While Matt is hard at work writing his series on what to do when you acquire a new website I thought a post about Internet scams would be appropriate.

What do you do when you realize your newly acquired website or advertising package is based on inflated Alexa rankings, forged PayPal transactions, fake PageRank, and a database full of phony customers???

Anyone who has ever pursued the dream of an online income has surely encountered the greatest obstacle on the net, and that is the proliferation of scams. The Internet is simply too anonymous; without a clearly defined governing body, the propagation of scavenging opportunists waiting to prey on the unsuspecting will never end.

At WhyDoWork one of our main objectives is to help users sort out the good from the bad in a safe, controlled environment. Hopefully these tips help!

So what can you do to protect yourself from scams?

1. Be skeptical. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. If a site claims to have the secret to Internet millions, would they really bother to sell it to you? When dealing with the web, assume guilty until proven innocent.

2. Tell a friend. Tell a trusted pessimistic friend about your potential purchase, and listen to their criticism and skepticism of your idea. Matt and I are constantly providing reality checks for each other. It’s easy to get excited about an idea until you talk it out and realize the loopholes and risks associated with it.

3. Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose. Unless you are dealing with trusted companies you have to assume the risk of getting ripped off.

4. Avoid Pyramid Schemes, illegal ventures, confusing revenue models. Back in early 2007 WhyDoWork was a buzz with talk of 12dailypro and other HYIP (High Yield Investment Programs) that saw guaranteed returns in the 1000%. We are constantly deleting content and banning users who promote a plan that apparently Oprah loves where the premise is send $6 to 6 people on a list. If you choose to participate in an obvious get-rich-quick scheme, you are on your own.

5. Do your due diligence. Research the company and individual you are planning on buying from as much as possible. Start with a Google search for <company name> + scam and go from here. Trusting only the content on the sellers website is a huge risk.

6. Educate yourself about known scams. Every industry has known scams and if you aren’t aware of what they are you can easily fall prey to them. Lets say you are in the market for a new website, ensure you understand what people can do to fake their web stats and look for it.

7. Learn from your mistakes. WhyDoWork is not immune either. A few years back during our early days we contracted out an SEO company Web Design Wright Now run by Leslie Wright who offered a money back guarantee for top 10 Google results for the search term ‘Work at Home’. Well we didn’t receive top 10 results, nor did we get our money back. What we learned from that experience is the 1 - 7 list I am communicating to you today.

I’ve been scammed, what do I do?

Regardless of all your research and industry knowledge, scams can happen to the best of us; especially when you are taking risks. I’m going to draw on this helpful post by Karie and fellow WhyDoWorkers. If you find yourself scammed and are looking for help here are some resources you may want to contact:

• The Federal Trade Commission works for the consumer to prevent fraud and deception. Call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or log on to http://www.ftc.gov.
• The Attorney General’s office in your state or the state where the company is located. The office will be able to tell you whether you’re protected by any state law that may regulate work-at-home programs.
• Your local consumer protection offices.
• Your local Better Business Bureau.
• Your local postmaster. The U.S. Postal Service investigates fraudulent mail practices.
• The advertising manager of the publication that ran the ad. The manager may be interested to learn about the problems you’ve had with the company.
• The payment provider that facilitated the exchange of money / goods (ie PayPal, VISA, etc). Maybe they can get your money back.
• If a 3rd party hosted the transaction try contacting them (eBay, SitePoint).

To connect with people who may have been scammed and prevent the same from happening to others, try posting about your situation at one of these sites:

http://www.ripoffreport.com
http://www.scam.com
http://www.bustedscammers.com
http://www.scamradar.com
http://www.ic3.gov/
http://suckered.us
http://www.whydowork.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=16

What not to do.

While you may feel angry and cheated, the worst thing to do is overreact. Don’t fight fire with fire. If you are thinking about spreading rumors, hacking someones website, or threatening people I strongly advise against this. The last thing you want to do is find yourself in a libel lawsuit or worse. Regardless of how anonymous the Internet seems you can be held accountable for what you say and do if it is a personal attack.

If anyone has other tips or websites to help combat scams please share!

- Joe

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If you want to see who is considered an authority by Google for certain keywords, you don’t have to look very far. All you have to do is do a search for those keywords, and you’ll see them right there, on the front page.

If you manage to get links from those sites, they will probably give you a very healthy boost for those keywords. From some of them, getting links is easy. From others it would require either money or some clever work.

Types of sites and how you can get links from them

1. Forums

If they rank for that keyword with the front page, then probably creating a user and using the link in the signature and for the personal website link would be enough.

If they rank with a thread, then you need to post a reply there. The problem comes when the thread is old and there are no recent replies in it. Posting in an old thread might get you banned, but if you post something relevant and say that you got there with the help of the search engines and you want some clarifications, you might survive the post. A good idea might be not to use a signature right from the beginning. Instead, wait for the thread to slip back to the back pages, then put your link in the signature and ping the page where your reply shows up on pingomatic.com or pingoat.com. It’s a bit evil, so it’s up to you if you do it or not.

2. Blogs

This should be easy. You got a couple of options here, all normal link building techniques.

Guest Posting - If you can do a guest post, the link to your blog will be there. If they accept guest posts that is.

Buying text links - You can contact the blog owner and see if he’s willing to sell you a text link. If you can, try to get a bulk price, and pay in advance for 1 year or so.

Sending an email - Just a simple email, letting him know what your best articles are. If they’re interested, they might link to you, and again, you gain a link from a site that has authority for that keyword.

3. Mini Sites

If it’s a mini site (just a few pages), it depends on what kind.

If it’s a company -  you can try offering them a free logo or a redesign in exchange for a footer link.

For other sites:

• you can try contacting the owner and buying a link
• you can buy the mini site if the owner agrees to sell it. If you can buy it with $50 and it’s already on the 1st/2nd page in Google, then with a bit of work you can take it to the top. If it makes you $2-3/day then you got your money back in just one month. That, plus it’s a permanent authority link to your main site with your chosen keywords. Better then renting a link.
• wait for them to expire if they’re not updated and try to grab the domain when it drops

4. Full Sites

These are a bit of a problem. If they’re selling sponsor links or banner ads, then you’re in luck. If not, or if the links are out of your price range, then it depends on the type of site. If they have a forum attached, then it’s easy getting a link. Maybe they have places where people can comment or leave a product review, though it would probably be with nofollow attached. Another option is leaving a testimonial for their product if they sell anything, and you might get lucky.

Again, you have the option of offering a free logo/site redesign in exchange for a footer link.

5. Massive sites: Wikipedia, About.com, etc

Tough. On About.com I think you can buy advertisement or text links. On Wikipedia I don’t know any way of getting a link without nofollow.

Final words

There is a difference between getting links from high PR pages to boost your PR and getting links to rank for a certain keyword. It’s not the same thing.

If you want to rank for a keyword then get relevant links, from sites or page that are already considered an authority (they’re in top 10/20 in the search engines for that keyword). You can also look for related terms and get links from sites that rank for those as well. Just don’t go buying PR 5 links from car blogs and expect you’ll rank better for "making money online".

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