List : Get paid to post

Get Paid Forums

Forums are the best way to get to know new people, to learn more and to be updated with the latest news and happenings in the get paid to world.
This is a set of forums that discuss different ways of getting paid and/or making money online. Check them out and get some more money making ideas.

Pay to post

GoldAge - active forum, good rates and lots of features. They claim to be the busiest forum about MMO bussiness

Their problems with the point system have been fixed.

Information

Points per thread / reply / refer up to 5 points, depends on topic / 10% earnings

Members over 5000

Special Features games, virtual stock, points can be used to buy special permissions

Payment type e-gold / LB, there's many services trading GA points to PP / EB ...

Got-Paid-Forum.com - a small, friendly community. Recently doubled their pay rate

Information

Points per thread / reply / refer 2 / 2 / 10

Members over 1000

Special Features betting (coming soon)

Payment type e-gold





Concerns mainly about hyip, this forum quickly acquires its current popularity in just 1 month. Values of points varies

Information

Points per thread / reply / refer 5 / 5 / 20 (must be active)

Members over 2000

Special Features bonus for popular threads / long posts, surf for points

Payment type e-gold



Pay2post

A small forums paying $0.1 per 25posts

Information

Points per thread / reply / refer 1 / 1 / 1

Members over 100

Special Features none

Payment type e-gold



My Lot - A massive online community that discusses anything! Get paid to post in this site (via egold and paypal) and get paid to refer new members!

Information

Points per thread / reply / refer Varies on popularity / 5% earnings

Members over 100,000

Special Features pay for pictures

Payment type e-gold / paypal

GPT Discussion

investor-say - a new forum about general money making advice.


Money Maker Group Forum - this is the place to visit if you want to learn anything about online money making. From HYIP, Bubbles to Money Cyclers, its all in there!


Talk Gold Forum - this forum deals mainly with surf sites and HYIPs. An excellent place to learn about online investment opportunities.

Earningadvice.com - a new forum with a growing memberbase for people to learn from each other on different ways of earning online. Sections on Free to join survey sites, Get Paid To, Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Country Section and Freebies

Other forums

Work Place Like Home Forum - the place to talk about money making programs and different ways to work at home.

Sponsor Chat - a forum that discusses different sponsers. Its paying 5 cents per post and 10 cents per ref. WARNING: adult content.

Acne Forums - The place to get your acne questions answered by the experts! They also have a very good skincare freebies section with free samples and products being added daily!

Do you know of another forum which you think should be listed? Please contact me

Scammed

Goldposter.com - I started to realize this 0lgi do nothing but making forums and sells them. I was near payout at this site, and then they say "there's so many spam in this, we only want honest members"- bullshit to me! I lost everything though all my post are of quality rather than quantity. If you see any site with this guy, don't join or promote it!

Survey Sites: How They Work, How Surveys Are Sent, What Type of Questions Are Asked, What Are the Incentives, Etc.

Most survey sites are an extension of a Market Research company. They first build a large pool of online panelists with diverse interests. Then they start moving their market research (survey) online. They also start looking for new clients who are looking at market research to get information from current or prospective users. The more panelists a company has is as important as the profiles of the panelists. Companies who want to get the information through surveys only want to conduct surveys with good survey sites/companies which have the panelist profile matching their needs. (A Profile of a panelist is dependent upon factors like age, location, gender, income, products used, profession, interests, etc. There is no ideal profile as different surveys require different profiles)

Then the survey site starts sending survey invitations to all the eligible panelists based on their profiles. Some surveys have a "screener". Under a screener they are asked a few questions to find out whether they are eligible for the survey. These screeners are used because some information is not present with these survey sites which is necessary to be eligible for surveys. For example a survey site is conducting a survey for Product X to find out why it is not selling & why its competing product (Product A) is selling very well. In the screener you are asked if you use either product X or A, all people who use either product X or A are selected.

All surveys do not have a screener. If there is a screener & you have cleared the screener, you are taken to the actual survey. In the survey you are asked questions like why you use product X or A (from the previous example), what are your expectations from this product, what you like & dislike about product X or A, what price would you be willing to pay for either product X or A, etc.

In other surveys you may be asked about other products or services. The questions would be:
What you like, what you don't like, what are your expectations, when do you use the product/service, etc. Lately there have also been surveys asking panelists what brand names will they like, what they don't, what brand name is easier to remember, etc. There are also surveys conducted for products/services which will be launched in the future. These surveys are aimed at finding out what are the needs of potential users, what is the price potential users are willing to pay, etc. Finally, there are surveys aimed at certain professions (doctors, IT professional, etc) & decision makers (people who make the buying decisions of various products & services).

Typically surveys take 15-45 minutes to complete.

Most surveys pay US$2-US$150 per survey. There are also survey sites which will offer you gifts or a chance to win a prize as incentive to complete surveys. The longer the duration of the survey, the better is the incentive. You can also earn a referral income if the person you have referred has completed a survey. The incentive may be cash, gifts or additional entries for the draws.

Learn About the Concepts of Surveys & Other Online Money Making Opportunities

The internet has opened a world of opportunities in many ways for millions of people around the world. It has also created the possibility of making money. Infact if you knew the ways of making money which exist on the internet you would be amazed.

Ways of making money

There are lots of ways of making money on the internet. Some of them are:
1. Completing surveys
2. Participating in online focus groups
3. Reading emails
4. Preview movies
5. Shopping
6. Surfing
7. Signing up for free offers
8. Answering questions, reviewing literary works like poems, scripts, plays etc.
9. Others activities (Example: Posting on forums, watching ads, listening to music, downloading software, etc)

Surveys
Websites pay you to complete surveys, the incentive per survey ranges between $2-$150. Signup with as many good survey sites as possible so that you get a good amount of surveys. Most survey sites also offer you incentives to refer others.

The Concept
How is it that websites are able to offer so much money for surveys & focus groups?
The answer is that they are given research assignments by companies. In the past such assignments were done in the offline (real) world, but this has moved online because of the ability to get a larger demographic profile of the respondents, to manage costs & to get results fast. These research assignments are created by companies to find out how people think & purchase, the reasons why consumers prefer certain products/services over other products/services. This helps companies make their products/services according to the requirements of the consumer. These surveys can play a very important role in development of good products/services, so companies are prepared to pay well for such surveys.

Reading emails or Paid to Read (PTR)
Under this program websites pay you to read email. In most cases you need to click on a link (to indicate that you have actually read the email). The payment range is usually between $0.01-$1.5 per email, but some emails can also fetch upto $50 per email.

The Concept
When you are paid for reading emails, you are actually being paid to read advertisements based on your interests, so the chances of you being interested in such ads is more, thus it can work out cheaper for companies to utilize this method of advertising. You not only get paid for reading such emails but you can also get good offers.

Other Programs
There are also other Programs which offer you incentives to do diverse activities such as answering questions, reviewing literary works (poems, scripts, plays etc), shopping, listening & downloading music, surfing, signing up for free offers etc. The incentives can range from cars to airline tickets to coupons besides cash.

The Concept
Free offers: When you signup for free offers you are given a part of the referral income the website receives for referring you. For the program you join, it helps those programs increase their user base, so they can display more ads on their website.
Answering questions: When you answer questions you receive a part of the advertising revenue when your answer is viewed. So if your answer receives more views it will get you more earnings.
Shopping: When you shop on some of the member sites of the program you are provided some incentive. Here the website is actually offering you a part of the commission it makes through referring a buyer.
Other programs: For other programs you are being paid a small fee for "testing" a product or service. This is done by companies/individuals to find out if the product or service they plan to introduce has a viable market.

A Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Avoid Scams

The internet offers many ways of making money. There are many genuine websites, but there are also a huge number of scams as well. You need to be careful so that you do not end up in a scam. Unfortunately, it is very hard to differentiate between a genuine site & a scam site, by the time you find out, you have lost your valuable time & money. The scam sites are very "professional" in the way they create scams, this makes it very hard for a person to know if the site is genuine or not. The following pro-active measures will reduce your chances of getting scammed:

1. Never pay anybody to become a member of any "get paid to" website.
2. Once you have reached the minimum payment level, make a payment request.
3. These sites offer you a good way to make a decent additional income. A few people will be able to earn enough to make a living from these sites. If any site tells you you that you can become rich, then proceed with extreme caution.
4. Never provide your credit card number, debit card number, bank account details, SSN, etc to any website. Many scamsters ask you to provide these details for "verification" purpose. They are only trying to get these details for misuse.
5. US law requires survey sites to ask for tax details once a person has earned over US$600 (this amount may vary from time to time) in a year. Provide this information only after you have earned this amount. Having paid this amount, the credibility of the site will not be in question.
6. Avoid sites which do not have any privacy policy.
7. Look at how long the company has been operational (working), the older the better. This is important as some sites will go out of business. If the site is relatively old, the chances of this happening is greatly reduced.
8. Do not join any paid to read email site which has a minimum payment amount of US$75 (or above). For survey sites, avoid sites which have a minimum payment amount of US$150 (or above). Such high payout requirement are not user friendly & reflect poorly on such websites.
9. If a site is offering you more than 35% of the your referral's income, be cautious such high referral payouts are not sustainable.
10. HYIP's (High Yield Investment Programs) tend to be scams. Avoid them. The chances of getting scammed is just too high.
11. Keep visiting www.123Angel.Com & www.GPTBoycott.Com to keep yourself updated.

Finally if you have had a bad experience, make sure you report it. By doing this you are helping other people avoid such sites. You can email us regarding such programmes.

Are Paid Surveys For Real?

Do you prefer Frosted Flakes or Raisin Bran? What kind of car do you think you'll buy next? Can you name 10 brands of beer?

If you think it might be fun to answer questions like the ones above, you're a good candidate to take paid surveys.

While some people still find it hard to believe, it's absolutely true that companies are willing to pay you to take surveys. Why? It's simple; your opinions matter.

For example, before a company releases (or even makes) a product, they need to know if it's a good idea. After all, they don't want to incur the huge costs of creating and marketing something that won't sell. So they hire a market research company to survey people (like you) and find out what they think.

Similarly, some companies just want to identify trends or discover ways of improving existing products. Do you prefer their product or one of their competitor's? Why? Is it cost? Is it quality? Something else? If you could change their product to make it better, what would you tweak? All of that information is incredibly valuable to a company. And they're willing to pay for it.

That's where you come in.

All you need to do is join a market research panel. The more panels you join, the more paid surveys you'll get. The good news: there are a lot of panels online and they're all free to join. The bad news: there are a lot of panels online.

Finding the best companies to join is difficult. But you have a few options.

1) Do it yourself.

You can search online for market research companies, ask friends who may have experience taking paid surveys, etc. This can be pretty time consuming. Another difficulty may be trying to decipher which market research companies send frequent surveys or which ones pay the most. Why take the time to join a company if they're defunct, rarely send surveys, or pay minuscule amounts for your time? You'll either never receive any paid surveys or those that you do get won’t be worth taking.

2) Pay a web site.

There are many web sites which claim to have extensive lists of companies that will pay to take surveys. Most of these sites charge people $35 - $50 to gain access to their list. If you go this route, make sure the list only contains active companies (so you don’t waste time on companies that no longer exist) and gives details about which ones are the best to join. It's also a good idea to verify the site offers a money-back satisfaction guarantee. If you're not happy with the list or promises of riches that never materialize (some of the sites make pretty lofty claims about possible income), don't be shy about asking for a refund.

3) Visit a free web site.

If you don't want to shell out the cash, finding a web site that offers a list for free is your best option. You probably won't find a list as large as the pay sites offer but you should be able to discover at least a dozen quality companies worth joining. For most people, that's more than enough to keep them busy.

Whatever path you take on your way to becoming a paid survey expert, it's important to remember one thing: taking paid surveys is a hobby, not a job. Keep that in mind and you'll always enjoy it.

Paid Surveys - Why You Shouldn’t Pay Anything To Do Surveys For Money

You have probably discovered by now some sites that offer you the opportunity to earn money by doing paid surveys online. These sites claim you can make significant monthly income and can provide you with a list of market research sites you must join in order to receive surveys and get paid. The only catch is that you must pay some fee (usually 20$ to 30$) in order to lay your hands on their list of "proven" market research companies.

Creating a database of survey sites does take a lot of work, effort and time and it may sound reasonable to set up a price for it and many people agree with this. If you do appreciate this work and wish to buy this list, feel free to do so but at least read this article to know what you should seek on such sites and how to determine if you are on a legitimate site, or not. Use your own judgement. I, for myself, prefer free opportunities.

According to some online resources relating paid surveys, no respectful company would ever ask for any sign-up fee for granting you the opportunity to work for them. Such a company would have no need to conceal their address and telephone number on their website.

As you can see, legitimate membership survey sites should be free and should not conceal their street address and telephone number on their websites. Since most of these sites are not free, they should have a correct contact information and state on their websites or in their terms the requirements for participation and the real possibilities of making money. They should also have a refund policy in case you don’t earn anything and honor it. You’d be surprised as how many refunds are not honored.

That is why you should do a research on your own about a site you wish to purchase a list from. Try to find everything you can about positive and negative experiences and then decide what will be the best thing to do. Especially check if they honor their refund policies. There are a lot of scams out there.

In my opinion I don’t believe you should pay anything to access these lists and here is why. Although it is possible to earn a lot of money and cover your investment "fee", it is also possible never to earn any money. Why is that?

Paid surveys are not for anyone. They are conducted by a market research companies on behalf of some large company seeking to improve sales and willing to invest certain sum of money in the market research. Since they are spending quite large amounts of money, they can’t afford to waste it, so they will target their research to population which brings them most profit. So if you do not live in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, or some other developed country, you’ll probably never make any money from surveys. Even survey companies that claim to be available worldwide are very often restricted to some countries.

Besides your demographic location on most survey sites you have to fill in your profile based on your age, interests, education, income, etc. The number of surveys you will get will mostly depend on your profile. If your profile fits the required target population you’ll get more surveys and more chances to earn money. It is also possible that your profile will not fit in and you’ll rarely have an opportunity to complete paid surveys.

There are also other reasons why you shouldn’t pay anything to access market research companies:

You will be paying for something you can easily have for FREE! These membership sites are only selling information anyone can get. Sites that conduct market research are not hidden. They need as many possible members as they can find, so they will not ask for any fee. You can join all of them and never pay a dime.

Many market research companies have affiliate programs to help them recruit new members. Therefore if someone introduces you to a survey site, he/she will get paid for it and there is no real justification in asking for any more money from you.

These sites usually don’t have a refund policy, so if you don’t earn anything with surveys, you won’t be able to ask for a refund. It is more likely that they have a refund policy, but do not honor it. This is typical for scam sites and that is why it’s very important to do some researching first.

There are a lot of free lists of survey sites you can join and earn money if you qualify. You can test them out and see if they work for you or not and you won’t have to pay anything. Here is one of them: http://www.nettrafficsecrets.com/surveys/list_of_surveys.html.

You probably won’t earn enough to quit your daily job with paid surveys, but they can help you get some extra money. And remember - you don't have to pay anything to access these sites.

Online Surveys - A Work at Home Opportunity

If you are a work at home mom or dad, and you need a source of extra income, why not check out one of the invitations you get from online surveys sites, or that you see advertised on any of the websites that you visit? Very often, although you may wonder if these sites are actually legitimate, you will find that they are run by people who are experienced marketers and who are hired by businesses around the world to provide statistical information on everything from how many times people shop online each year, to the kinds of products that people buy. Sometimes online surveys are concerned with just information that pertains to the online community - such as shopping online, but other online surveys are interested in a far wider net than that, and want to know what the public thinks about things from a marketing campaign that a specific business ran to what your proposed expenditure will be on gifts for Christmas.

All online survey work is confidential. As with surveys that would be carried out at the business's office or those you are stopped to complete in the shopping mall, online surveys won't have your name attached. Naturally you will have contact information that is sent back to the survey site owner, but this will be removed before it is sent to the client. All the client wants to know are the figures.

Not all online surveys will offer you cash in return for your completing their form. Some online survey companies do offer paid survey work, but others offer different incentives such as discounts, prizes or vouchers. If you are only interested in paid survey work then you may need to research a number of different online survey sites before you find one that will offer you cash for your opinions. If however, you are happy to be given a product, or points towards a product for each survey you complete, then you will have a much larger array of survey sites to choose from. I have created a site called Paid Surveys that offers complete information about online market research companies.

Not all online surveys will offer you cash in return for your completing their form. Some online survey companies do offer paid survey work, but others offer different incentives such as discounts, prizes or vouchers. If you are only interested in paid survey work then you may need to research a number of different online survey sites before you find one that will offer you cash for your opinions. If however, you are happy to be given a product, or points towards a product for each survey you complete, then you will have a much larger array of survey sites to choose from.

Guide : Hints and Tips for Paid Survey Beginners

If any of you have considered taking online paid surveys for cash or prizes there are a few things you need to know before you get started.

The first and most important thing you should know is that there is no need for you to pay a website in order to take surveys. Websites that charge a membership fee are not what they appear to be. They make themselves out to be the market research firm that conducts the surveys and then compensate the participants, but in reality they do nothing more than provide you with links to legitimate research companies. Some might find this service worthy of the membership fee because of the amount of work it would take to locate all of the surveys that are listed in their databases, but others will do a bit of searching and will be able to find plenty of websites that will give you the same information for free. There are many different websites that have taken the same list of survey companies (that so many websites sell) and have posted them freely where anyone can access them. I created such a site about a year ago called Yellow Surveys.com. I have listed over 500 different survey companies that are willing to pay participants in either cash or prizes to take their surveys. And unlike most of the survey sites that require membership fees, my database is organized by which country you live in and I even provide a small description for each survey site. Trust me if you decide to purchase a membership fee to a paid survey site you will be disappointed, especially when you find a free survey directory that is more comprehensive and informative.

Another thing you should know about taking paid surveys online is the fact that not every company will pay you cash to take surveys. There are probably more survey companies that will pay you in drawings, prizes or points. This isn’t to say that they are not worth signing up with because many people have won great prizes and large drawings from these sites. I myself have won an Ipod Mini from one survey site. But for those of you only interested in cash surveys be sure the survey site claims to pay you per survey in cash.

An important tip for survey taking is that the more survey sites you sign up with, the more survey invitations you will get. When you register with a survey company they will ask you a series of questions about your demographics (sex, religion, location, age, likes, etc.). They will record this information and when they get a contract from a client that wants only the opinions of say someone of a certain age and sex, they will send survey invitations to only those matching the specified criteria. Each survey company has different clients and they are all looking for different kinds of people, so the more of them you register with the greater your chances of getting survey invitations. Also another way to increase your chances for invites is by doing profile enhancers. These are surveys that you usually won’t get paid for and are just used to get to know you better. Once they know more about you, you may be able to qualify for more surveys.

Taking online surveys is a legitimate way of making money online. But you shouldn’t believe all the hype you read on membership survey sites. It is true that you can make up to $150 an hour because of the fact that you may qualify for a $25 dollar survey that may only take you 10 minutes to complete, but those surveys are few and far in between. You probably won’t be making $5,000 a month taking surveys, but serious survey takers could make enough to notice a difference in their finances.

Surf Junky - Do The Math

Surf Junky is one of the internet's longest-lasting and most pervasive scams in recent years. It has been cheating users out of time and money since early 2005, and unfortunately it hasn't ceased to exist yet.

Every month, Surf Junky tightens its grip on the web by expanding its reaches into another country and language, scamming even more people in the process. I write this not only to inform you of the Surf Junky threat, but also to inspire legal action against the shady organization.

== What is Surf Junky? ==
Originally started in early 2004, the Surf Junky website (surfjunky.com, if you care to visit) proposed an interesting idea: their company would let you sign up for an account on its website and watch a sequence of ads that rotated every half minute or so. In turn for watching these ads, Surf Junky offered to pay its users $.45--up to $.75--for each hour a user's browser refreshed their ads. You didn't even have to watch these ads yourself; you could just minimize your browser and let the ads refresh by themselves, all the while earning money.

When a user accumulates $25 in their account, they get paid. Surf Junky offers verious payment methods including check, Paypal, and Storm Pay. It seems like getting the money one earns while viewing Surf Junky's ads is a snap!

On top of this, Surf Junky built an ingenious referrals system, allowing each user to refer their friends (and strangers) in order to earn a percentage of whatever money these referred persons accumulated over the duration of their accounts. The system itself was actually comprised of not one, but three referral levels, thus allowing the user to also earn not only money from the referrals he or she made, but also money from the referrals of referrals--and even their referrals, too. If one acted early enough and widely advertised one's referral link, there was a chance at getting quite a few referrals; I myself had referrals numbering in the hundreds.

It wasn't a bad idea really; by giving users the incentive of referrals, Surf Junky effectively had their users spread the Surf Junky link all across the web in a matter of weeks--like a self-replicating virus. Perhaps this was their intention.

== "Cheating" Surf Junky ==
Within a few weeks of its opening, Surf Junky stated that the use of Firefox (with its auto-refresh and its popup blocker) was against their terms of use, and that they would ban any user who used the browser or any other "3rd party software" in order to suppress popups. It did make sense, though--Surf Junky had to generate earnings somehow, and if all its users were blocking Surf Junky's ads, they'd be making no money at all. You can't pay users without money.

It didn't even take a week for the first group of Surf Junky users to find themselves being banned. However, many of those banned were not using any software deemed as illegal or used for "cheating". In fact, most of the persons who were banned were only a few pennies away from being paid, and had never even considered cheating.

The internet became flooded with accusations that Surf Junky was banning people who were in line to be paid, not those who used Firefox or "3rd party software". Heated debate continued for a number of weeks about whether or not Surf Junky was cheating its users.

Many began to speculate that when Surf Junky designated Firefox and other "3rd party software" as being used for "cheating," that Surf Junky was creating a means in which to ban its users without question. It certainly seemed like Surf Junky was banning quite a few people for violating their rules, and it was impossible that all of them could have been using Firefox.

== Everyone is Banned ==
The simple fact is that everyone is banned; it's built into Surf Junky's system. Once you reach the payout amount, your account is flagged, and subsequently terminated. This has been tested, and time after time the same result is found--Surf Junky bans those near or at payout. They're dodging payment and effectively robbing their users of the money they had promised. Why?

Greed, of course.

Surf Junky needs you in order to view their ads, and it has promised to pay you so that you will view the ads. It made the promise that you would make referral money if you spread their link around. They warned you that if you didn't look at their ads used Firefox, that you wouldn't receive any money. They've got the perfect lie in place to use you until they need you no longer--when they're done with you, they have a line of new and unsuspecting victims waiting.

== Do the Math ==
If Surf Junky were a legitimate company, the mechanics of their income and payment would be impossible. Sustained by ads alone, Surf Junky would be losing money if they paid out to each user who reached the payout amount.

Surf Junky actually requests on its website approximately $190 for an advertiser seeking one million hits. Since the payout amount is $25, only eight users are needed to reach payout in order to cost Surf Junky $200. Each of these eight users would have to view the ad more than 125,000 times in order for Surf Junky to break even.

Since it takes about 60 hours for a user to reach payout, every user would have to view over 35 ads per minute in order for Surf Junky to meet its quota. But since Surf Junky only refreshes the ads about every half minute or so, it is impossible for them to make enough money in which to pay even a small percentage of their users.

Please keep in mind that this is barring all referral earnings, which would cause Surf Junky to lose even more money!

More detailed information about this can be found here.

== The company (and people) behind Surf Junky ==
A group of investigative users has found out that the man behind Surf Junky is named Jean-Marc, and he operates a shady group known as Primo Creations that has been known to scam others in the past. A precursor to the Surf Junky website was Autosurf.biz, but it has now closed and been resold to another person.

Jean-Marc will no doubt strike again, seeing as that every scam he has created has succeeded in making him lots of money.

== The Threat ==
Surf Junky will not respond to your complaints. In fact, they won't respond to you at all, even if you email them asking how to sign up for an account. Surf Junky has been silent about everything, and unlike most scams, their website was not taken down when the vast majority of its previous users discovered it was a scam.

Surf Junky's persistence has enabled them to spread to different countries under different languages. Same promises, same scam. Unfortunately, those living in countries that do not speak English are unaware that Surf Junky is a scam and are decieved just as we have been in the past. (Even now, some of us are *still* decieved!)

My own page about the Surf Junky scam has been translated into four other languages by people who claim that the Surf Junky scam has spread into their countries. Just as it has in the English world, Surf Junky now scams internationally, with an ever growing pace.

Can Jean-Marc and his Surf Junky website be stopped? If not, what is to stop him from coming back with a new website next year?

Guide : GPT Fraud - Are You An Enabler?

How do you define fraud? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is the “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.”

In the Get-Paid-To world, the “something of value” may be our time, our resources, our money or all three. When we enter into an agreement with a program owner, we understand that a portion of our time and efforts are being “purchased”. We understand there is a time-frame in which to accumulate earnings and upon completion of the given terms we will be compensated with something of value, such as money, redemptions or referrals. When the program owner fails to adhere to the agreement, and when they hide, omit or embellish the truth regarding the site’s financial status, they are committing fraud. Likewise, if we fail to live up to our duties by employing cheat software or using multiple accounts to increase referral earnings, we too, are committing fraud.

Program owners have found various techniques to curtail fraud being committed against their programs. They do not “enable” members to continue with fraudulent behavior. They understand it would be financial suicide if they allowed such activities to flourish. Why then, are members expected to take such passive roles in their own economic status?

It is imperative therefore, to understand that members have every right to publicly air their grievances when they do not receive the agreed upon compensation. This process allows members to warn others as well as sets limits and standards by sending the right messages regarding what we are willing to tolerate.

This prompts our initial question: “Are you an enabler”?

There is a difference between helping someone and enabling them. Helping is when we assist someone in doing something they are not able to do themselves. Following are several questions which will assist us in determining whether or not we are enabling program owners to continue with unacceptable behavior:

Do you lie for them? Do you make excuses for them? Do you accept part of the blame for their behavior? Do you avoid confrontations for fear of reprisal? Have you “donated” your own earnings or time? Have you tried to take care of their problems? Do you keep giving them chance after chance?

If you answered yes to several of these questions, you have not only enabled the program owner to defraud people, but you also are a major contributor in the escalating problems arising from such misconduct. As long as these devices exist, the program owner can easily carry on in denial since many of the uncomfortable issues are being dealt with by people around them.

This is where our own choices come into play and where we discover how we can take back control. We can either keep behaving in such a manner as to allow the program owner to continue with their deceitful practices, which ultimately harms the entire member base or we can choose to let them deal with the consequences of their own actions. We can keep making excuses or covering up for their shortfalls and misdeeds or we can let them work things out for themselves. We can keep allowing ourselves to be used and abused or we can support and encourage responsibility and accountability.

Before our efforts can be utilized in more healthy, productive ways we must detach from the psychological emotional and financial constraints brought about by downlines, affiliations and personal agendas. Co-dependency weighs us down and prevents the entire collective from moving forward. Detachment is sometimes slow and painful but it offers many rewards both for you as well as others in the community. Until we go through this process enmasse, we will remain mired down in a situational stalemate where neither side wins, where only fraudsters are allowed to prosper.

Guide : Internet Fraud 101

Following are articles, links and references pertaining to various internet fraud methods targeting consumers and the modus operandi range from clever disguises to obtrusive assertions. They use age-old tactics to prey on those who are most vulnerable; single mothers, students, etc. Members may recognize particular traits and characteristics in the programs they promote. We encourage discussion as long as it remains in keeping with educational purposes.

The author of these works has graciously allowed them to be re-published for our convenience.

Ponzi Schemes By: Bill E. Branscum Copyright 1999 *In turn of the century Boston, an Italian Immigrant named Carlo "Charles" Ponzi established the Securities Exchange Company. Ponzi offered investors a choice between a fifty percent return on a 45 day investment and a 100% return on a 90 day investment. Ponzi claimed that this return on investment was possible due to his unique understanding of the international postal reply coupon system; by international agreement, postal reply coupons were recognized by all countries but the cost of these coupons varied dramatically from country to country depending upon their economy. Although true in principal (an IPRC that cost a penny in Germany cost a nickel in the US), Ponzi was fully aware that the scheme did not work in actual practice because of importation restrictions. Nevertheless, the story sounded good. Investors did receive the interest on their investments that they were promised and the investments poured in. This was not a revenue generating business enterprise supported by investors; there was no underlying business whatsoever. This was an investment generating scheme that relied entirely upon today’s investors to meet the obligations due to those who had invested 45 days previously. A Ponzi scheme’s indebtedness increases as a function of geometric progression; however, the enterprise generates income so long as the pool of investment capital increases faster than the debt accrued. The reason that these schemes are illegal is that, as is the case with their pyramid cousin, they are mathematically doomed to collapse. Due to the fact that there is no source of revenue other than the investment pool used to pay debt, the “Classic Ponzi Scheme" will be immediately exposed in any audit. According to generally accepted accounting procedures (GAAP), any Ponzi scheme is insolvent from the moment of its inception and becomes increasingly insolvent each day that it is in operation. The essence of a Ponzi Scheme is investment. The Ponzi operator typically represents that he has some sort of "system" that is either incredibly complex, or a proprietary secret. His system makes it possible for him to pay incredible rates of return. The elaborate office, exquisitely tailored suits, involvement with the church, and generosity toward charitable organizations are all classic window dressing. Ponzi schemes do not decline and fall; they are typically hugely successful until they collapse. Everyone is making money, everyone who wants their money out gets paid, and everyone is happy until the regulators shut it down or something precipitates a run on the bank. In closing, I want to alert you to the fact that it may not always be clear that a debtor was in fact operating a Ponzi Scheme and I have been involved in cases where over zealous prosecutors applied this label to legitimate businessmen who became hopelessly overextended, made poor business decisions and pursued fiscal strategies that were totally unrealistic in hindsight. The reality is, in their efforts to stay afloat, people in this position often continue to borrow money, incur future obligations to meet today’s bills and use the funds invested today to satisfy today’s debts. Rather than give up, admit defeat and abandon their dreams, honest people with no intent to defraud may very well continue to borrow from Peter to pay Paul long after it should have been obvious that they were hopelessly insolvent. There is a profound difference between a desperate businessman who makes poor decisions and a Ponzi operator. A Ponzi Scheme, by definition, is a scheme and artifice to defraud that was insolvent from its inception. See Scholes v. Lehmann, 56 F.3d at 755; Merrill v. Abbott (In re Independent Clearing House Co.), 77 B.R. 843, 871 (D. Utah 1987); In re Taubman, 160 B.R. 964, 978 (Bankr. S.D. Ohio 1993); Martino v. Edison Worldwide Capital (In re Randy), 189 B.R. 425, 441 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 1995); Emerson v. Maples (In re Mark Benskin & Co.), 161 B.R. 644, 650 (Bankr. W.D. Tenn. 1993) and Dicello v. Jenkins (In re International Loan Network, Inc.), 160 B.R. 1, 12 n.15 (Bankr. D.C. 1993)

Pyramid Schemes By: Bill E. Branscum Copyright 1999 *A Pyramid Scheme is a multi-level marketing (MLM) program that cannot support itself because earning money, and/or advancing within the system depends on recruiting other people into the operation, rather than selling a product or providing a service. A person is generally (but not always) required to pay an upfront fee to participate. Note that although all Pyramid Schemes are multi-level marketing programs, all MLM programs are not necessarily Pyramid Schemes. The distinction lies in the source of revenue, and the independent viability of the underlying enterprise. The fundamental issue is, does the operation need the financial contributions of new members to survive, or can it stand on its own? As an investigator, you must be able to explain “why” this sort of scheme is not legal to laymen who may not, depending upon the complexity of the program, see the problem. You do that by using a basic illustration that anyone can understand and then applying that model to your case. The common chain letter is the most basic illustration of a Pyramid Scheme. Suppose I send you (and tens of thousands of others) a list of ten names and addresses along with a letter offering you an opportunity to realize windfall profits by sending each of the people on the list (let’s call them P1 – P10) a measly dollar each (CASH ONLY), for the privilege of participating in my “program.” I am person P10 on the list. My letter goes on to explain that you, in turn, do as I did - delete P1 from the list, move everyone else up one space and put your name in my P10 position. You then send your list out to as many as you wish, with a photocopy of the letter containing the instructions. The letter assures you that this is a real money maker, some of the people toward the top of the list have bought new houses, and one of the guys bought a Lamborghini a couple of months after he joined. Chain letters and other Pyramid Schemes typically include testimonials from fictitious people, or “shills” who brag about their experience. The encourages you to participate and describes a model where all you must do is sign on 10 people in your “downline” who each recruit ten, and so on. Here is what the letter says you will get for your $10.00 investment by the time your name falls off the list. Initially, you receive $10 from your ten people – we call them Tier 1 since they are the top tier in your personal pyramid. They see you as P10 and, “right off the bat, you made your investment back but nobody says you gotta stop there!” You then expect to receive $100 from the ten people recruited by each person in Tier 1. We call these people Tier 2 and they see you as P9. “Pretty good huh, in a matter of a few days, you recovered your initial investment and sat back to see $100 in pure profit roll in! It gets better.” You can expect to receive at least $1000 from the people in Tier 3 since the guys at Tier 2 will be at least as diligent as you were in recruiting new folks – surely they will sign on at least ten and the more they sign on, they more we all make. “You’re just getting started, use that $1000 as the down payment on the car of your dreams dude – you’re at P8 with seven full cycles to go!” By the time you get that new car home, and probably before you make your first payment, Tier 4 will be raining dollar bills on you to the tune of $10,000. “Imagine, you made $11,100 in a matter of weeks from a total investment of $10!” The letter goes on to explain (with lots of hype that I won’t continue to bother with here) that Tier 5 sees you as P6 paying you $100K; Tier 6 sees you as P5 paying you $1M; Tier 7 pays you $10M as P4; Tier 8 pays you $100M as P3; Tier 9 pays you $1B as P2 and Tier 10 pays you $10B as P1 and you’re off the lists. “Ok, any fool can see that you’ll make a profit of $1,111,111,100 if the people in your downline just manage to recruit ten people – with just a ten people turn around, the money will come pouring in and all it costs you is $10 and ten stamps. Here’s the really important part – this is all strictly legal because all I am guaranteeing is that YOU will make YOUR investment back if YOU recruit 10 people and that is all you will be guaranteeing them by giving them a copy of this letter which has been approved and endorsed by the Post Master General, the United States Attorney’s Office and Barbara Bush! Now I’m not trying to make you believe in “pie in the sky,” neither of us really believes that you are actually going to become a billionaire ten times over by investing a mere $10 – life doesn’t really work like that. The potential is there, but realistically, nobody expects to make more than a few hundred thousand and you may not even make that much. Other than the people you recruit, you are counting on other people to make you successful just as I am counting on you. On the other hand, you are in control of recovering your investment and you know you can do that right away. What have you got to lose?” As good as it sounds, here’s the hitch. While the letter keeps reminding you to think in terms of ten people, look at the big picture. It will require more than one billion people to fill the tenth tier in your pyramid and those people must lose their investment because it would take 10 billion people to fill the eleventh tier and there are not that many people on the planet. No matter how you look at it, a Pyramid Scheme is a fraud on somebody. It has to be, since the system relies upon the distribution of a valuable consideration, ongoing distribution requires a rapidly growing list of participants and nothing of value is created anywhere in the process. That is the key to identifying a Pyramid Scheme – does the system’s growth, prosperity and survival depend upon the value it creates, or is the value contributed by today’s recruits distributed to pay those who were recruited yesterday? Participants in “chain letters” are aware of their role in the scheme. It is obvious to anyone that there is no underlying product, today's investors pay for their place on the pyramid and then solicit tomorrow's investors. Each becomes the head of their own personal pyramid, thereby exposing themselves to criminal culpability and civil penalty. Investigation often reveals that the first ten names on the list are aliases used by the same person who controls the post office boxes or mail drops where the money is to be sent. That individual sends the list and accompanying letter to thousands of recipients. Unlike checks, a dollar bill sent to “Joe Schmoe” has cash value to whomever actually controls the box. Pyramid promoters do not usually limit themselves to soliciting dollar bills. A look at Prosper International League's Galaxy Plan, as it was formerly hyped on the Internet, is a classic example of a “bare bones” Pyramid Scheme that required a significant investment to participate. As a consequence of our investigation, the various web sites that promoted this scheme are inactive, but a “Google” search will enable you to view cached pages. As previously stated, the chain letter serves as the basic Pyramid Scheme model for purposes of illustration. Most Pyramid Schemes are substantially more complex, in that they are constructed to look like a multi-level marketing (MLM) operation such as Amway, where people buy in, and then benefit from their product sales and the sales of those that they recruit into the operation. In these cases, the only people who realize that the operation is a scam are those at the top of the pyramid; the other investors believe that they are involved in some sort of legitimate MLM enterprise. A scam of this nature rocked the state of Kansas in the mid 1980's. In this scam, Activator Supply Company sold ''activator kits'' to investors that would allow them to grow milk-based bacteria cultures for resale to “Culture Farms” who, according to the marketing hype, processed them and sold them to “Cleopatra's Secret” who used them to make cosmetics. This was a dream come true for anyone wanting to make a good living from home, everyone who joined was paid as promised and every single mom in Kansas frantically worked, borrowed or begged to raise the money necessary to buy the “activator kit” necessary to join the program. It was a real moneymaker until regulators shut them down. Investigators determined that the program was a hoax - there was no existing market for the cultures that these home based entrepreneurs were growing. The companies involved were empty shells and no cosmetics were actually produced. The system was set up like a circle where the “cultures” the people grew and sent to “Culture Farms” were returned to the Activator Supply, Co. to be resold as “activator kits.” The people who invested had no idea – although they were making money, and lots of it, they had no way to know that the money they made was taken directly from the investments of subsequent investors. This case is a classic example in which the entire scheme is exposed when you peek behind the curtain. If you visualize how this system worked, you will understand Pyramid Schemes. Although it is often asserted that the social security program is a classic example of a Pyramid Scheme, this is not the case. People do not buy into the SS program believing that they can entice their friends to join and realize a major return on their investment and, unlike the classic pyramid, the SS program is not necessarily doomed to collapse since the government requires participation and the government can subsidize it as necessary.

Ponzi v. Pyramid; A comparison By: Bill E. Branscum Copyright 2002 *The words “Ponzi” and “Pyramid” are often used interchangeably but, as evidenced by the examples provided, they are different – the principal difference being that a Ponzi scheme has only one “official” promoter. Otherwise, they have much in common. Both are fraudulent “investment schemes” promising unrealistic returns on investment capital, both typically encourage investors to reinvest their profits, both depend upon new investors to satisfy their obligations to prior investors, both are continually insolvent and both are against the law. Ponzi Schemes invariably involve a material misrepresentation as to the nature of the investment, but a Pyramid Scheme may not. Those who invested their money with Ponzi Scheme operators like C. Philip Elliot, David Mobley and Charles Ponzi, or Pyramid Scheme promoters like Activator Supply Company, fully believed that these fraudulent promoters had discovered or developed a “system” for making money that generated extraordinary returns on investment. On the other hand, those who invested in Pyramid Schemes like “chain letters” and the previously referenced Galaxy Program promoted by Prosper International League, Ltd., knew that their profits were derived solely from contributions of subsequent investors. The victims of a Ponzi Scheme are innocent victims, but the victims of Pyramid Schemes victimize others in that they directly promote the criminal enterprise. They may, or may not, be criminally culpable and/or civilly liable, depending upon their understanding of the system. Those who legitimately believe in an underlying structure that serves to create something of value to consumers (like Activator Supply) are innocent victims, but those who promote programs like chain letters and the Galaxy Program are perpetrating and promoting a crime.

*Articles reprinted in entirety by permission.
Source: http://www.fraudsandscams.com/index.shtml

Additionally, the U.S. Department of the Treasury - Bureau of the Public Debt and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission explain in detail how illegal High Yield Investment Programs or (HYIPs) operate.

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/cc/ccphony9.htm#Definition

http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/primebank/howtheywork.shtml

There should be no confusion about the fact that many members, investors and promoters are all taking part in perpetuating these crimes. In most cases, ignorance and denial of the law cannot be used as a defense since the member/investor did not exercise due diligence prior to the transaction which would have revealed the illegitimacy of the program.

It should also be noted that Randomizers, Bubble Games, Gifting Clubs, some Multi-Level-Marketing Schemes and many Auto-surfs are also categorized as fraudulent. You can help by educating yourselves and each other in order to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to internet cons, schemes and scams.

Earn A Million Dollars?

Is there real money to be made on the Internet? This is a common question among many Internet users.

After doing some extensive research, I am now able to focus on some of the safer areas.

In India, the scope of earnings on the Internet is much less, compared to the US. On the Internet if the person in India is earning 100 dollars per month, then the same person would have earned 500 dollars or more in the US.

You can earn only few dollars from the internet. The “Make Money from Internet” or “Work from Home” concepts are still not implemented in such a manner that anyone could come and easily earn thousands of dollars in a month. It is better to keep this activity part time only. In the future we may see a different picture because there are some companies who truly promote honest internet money making businesses.

The BBB (Better Business Bureau) online is the most famous company in the US for promoting online business standards. You can easily trust on any company if it is BBB online verified. If it is BBB online verified then you can see a BBB online seal on that site. Go and click on that seal, it will show you the company’s case study carried by BBB online. BBB online provides the seal to only honest and trustworthy companies. You can find out the information on http://www.bbbonline.com

There are various scam sites on internet so beware of those sites. Always read the FAQ, member’s agreement, and policy terms before registering with any paid site. Avoid paying money to the company for participation. Don’t expose your credit, debit card number, it can be dangerous.

Google AdSense is a very good program for publishers as well as advertisers. If you are a publisher then you should have a site where Google can post the ads. If the visitor of your site clicks on the google ad then you will earn in dollars. Google charges minimum amount for the advertisers to post their ads on your site. This is not as easy as it looks. Google promotes real advertisement so you can’t click on the ads for a whole day and earn thousands of dollars. They have a very sophisticated program which can track fraudulent clicks, robot clicks, extensive manual clicks from same IP etc. There are many rules and regulations in this program. The concept works for very popular sites. The less popular sites may earn less money compared to famous sites. This may be reversed though, because it all depends on the visitor’s choice to click on the advertisement.

AxionData.Com – This is a BBB online verified company. They outsourced the data processing jobs to various agencies, people. It seems that they promote US participants rather than Non US people. If you are lucky and get work from here then you can earn in dollars for each data entry.

Guru.com – Good site and one of the largest for freelancing work. You can almost get any type of freelancing work here. They have a huge network of professionals and employers.

Filling the paid surveys is one of the growing sectors in internet money business. You have to just fill the survey and earn in dollars. Surveys can be 15 minutes to 30 minutes long. You can try for online surveys as well as telephone surveys. You get paid higher amount for telephone surveys. Also many companies invite you to participate in discussion forums. You get paid for an hourly basis and can get up to 100 dollars for a forum. Here also there is a catch. Most of the survey companies prefer US citizens so US people get the most invitations for surveys. Top companies I can suggest are SurveySavvy, Acop, GlobalTestMarket and QuestionMarket.

There are various paid programs like Internet surfing, paid emails and filling in offers. These programs are very risky and you can earn lower money out of it than sometimes expected. If the site is offering very high benefits outside US then please find out more about the company, and do research. It may be a scam. You can get a lot of information from the GPTBoycott.Com site.

Finally you can not be a millionaire in a month. If someone is paying you for nothing then there must be a catch in that. Unless you do the hard work, you cannot earn a penny. Still internet money can help you in paying some of your bills. Go for the skilled jobs from home i.e. from Guru.com, fill out the surveys, get the data processing, form processing work.

There is a lot of struggle in this industry because millions of people approach these companies.

The internet money making concept should not die. It should be more transparent and clear in India also. In future such concepts can help a lot of disabled people who can not go out of home, older people who don’t have any source of income, women who need to earn while looking after children, and anyone who wants to learn a little extra honest money.

Article written by Vivek Chitre, edited by Rob.

Guide : Earn Before You Spend

Many new members come into the GPT world lured by the attraction of making easy money quickly. While you can earn a nice supplement, probably one of the the key factors in increasing your income is gaining referrals.

When I first started, I had a very hard time getting referrals. I pestered every friend I knew to join, very few did. Then I started to seek out successful people and see what they did. Most of them had a great website and most of them also had a large mailing list of some kind in effect.

I immediately got to work on my first site and when it was all said and done, I thought I had done something great. I then setup a mailing list using a third party provider.

The next thing on my agenda was advertising. I never, ever recommend to anyone to invest any personal income into advertising until you've earned some money from your programs. Otherwise all you're doing is gambling. And this industry is too volatile to warrant having to spend your own cash.

I've always been a fan of sites that offer points. Points are a terrific way for you to test out advertising without having to spend any cash. Many sites offer them and as a newbie starting out, these sites are perfect for you to test out your ad writing skills, your website, etc., without having to spend any money.

As you build up your referral network, you'll earn a percentage of your referrals' points as well as their cash. If you use all your points back into advertising you'll build up your referral network in other sites at the same time.

Some sites also offer the ability to redeem points for upgraded memberships. Make sure to look at all your options and set yourself goals to reach. Little by little, it'll add up and you didn't have to spend any money until you've earned some.

Guide : How to Research Before Joining a Program

Have you ever been woken up far too early on a Saturday morning from the irksome shriek of your neighbor's lawnmower or been rudely cut off while driving down the street? I'm sure we've all experienced displeasing circumstances at one time or another caused by someone else and more often than not, we soon forget about it and carry on. The neighbor's lawn does not interfere with our schedule and the rude driver is but a distant memory by the time we get to our destination. However, there are some decisions we make which do continue to have an impact on others long after the act has occurred.

In an industry where downlines and referral earnings are status symbols which help us to achieve our goals more quickly, we can be assured that people's choices affect others to a higher degree than usual. Just as the wise financial choices made from a bank's investment managers can affect employee wages and benefits in a positive way, so too can poor choices impact others negatively when everyone is part of a so-called "team."

In the Get-Paid-To community, often called the “Wild West of the Internet”, there's been no new sheriff riding into town ready to disarm the bad guys and haul them off to the county jail. Our telegraph messages tend to go unheeded and our smoke signals are quickly disbursed by the wind. The town has become overrun by outlaws, pillagers and freeloaders whose actions impact conscientious shopkeepers, merchants and townsfolk alike. The question is, are we contributing to the breakdown of the community by the choices we make or are we taking action to halt the decay and help lead the industry out of its current state and into a safer, more productive environment we can all enjoy and prosper from?

When we aid, encourage, assist, host, support, defend and promote late-paying and poorly run sites, we are taking part in the deterioration of the industry as a whole and canceling out any progress the clean-up crew might have made.

We can either choose to pollute the environment we live in or we can choose not to. We can choose to get involved with clean-up efforts or we can choose not to. These are all decisions we make which absolutely do have an impact on others... and in so doing, we can either all take part in reaping the benefits or force others to suffer the consequences.

We've all seen the ads, for the greatest site of the month, promising high paying emails an equally high payout and selling ads for next to nothing.

We've also all heard the adage, "If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is."

The key to joining a winning program is research. So here are some tips to assist you in making informative choices about the programs you join and hopefully save you some fustration in the long end.

1. Read the terms of service (TOS) and frequently asked questions (FAQs) pages of the program so you have a definitive understanding of the requirements prior to joining. As Pete Seeger once said, "Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't."

2. Take a good look at the advertising page most notably the pricing. Are they making a profit or grossly underselling ads? An ad special is one thing but a constant flow of 10-cent emails to all at the selling price of $1, for example, is a recipie for disaster. The bottom line is undersold ads kill a site. For more in sustainability visit:

3. If the site runs on CashCrusader scripts, take a look at the runner.php page (which can be found at http://www.Insert_Program_URL_Here/scripts/runner.php or for example http://www.emailsforads.com/scripts/runner.php) to verify that the commission settings match what is on the index page of the program. Also take a look at the program's activity requirements. You'll see something like, "Must login every XX days and be at least XX% as active as your downline to get commission from downline clicks." In layman's terms what this means is you need to either login or click on a link every XX days to earn from your referrals AND you'll need to be able to click on XX% of links to earn from your downline. Links include paid links; search links; paid to click; top, middle, bottom sponsor links; site support links, contest links, limited links, targetted links, point emails, etc, etc.). The trouble is there's no way of knowing how often click counters are reset or how active referrals are or when they're clicking. A reasonable setting for this is 25%. Anything higher and you'll need to judge for yourself especially if you are from a country that isn't search engine friendly; or if the program sends out lots of limited clicks that are expired by the time you are able to click them; or you have your account on vacation mode.

4. Get to know where you are submitting your personal information to. Do a WHOIS via http://www.whois.sc to see who the webmaster is, when the domain is set to expire, where the host is from, etc.

5. Use forums to your advantage. Ask other members what their experience is, do a search through BeenPaid's forums and the popular forums like: GetPaidForum.com and GPTBoycott.com read the information on the programs both on the bad and good side and decide if that is something that you want for you.

6. Finally use your common sense. The damage that has been done to this industry by the influx of programs with dishonorable intentions is on the rise. Sustainable programs cannot compete with their ad pricing; advertisers are spending their dollars wherever they can find low rates; sustainable programs aren't getting advertisers for these reasons; members are joining these lemons and promoting them all the while forgetting about the tried but true.

You can end this vicious circle but it starts with you making better choices. And if you've joined one of these programs, it's never too late to quit ;)

Guide : The GPT Recourse Resource Guide

Never in the history of e-commerce has the warning, “Buyer Beware” been so crucial and harbored such boding undertones.

Internet fraud is rampant and doesn’t seem to be subsiding any time soon. With thousands of scams being reported to authorities annually throughout the world, one can only imagine what a daunting task it is for law enforcement to gather information, launch investigations and prosecute alleged scammers.

Admittedly, the posse has been riding far behind the bandits for quite some time, and the prospect of them catching up any time soon looks rather bleak.

However, we can do our part by being savvy shoppers, by taking the time to do our research, by making smart choices and by taking action when necessary.

The basic human instinct when discovering we’ve been victimized is to try to get beyond it as quickly as possible, and quietly hope someone else does the unpleasant job of taking care of things.

Unfortunately, many times silence is interpreted as consent, even though it may not be consent! Although good-hearted, well-intentioned individuals would be more than happy to sign a petition or vote in a poll at the click of a mouse, they balk at taking further steps in helping to fight online crime.

Perhaps it is just a matter of not having the correct information available to report fraud and in that case I have taken the liberty of compiling a list of web-sites which may prove to be quite useful.

Feel free to peruse them at your leisure and remember to bookmark them for future reference:

• Better Business Bureau (BBB)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• FirstGov
• GPTBoycott
• Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC)
• InterNIC
• National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG)
• National Consumers League (NCL)
• National Fraud Information Center (NFIC)
• U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)
• Who-Is

The GPTBoycott Forum offers members a chance to submit complaints and discuss various programs.

At the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, you’ll be directed to file complaints about individual businesses, which will then be disbursed to appropriate agencies across the globe. Sites which have closed should not be precluded. Keep in mind there may involve statutes of limitations. You may also present general, sweeping concerns regarding the Paid-To-Read industry as a whole.

You will find pertinent domain ownership registration information through the “InterNIC” and “Who-Is” web-sites.

Remember, we have an innate right to expect payment for work performed. Excessive alterations to the Terms of Service; suspicious deletions of member accounts; improper, forced and unbalanced conditions and ultimatums; giving away or selling databases and closing debt-ridden sites without compensation are all unlawful practices many program owners have grown accustomed to due to apathy, tolerance and acceptance.

Please do your part by taking a moment to file these much needed complaints.

DD Questions

1) Who are you? Who are the players, the management? What is your experience?

2) Where are you? What is the status of your venture? Do you have a working prototype or has anyone tested your product/idea?

3) Where are you going? What is your goal?

4) What is it? What is your product or service? (Is it easy to understand?)

5) Who wants it? Who is your target market?

6) Why do they want it? What is the problem being solved? What itch are you scratching? What is your value add proposition?

7) How many might want it? What is your potential market size?

8 ) How do you know they want it? What testing/research/studies have you done that confirm your belief that "if you build it, they will come"?

9) How will you tell them about it? What is your marketing plan?

10) Who else has it? Who is your competition? (If they say they "have no competition", they have no market.)

11) How are you different? What is your niche? What will keep your competition from duplicating your idea and crushing you?

12) What are the risks? What could go wrong?

13) What are the rewards? (numbers/projections)

14) What do you want? What is the deal? (Good = we need $3 million to reach our next milestone. Bad = whatever you give us is fine.)

15) What is the exit? How do we as investors cash out of this deal?

This list was originally prepared by Keith Cunningham, who negotiated over two hundred deals in excess of $1 million each and raised over $1 billion of financing for his various business ventures.

If you are dealing with online admins (who might not be the same as the ultimate companies they invest in), you should ask them the same questions about the companies they invest in. If possible, ask to invest directly with the companies involved. Offer to sign a confidentiality and non-circumvention agreement in exchange for being introduced to the companies.

Posted in Talkgold Forum by SimonMinister

GPT: Iframe Cheaters

As every last cent is squeezed out of advertisers and affiliate opportunities, and shared between the hundreds of paid-to-read programs available now, it is becoming increasingly difficult for those PTR webmasters to generate revenue. Many such webmasters have employed a wide variety of techniques to boost income, but as some become increasingly desperate, it is little wonder that some try to cheat the system.

Before explaining the problem of iframe cheaters, it is first necessary to outline why it is such a problem that some webmasters choose to bite the hand that feeds them. The principal victims of this kind of behaviour are pay-per-click search engines, used by many paid-to-read sites to provide search links. Every time you, as a member of the PTR site, make a valid search through the provided search link, that PTR site earns a few cents. Such search links have become the lifeblood of many honest PTR sites, serving as an extremely useful income supplement to the sparse purchases made by 'real' advertisers. If dishonest PTR webmasters cheat the search engines in the following way, search engines are likely to withdraw this opportunity for honest webmasters - resulting in fewer paid links for members, and a weakened PTR industry - the last thing anyone needs right now.

An iframe is a web page loaded within another web page. An example of an iframe used in a legitimate way can be seen below. It acts as a window, so you may see another web page without leaving the one you are currently browsing.

Example of an iframe

The possibility of cheating occurs because the web page creator can decide the size of the iframe. For example, a slightly different sized example of the above iframe can be seen below.

A smaller example of an iframe

Some dishonest webmasters have added iframes to their pages, showing other sites in windows as shown above. However, they have made them so small that the human eye cannot possibly see them. In other words, the iframe is loading, and the page hit for the site within the iframe window counts, although the window page can not be seen by any visitor. Many dishonest webmasters send fake traffic like this to their search portal pages.

You may be wondering what the point of this is. After all, if the window pages cannot be seen then no one will be able to search using these pages, and so no money will be earned. There appears to be two ways in which some sites use this to their advantage.

One way, possibly the most unscrupulous, is to load automatic scripts within these hidden windows, in order to give the appearance that the visitor has searched, even though they never saw the search portal. In this way, the dishonest PTR webmaster earns his money through cheating, and the honest PTR sites suffer as a result.

The second way dishonest webmasters use these frames is to simply send traffic to their portal pages, without any searching taking place. Although this may mean that no searches actually take place and no money is directly earned, this amount of fake traffic means it is more difficult for the search engines to detect click fraud, where the PTR site forces its members to make searches. This makes sense; if the PTR site forces searches on its members, their percentage of searches made per search portal visit will be very high. This may make it very obvious to the search engine that they are cheating. However, this percentage goes down if they send a lot of fake traffic to the portal pages. They earn the same amount of money, but are not as easily detected and caught when committing click fraud.

This is clearly a prevalent problem. A directory of images showing the extent of this, how this is done, and naming some offenders can be seen at http://jutaky.no-ip.org/iframes/. At the end of the day the people hurt most by this are the honest webmasters of search engines and PTR sites, and so in turn their members, who as always end up losing out.

About Webmoney ...

I know most of us are familiar with gold currencies being e-gold the best known, but many times you can read compliants about accounts hacked, I consider e-gold site a safe place, they know how to protect THEIR system, but not YOUR own accounts from hacking and most of the time the problem are not e-gold itself, the problem are the user computers with lack of security (no antivirus, no antispyware, no firewall -or improperly configured, etc).

When I started with forex trading with Alpari I know another online payment system called Webmoney, they care about security from the beginning, for their system and for our accounts. It is almost imposible to hack a WebMoney account (http://www.wmtransfer.com). Unfortunately, the extra security they have used imposed a cost, this kind of account definitively is not for a beginner, if the new user doesn't care about the backup of the security key (for Lite version) or the files (for a regular wallet), you can loss your funds, there is no way to recover them if you lost them. If you plan to use a WM account remember, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS very carefully , if don't know what to do, ASK, they have a pretty good customer support.

I don't know why they are not the Universal Internet Paying System because they solved the main problem for online paying systems: secure the accounts against hackers , they only have 2 compliants over the years of existence. The fees are really low, almost as low as EG.

There are many reputable exchangers with online real time exchange for EG <-->WM I like to use http://www.exchange.net.ua

But WebMoney is more than a paying system , they have many additional services, like scrow (for buying services and goods), proyect management scrow (I think they are the only that provide this kind of service, it means that you can make a contract with someone else and the contractor deposit the full amount in the scrow account and follow a paying schedule depending of the advance of the contract, by example with a software development), the same company has an open market for money and digital currencies exchange (only in russian), and you can opt to stay almost anonymous with the basic verification level or opt to authenticate yourself to conduct business with your WM account, you must be full certified to have a registration status for currency exchange merchant.

I'm really satisfied over the time I use this service and want to introduce to you. If you wish to have more information just make a visit to http://www.wmtransfer.com, maybe you are interested in a more secure place to have your "e-moneys" and want to open a free account with them in this way you can spread the use of this secure service.

Beware of fake fishing e-gold emails!

Scammers send such emails to hack your e-gold account!

NEVER click on links in such emails! E-Gold NEVER sends you emails with links to confirm/activate/update your account! Be careful and don't be silly!

Today I've got new scammers emails from fake email "AccountRobot_donotreply@e-gold.com"

Text of spam:
Account trouble

We are contacting You to remind You that on 4/2/2006 our Account Review Team identified some unusual
activity in Your account. In accordance with e-gold´s User Agreement and to ensure that Your account has
not been compromised, access to Your account was limited. Your account access will remain limited until
this issue has been resolved.
Please click on the link bellow and log in to Your account:
Click here to activate your account
Please do not reply to this automatically generated email message.

Worth reading for the good of your egold account

This article is yet another reason to really get serious about
security. I just downloaded a free program from McAfee called Site
Advisor. It's basically a database advisor system of good and
suspicious sites. It will let you know if you are likely at a site on
which there may be some type of malware which someone is attempting to
load onto your computer.

"Virus Encrypts Data, Demands Ransom
Trojan horse asks you to pay $300 to regain access to your documents.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Thursday, March 16, 2006 06:00 AM PST

A virus that encrypts documents and demands a ransom to get them back
is circulating on the Internet, but at least one security company has
released the password needed to recover the files.

The Trojan horse virus encrypts the contents of a user's Word
documents, databases, or spreadsheets, and then leaves a file
demanding $300 in exchange for the password to access the information,
said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with security company
Sophos. A text file directs victims to transfer money to one of 99 RUN
BY E-GOLD, a company that runs a money transfer site.

Similar "ransomware" schemes have been traced back to Russia, and
occurrences of this type of attack appear to be growing, Cluley said.
This latest one is notable because it is the first attempt in English,
Cluley said.

It's unclear how the virus is spreading. It doesn't appear to have
been widely sent via spam e-mails, Cluley said, so it may be embedded
in a Web page and spread through a so-called drive-by install, a
method that doesn't require users to actively click on and download an
attachment.
Password Found

After encrypting the data, the Trojan deletes itself. However, the
password to unlock the data is actually contained in the Trojan and is
used in the process of encrypting the files. Technicians at Sophos
extracted the password, which is made to look like a file path
name--C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98.

The authors may have used the file path name in order to disguise it
so that it doesn't look like the password, Cluley said.

Sophos has heard indirectly of some infections, but the virus does not
appear to be widespread, Cluley said.

Separately, Sophos has detected another virus that uses a current news
event--the death of suspected war criminal Slobodan Milosevic--to dupe
users into opening a malicious attachment. The spam message claims to
have a photo containing secret evidence about the death of the former
Yugoslav President, who was on trial at The Hague. His sudden death on
Saturday prompted an investigation after he had complained of
inadequate medical treatment.

The viral message claims to have been scanned by "Kaspercky
Antivirus," a misspelling of security vendor Kaspersky Lab. E-mail
messages often contain a notice asserting the message has been scanned
for malware.

The use of current news events to prompt curiosity is a well-used ploy
by virus writers. The virus contained in the Milosevic attachment
tries to download other malicious programs and could give an attacker
control over the computer, Cluley said."