My Commonsense Rules for Avoiding Internet Scams

To avoid Internet scams, NEVER read an unsolicited email - most spams are also scams or phishing attempts for your private information and they can also download harmful viruses.

Secondly, when you are surfing, realize that you are seeing what people WISH was true. Instead of getting excited when this site or that site offers a lot of money for doing basically nothing, and especially if they want you to pay them, ask yourself:

1) What value are they creating that anyone would pay them for? How can they afford to pay ME? If what they are doing is not valuable - like paid to read emails that never get read -- autosurfing pages that never get seen - they will not be able to pay you either.

Then, after you have established what value they are creating, consider these things:

2) Use google as a resource. More than once, googling an opportunity has kept me from getting scammed, because I was able to read the feedback of others.

3) Be skeptical of everything. Instead of spending time clicking on a get-paid-to-click opportunity, use the time you would have spent clicking by reading about it, instead, from different sources. What do different people say about it? Don't trust the words on the site itself. Go looking for the pros and cons on it. Don't be in a rush to sign up.

4) Avoid paying fees to sites so that you can make money. Most (not all, but most) legitimate sites should not charge for the information.

5) Be skeptical of claims that are too good to be true and don't even make rational sense - like get $50.00 per click with a $1000 payout limit. Realistically speaking, how could they afford to pay out that kind of money to one person, let alone a few hundred or a few thousand? C'mon! Get real!

6) In general, the higher the payout limit on an opportunity, the higher the chance it could be a scam.

7) Only spend money you can afford to lose. If you can't afford to lose any, don't spend any. And if you do ever spend money on anything on the net, use credit cards so that you can dispute the charges if it turns out bad.

8) NEVER give out your bank account number, social security number, pin numbers, or any other incredibly personal information out.