I hate to admit it, but the digital marketing world can be a bit of a scammer’s paradise. You’d think after all these years, scammers would know not to trick people on social media. But, unfortunately, they don’t learn. Instead, they get smarter, and their tricks get more ingenious.
Fake Interviews, Quizzes, And Bonus Offers
Many scammers prey on the fact that most people on social media aren’t familiar with SEO or pay per click management. As a result, they can easily dupe people into thinking they’re conducting an interview or a survey, or they’re receiving some sort of special bonus for taking a particular side in a marketing or advertising campaign. The worst part is that, often times, the person being tricked actually thinks they’re helping the scammer out by answering their questions or taking the lead in promoting a certain product or service.
Free Likes, Followers, And Retweets Are Just The Start
Just because you’ve answered some questions or taken some sort of survey, or just because you’ve retweeted a particular tweet or liked a Facebook post about a brand or product, doesn’t mean you’re necessarily or even likely to become an official affiliate of that brand. Remember, scammers want to look like they’ve got the inside track to some great deal — whether it’s an expensive product or service, a luxury vacation, or winning a million dollars. So to make it seem like they know more than they actually do, they’ll get you to do all the work while pretending to be helping you out.
Take A Look At The Product You’re Promoting
Even if you’re not planning on becoming an affiliate marketer or a digital marketer for that matter, it’s still essential that you understand exactly what you’re promoting. It would be best to avoid companies and products with sketchy or suspicious back-stories, especially if you don’t want to end up being scammed. There are a lot of fake reviews and articles out there, so it’s always best to do your research beforehand.
Protect Your Identities
As much as possible, you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you’re going to end up being scammed. One way to avoid this is by protecting your identities. If you go onto a website and try to enter your personal information such as your name and email address, it might seem like a nice, genuine place until, one day, they decide they want to keep your information and use it for their own financial gain. It can be really frustrating to find out that you’ve been deceived, especially since you didn’t do anything wrong. So keep your personal information to yourself and never give it out unless you know for certain that the person you’re talking to is who they say they are.
Be Careful Of The Email
Another way to avoid getting scammed is be careful of the emails you receive, especially if they come from companies you’ve never heard of. It’s always best to be on the lookout for phishing scams, where the scammer will send you an email that looks like it’s from a trusted source in order to get you to click on a link or take some sort of action. It might seem like a great deal at first, but once you’ve fallen for the scam, it can be very difficult to get your funds back. In some cases, you’ll have to contact the company you thought you were doing business with in order to get your account reimbursed. This is particularly frustrating when you’re in the middle of something, or when it’s come down to the wire and you haven’t gotten your money back yet.
Be Careful Of The Overall Scammer Rating
When it comes to avoiding scammers, it’s important to be careful of the overall scammer rating on a site. A lot of times, you’ll see these ratings followed by a disclaimer which says something along the lines of “This website is NOT owned by or affiliated with
These so-called “fans” might have gotten paid to give the company a good rating on Google, which, in turn, helps that company’s SEO, and thus, their revenue. But, even if the company is legitimate, you can bet they’re not going to be too happy that you fell for their scam and wasted their time.
So, in general, it’s best to stay away from SEO-driven scams, but that can be hard to do when you’re actually attracted to what they have to say. At the end of the day, it’s all about knowing what you’re getting into and being smart about it.
Do you think you’ll be tricked by online marketers if you follow these tips?