely intrigued! Since I assumed I was chatting with my friend, I didn’t think of digging deeper into this.
He said that I needed to send a text message to a specific phone number for instructions. I did that. The response was immediate. The plan paid out real cash in a briefcase and they were going to deliver that to me in person. So they needed my address. But I had to go and send them $1000 to show good faith.
By then, I knew this was a scam. But why would my friend fall for it and try to get me involved? So I called him on his phone. Fortunately he answered and told me he was aware of what was happening. He did not send out these messages. It seems his Facebook account was hijacked by scammers and they started sending messages to all his contacts as if it was him. He asked me for a favor and report it to Facebook.
Advice On How To Avoid Scams
The best way is to ask yourself when confronted with a get rich quick scheme, does it sound too good to be true? If it does, then it usually is. You can also use Google to check out the company. The Better Business Bureau is also a good resource to find out if the company has a good track record or not.
Many of these opportunities you will come across may not be scams. Just overpriced training programs. Or they may even appear reasonable. It is well worth spending some time doing your own checking. The bottom line, use common sense.
There Is A Better Way To Make Money Online
I decided to research one of these companies who offered to reveal a hot stock to see if I could uncover online what that stock was. Stock Gumshoe is a place where you can find out more about things like this
While I was following the chat lines, on this company I came across someone who was offering good advice. Namely, not to waste ones money on these gurus who promised easy wealth. He told me there were better ways to make money online and asked if I was interested in learning more. He promised me that there was no charge to find oiut more.
I listened. He told me there was a company that has been training inexperienced individuals to become experts in Affiliate Marketing online. His eperience was great. Tim had a dead end job and was interested in an online business. Now he was earning on average $8000 a month. And if he could, I could as well. This wasn’t a huge amount of money but it allowed him to work just a few hours a day from home on his computer. I was definitely interested as this was more reasonable than earning ten times that right off the bat like those other programs promised. If I was interested, he would send me a link to check it out. If what I saw made sense to me, I could register for their starter program for free using a good Emal address. No credit card required!
He said the magic words in that last sentence. I gave him my Email address and he sent me the link to check this out. What I saw blew my mind. I could have free access to training that other companies tried to charge me a small fortune. And if I liked what I saw, I could upgrade for the full course for only $49 a month. But that was totally up to me, I could stay a starter member as long as I wished and still have access to valuable free courses.
Would you like to find out more too? You can by clicking the banner below. If you do, I will see you on the other side to guide you.
