Senior fraud is a serious problem in the United States. There are many criminals who habitually target senior citizen for all sorts of financial fraud, scams and rip-offs. I’m not necessarily talking about stock scams, although they are quite prevalent and widespread. I’m talking about something fairly banal like aluminum sidings, repair from homes and other service-based scams.
These scammers would consciously and intentionally target senior citizens because they are under the impression that these segment of our population is more gullible and easier to trick. For whatever reason, senior fraud results in the loss of billions of dollars every single year. It is a serious problem.
I wish I could tell you that this issue is restricted primarily to offline scams. I wish I could tell you that this is just a simple matter of boiler room stock, a fraud, or door-to-door service reps misleading and deceiving senior citizens as they make their pitches.
Instead, a lot of these scams actually operate online. There are many email scams. I’m sure you are familiar with Nigerian prints scams or unlocking a secret bank account type of email scams.
But aside from those, there are also scams that involve teaching senior citizens to make money through work from home programs. If you don’t know what to look for, it’s very easy for you to get tricked. At first brush, a lot of these look fairly legit. They have a testimonial. They list out how the process works. They even have videos that explain how everything plays out and it seems like these work from home programs are actually real.
Well, it turns out that these scams have certain things in common. If you detect any of these, chances are you are looking at something that is too good to be true.
Factor #1: They claim to pay you a ridiculous amount of money for work anybody could do
If you come across an ad that says that they will pay you $200 to stuff envelopes, you know that there’s an almost certain chance that you are looking at scam ad. I mean think about it, anybody can fill out an envelope. It doesn’t need an advanced degree. It doesn’t even take a high school diploma. So what’s the catch? This is a dead giveaway. If they framed the work from home opportunity in terms of something anybody can do, be suspicious.
Factor # 2: You have to pay for training
One of the oldest scams involves some sort of training program. They tell you that you can make money easily on the internet and it is so quick and so easy but you have to spend 75 bucks on a book to get the proper training. That is a classic scam. Because if this is easy, then why not just a blog post? Why not just an online graphic site with ads on the site? In other words, give the information. Why do people have to buy a book?
Factor #3: They try to get you to sign up to a list
This is one of the common online work from home scams. Basically, they trick you to thinking that they will give the information that you need to work from home for a lot of money. They say that it’s free but the catch is you have to join the mailing list. Sure enough, if you join the mailing list, then you download the book, it’s the most disappointing thing you’ve ever read. It talks a good game, it overpromises but ultimately it lets you down.
Unfortunately, you forgot that you signed up for the mailing list to access this worthless product. What do you think happens next? That’s right! After a few weeks, you got an email pitching some sort of other scam and you disregard that and then before you know it after another week passes, you get another email. You basically signed up to an affiliate marketing mailing list and believe me, you’re going to receive email after email until you unsubscribe.
So do yourself a big favor, click the unsubscribe button if that doesn’t work, report the email to Gmail or email platform. If they are very abusive, Gmail will ban them from their system. Be on the look for these scams, because it’s very easy for people to get tricked online. You don’t necessarily have to be a senior citizen. A lot of these scams are run by determined organizations that would not hesitate to resort to all sorts of coercive, abusive and manipulative behavior to separate people from their hard-earned money.
To learn how to build legit online businesses so you can avoid lucrative sounding scams, click here. You will download a blueprint that will help you build, market and maintain solid online business. It is written specifically for senior citizens. It cuts out the fluff. It’s very easy to understand and it focuses on building real businesses that people can actually benefit from.
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