Let’s imagine a scenario where you just purchased some traffic for yourwebsite from a company that looked and was recommended by some of yourpeers. You send them your ad and join their list. They tell you that theyhave over 50,000 people on their list and no need to worry because when yousee all those leads and traffic using your stats software you are going tobe impressed. The company will even post your classified ad to a thousandsites, give you access to some free e-books and keep you on their list forfree updates for life. If you are not happy you can even have a fullrefund. This sounds good, nothing can go wrong. Or can it?

You check your email box the next day and find over 200 leads waiting foryou along with stats that blow your mind: 2000 hits. Not bad. You quicklyenter the emails into your stationary or sales manager software and getthose letters out to those leads. You direct the same company to sendanother ad out to their list and get people to sign up for your newsletter.You supply the url to signup and go to bed since this is too easy. Themoney’s just about to start rolling in any minute now…

Next day is even better, you check your list and 140 people joined up foryour newsletter. Your classifieds must be pulling along with all the otherads since you are getting hits everyday now that you never had before.

You could have paid anywhere from $200 to $500 for this service. Problemis, the service could be worth about 1 cent. But how you ask? Simple…

The Con Artist’s Clever Model

Let’s pretend we are programmers and that we are trying to figure out a wayto sucker people. Being very clever we have come up with an idea.

1. We will create a computer program that will book 2000 random free emailsites from places like Hotmail, Home.net, GeoCities.com, Eudoramail.com andabout 20 others. There are hundreds to choose from but for this first draftat the con job we will just use a few.

2. Another part of the program will log into the free accounts at leastonce a week to keep them fresh. This works just like programs thatautomatically submit urls to search engines then check your position inthem. All automatic and very easy to manage, trust me.

3. We need to have the program visit url’s that we request after loggedinto the email account. Of course we will spoof the ip that our programuses so that when it checks email then visits the site it looks legit inthe url owner’s (the person we are suckering) stats package.

4. If the person gives us a domain address we will take a quick visit andfind a guestbook or other form on the site. Our program will then go tothat url and enter the fake information like name and email address. If wefind a newsletter subscription form we can have our program join the list.How many fake emails to enter? Depends on how much they pay us. Remember,they are legit email addresses but there is never anybody home.

The system is now in place. The poor sucker pays us money and we type theirurl into our system for their web site and forms. Next day according towhat we want they have enough traffic and emails to keep them happy withhanding over cash.

Does this scare you? It should because it is happening right now.

How can you avoid this?

1. Watch the company you are dealing with. Do they sell email lists? Ifthey do they are crooks!!! Stay away.

2. Get on their list for a long time. See what the quality of their newsletter is like. Is it good information or just filler news.

3. Call the Better Business Bureau in their city. Just visit http://www.networksolutions.com and look this up using their domain urladdress. If they are not a member, get away from them at all costs. This isa hard fast rule!

4. Talk to them on the phone and ask questions about the source of theiradvertising that gets them so much traffic. How did they get so popular?You need to find this out and verify it.

5. Finally, how much does this cost? I saw a guy pay $149.95 per year topost daily to millions of people! Yeah right. We sell classified ads withover 200,000 impressions for just $99.95. More than that and you are beingsuckered.

George Kosch MSc., Webmaster for Worldprofit.com, is a renowned technologyservices consultant and educator. He has appeared as a speaker in severaltechnology seminars and on Canadian television as an industry expert. Forother helpful information on how to grow your business, go tohttp://www.worldprofit.com/autoresponse. Subscribe to Worldprofit’sbusiness-building newsletters at http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines