[Dale King]

It's sad really, how many people come online looking for that proverbial "magic pill."

They want the "easy money," the "instant riches," the "fortune and fame." But they don't want to work for it. Hey, has anybody seen a leprechaun and a pot of gold lately?

It's that lure of easy money that makes people easy targets for the con artists and scammers. Oh yeah, they're out there.

And if you're looking for easy money and instant riches, they have virtual warehouses full of magic pills, leprechauns and pixie dust, they'll gladly sell to you.

They seek out and exploit the gullible, and believe religiously in this truism by Phineas Taylor Barnum..."There's a sucker born every minute!"

They have a time-tested formula, and it works like a charm. You respond to an ad that sounds "too good to be true." You know the ones that say, Make $100,000 in 30 days..." or I'll make you a millionaire in one year, or pay you $10,000 for your trouble!"

And let's not forget about the grandaddy of all scams, "The Nigerian Letter Scam."

You've seen the e-mails. Claiming to be Nigerian officials, "heirs" of former government honchos, con artists offer to transfer "millions of dollars" into your bank account in exchange for a small fee. If you respond to the initial offer, you may receive "official looking" documents. Typically, you're then asked to provide blank letterhead and your bank account numbers, as well as some money to cover transaction and transfer costs and attorney's fees.

You may even be encouraged to travel to Nigeria or a border country to complete the transaction. Sometimes, the fraudsters will produce trunks of dyed or stamped money to verify their claims. Inevitably, though, emergencies come up, requiring more of your money and delaying the "transfer" of funds to your account; in the end, there really isn't "millions of dollars" for you to share, and the scam artist has vanished into the night with your money.

And scams aren't only prevalent online either. Have you picked up one of those business opportunity magazines lately?

I'm not talking about first tier magazines like "Entrepreneur," whose ads are mostly legitimate. I'm referring to the second tier magazines. The ones that contain 80 percent scam ads, 10 percent useful content and 10 percent legitimate business opportunities.

And how about that tv commercial where the lady claims to have made over 2 million dollars in the last 9 years working part-time from home. You know the commercial I'm talking about...123makemoney.com. Or is it 456getrich.com? Actually, the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure it's 789freedom.com.

Oh, that's right! The FTC just shut those sites down. Not to worry though, next week there will be a whole slew of new websites to take their place.

I often get e-mail from people inquiring about "legitimate" envelope stuffing companies. Sorry to burst your bubble people, but they don't exist. They never did.

I want you to think about this for a second: Why would a legitimate company thousands of miles away want to pay you a dollar or more for each envelope you stuff, when they have high-tech mailing equipment that can stuff, seal and stamp thousands of envelopes per minute for a fraction of the cost?

And why do you have to pay a $49.95 application fee just for the privilege of working for said company?

And why would a legitimate company have to advertise nationally for workers?

If a legitimate company really was paying a dollar or more for each envelope you stuffed, they wouldn't have to spend money to advertise it nationally. They'd have thousands of people right in their own town lining up right outside their door.

Oh, I beg your pardon! It's kind of difficult to line up outside a mail drop isn't it?

In closing, forget about the magic pills, leprechauns and pixie dust. They exist only in fairy tales. If you truly want to make a fortune online, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way, you'll have to earn it!

Dale King

[crackah]

Great post Dale, as usual.

Should be stickied really. Should be read by EVERYONE on this site. Most people here expect to be rich next year with a Ferrari in the garage.

[RLorenzen]

Great post, Dale.

I agree, Crackah. This post should be stickied. Everyone should be aware of these scams.

One other scam some people aren't aware of. An "investor" contacts your company and is willing to invest money into your company (usually a few hundred thousand dollars at minimum). These guys make it so easy to figure out they're a scam. All you have to do is write two sentences about your company and they are ready to send you the money. The results of this scam are the same as the Nigerian Letter Scam.

[Dale King]

Thanks, Richard and crackah!

I've never suggested this before about any of my articles, but this topic is important.

I agree with you guys. I think this article should be stickied. But that's not my call.

Dale King

[Fanatik]

+1 for the sticky. I'd also like to add, that many entrep. see those articles in Entrepreneur magazine saying "The guys made it big in 3 months!" So it gives a lot of young people false hope. I'm not saying to not have hope in making it big - I'm saying those are the exceptions to the rule... and they still had to WORK for their success.

I know when I was younger, I had a goal of being "rich" by age 20. Haha, how nieve I was. That being said - over the many years, I've learned that business takes more than an idea and scrap piece of paper. I think a lot of entrep. think "oh, I have an idea - so I'll just toss it out there and wait for the hook to catch." womp womp.

Again, great post Dale - and I think it's important everyone read that post!!

J

[Dale King]

Originally Posted by Fanatik

+1 for the sticky.
Again, great post Dale - and I think it's important everyone read that post!!

Thanks, Fanatik!

Dale King

[GuyBBY]

Hey Dale- Awesome post.

I agree with all that has been said and often can be found sharing the same views around here to those who make their first post the "I am sooo hard working but am in debt and left school and need cash. BUT I AM HARD WORKING, and want someone to hand me their ideas and oh yea, also do the work, but I am a great hard worker and you will be amazed!"

I dry heave every time I see that stuff.

Like anything else with the majority of today's younger crowd, they feel entitled, deserving, and overall, offended if they do not have the best or get what they "earn". They want to become a Zuckerberg because "you can", or the next Google because "the internet is growing maaaan". Well assuming you will waltz into that is pathetic, and they should actually get into movie writing instead of entrepreneurship…they would have loved to have been on the set of "Catch Me If You Can".

Thanks again Dale, this should be a pre-requisite to joining YE, as it would cut down on not only the Spam, but the offending emails of "Hey Dale- you have spent lots of time, money and sacrifice to get what you have…can you package that up nice for me and send it my way, thaaaanks!"

Best,

Guy

[Dale King]

Thank you very much, Adam for making this post sticky!

Dale King

[Dale King]

Originally Posted by GuyBBY

Hey Dale- Awesome post.

I agree with all that has been said and often can be found sharing the same views around here to those who make their first post the "I am sooo hard working but am in debt and left school and need cash. BUT I AM HARD WORKING, and want someone to hand me their ideas and oh yea, also do the work, but I am a great hard worker and you will be amazed!"

I dry heave every time I see that stuff.

Like anything else with the majority of today's younger crowd, they feel entitled, deserving, and overall, offended if they do not have the best or get what they "earn". They want to become a Zuckerberg because "you can", or the next Google because "the internet is growing maaaan". Well assuming you will waltz into that is pathetic, and they should actually get into movie writing instead of entrepreneurship…they would have loved to have been on the set of "Catch Me If You Can".

Thanks again Dale, this should be a pre-requisite to joining YE, as it would cut down on not only the Spam, but the offending emails of "Hey Dale- you have spent lots of time, money and sacrifice to get what you have…can you package that up nice for me and send it my way, thaaaanks!"

Best,

Guy

Well said, my friend. Well said. Thanks, Guy!

Dale King

[GuyBBY]

Originally Posted by Dale King

Thank you very much Guy for making this post sticky!

No problem- it will be a great tool for YE on the whole, and I don't hope it says "Hey if you are like this, LEAVE", but rather changes their mindset about what entrepreneurship is really about, and therefore teach them how to come into a site like this and cultivate knowledge and experience to get them on the path they want to be on.

Originally Posted by Dale King

Well said, my friend. Well said. Thanks, Guy!

Dale King

Thanks Dale- truly appreciate that!


Guy