The Scam Stopper Report is a collaborative effort by a small group of IT industry workers who seem to spend a lot of time dealing with the World Wide Web.

We have noticed that the general public is getting taken in by some alarmingly foolish lies, tricks, scams and acts of miss-information.

Our hope is that in publishing this report people will tell their friends, family and work colleagues and with just a little more truth getting about these dangerous and often expensive myths can be exposed for what they are - lies!

A quick run down of the usual suspects

Out Of Africa - An email arrives (usually from Africa) and some honest sounding person would like your help to embezzle large amounts of cash (for a good cause) all you need to do is pay out to cover a few costs... (you pay up and never see them again).

Get bigger / better / slimmer / richer / smarter NOW! - The product changes but the scam is as old as the hills. This one is just the old quack remedies scam with a new brighter face. An email trying to sell you a bottle of coloured water. Buy this for just [insert large sum here] and be the next great Romeo. Also in this category are the schemes where you pay a "small" amount to get rich quick.

Cheap XYZ no questions - The old false hope scam where the hidden costs soon mount up. Other versions include the "free" holiday or computer.

Drugs without subscription - While this is not strictly speaking a scam you would be wise to wonder why these drugs are so cheap. Sometimes they are phonies sometimes they are stolen but always they are unsafe.

Variations on the Pyramid Scheme - The only winners with these nasty tricks are the people who started it. On average for every "winner" there will be at least 8 losers. whole communities have been impoverished by these things resulting in shops and businesses closing and jobs being lost. It can take decades for a full recovery to take place.

Global Lottery Scams - "Congratulations [name] you have one [a heck of a lot of money] from the lottery you have never heard of". The fact you never purchased a ticket should have been the first clue but the fact that you must now pay a set of "processing fees" to get the cash should send you running.

There are hundreds if not thousands of variants on these basic scams. Remember folks "if it's to good to be true, then it probably isn't". Being just a little cynical can save you thousands.

While these are indeed nasty scams worse still are the ones with just a little truth peppered in to make the bate that bit more tempting.

The Spam Scam - "We guarantee top ranking in Google, AOL, MSN, Yahoo etc.". The sad fact is that there is not a single person in all of Google who'd be willing to do more than offer some general tips on general improvement.

How is it then that these companies can offer so much and all for just $2500 a year?

Just recently I was sitting in an office and happened to take a call from a man selling website promotion. He proudly directed me to type a few words into Google and there in the top 10 was the site as predicted but all was not as it seemed

In actual fact this "site" was nothing more than a carefully created "splash" page designed to trick search engines it was linked to about 20 other almost identical splash pages.

This trick is known as Search Engine Spam. The man was trying to sell me Spam. A quick read of the Google terms of service will tell you that this kind of thing is likely to get you removed from their listings. It is classed as cheating.

Yahoo is a similar story. People try to sell me a Number 1 position in Yahoo but Yahoo will only guarantee to look at your site for your money. At the end of the day your placement in the index of Yahoo is at the whim of the indexer. All your money will buy is something you can do your self In about ten minuets (the filling out of a form).

Search engines are a law unto themselves regarding submissions and anyone who tells you they have them all "sussed" or trys to tell you that you are guaranteed anything is pulling a fast one.

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There are hundreds of fast ones being pulled everyday and our aim is to expose them all one by one. This is just the first of many reports we hope to produce.

Feel free to link to this page, quote this page or email it to other people. Our aim is to get this information out there as best we can. In-fact if you wish you are free to quote some or all of this report on your own Blog or homepage (just follow our guidelines and link to the original so that you visitors know where this has all come from).

This article was written for the scam stopper report on or arround Thursday, September 16, 2004. It may be reprinted so long as the full text of the article is made available including this footer portion and so long as the text and links remain unchanged except for minor reformatting to fit your website.

The original copy of the article can be found here. This article may contain speculation and should not be substituted for getting professional advise.

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