Glossary of Internet Marketing Scams – How to spot if you’re entering a trap

I have been making money online consistently and successfully for the past six years now and I feel I owe it to everyone, to share some of my experience and acquired expertise.

This post will hopefully save hundreds of people from drowning their life savings into the endless well of ponzis and other scams out there, but that will depend on how those who read it will respond to it.
Just the other day I was speaking to a friend of mine who decided to invest the majority of her bitcoin with an arbitrage trading program which I advised against. It took me 2 minutes to spot inconsistencies on their website and make me cringe, but she didn’t listen to me and put her money in it anyway. I’m sure she will regret it soon, but she’s determined to “grow her bitcoin” passively. Which I doubt will happen.

Anyway, if you are also tempted to try an automated, “done-for-you” system, maybe a “one-click” passive solution for growing your capital or another such cliche, read on. I’ll share with you the types of scams that I’ve come across in my career as a “making money online” type of guy.

The most common scams out there:

Airdrops, Bitcoin Doubler, Betting and other gambling type of websites.
Although there are many legit airdrops, there’s also too much crap out there and you would easily fall victim for some scammy ones if you go for every airdrop you find. As for the gambling sites and Bitcoin doublers… no comment needed. Just don’t.

MLM coins and tokens – if anyone tries to get you to buy a cryptocurrency that is run by a closed network, such is the case with network marketing, MLM-type of networks, RUN FAR.
All I can say is: Onecoin, Dascoin, Swisscoin, Plus Token, Cloud Token, Ormeus coin, Bitconnect… and the list goes on and on and on… They are always ponzis. A true cryptocurrency should not be run by a closed network and it cannot be called a cryptocurrency if it doesn’t even have a blockchain, like most of these. If the coin is not being mined by independent miners, is not publicly verifiable and tradable on public exchanges, but is being kept within the constraints of a closed mlm network where people are making commissions from promoting it…. then it is NOT a real cryptocurrency and most likely will never be. You are entering a trap. Don’t.

Arbitrage Trading – very popular ponzi schemes that are masked as an automated trading sites. Recently they turned to arbitrage trading mainly because it seems like there’s no way to get it wrong and they can justify consistent profits by masking their activities as arbitrage trading – this is when you buy and sell in very short timeframe on multiple exchanges and you make a profit from the difference in the price on these exchanges. You can make up whatever profits you want with this and no one can judge if it’s even realistic because you are not affected by the current market price. Even if the price is down 20% today, you could still make a profit. Such is the ease of this fraud. I am not saying that there isn’t any legit arbitrage trading going on, just not the one that is being promoted to you. Take my word for it. .. or don’t, it’t up to you but do let me know in the comments what was your experience after a year.

Binary Trading – that’s a well-known scam. You’re betting against the house (the broker). I know firsthand from people who actually work for these brokerages that this is a heavily manipulated market and the house always wins in the end. They allow you some good profits in the beginning to get you heated up and then trap you with complex offers and schemes that make you lose all your profits and then some. Avoid.

Trading bots – some of these can be legit, but when it comes to crypto, I have never seen a good enough trading bot that can consistently generate profit to make it worth investing in the long term. I tried a few, not one of them made me a profit. After a couple of months they all fail. On top of that, many are simply fraud. Ponzi type of schemes. Especially the ones that are billed as “arbitrage bots” – these are 100% scams (as explained above)

Personal traders – especially those that you will find through social media. Always scammers, every single one of them. A successful trader doesn’t have time to work for you. They work for hedge funds and ETFs and corporations. Anyone willing to take your money and trade for you is just looking to take your money. Period.

HYIPS – High Yield Investment Programmes – 100% scams. All of them.
These are ponzi schemes that promise super high returns over a short period of time. They can be anything from 1% per day to 15% and in between, they can also have fixed terms such as 10% per week or month, or 250% for 3 month and so on.. anything along these lines with great variations but always very appealing and impossibly high returns that ultimately are unsustainable. These can run from a few weeks to a few months and on rare occasions, up to a year or two. They should never be promoted to anyone, but with a typical 10% referral bonus, they become attractive to commission junkies and the inexperienced newbies, so the virus spreads. It’s interesting that 80% or more of these are set up by Russian scammers and they’re usually based in London. Most of them are registered in Mayfair (not a popular area for finance related companies) but recently they became a little more sophisticated and began using “city” addresses.

Revshares – these were the most popular ponzis between 2013-2018. They flourished in that period – hundreds of them sprung in the online space and sucked in millions of people. They also pay out fixed percentages, usually around 1% per day or less, with the idea that they share their own revenue with their members. That revenue comes from people buying packages that pay out higher than they cost. In other words, you buy a package for $50 (for example) and you receive $75 back in the course of a few months. This is not sustainable and in the history of online marketing there has never been a revshare that lasted more than 3 years. The longest-lasting ones have been Traffic Monsoon and Future Ad Pro – both are gone already. The majority of them however went down in their second year. Today there’s still a few in business but they faded out after most of their members lost their life savings in them.

Cloud mining – in most cases these are also ponzis – they generate returns from new customers and not really from mining. There are a few genuine cloud mining services out there and these do not make money. The costs involved in mining are too high and equipment gets outdated too soon, making it not profitable enough. It’s better to simply buy cryptocurrency and hold it – you will make at least twice or more the profit than you would if you put your money into cloud mining.

Crowdfunding schemes are also very popular scams. These can be ICOs where you are given tokens with empty promises of high gains in the future, only to find out that they never live up to the expectations, Peer-to-peer cyclers where you are sending $2 to Anne, Alice and Jane, then collecting $2 from John, Mary, Jake and Norman, and so on…. These usually last for a few weeks or months and then dissolve… waste of time if you ask me. Some other examples include Matrix-type of chains where there’s no product but money is being rotated purely as a chain of payouts – you get 3 people and they get 3 people and they get their own 3 each and so on… until the whole thing runs out of newcomers and dissolves… Rule of thumb is: if there’s no product, then it’s just a pyramid scheme. Don’t.

You can also very easily spot a scam when you see a post on social media that has a picture with a pile of money. Only scams are being promoted with this tactic. No exceptions.

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If you have been offered to join any MLM, Matrix, Trading Bot, Cloud mining or another type of automated, “done-for-you” money making service out there, you might have already been exposed to the following terms and catch phrases that are used by the networkers, team leaders and promoters of such scams. These terms are so overused in social media posts, but are still very popular among the network marketing circles. I know from personal experience, so take my word for it. I used to be one of these promoters too in my early days when I didn’t know better, so I have first-hand experience (unfortunately).

A friend of mine made a post on Facebook recently that I am using as a reference for this glossary below.

Here they are – the most popular clichés (and what they actually mean) that marketers use in their promotional posts and how you can spot a scam from miles away:

“The BIGGEST LAUNCH of the year” (I am a hype marketer)
“Trusted Admin” (usually someone unknown up to this moment)
“Transparent Owner” (some guy who started his FB profile not long ago and happy to do videos so you can see he’s real…until he stops one day)
“I’ve interviewed the owner” (Here’s a video of me talking to some dude in his basement, who has a “team” of experts apparently)
“Hot new company in prelaunch” (another shitshow is about to begin)
“Hurry up and lock your spot” (it’s a ponzi, so the earliest you get in, the more chances that you make a buck before they go down)
“I’ve been to their offices” (they hired an office for a few months and now we have to believe that they are totally legit)
“I just added this to my PORTFOLIO” (usually the portfolio consists of more crap just like this one)
“I made $4000 in my first month” (from commissions from other victims, not from the product itself)
“I know the admin well” (I have been speaking to him/her on Facebook)
“The company is re-branding” (the first attempt got exhausted and failed, so it’s time to change the name and get new victims into it before we scam exit)
“It’s been around for 4 years” (but it was re-booted 3 times as it ran out of suckers every time)
“It’s a peer to peer platform promoting philanthropy” (It’s a big fat money tree done time and time again)
“It’s the first platform to combine Crypto and Travel/ Gaming/ Cannabis/ Sports Betting” (we’ll come up with another trendy thing to add to this so we can appeal to more fools)
“I have a director’s spot reserved and people waiting to join under you” (I desperately need another sucker to join me and recruit more victims for my team)
“Founders positions available” (we need to extract extra large sums of money from the very gullible using Fear Of Missing Out)
“We don’t offer Securities and Investments” (We DO offer securities and investments but we are not registered to do so)
“Looks Great” (Same tired old off the peg script used time and time again
“Registered in the UK” (Along with every other fake HYIP business on earth, it is super easy to register a company in the UK but that doesn’t mean anything legit)
“We are not registered with SEC, so we are out of their jurisdiction” (we want to be able to run away with your money and don’t want to be scrutinised by a regulator)
“This one is still paying out after 4 months” (and very soon it won’t)
“My Inbox is blowing up” (and so is Syria and Lebanon)
“Sustainable model” (Will last 4 months instead of 4 weeks)
“Super Fast” (Will last 4 weeks, not 4 months)
“This thing is on FIRE!” (People clearly have money to BURN)
“10,000 members in pre-launch” (Loads of commissions for those who don’t give a crap enough to test it before recommending it)
“This is going to be HUGE” (Gone by Christmas)
“Free to join” (We haven’t started running out of money yet)
“We have started to charge a membership fee” (We HAVE started to run out of money)
“Stand by for updates” (The membership fee didn’t raise enough so we have cooked something else up)
“We have been forced to restructure” (Grab a life ring, Women and Children first)
“Site Down for System Updates/Changes” (exit scam)
“This has turned scam” (It was a scam to begin with, but I just realised now when it stopped paying)
“We have been hacked / affected by COVID-19 and lost your money” (We’ve stolen your money but trying to play the victim as we have another pile of shit we’re about to release and need your support)