Recognizing a True Online Guru Contender From a Fake Pretender - Preventing Online Fraud

Since the proliferation of the niche 'make easy money online' a lot of charlatans have taken this opportunity to reap many un suspecting individuals of their hard earned money, promising to deliver to them easy systems that will enable them make easy money online with no active participation or not even doing any thing at all, but sit and watch as the dollars roll into their bank accounts. I find it really funny that in these information age where information abound every where; from the internet to the media (electronic and print), from oral to written, that people could still fall for their gimmicks and pay dearly by losing part or all of their money, a price they pay for being greedy and lazy. How ever, it has been noted that approximately 97 percent of all online money niches are fraud: and as such one needs to be careful while carrying out online transactions these days.

Having said this, I'll like to take out time to list some possible online fraud, some from other people's experience, while the others from personal experiences and encounters with these impostors and swindlers; and how to avoid them, because if a person loses money to scams, it is very demoralizing. Sit back; relax and take your time as I expose some never revealed secrets and in the process separate the Contenders from the pretenders.

When I first got exposed to the internet, that was a couple of years back, 2001 to be precise, then the internet and its applications was still very new to many us at that time. As a result of my naivety, I almost got swindled by a certain scholarship experts gurus (swindlers) based in Ontario, Canada. I came across information as regards their services via a classified advert in one weekly magazine based in Nigeria, the so called scholarship experts claimed that there link you up with charitable organizations (wonder what that means) both in your home country and abroad that are willing to dole out large sums of money in aid and scholarships to deserving students who plan to study in any of the ivy towers of the world. Being a newbie at that time, I fell for this cheap scheme and made for the nearest cyber cafй to surf for more info at these 'experts' website, I wonder if this site still exist on the web. On getting to their site, I sent them an email to notify them of my interest as regards their offer; then the drama ensued.

As soon as my email hit their inbox, I was sent an auto responded message informing me of the further steps to take to claim this one in a life time opportunity, I was asked to pay the sum of $45 by credit card, postal order or wired transfer, and after they've received my payments, they will now hook me up with the so called 'charitable organizations' and 'governments' who donate scholarships and aid as if it was a persons birth right. All these happen after they've received their $45. I almost got swindled if not for a friend who I lost contact with to this day, I went searching for credit card in banks and other financial institutions, then met him at one company who specializes in online transactions, very rare those days in Nigeria. He offered to surf the site of the scholarship experts himself, and when he did, he made some rather shocking discovery about this people, that they where not only fraudsters but they where charlatans with no base in Canada, and that there are responsible for swindling many unsuspecting students. I thanked my stars that I not only retained my $45, but got hooked up with fastweb.com by this new friend of mine, then the mystery of scholarships was revealed to me through this portal. I realized that nothing indeed was for free, that one need to work hard to get the reward for excellence.

With the increase in online niches such as FOREX, fixed odd trading, affiliate marketing, ad words etc, these online predators have once again capitalized on this new genre of online activities to prey on individuals who once again place a high priority on freebies and stress free life of sitting idly facing their computer screens as the dollars pour in, in torrents. Recently a friend of mine was tricked into paying for a product (FOREX robot) that promises 100 pips every day as long as your account remains live. Well this gentle man fell for such cheap scheme and he is still licking his wounds, pathetic you will say. There are many out there that have suffered such fate, and many more are likely to fall victim of these cheats. It becomes pertinent that urgent steps should be taken to check this online menace before it escalates to unmanageable proportions.

The following points are to be taken into note when a person is making dealings online:

1) When paying for a product or service, did the product come with an endorsement in form of testimonies by previous customers who have made use of the product or service; and certified it to be okay?
2) Now, those testimonies did it show email addresses and other physical contact details of the said customer?
3) Earlier on I stated that at least 97 percent of all online opportunities are our right scams, were you asked to recruit people, deposit money etc?
4) Now the so called 'guru' who offered to make you very rich in a couple of minutes, did he offer a money-back guarantee if you don't find his product/service satisfactory?
5) As for those products/services that has to do with networking, where you asked to pay before you can join?
6) Where you asked to pay for an educational grant or scholarship that normally goes to deserving students in the case of those furthering their academics?

Now as an answer to the above listed questions in summary; for you to recognize a true guru from a fake, a true guru will;

1) give you accurate and a well tested and proven result oriented product/service with attested testimonies by previous customers
2) the testimonies will come with not only the names of the buyers, but with their physical addresses, in most cases pictures
3) if it is a product/service that has to do with networking, most of the products/services will not ask you to deposit money or recruit more people as most are free to join, however I am not saying that those who some times ask you to do the latter, are fraudulent people. As some affiliate networks require you to recruit more affiliates, what is known as multi tier programs for you to gain more commissions on sales made.
4) A real guru always offers a real money-back guarantee if his product/service is not as satisfactory to you as he earlier asserted.
5) More so, gurus get listings from other established gurus, a real guru gets recommendations from others in the same field or niche market as he is, as he is a distinguished fellow who wants to add more value to the lives of his clients not pluck holes in their pockets, but rather to mend the pockets to hold good contents.
6) A real guru is a fellow whose presence online remains persistent and consistent, he doesn't run away as soon as he has reaped a substantial amount of money fraudulently from people, as a real guru he is not satisfied with enough money as he knows the value of the information he has at his disposal and is not ready to sale it for peanuts. But rather he is ready to makes tons of money selling this information or others.
7) A real guru specializes and establishes himself in a particular niche, he is not there because it is the craze online, but he specializes because it an area he can beat his chest any day that he knows so much about and therefore should tap from this well to make his living helping others who are craving for the knowledge he possess. He does not jump from niche to niche as most fraudulent characters and amateurs do, rather he diversifies and is willing to learn new and improved ways of doing the same thing he does.
8) Finally, services such as scholarships and grants are free and only awarded to deserving students who meet the requirements or some other special considerations of the award sponsors, gurus like fastweb.com will tell you this

It is my belief that this piece will help you make your decisions next time you want to part with your hard earned money for a product or service, as there is one hard cold fact people are still finding difficult to accept; there is no such thing as easy and fast money, I'm speaking from experience as I have jumped into many get rich quick schemes and became disappointed in the long run. I realized that the only road to riches is hard work (work smart though), perseverance and above all patience.

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