Is It Easy To Deceive Online?
We are all adults in the blogosphere but I realize that its so easy to get away with deceiving others online. I thought about this recently when I was discussing a scam contest that I had taken part in about 3 years ago. I realized that since the contest was online, there was no way for me to get a hold of the owner of the website to collect my prize, neither was there a way for me to create a havoc. Here are a few scams that I have come across over the years:
1) Scam Contest – Since I started off with this, I wanted to talk about scam contests. Some blogs have done this in the past with a really high cash prize to help them build up a buzz and then they end up not offering a cash prize to the winner anyway. In some other situations, I have seen the prizes go to family members or friends, who obviously dont receive any prize.
2) Fake Bloggers – Sometimes you’ll see a blog with a beautiful female blogger or a model-like male blogger that actually doesn’t exist. Its not that people are not as pretty or are ugly but they feel the better image will attract more people to their blog which would help them build traffic.
3) No Payout from Advertisers – This doesn’t seem that likely lately but some advertising websites don’t actually make payouts. When I started talking about InfoLinks, I was asked to provide a proof of payment because it seemed to be a trend in the past that people advertise a service or product and do not receive any compensation or payment from the advertisers.
4) Dissolving MMO Schemes – Something else we’ve seen is certain websites pop up and rake in a lot of traffic or new ways to make money and as soon as they’ve reached their goal, they dissolve and do away with the blog. There are 3 blogs that I can think of where this has happened. The bloggers do this by coming up with a scheme that will help bring traffic to the people that pay in to this idea and when the scheme doesn’t do well, and the money has been received by the person that came up with the idea, the website and the blogger disappear into the dust.
5) Selling things that dont exist or never ship – This is probably the most common crime that is not only experienced in the blogosphere but also through other mediums such as eBay or other forums. People decide that they will sell items that are high value and never really exist and if they do exist, they never ship. This was seen more commonly with the iPhone and the Wii. Either way, this is a major scam on the internet that we see all the time and even some new businesses have done that. Sometimes, such new websites would even sell your credit card information after they dissolve.
I hope this post has been entertaining. My exams are finally letting up so I’ll have more posts soon. Hope everyone is doing good and let me know if youve been a part of such a scam or deceit before. Have a good rest of the week!
Great Post.
I’ve seen bloggers that fake who they are and say that they make millions online. That’s one thing i really hate, why not just try being your self.
you are right. dont know why they lie
I have been taken in by a scam contest. The one that I took part in drew a lot of attention even after people discovered it was all a scam. It is relatively easy to deceive people online and some are more gullible than others. For that reason you do have to be careful about just about everything on the web. Going back to the scam contest I entered a couple of years ago, I was really pissed off about it being a scam and it out me off contests for a very long time.
Unfortunately I don’t think it would be different in years to come. It’s been really easy to do shady things especially if you can get a lot of traction. Its just sad because a lot of people really hope to win or get something only to find out they were scammed.
Yes it is very easy to deceive online. I have been tricked a few times over the years, but there are countless other scams that I spotted right away. Most scams are quite obvious, but in time the scammers will get smarter and con people in more sophisticated ways.
You forgot to mention the classic online deception….the overweight 40 year old man pretending to be a hot 20 year old blonde chick. In the online world, it can be simple to trick people. Too many people are overly trusting, even when online.
The internet allows people to be “faceless” so to speak, as one of your readers said an old man can go online with the pretense of a young chick or a young guy and con young girls ect. You get the idea. But I also have a problem with the so call “blogging gurus” who boast about how much they make online and will even show a check. For one thing, I’ve heard many people say that “the check” makes them really believe that it’s on the up & up, which I disagree with. Think how easy it is for some people to photoshop a check or fake a check? We all have to be very cautious when working or playing on the internet. Great post with good info. jj
You should always be careful when dealing with people online. You never know if they are trustworthy or not. There are a lot of scammers out there. So its hard to tell the scammers from the non scammers unless they have a reputation.
yes i agree with you, reputation is very important in online business
Unfortunately I don’t think it would be different in years to come.
It was a blogger’s technique to use another name and image online if she/he feels it will make more for him/her. The thing is, he/she should always be true and wont scam his/her readers or followers.
I agree with you. but when it comes to money talk you must use your real name.