How to identify a scam
How to identify a scam
Really easy. Who is involved? If it is a scam artist with a history like Andy Bowdoin, then it’s safe to assume that past behavior is a good guide for future behavior. Of course, Andy Bowdoin created a deceptive marketing campaign to change his image. It was claimed that he was a very successful and respectable businessman, who even received a medal from the President. In reality, he got an ordinary marketing token, and not from the president, but from the Republican National Comittee. And he didn’t get it for being a good person. He simply got it because he donated a little bit of money to the RNC, like everyone else who got one.
The saddest thing is outraged victims all over the internet still worship Bowdoin. They cannot understand how a “religious” person like him did anything wrong. Of course, Bowdoin keeps deceiving them by making references to God and pretending he is a martyr. Here is the Secret Service’s take on Thomas Andy Bowdoin, Jr.
Another way to identify a scam is to determine if any legitimate value is being exchanged. In the case of MLMs like DubLi it’s difficult to ascertain because they hide as much technical information as possible, by using vague and misleading wording.
In that case, if you are desperately harassed by a friend who wants you to be rich, and he is selling you a “license” that allows you sell other licenses, and no other value, it’s probably a scam. Nobody who is your friend needs to sell you anything so you can be rich. If they are really your friend, they wouldn’t make you pay for it; unless they were desperate for money. And if they are desperate for money, then their “business” proposition can’t be any good.
One pretty neat way to identify a scam is the following: How did the “President” sell the first license? What would it take to do it?
Well, in the case of AdSurfDaily, you can spend 300 dollars on a website, spam the internet for two weeks by advertising yourself as successful, for a total of 200+ articles. They don’t all have to be different; they just need to be called “press releases”. Then you approach someone and you tell them you’ll sell them an advertising packet for their website. But they don’t have a website, so you can charge them 50 dollars a month to make it for them. 50 dollars is 10 times the monthly price of standard webhosting. You find another victim and do the same, but you give them a rebate if they click on other member’s ads. You need to appear to have more members, so you fake a few extra sites with the new investment. Then you announce that you are a high-yield investment program, and that you pay commissions for recruiting people. Since the fake websites have no market value, the only reason people will join is for the money. Since the recruits are clicking your ads, the clicks are also worth nothing.
Sounds a lot like DubLi’s founders.