Beware of scams in social media

Corzhens Level 1

November 7, 2017, 5:58 am

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Beware of scams in social media

There are scams in Facebook that were supposed to be good investments that lure the greedy. Your investment will earn 3 times the amount in a matter of 2 months. It's good to be true. Last year I was invited to join a similar scheme in a Facebook page called Money Three. All you have to do is invest money and earn 3 times in 1 day. Oh, really very silly but so many believed. In fact, 3 of my online friends succumbed to the temptation. At first, they earned but when their investment got bigger, all they got were promises and alibis until the admin of the page couldn't be contacted anymore.

Be discerning when investing money online. Get assurance of the company's reputation before putting in money. Anything that is too good to be true is more likely a scam.

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Everett

Everett

There is a bunch of this scamming going on via facebook mostly via pages. I do not think facebook does anything to protect it own users from scams. However, what they do now is protect you from seeing fake news. However, I believe the user-base needs to be protected from the growing scams on facebook. It seems like there is hundreds of new scams going on daily or weekly.

Periodically, when I browse through my facebook's Newsfeed I will stumbleupon a scam or two within the first 3 minutes. A lot of the times they are Multi level Marketing) scams, or the investment scams. Facebook needs to hire a team of people to actually make sure these sponsored facebook posts have validity to what the advertiser is claiming. There should be a rule about this, and if there is, then it is not being followed.

I feel so disappointed by Facebook whenever I see people comment that they want to know how to earn too, to inbox them. However, what they do not know is that, that free information is going to end up costing them. The victim will be enticed to purchase a software or book because they believe they will earn money really quickly for a low starting cost. Which is really never the case with any sponsored facebook posts, you always ending up paying a lot.

7 years ago

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augusta

augusta

Thanks for this,Experience is the best teacher I believe.I had to learn the hard way to realize that all this Ponzi scheme were all scams.But thank goodness I only invested what I can lose and I was able to move on swiftly but others that invested their life savings didn't find it funny.

I see all the advertisement on Facebook daily and I turn blind eye to it no matter how tempting.These schemes are not worth it.I prefer to invest my money in a legit business than gambling with it.

7 years ago

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vhinz

vhinz

"Just invest and your money will grow even without doing anything. No selling, No recruitment." That's one of the deceiving tactics used by Filipino online marketers that I always get across in Facebook. I like to invest in a business but I don't trust a person or a company that uses that kind of offer. How can a business earn if it will not sell any products or services?

Whenever I see online business offer, I take a look at their profile, products, and compensation plan. Most of online businesses that I've looked into that offers big commissions even without selling, pays their members from the registration fee of new recruit. I have friends that joined those kind of businesses and yes they really earn money but I did not join them because they just don't realize that it is not the company that is actually giving commissions to the members but the new recruits.

I'm willing to join online or offline business but I see to it first that the company is reliable, the products are high quality and is really necessary or helpful, and the company gives commissions from the sales and not from the registration fee of the new recruits.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Amen to your first paragraph here, vhinz. You hit the nail on the head. I do not trust people who say they can take my money and multiply it without showing me some viable investment or product or service which is tangible or reasonable. It reminds me of those spam or junk emails that we sometimes get from foreign countries or strange names or email addresses that ask for our account numbers in order to deposit money into our banks. It is crazy that people could fall for these types of scams, but I know some folks are less informed than others.

7 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

One thing that I have learned from the victims of scammers is that if that person offers you high interest think 10 times because legit business would offer small percentage even the bank offers a little interest. So do not believe or trust anyone who offers you like that. It is 100% scam.

6 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

Thanks for sharing this experience. I did not know there would be scams in Facebook too. All I knew was we should not click links shared on Facebook because our accounts can be hacked. I hope your friends learned from this so that they will never get tempted to invest again.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

It is much on facebook and that's the reason I advise my facebook friends to be quite careful with what they do on the social media platform. I've seen friends lose lots of money trying to earn more through facebook and some schemes being advertised on it, but I never fell to such scams.

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

It feels so good when you do not fall into such scams. This brings me into thinking and agreeing that money is indeed the root of all evil. Another girl had saved $900 in bank for 7 months. She later withdrew everything and invested in a pyramid scheme. She was scammed and she never got to enjoy a single penny of her savings. I always believe that praying and thanking God is good because we need spiritual eyes to see and make the right decision.

7 years ago

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GGGRRR

GGGRRR

Unfortunately scammers, especially pyramid schemers are wolves in sheep's clothing. They'll act like they want to help, offer you a job or point you to another person pretending saying they'll help you...And then they have you. You get to know the people and it's hard to say no. I've been there before and thankfully have always said no to the programs they offered me.

However, it always plants a seed of doubt and you imagine what could have been. I guess that's what leads people into scams.

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

I have also met many scammers but I have always been saying no. I never think too much about it. I am always happy to know that the scammers never got a chance to convince me. I always thank God because it is really not easy to escape scammers. We are human beings and we are always falling into temptation. But we still need to be open minded about ways a scammer can use to trick us.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

potentialwriter

Scams are all over the places including the social media. Facebook is one of the social media platforms widely used by those scammers. There is a scam advert posted on Facebook now that promises over #8000000 in 15 weeks, but a deposit of #1000 is required first. This is how the poster has been collecting #1000 notes over and over again for the past few months now. The poster is quite aware that people are desperate about making money online. So, people are being taken for granted.

7 years ago

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gamergurl

gamergurl

And the sad thing about this is that these scammers somehow manage to convince their victims that the reason they didn't make it big is their own fault. People do, correctly, think that if they fail it's their own fault, but when they have been lied to and thus are doomed to fail, it's not their own fault for not reaching their goals.

Luckily many social media platforms employ upvotes and down votes and via those manage to sink these scams fast, but if people didn't fall for them they wouldn't exist...

7 years ago

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notnot1

notnot1

Now a day's many people are taking advantage to people who's caring,helpful to other people,in order to avoid scam we need to educate ourselves in everything we do,specially in investing your money to start your business be vigilant in investing into a business,keep sharing more ideas on how to avoid scams in social media,God bless and more power.

7 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

Before joining any of those programs you need to research a lot. I am not a risk lover and I have never invested online. I joined a group on Facebook which would supposedly teach me how to earn online. I did some research about those sites they told me to join and found that they were scam sites. You should not blindly believe whatever you see.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

me too, I also check on the review before I join any sites, this is to ensure not to be tricked, wasting my time

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

The thing is, even with research, sometimes it is hard to figure out if something is truly a scam or not. A lot of the time, these people will put a lot of work to try and create a reputable image so that anyone that tries to find out more about them will only get good information about them. That's why you just have to careful and try and avoid any "investment" opportunities that random people try and get you into.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

Dear @DarthHazard,
Thanks for your advice, I also read the review of the social media sites first before I join in. Some claim to give points or earning are fake sites

7 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

That is so true. Do not believe in their sweet promises. Just research about the company. Ask the people working there before. Investigate the business if its legit or scam. For these simple steps,you would never fool by the scammers.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I am always wary of scams like this. if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely, 99% of the time, most definitely is. Nothing in life is free, as they say. The internet is rife with scams and scammers, and, unfortunately, they are successful because they prey on the desperate and/or inexperienced. As others said above. always research these sites; however, if the offer sounds like it is giving out things for free or making promises that are too good to be true, that it almost always is a scam...

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

I always wonder why people still fall for scams because of how much information there is available on the internet now. We have read so many stories and articles about how many people get scammed through various different ways yet people still fall for the same techniques which just surprises me so much. It is awful to hear that your friends got scammed, hopefully, they didn't lose too much money.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

Yep these sort of scams aren't new at all. They have been around for years now they just simply evolve a bit and perhaps add new tricks.

I know a friend that got tricked once and sadly invested his own money - he invested around 200 euros and got nothing out of it.

Be careful who you trust and don't invest your own money anywhere... The majority is just a scam.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

Dear @Tronia
But how did your friend got duped into investing 200 euros? That is a lot of money involved.

7 years ago

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TimothyAlex

TimothyAlex

I just don't understand how a person can live with themselves taking advantage of people. Of course, allowing personal greed to cloud your judgment is what gives these people their opportunity. Still, it is just shameful. If they have any kind of belief in a God or an afterlife... it just makes no sense to me.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

Different reasons really. Some people do it because they have no option really and would rather scam people to ensure that their family is supported for and can afford to live. Others do it because its a good way to make money. When you consider how much money you can make from scamming people (especially those that are extremely easy to scam and where these scammers don't have to invest too much time into), it is no surprise that people do this.

7 years ago

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vhinz

vhinz

Because there are people who want to get money easily. And there are people that are easily lured to the so called opportunities that will give them big earnings without really understanding of what they have entered into. They have been deceived by big returns of their investment even they don’t really know the entire business process and where their earnings would be coming from.

7 years ago

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TimothyAlex

TimothyAlex

I get that. What I don't understand is the mindset. I don't understand how a person justifies it in their head. I truly believe that most people are not intentionally looking to cause harm to others, even most criminals. How can a person live with themselves after destroying someone else's life?

7 years ago

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vhinz

vhinz

Well they don't really care if there are people's lives that will be destroyed. All they care about is the big money that they can get.

But I'm not saying that all those online business offers are scam. There are really good online business that returns great value on your invested money and truly gives you profits. You just have to know which is the right one by evaluating their products/services and where the commissions/profits will be coming from.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

Scams - at any level or place - are like cancer that will gradually kill the work that is done - especially - by the freelancers. This ends up being one of the very complicated barriers that they have to face.

I'm impressed (negatively speaking, obviously) by the fact that there are so many people who devote so much of their time to only to make scams to undermine the work - and time - of others.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

There is something that you need to remind yourself of anytime you consider going on some sort of business endeavor on the internet. That something is that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. The simple fact is that 99% of the time, get rich quick schemes are going to be a scam. You don't have to even consider that "But maybe this is the 1% that is actually true!" because if it were true it most likely wouldn't be getting shared around so openly. Slow, honest, and hard work is the only guaranteed way to succeed, and anything else is more than likely a guaranteed rip-off.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I am quite careful of the easy way to get things done in life. This is applicable to facebook ads that promise heaven on earth and I'm glad I never failed into such traps for I always prefer to work for what I earn in life and not that which promises huge sums with little or no effort from us.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

There are lot of scams out there in the freealnce market too. Any person asking you to write article with sample is one such scam. And you should never go for scams like that. And even the worst part is the scams such as that can be really bad in many ways. You'd have to work really hard to make money. So never invest into something that says pay me first then I tell you how to make money. That's surefire way of scam. And that's something you would have to avoid as much as possible.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

These scams have been around for years. In the old days, they'd send you snail mail letters for pyramid schemes and investments. Send us $1.00 and get back $2,00 or something. The online ones have gotten a bit more clever but most smart adults, can sniff them out for the lies that they are either way. I'd never invest a cent into any of these things. Investing online should mostly be for stock, or projects that are going to deliver a return on your investment. That return could be financial, or promotional.

7 years ago

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Everett

Everett

My grandmother once got scammed by a mailer too. She paid $35 for a program that would allow her to 'stuff' envelopes full of ads and in returned she would be paid by the amount she stuffed. I forgot the money amount, it was ridiculous but the amount per envelope seemed like it was a legitimate program.

A few weeks later, the post office returned her money order and apparently they knew it was a scam. Things people need to do with scams online:

1. Don't ever pay for something claiming to allow you earn in your PJs or at home, or near the beach, or whatever, you wont make anything. If someone is making money, and lots of it they will probably add you to their team for free and show you how to market products because you'll basically be an affiliate under them. This is the only program type of thing i would join if i was interested

2. Dont share scams on social media, just don't. It can make you look stupid, and desperate; you don't want that!

3. Exit the page. if there is a typical scammy landing page with high volume sales pitches, and 'real' testimonials, just leave.. dont look back

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Yeah those 'envelope stuffer' mail scams are still around. Every now and then I still receive one or two of them. I am sure, unfortunately - some less than savvy individuals still fall for these. But most people have caught on by now.

7 years ago

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kgord

kgord

I believe in the old adage, if it seems to good to be true,,it is! Most people who are successful are that way because the have worked their butts off to be. It isn't an easy road.

7 years ago

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AmieBotella

AmieBotella

I've seen so many of these scams on facebook and when you're always on youtube too you'll come across videos of these scams too. Rule of thumb for me, if it's too easy to earn, no efforts and small amount of money with BIG return, then it's a scam. Even selling prohibited drugs is hard. So why is it that you'll spend your money into something that is too good to be true. Everything GOOD in this life is hard to achieve. So take heed into these types of scams.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

Yes YouTube too have sold the scam of the lifestyle change. Many creators sold that fake lifestyle. And in general they were on different line. And they also promoted fake products. And that leads to more of a vacuum towards the fake lifestyle and the change. And slowly it is leading towards the recession for sure. And that is something I am guessing many people have learned about.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Anyone can promote anything on social media. Therefore, there are genuine schemes as well as scam offers on social media. Before you join these programs, you need to do background check. You need to do a google search and find the truth. You need to find genuine testimonials. Sometimes some programs could appear genuine in the beginning, yet scam you later. I once found a top ranked bitcoin mining program. I found testimonials that said the program is legit. I invested $130. In three months, the program shut down.

7 years ago

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cmoneyspinner

cmoneyspinner

When it comes to investing I have never searched Facebook. I would never even think to go there. I never considered Facebook as a place for financial advice. (O.o)

7 years ago

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itommy

itommy

I never get scammed in social media but anyway thanks for sharing your experience about this.
Not only social media, you can get scammed everywhere if you don't check carefully services before purchasing.

7 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

I couldn't agree more. Social media is just one of the platforms where we can find such scams. I can understand why since they are extremely influential lately.

Scammers use the social media to their advantage and make certain deals sound too good to resist. We all have to be careful when it comes to such things.

7 years ago

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seolads

seolads

Thanks for sharing your experience and pointing which site / page is scamming people. I had some bad experience in past with Click Ads Pay and few other ones, so now i don't really believe in any of them which is offered trough social media pages. If something is suggested by some of my close friends who already tested some of investments i would go as per "word of mouth" by trusted people, other way i don't trust any advertisements or fan page offers on Facebook or other social media sites

7 years ago

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kgord

kgord

I honestly don't believe any of these get rich quick schemes. I think if you hear multiple people talking about something and they are real people or people you trust, you can believe it..if it is some nameless, faceless person on the internet, I am inclined to give it a wide berth.

7 years ago

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overcast

overcast

When it comes to freelancing and working online the scams get more thicker to be honest. I have written a lot on this topic. You can see that some of the scams in social media can be another thing that needs to be properly managed. I have seen that some of the scams happen in such way that people think it's fair to mistreat others. And that's kind of sad. Like some of the scams are very much norm.

7 years ago

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kgord

kgord

They sure..There are so many scammers out there that if you let it get to you you can develop a very cynical view of human nature. This is just one of the problems with these scams. They are so prevalent and people are vulnerable.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

And you shouldn't. I don't think any of these get rich quick schemes are legitimate. If you are looking to earn some money, there is no true get rich quick method unless you get very lucky with a business or an investment. There is no set instructions or methods that can help you get a lot of money fast, almost all will just be scams.

7 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

Thanks for this tip. I have been scammed before so nowadays I am a lot more careful and I make sure to check and search every corner I can before diving into something, especially if that something is an opportunity that someone is trying to sell me and they are making it sound like it is the ultimate solution to everything. I find that a lot of the authentic sellers of these methods will often be honest and temper the hype with a bit of reality and admit that there will be a lot of risk and hard work involved.

7 years ago

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Krisleen

Krisleen

Aside from being an entrepreneur, I am also an investor and a financial literacy advocate. I belong to a team where we are educated about finances and one of which is the most popular pyramiding schemes. We know that a lot of people find easy money schemes very enticing, especially in our country where most people are not financially educated and scammers know it so they take advantage of it. If you have heard of Pluggle and RU Affiliates, they are some of the companies that do such thing. Pluggle just closed last month and RU Affiliates is next to it. I just posted about it in Facebook a few hours ago. Here's the link: http://www.sec.gov.ph/ru-affiliates/.

I don't believe those who give promises of getting rich instantly without the need to invite, offer products, go to trainings, follow-up clients, or get rejected then they flaunt money and say it's a proof of payment. That's totally preposterous. Same goes with investment schemes where they promise to give you 80% or more return on investment in just a week. A legitimate investment doesn't go that way. I've been a stock market investor in the Philippine Stock Exchange since 2013 and my interest grew more than 100% now but it took 4 years to grow like that. It really is a long term perspective. I also have mutual funds in a reputable insurance company. Get rich quick schemes are not true. There are no shortcuts. Investments should be looked at a long term perspective so you won't fall for scammers who give false hopes.

7 years ago

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rhombus

rhombus

There are so many scams online, they are only getting more clever and believing, When checking my spam email folder it amazes me just how many scam emails come from names of people in my address book. I would presume if I lived in Spain, for example, these names would be Spanish. I would never attempt to do business with anyone I did not personally know, or at least could knock on their door.

7 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

That is right. It happened to me also. Many unwanted emails that I received everyday and these emails are from different people that I have never knew. Some are from different languages like Arab and Portuguese. I have no idea how could I able to block this emails but what I should do for now is ignoring and not read it.

6 years ago

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Rumu

Rumu

There's really a lot of scam going on in Facebook. Am not just saying drawing from stories or post i read about the said issues, am actually speaking from personal experiences.

I came across a post by a Facebook page called NUCmoneyclub early this year. The page talks about earning money online through their website based program which allows users to register and earn from viewing ads. It sounded like a great idea but at the end i just found out that it was one of those scam sites. I made the minimum cash out but wasn't allowed withdrawals until I get 20 referrals. When I did so, my account got blocked completely. The bottom line is a lot of scam sites exist on Facebook and one has to be very careful when approaching sites so as not to get scammed like me.

7 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

Scams are everywhere especially here in internet. A lot of people can scam you here because you can't directly see their faces and there's no insurance if your accounts are secured since there are a lot of hackers in the world. Words and speech are powerful enough to convince people to invest money. Even in a legit sites , there are still outside scammers and hackers that will get your account's information even if it was secured by the creator/owner. They will copy the site which looks exactly to the target site so I think there are no safe sites in internet even in Facebook. You just have to be more careful in investing money but better not to invest or give your credit card's info to prevent you from scam. But I think there are still true and trusted sites you can invest for but it is more safe if its just free.

7 years ago

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fishbate

fishbate

Awareness is the best protection specially on social media scams. People tend to believe on things even without proof, scammers will do everything just to get you on their hands. Although i don't blame people believing on this scammers because quite frankly they are good and they plan their scheme well. They also use good presentations and videos just to make people believe on them. Other use real people as proof of income....

So better keep your self well informed and always be vigilant in every aspects in the net. People with bad intentions are everywhere.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

Thank you for the wonderful advice. I'm glad to share that I haven't been duped into such awful circumstances. But I will say that they're very convincing for most of us. A great way of avoiding them is to focus on more legitimate ways of earning money.

It might take us longer to earn money, but it's safe and secure. That should be top priority when it comes to money.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I don't think scams will ever stop being a thing. Facebook is just one of many social media platforms to be used by scammers. This is why we shouldn't believe anything they say.

7 years ago

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jaymish2

jaymish2

Thanks for the information.This is shocking. However on the internet they are scams all over. We all tend to forget that the same people we live and hang around are the same ones who scam us are also on the internet.In fact on the internet its worse because you very rarely see it coming.You need to be carefully on all social media sites and on any transaction that you have online.Moral of the story you need to be careful online.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I agree. It's definitely frustrating to find so many scam sites nowadays. And what's more shocking is how people don't learn from these mistakes. It's as if they forget the lesson after a few weeks. Though, others will never forget because they've already fallen victim to it.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

I have no idea why these kind of people could do such kind of thing. I think it is also up to the person if they believed on that. But we should be more vigilant because I am sure as of time many scammers spreading in the internet and trying to victimize people. Facebook and any other social media should implement a rules and screening of these kind of business. And people should be wiser nowadays.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I think people are wiser now. Everyone seems aware of being potentially scammed online. But it seems that people's desire for quick money is costing them. So they eventually get tricked by others because of the temptation to earn big.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

Yeah people are getting wiser now and so the scammers online also. They know how to make other people crazy in their false promises about the brand or things that they are suggesting to the customer. Bad persons are not just running around but also in the internet and website they are hi-tech also to do scams.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I guess the first thing to do is to avoid temptations. Instead of wanting to get big gains in a short period of time, we should instead focus on long term goals. This is how successful people set themselves for life.

They don't look at the shortcuts. They follow the right path. One that will lead them to consistent success.

6 years ago

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