It happens all the time. You think you have found the perfect online business opportunity and you quickly join up, with visions of finally making money online. The hurt of losing either money from your pocket, or not getting paid the money you earned can be devastating. What is happening here is a loss of trust and of money. I am going to share a few tips on how you can survive this type of online scam.
Surviving any online scam that cost you money may cripple your ability to either do business online or offline in the future. We all survive and live through our abilities to trade. In doing our jobs, we trade time for money. Online, we trade our time and expertise for money. If you are going to continue making money online, you really have no choice but to survive a scam that is perpetrated on you. Let us see how it is done.
First, my story. I joined an affiliate program with a very popular guy in the Internet Marketing circles some years ago. This was around 2002. He had a number of popular products, and I found out that with little effort, I was able to earn around $400.00 in affiliate commission quickly. But the wait for his commission quickly turned from gleeful anticipation to jarring disappointment. He was not paying. Pretty soon I found out that he had 'locked shop' and disappeared with all the commissions owed to me and most of his other affiliates. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.
Here is the best tip to survive an online scam like this. Don't trust individuals with no proven history, to manage your money for you. Whether as an affiliate owner or investor, people can go bad quickly. Actually, they were crooks all along, you just did not know it at the time. Instead of relying on affiliate programs managers I don't know, I now work with proven companies that have a solid history, such as ClickBank LinkShare, and Commission Junction.
Another lesson you can take away from an online scam, and still be brave enough to make money online, is to learn the lesson quickly and move on. I can honestly say that I have forgiven this fellow and I'm so over it. But I am no longer crippled by this. I am a better marketer and a better person in all of this. Even when you work hard for your money, you can still fall victim to crooked characters online.
Limit your exposure by simply not dealing with someone without recourse. Using payment processors like PayPal and Credit cards can limit your exposures. Sending money by money-transfer services to strangers is just plain silly.
