Do Not Fall For Ponzi Scams!
Posted in Scams on Jan 31st, 2006
A few hours ago, I had a friend asking me to evaluate an ‘investment’ opportunity. Apparently, you get paid just for surfing the internet. Well, this concept is not new and I had personally earned a rate of about $0.50 per hr doing it in the past.
The money comes from advertisers but such programs usually fail in the end because such a form of advertising is NOT effective and most advertisers eventually drop out.
The red flag in this opportunity that my friend bought up is that the company, 12dailypro, requires you to put in an ‘investment’ to earn from the surfing. And you can earn 12% per day from it! Such a high rate of return automatically activates the ‘scam’ trigger in me.
Shortly after, I was reading through an investment forum and some people acutally commented that they were willing to put in some money to try out the concept. I was sad (and amazed) that people can actually fall for such scams.
Nevertheless, I felt duty bound to warn as many people as possible.
First, you would want to read this tutorial on the different kinds of scams available.
This second tutorial elaborates on pyramid schemes and ponzi scams.
And lastly, this comprehensive article has a good analysis of “surf and get paid” programs and explains why programs like 12dailypro and studiotraffic are pyramids in disguise.
If you have experience in any of such scams, feel free to share with us your comments.
And if you know of people putting their hard earned money in such schemes, please warn them before they lose all their money!