Your online business, Part 4

There is one thing you can absolutely, with out question, count on when it comes to online busness: If a scam and/or scammer was successful once, THEY WILL BE BACK. Most sites which practice and deceptive or out and out fraudulent businesses do so over and over again because of the very nature of the Net: it is big.

However, a little investigation prior to signing up for a company or site can yeild good results and sometimes prevent a lot of grief (and lighter pockets.) One thing you can do is run what is called a whois. A whois is a look up service that takes the domain you are considering and comes back with information like who owns the site, admin email address, physical addresses, telephone numbers and other business informatiion. I use this service a lot: http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml

One of my favorite scammers who just keeps coming back again and again with basically the same programs over and over again operates out of Queensland Australia. He runs the same basic scam over and over again, using the same type programs and even the same wording on every program he starts and then closes. I first joined one of his traffic sites back in Jan. 2004. He also offered an "investment" program that ran along side his traffic site. I never upgraded or invested in the paid programs, but watched them both with interest as I surfed the site to market my own sites.

About 3 months after joining, it simply disappeared. Gone, left the building, no where in sight. Then, later late spring, early summer, I started seeing email ads for the programs. The owner claims to have been hit by hackers, then massive host/server issues in which he lost his database and etc. But, he wasn't going to let that "get him down." I was cool with that. So, I rejoined and invested in his paid program as well. Then I promoted his site - a lot.

When he started back up, it was with the claim that he would be the #1 paid to surf site on the planet. That no other paid to surf site would compare to what he would be paying and etc. And, he set a date for that paid to surf to begin. I promoted his site - a lot. Date for paid to surf came and went. Wrote him. No response. Couple weeks later, lots of promises on paid to, still nothing. I wrote him again. No response.

Now, all this time I had been promoting his site based on the paid to surf motif. So, I am starting to look like a scammer here. I finally got the owner to answer my emails and an "frank" series of emails entailed. He deleted my account and my very large downline. He did refund my investment, so I was not out that. Paid to surf never materialized. Then, towards the end of the year 2004, his site went down AGAIN! Same story, same mysterious hacker, same host/server issues, same loss of database. Good bye everyones money who had upgraded at his account and invested in his other programs. Then, he disappeared again.

Only to resurface recently with yet another traffic site! And, as before, although calling this one something different, he uses THE EXACT SAME PHRASES AND CLAIMS AS BEFORE. Upon seeing the site, I ran a quick whois, and sure enough, there he was and guess what? His site WENT DOWN AGAIN!!! Same story, same reason as all the times before.

You really have to wonder about some one who runs a business that is constantly being run out of business for the same reasons. Usually one learns and takes precautions. Lol.

His site is back up and, again, making the same promises of guarantees, best paid to anywhere and of course this: This exchange is not running in the paid to surf mode just yet. The exchange is open to free members at the present time, so enjoy the benefits.

Since this time, I have my own traffic sites and have gone through hackers, host/server issues and etc. Stuff happens, you get through it, you take precautions, get on with the business at hand. Usually, if it involves money, you have database backups and etc. Back ups are highly restorable. Except when you don't want them to be.

So, when you are looking to get involved in a site as an affiliate or as a business, a little investigation and a whole lot of questioning are in order. Even if we are not talking about a lot of money, we are talking about your time and effort! Not to mention that if you are going to be involved in something, you want it to be a good reputable site, not something that engages in "shady" business practices.

- Cherie Halliday
http://www.xtreamsurf.com