How to not get ripped off by so called online “experts”, don’t get scammed online!

I have been working online since 1999. I got started by doing public speaking on how to not get “scammed” online.
I have a special loathing for online scammers.
Online anyone can say they are an “expert”, they can make all kinds of claims of what they have done, and what they earn, and how do you know the difference?

I am going to give you a few tips and tools you can use to find out if the person you are considering hiring to help you is for real.
Recently I have had several clients who paid for SEO services from so called “experts” and they got burned.
If they had just done a little checking first, this would not have happened.

The first thing to check with any SEO expert or anyone promising you high traffic and instant profits, is to check their websites page ranking.
If they are a ZERO, then you just saved yourself from being scammed. If the site is a zero-3 and they say they are an expert, they obviously are not.

Here is a page rank checker you can bookmark and use.
http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

Next find out what other websites they run.
Here you will often discover much interesting information about your potential scammer.
Things like fake testimonials and the same faces and same lies on all their scammy sites.
To find this information out,
All you need to do is go to Yahoo search and enter this:

linkdomain:abc.com -site:abc.com

of course changing the abc.com to whatever persons website you are researching.
This will show you all the domains associated with that persons business and IP, and you will also pull up any comments they left on blogs using that IP, and it really gives you a overview of the person you are considering investing your money with. They may have some things on a different IP, but you will still learn a huge amount about the person by doing this.

Be sure to start clicking on websites that you see listed, and you will soon spot the fakes and the scammers as you will start to see the same sales pitch and the same fake testimonials on various websites. You may see the same website design used over and over for various sites.

As you do this be sure to check the page ranking for some of the sites the so called SEO or Web Expert has worked on, and you will see if they can deliver the goods for you. Especially check out their own domain and page ranking that they have given you as their main business website. Also check their traffic, if it is a ZERO, you know they are scamming.

Don’t forget to Google their name! I suggest when you Google you add the words ,scam, rip off , fake, fraud after their name, why?, because anyone who has complained about them online will pop up for you in the results.
This itself can be a real eye opener.

I learned this the hard way after I bought a scooter online,(X-Treme Scooters) I checked out reviews, I checked out the manufacturer, and I thought I did due diligence, then when the scooter fell apart in the box and the company refused to refund me, I did a new search using the words “scam, fake, rip off and fraud” with the scooter name and there were hundreds of people who got ripped of just like me! I learned my lesson.

Look for the negative words first when checking something out online.
I actually helped other people not get ripped off by writing about this long and horrible scooter story ( it turned into a 4 month battle with the company.)
I wrote about it on eBay guides and a few other places online. Finally my credit card refunded me under the fraud category for this purchase.
Lesson learned.

Taking 30 minutes to do some checking can save you lots of heartache and the loss of your money down the road.

Finally I suggest you download a great tool I use called SEO toolbar. It has all the things built in I have mentioned above and you can just click the various things like page rank, traffic and whois and the yahoo link domain and see it all there.
You can download this tool here
http://tools.seobook.com/seo-toolbar/

Also SEOBOOK is a great blog, packed with very helpful information.

Don’t forget to ask for “proof” from the experts.

Honest people have honest testimonials with people you can actually contact, not made up people or friends that you will see on all thier scammy websites over and over.

Honest people have real websites with real numbers and proof that you can check out for yourself.

These days everyone and their brother has decided to become an “Internet” expert, either Seo or Social Media or something else. Buyer beware, don’t get scammed and taken in by the rip off artists and frauds.

I hope I have stopped some of you from getting burned online.

Please share your stories and leave a comment!

Preventing Spam, Email Safety and Chain letters, just say no!

Email Safety- How to protect yourself
© Linda Lee

Spam is the scourge of the Internet! According to recent statistics, an incredible 75-80% of all email can be classified as Spam!

The dictionary defines Spam simply as “unsolicited email,” but it’s much worse than that.
It is a direct invasion into your privacy. Just like junk snail-mail, junk email takes up space in your mailbox , wastes your time and is a general nuisance.

How did they get my email address?
How can I tell if this is a legitimate email?
How do they know my name or my frineds name and use it in the subject line?

Well, the bad news is that once your email is posted anywhere public on the web, your address becomes fair game for all.

Spammers are exceptionally creative when it comes to getting information they know that people don’t want them to have.

The ingenious use of special programs and “harvesting robots” sniff out thousands of websites.

They collect any and all email addresses they find, including yours.

Unfortunately, this includes legitimate, often necessary lists, like any parent volunteer lists or school activities with contact information posted on a website.

Any sports team lists, any type of hobby forums or newsgroups where you allow your email to be public will place you at risk.

Even your job may post employee emails somewhere that is publicly accessible.

People who create Spam lists hunt for all these options and more.

They plan to exploit your email address as much as possible.

Spammers were cunning enough realize how valuable a list of legitimate email addresses are an asset simply waiting to be sold!

They stop at nothing to find every possible way to root out information.

A Spammer typically sells multiple lists of email addresses. Once your email address is on one list, it is often merged with others and resold repeatedly.

In the worst case, your email becomes virtually impossible to remove.

Often changing your email is your only recourse.

But until they begin receiving the dreaded Spam, most people have no clue that their addresses have been found, harvested and sold.

One rule used to be never opt out of any email you got, but since the can-spam act went into effect it would appear to have had some effect in this area.

I started actually using the opt out in much of the spam I receive and it seems to be reducing my spam by about 60%, so I’m not sure if this old rule still applies.

When You Sign Up For Anything, Read The Privacy Policy!
This is your best chance to legitimately opt-out of mailings.

Often when you sign up at a website on the Internet or enter contests, at the end of the sign up, there will be a box allowing you to “opt out” of further emails or selling your email address to “interested parties”

This is a legitimate way to keep down your Spam.

Unfortunately those cunning Spammers realize many people have no idea if they signed up , or where they have been, so they send fake “opt out, opt in” emails asking you to click the link to do either.

Once you reply to this email, the Spammer learns:

Your email is live and valid
You open and read Spam
You follow instructions…such as ‘click this to be removed’.

Dictionary Attack

How they use a mass attack to find you.

Another tactic of Spammers is the Dictionary Attack

Massive amounts of Spam are sent to random addresses from a targeted domain.

Automated software will generate every combination of a name, such as jjones@____, jjones1@___, jjones2@___ etc.

The hope is that some of it -even a small percentage- gets through to valid addresses.

Spammers wait to get a ‘bounced message,’ or ‘error message’ that says the email isn’t valid.

When that doesn’t happen guess what-your address has just been just been “confirmed live” and will be added to their email list, which they will sell for money.

Why doesn’t blocking this junk email with your email message settings stop this?

Because Spammers use fake names and fake return addresses, and they rarely use the same ones twice.

Prevent Spam!

Get multiple email addresses!
Paid providers allow you multiple addresses.

Get two, three or even four addresses.

(Some people don’t even know this is available from your provider.)

Have a ‘Spam’ address for anticipated Spam mail.

Whenever you are asked to provide an email, always give out your alternate “Spam” email address.
I have one for pure Spam, like contests, product advertising and samples, general information websites, like

Real estate or home improvement sites.

Then I have an email for my purchases on the web.

Then I have an email for business only.

Have one for friends.

If having multiple emails is not an option or provided for you, two large reputable companies offer free email addresses.

Check out yahoo mail or Google has gmail. Both free and very good.

Or you can do a search for “free email account” to find hundreds of other choices.

They’re offered free to get you and your wallet to their website and their advertisers.

Why Do I Need Different Email Accounts?

To keep your legitimate, live address from falling into the hands of unscrupulous Spammers.

As you find interesting Internet sites, appealing offers or contests you want to enter, don’t use your primary email address.
When your children sign up at websites like

http://www.disney.com

http://www.lego.com

http://www.starwars.com

http://www.nickjr.com

Have them use a second- or third- email account.

Email Safety Basics

Use a secondary account anytime you give your email address to anyone other then family and friends.
Limit your primary email to personal or business correspondence.
Use a second or third or fourth email address for any public forums or venues
Ask family and friends to not give out your email and to not or sign you up or refer you for anything online.
(Just like they wouldn’t give out your telephone number.)
Otherwise, you will join the ranks of people wasting time opening Spam.

A quick word here on forwarding email to mass/bulk addresses:

Please don’t do it!

Constant forwarding clutters up peoples Inbox, and it is intrusive. Remember that Spammers siphon off addresses from “group” emails.

Beware of chain letters! Rumors, angel blessings, jokes, and please check out your facts before sending out again!
Break the cycle and check www.snopes.com first!!

Guess where else Spammers collect address? You got it- from all those relentless chain letters.

If any of these fall into a Spammers hand you can forget about avoiding bad luck, you just found it!

Instead of missing out on some great opportunity if you don’t forward a chain letter to ten of your friends, (thus giving out ten live addresses)
those annoying chain letters circulating the Internet could be cursing you with an Inboxstuffed with Spam!

Recently I had to create yet another email address for friends who insist on mass forwarding me and others every rumor.

Such as the one that said your cell phone number needs to go on the “do not call” list, (this is false) mass prayers, chain letters, (where I surely should be dead by now for all the ones I have deleted!) angel blessings , poems, jokes, cute photos of animals and children that come their way.

Check out common email ‘urban legends’ like this one first!!!

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Thousand Dollar Bill from Microsoft or anywhere else!
Status: False.

Origins: No, you’re not going to be receiving money, merchandise, or free trips from Bill Gates (or anyone else), no matter how many people you forward this message to.
Tracing all recipients of an e-mail message is not yet technically possible, and even if it were, Bill Gates certainly wouldn’t be testing software that performed such tracking by blindly sending messages out to the Internet with a promise of financial reward to the recipients.

First and foremost, e-mail tracking programs do not exist. That folks continue to fall for myriad varieties of these leg-pulls is in part attributable to netizens having caught so many references to these non-existent programs that the new hoax is able to continue building on an already partially-constructed platform of belief.

(As with every other technological issue, the statement “e-mail tracking programs do not exist” becomes less and less true every day. It is possible in some cases to determine who has read a particular mail message, but there is no method of doing so that will work with all the myriad of e-mail programs out there or keep track of who forwarded the message to whom.)

Once again, e-mail tracing programs do not exist. Any “get something free” come-on or “help a sick kid” appeal which specifies an invisible program is keeping track of who received an e-mail and who it was then sent to is a hoax. Any such note. No exceptions. Not even ones not yet listed on this page.

Likewise, missives which offer no explanation of how the e-mails are being tallied are also hoaxes. Unless you are e-mailing a copy to a central tabulating point every time something is forwarded on, nothing is being counted, traced, tracked, or any other verb that would result in you getting free cargo pants from the GAP or inspiring an unnamed millionaire to donate just a little bit more towards the care of an injured child.

With all that said, we can begin looking at the various forms this jape has so far taken. And it’s going to be a long, strange journey indeed.

The following message began circulating on the Internet around 21 November 1997: ( and I just got this from someone Dec 2007!)
Hello everybody,

My name is Bill Gates. I have just written up an e-mail tracing program that traces everyone to whom this message is forwarded to. I am experimenting with this and I need your help. Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 1000 people everyone on the list will receive $1000 at my expense. Enjoy.

Your friend,
Bill Gates

So please people , stop the madness!!
Check www.snopes.com before forwarding all these wacky crazy and mostly untrue emails!
Never add your name to mass group mailings.
Never send out a group mailing with all your friends’ emails listed in the CC: at the top.
Respect others right to privacy by not giving out their email in mass emails
If you find something worth passing on, something that good, email it to one person at a time using the BCC feature all email programs offer.

HOW TO USE BLIND CARBON COPY OR BCC

(directions for Microsoft Outlook)
To send an e-mail message

1. On the toolbar, click the Create Mail button.
2. In the To or Cc boxes, type the e-mail name of each recipient, separating names with a comma or a semicolon ( ; ).

To add e-mail names from the Address Book, click the book icon in the New Message window next to To, Cc, and Bcc, and then select names.

To use the BCC box, on the View Menu, select All Headers
3. In the Subject box, type a message title.
4. Type your message, and then click Send on the toolbar.

This will allow you to still send your mass emails, while respecting the right to privacy and protecting all your recipients email addresses.

All my suggestions will certainly help protect you and cut down on your Spam. Unfortunately, Spammers are often criminals, and they are getting more sophisticated at finding ways into your Inbox

If you are still inundated with Spam, change your email address. Start over fresh, armed with this new prevention.

One more tip if you have Outlook.

How to block email.

Click on the spam email (don’t open it)
Next go up to your toolbar and click message, in the drop down box you will see a choice of
“block sender”. Click that and proceed. After this anyone with that email will go into your trash automatically.
Since spammer use fake email addresses, I am not sure how much it actually cuts down on spam-but I
will tell you this, it makes me feel better when I block them!

Be cautious when giving out your email address.

Email is a wonderful way to contact others and keep in touch. Be safe and enjoy!