You probably heard of them before. They are those spam emails, popups from websites and spam SMS sent to you to get your attention and to get you hooked onto their bait.
Free Cruise
Free Holiday
Free Ringtone
Autopilot income
Lottery winner
New Buisness Opportunities
Secret Software etc
It’s sad and if you did a bit of online marketing before, you certainly know why some people market this and despite lots of complaints and stories heard from other people of how badly they got scammed, this type of “programs” and “services” still keep on growing in numbers. Because of greed, human illusion of winning something big and free, desperation, deception, pressure and money!
It’s really a grey area where the ethics are questionable and on the other side it’s merely business where there is offer and acceptance.
– I believe some offers are real while some are not.
– If people rush and pressure you into things, tell them to get lost.
– Never ever rush into decision. Do your research or else they will eat you for dinner. I’ve been eaten before 🙁
– There is no FREE.
– The email and SMS server/service that they use to send out email/sms isn’t free.
– The domain name where they serve you the cute and pretty website/webpage isn’t free. Hosting for websites cost money too.
– To advertise on other people’s website, search enignes or newspaper is not free.
– Getting people to write, build, test, and run the website is not free.
– So why the heck do some people think that they are lucky and just won a FREE prize today? Do you think those people spent hours, energy and money to do their “business”, so you can win their FREE prize? Give me a break.
– Don’t opt in if you think it smells fishy. Don’t fill in any details about names, credit card, email, mobile or phone number etc. These data are so important that every marketer will die fighting and paying for. I have several mail accounts, and you probably know why – some for real personal email, and some for filling out forms and receiving “fishy emails” from not-so-important parties which I’ll only check them once or twice per month. But you usually don’t have the luxury to have more than 1 name, credit card, mobile/phone number etc, so give them out carefully.
– Remember! It is always easier to opt in then to opt out. Think twice before you press that submit button or dial that number!
* Just for reference, Australia has an official website for scam watch.
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