Hype

Written by Bob Osgoodby


Most of us think of hype as exaggerated or extravagant claims, made especially in advertising or promotional material. Sometimes it is deceptive and deliberately misleading. While we have become a bit immune to this through constant exposure, it always seems that someone comes up with a fresh approach that is not immediately recognized.

Con artists have been around sincerepparttar beginning of time, and are always willing to take advantage of another "hot prospect". But every scam has "red flags" and a little common sense should prevail so you do not fall prey to them. Let's examine a few we get by email everyday.

"Complimentary Vacation Package" - this one has been around a long time, but has now found its way torepparttar 127581 web. It starts off with "Congratulations! You will be our guest in Orlando, Florida, home of Walt Disney World, for 4 days and 3 nights. All compliments of major Vacation Resort Developers." Reading it, you might feel you have won a contest. In actuality, this is notrepparttar 127582 case. It is a high pressure sales campaign designed to sell you a "timeshare" vacation package.

Another variation promises deeply discounted vacation packages. You pay for a package that seems great onrepparttar 127583 surface, but in reality is either third rate accommodations or doesn't exist at all.

"Guaranteed Winner" - they state - "You're going to get one of these top five prizes, guaranteed!" In this scam you normally send some information, and either return it by email or fill out a form on a web site. They require that you supply your telephone number to be eligible. You will then be contacted by a telemarketer who confirms that you have been chosen for one ofrepparttar 127584 five "valuable" prizes; however, you must pay a processing fee for handling, customs duties or taxes, and you must send a check or money order to them by overnight mail. The prize usually winds up being small trinkets of minimal value, discount coupons or vouchers, worth far less than what you paid.

Or, you might receive an e-mail informing you that your order has been received and processed, and your credit card will be billed forrepparttar 127585 charges. The trouble is, you haven't ordered anything. They contacted you using bulk email, using inactive return addresses which prevent you from refutingrepparttar 127586 orders by email. They do provide a telephone number inrepparttar 127587 area code 767, which is actually inrepparttar 127588 West Indies. They try to keep callers onrepparttar 127589 line as long as possible, and you are reportedly billed as much as $25 per minute. Be aware that your local telephone company may bill for services provided by other companies, and not be able to provide you relief.

Future Con Artists on the Internet: Tricks they will use to take your advertising dollars

Written 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 boxrepparttar next day and find over 200 leads waiting for you along with stats that blow your mind: 2000 hits. Not bad. You quickly enterrepparttar 127580 emails into your stationary or sales manager software and get those letters out to those leads. You directrepparttar 127581 same company to send another ad out to their list and get people to sign up for your newsletter. You supplyrepparttar 127582 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 allrepparttar 127583 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,repparttar 127584 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 atrepparttar 127585 con job we will just use a few.

2. Another part ofrepparttar 127586 program will log intorepparttar 127587 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.

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