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Future Con Artists on the Internet: Tricks they will use to
By: George Kosch
Let's imagine a scenario where you just purchased some traffic for your
website from a company that looked and was recommended by some of your
peers. You send them your ad and join their list. They tell you that they
have over 50,000 people on their list and no need to worry because when you
see all those leads and traffic using your stats software you are going to
be impressed. The company will even post your classified ad to a thousand
sites, give you access to some free e-books and keep you on their list for
free updates for life. If you are not happy you can even have a full
refund. This sounds good, nothing can go wrong. Or can it?
You check your email box the next day and find over 200 leads waiting for
you along with stats that blow your mind: 2000 hits. Not bad. You quickly
enter the emails into your stationary or sales manager software and get
those letters out to those leads. You direct the same company to send
another ad out to their list and get people to sign up for your newsletter.
You supply the url to signup and go to bed since this is too easy. The
money's just about to start rolling in any minute now...
Next day is even better, you check your list and 140 people joined up for
your newsletter. Your classifieds must be pulling along with all the other
ads since you are getting hits everyday now that you never had before.
You could have paid anywhere from $200 to $500 for this service. Problem
is, the service could be worth about 1 cent. But how you ask? Simple...
The Con Artist's Clever Model
Let's pretend we are programmers and that we are trying to figure out a way
to sucker people. Being very clever we have come up with an idea.
1. We will create a computer program that will book 2000 random free email
sites from places like Hotmail, Home.net, GeoCities.com, Eudoramail.com and
about 20 others. There are hundreds to choose from but for this first draft
at the con job we will just use a few.
2. Another part of the program will log into the free accounts at least
once a week to keep them fresh. This works just like programs that
automatically submit urls to search engines then check your position in
them. All automatic and very easy to manage, trust me.
3. We need to have the program visit url's that we request after logged
into the email account. Of course we will spoof the ip that our program
uses so that when it checks email then visits the site it looks legit in
the url owner's (the person we are suckering) stats package.
4. If the person gives us a domain address we will take a quick visit and
find a guestbook or other form on the site. Our program will then go to
that url and enter the fake information like name and email address. If we
find a newsletter subscription form we can have our program join the list.
How many fake emails to enter? Depends on how much they pay us. Remember,
they are legit email addresses but there is never anybody home.
The system is now in place. The poor sucker pays us money and we type their
url into our system for their web site and forms. Next day according to
what we want they have enough traffic and emails to keep them happy with
handing over cash.
Does this scare you? It should because it is happening right now.
How can you avoid this?
1. Watch the company you are dealing with. Do they sell email lists? If
they do they are crooks!!! Stay away.
2. Get on their list for a long time. See what the quality of their
newsletter is like. Is it good information or just filler news.
3. Call the Better Business Bureau in their city. Just visit
http://www.networksolutions.com and look this up using their domain url
address. If they are not a member, get away from them at all costs. This is
a hard fast rule!
4. Talk to them on the phone and ask questions about the source of their
advertising that gets them so much traffic. How did they get so popular?
You need to find this out and verify it.
5. Finally, how much does this cost? I saw a guy pay $149.95 per year to
post daily to millions of people! Yeah right. We sell classified ads with
over 200,000 impressions for just $99.95. More than that and you are being
suckered.
About the Author
George Kosch MSc., Webmaster for Worldprofit.com, is a renowned technology
services consultant and educator. He has appeared as a speaker in several
technology seminars and on Canadian television as an industry expert. For
other helpful information on how to grow your business, go to
http://www.worldprofit.com/autoresponse. Subscribe to Worldprofit's
business-building newsletters at http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines
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