You Think YOU'VE Been Scammed?

Boy was I scammed! It was my first try at an Internet business. I saw an ad that you could get your own casino. Please do not confuse this with one that is going around new where you can sign up to be an affiliate at a group of casinos. This one was one where you paid them to make your casino. You chose your own casino name. They registered it and made the casino on a theme that went with the name you chose. I paid them a pretty penny to do it, too. In return, I would advertise it and collect 55% of the profits.

I spoke with them, we emailed, we did a contract. I saved every email that they sent and I sent to them. I felt I had covered everything, reading every word in the contract, etc. and asking 25 zillion questions. So, I went to the bank and borrowed the money, as according to statistics, I should be able to pay it back the first year.

Well, the first thing that happened was it took a lot longer to get the site finished than they had said it would. But, in the meantime I went about scouring the Net for places to advertise so I would know where the best places were when the site was ready. By the time they had it up, I already had had to make my first payment on my loan; so I set about advertising with a vengeance! I found ways that worked well and by the 3rd month, we had made a profit and I got my first check! Not a large one, but the exciting thing was we had made a profit!

The fourth month came and my check was larger and just about covered my loan payment. The casino was growing all the time and I was one excited person! The fifth month, I was due to get a check for over $8000! Now I was REALLY excited! What happened? It never came. Oh, there was this excuse and that excuse, but I never got my check. Did I ever get anymore money from them? No. Did I want to sue them? You bet! But did I sue them? No. Why? Because they are in Costa Rica and I am in the United States. Attorneys said their laws are different than ours, plus I had a choice of hiring a Costa Rican attorney and hoping he was honest and would do his job or paying someone from the States to go over there. It was going to be very expensive and there was no guarantee whatsoever that we would prevail. Their advice? Don't put bad money behind bad money. Cut your losses now.

Why have I told you this? I have several reasons for sharing this with you.

1.First of all, be EXTREMELY careful about who you do business with. If you do business with someone in another country, be sure to check out their laws and be sure you are covered if things don't go the way they are supposed to. Things are better now, but in there are still many scammers out there.
2.See if they have testimonials. If they do, write to the people who gave testimonials. They should be linked on the site. If they are NOT linked and you don't see a way to contact them, be wary. They may not be real.
3.See if the business has a contact. See if they give you an address and phone number. If they have no address and phone or just list a post office box, go somewhere else. Post office boxes can easily be closed, and there goes your money and your contact with them.
4.If you have been scammed (and I think there are few of us who haven't been scammed), don't think that everyone on the Internet is dishonest and give up. The Internet is just like the rest of the world: there are honest and dishonest people everywhere. Take what you learned and make something good come out of it. I learned so much about advertising online that I decided to start my own business for marketing and advertising. In other words, make lemonade out of the lemons you got.

It IS realistic that you can be successful online. I'm proof positive of that. All you have to do is be determined and don't let the "bad boys" get you down. If you get scammed, just focus on your goals and work that much harder. We need all the honest business people we can get!

About the Author

Pamela Geiss owns LotsaPerks, an online advertising agency. Visit her today at http://www.lotsaperks.com and sign up for her free newsletter.