Affiliate Marketing – Network Marketing a Scam?

Many people are looking to the internet for ways to create income from home either via Affiliate Marketing or Network Marketing (a home based business).  The last statistics I heard were approximately 55,000 per week. 

With the economy as it is and so many out of work, many of those searching for ‘another way’, can easily find themselves caught up in the thousands upon thousands of scams that are popping up every day.

Since it’s thrown about a lot and used very loosely in many cases, especially on the internet, I looked up the definition of the word scam.  The first search took me to ‘confidence trick’:

A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty, and have victimized individuals from all walks of life.

Redefining my search brought me to the word ‘scam’:

scam  (skm) Slang n. A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle.

Unless one knows how to tell the difference between a legitimate business model and a scam, very likely they will end up getting involved in a scam 9 times out of ten.  I spent nearly three years in that category myself.

I’ve written multiple articles over time to cover some of the ‘easy to spot’ RED FLAGS, but some of these ‘deals’ are a bit trickier to root out than others because they are masked in ‘good causes’.

What’s a good cause?

That depends on YOU, your opinion of a good cause.  But I’ll list a few I’ve seen over the last few months.  Though they are good causes, they don’t justify having an MLM business plan built around them. 

1.  Missing children

2.  Buying groceries

3.  Preserving the Oceans

4.  Feeding the starving

5.  Benevolence

Network Marketing is a concept of providing products or services via word of mouth referring and recommending rather than the traditional method of BIG BUSINESS advertising and hiring a sales force. It is NOT something that you build around a good cause.

Yes, many good companies contribute to good causes, but again, a good cause does NOT constitute creation of an income earning opportunity, more a money scheme. 

"GOOD CAUSE" based programs ARE the hardest to spot when it comes to scams on the internet because we get caught up in the emotion of the ’cause’.  What they ARE designed to do is – SCAM

……exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty, and victimize individuals from all walks of life.

~Jennifer Fisher

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2. Using (SCAM) as a Keyword in Network Marketing – Fact or Fiction
3. Rebate Processing, Angel Stevens, Angela Penbrook [scam]
4. Bikini Brasil Advertising a Work At Home Scam?