Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
It’s a scam! How NOT to make money online
George Brown
10th Mar 2020
Wary of falling victim to an online scam? Us too.
Here at MoneyMagpie, we love researching and writing about the latest trends and ways to earn money money for yourself and your family.
Unfortunately, there are others out there who will try to trick you into paying for something, with the promise of making more money further down the line.
This can come in many different forms, as people set up new and improved ways of making money off YOU.
To help you avoid such risks, we’ve flagged some of the most popular tactics that people use to scam people out of money.
Learn how to become an ‘Influencer’ (for a BIG fee)
An ‘influencer’ is a person who has a large social media following.
These people basically spend all of their time curating their online appearance on Youtube, Instagram or Twitter, and the life they live appears to be perfect.
Fashion, beauty and travel brands will pay them vast sums of money to wear their goods, use their products and visit their resorts. The influencer will then share content about the brand on their platforms. It’s no surprise every man (or woman) and his (or her) dog, want to be an influencer themselves.
Unfortunately, a lot of the big influencers are all too aware of this and offer their followers the opportunity to take ‘online courses’ on how to become just like them.
These courses can cost over £500, yet offer nothing real in return.
At the end of the day, the influencer selling the course won’t want more competition for followers and brands.
If you want to be an influencer, DON’T pay somebody somebody for an online course. Instead, work on your photography or filmmaking, and try to grow your social community organically.
Trusting ‘Psychics’ to tell you your future
This is no matter of opinion.
Nobody can see the future, and people who claim to be psychic or able to speak to the dead are scammers who manipulate people into giving them money.
There are thousands who claim to have supernatural powers. Not a single person is telling the truth (there is not a SHRED of evidence). Paying somebody to give you financial advice using ‘special powers’ may be the single best way to waste your money.
Simply ask yourself: if somebody could see into the future, why wouldn’t they look at the lottery numbers? Or the results of a big horse race and win millions for themselves every day?
If you see an advert or are thinking about paying someone to tell you the future, do yourself a favour and throw your money in the bin. That would be a better use of it!
The “I’ll Make you millions on the stock market” scam
If you haven’t seen The Wolf of Wall Street, and all of the scenes in which traders sell penny stocks which are guaranteed to explode in value in no time, you should check it out.
Though traders aren’t allowed to carry out such practices anymore, that doesn’t mean it has stopped happening. It’s simply changed.
Once more, people are using social media to connect with those who are desperate to make massive amounts of money with minimal effort.
By promising to use their ‘skills’ on the stock market, individuals will promise to spend other people’s money in the correct way and then return thousands back.
But you won’t make any money by trusting this new kind of scam.
Your money will be taken and then a message will be sent a couple of days later, telling you that the market turned in an unexpected way and that volatility caused big losses.The money you sent has been lost.
That doesn’t mean we’re against investing – far from it. But you need to read reliable sources and be suspicious of any ‘get quick rich’ opportunities.
There are, of course, a huge amount of other ways people will try to get hold of your money. Listing all of them would be impossible.
However, the key points to keep in mind are:
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
- Never pay for something up-front that you aren’t sure about
- Never provide any personal or financial information
If you would like to learn about more tricks and scams that people use, read any of the articles below.
Thank goodness I am a social-media-phobic!
Great advice for money making online.