I was also interested in doing this kind of work. But when I did some Google search and found a link I liked, I was so disappointed to learn that I have to pay first. I'm not a newbie anymore when it comes to online earnings. So, I've decided to let go of my plan and look for other ways to earn. My brother was the one who gave me the advice to never ever join a site that asks for a payment first. If a site does that, then I should just leave it. Most likely they are just out to fool people with their sweet lies of having a good income.
Don't join anything without doing a lot of research into reviews and feedback. Between Google, YouTube and many other sites, it's extremely easy and fast to check the legitimacy of something. No excuses to get scammed in that type of way if you ask me.
>If you mail and nobody answers, it is not a good sign< You’re so right there! In fact, if there is no telephone number to call or a physical address I can check up on, it would be dodgy enough website to deal with.
This thread has some awesome advice- I believe that everyone on this forum needs to be reminded of some of this stuff. It is way too easy for people who are scammy to make a page on the internet and offer "deals" that are actually ways to steal your money!
I actually agree with all that you have written, I always make it a point to research a seller or an online store first before purchasing items from them, so that I will know if it's safe to make a transaction with them. So far I haven't been scammed yet, thanks to Google. And as for those online jobs that ask you to pay first before you get accepted, that is an obvious scam.
I mostly agree with the list, however I have different opinion on few things. First of all I don't look at a product that has no reviews as suspicious. There could be many reasons why the product doesn't have reviews. It could be a new product or people who bought it didn't bother to leave review or rate it so I consider giving even products with no reviews a fair chance. Not every product is a blockbuster product so we shouldn't expect people to write glowing reviews for each and every product available in the market. Secondly, even if a product has bad reviews, I read them to see why the product has got such awful reviews. A lot of times people just give a product a bad rating but their reasons are plain ridiculous such as "Not Happy", "Awful", "Not as per expectation". So unless there is an exhaustive list of bad features of a product, I would buy it if it matches my requirements. I have had few bad experiences this way but hey that's how we learn.
I wouldn't even buy those wholesale scarves or rings! Who knows that materials they are using to make them. You could be wearing some weird plastic that isn't safe. I wouldn't because I am so sensitive and allergic to most materials lol I just stick to couponing to get my deals.
If a job site doesn't tell you what you'll actually be doing, but just shows random clip art photos of people sitting on the beach, or cheering with handfuls of money, that site is a scam. Real sites ,whether they are freelance writing sites or microjobs sites, do not show awkward photos of a blonde model giving the thumbs up while dollar bills rain down on her. Isn't that clip art so cheesy?
I think it's being harder and harder to scam people, simply because we know the signs of when something is serious and when something is not. The thing is there are always some people who don't know and get trapped in these dishonest schemes, usually old people.
Not necessarily true. For example if you ever want to work with children, or in a high security job, you must pay for a CRB or Criminal Record & Background check. Of course, the fee is only something like five pounds, and the company may choose to pay it for you, and simply deduct it from your future paychecks, but the possibility does remain that they will ask you to pay for this CRB up front. The good thing is, if you get a copy of it yourself, then you should be able to use it for other jobs for five years I believe.
I know this is an old post, but I just came across it. It was listed as a "similar thread" on one of the other threads that I was participating in. I definitely think this thread should be bumped up. So many people get scammed out of their hard-earned money by people online; it happens each and every day. This is a good list of things to look out for to help avoid these scams.
Another thing that I always pay attention to is the price of shipping. There are some times that a site or place will have a fair price for the product but the price of the shipping makes it such that the total that you are paying for the item isn't reasonable at all. You should never have to pay more for the shipping than for the item itself.
Those are pretty great rules to internet by. I play by these rules and it has kept me out of many, many dumb situations that I would have otherwise been in. I hope that so many people read this because of this bump. If that's the way this forum works!