Well, I didn’t think it would reach the blogosphere, but it seems like it finally has about 1-2 months ago. What am I talking about might you ask? I’m talking about these sites that tell you how much money they’ve made in so little time. These are also known as “Quick Rich Schemes”, but it’s not getting YOU rich, but instead getting link you signed up with, money. The reason why I say “the link you signed up with” is because it’s a secret affiliate program that goes down the ladder. I never thought that I would post the secrets of these scams here, but after seeing these beach bums roaming around the net, I am totally just fed up with it.
What is a “Quick Rich Scheme?”
A quick rich scheme is basically a way to make a huge sum of money in the shortest time possible. The owners of these sites do not care about the customers because they only care about the money. I may be wrong, but most of them really don’t care if we don’t end up making the $100,000 the site promised or wealth for the rest of your life. So basically, that sums up what a “Quick Rich Scheme” is.
How does it work?
There are many types of these schemes and I’ll go over all the ones I’m familiar with.
The main type of scheme is the pyramid, which is also known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM). This scheme uses the pyramid because a pyramid is shaped as a triangle. Most people in the past used a similar technique to separate rank and that is exactly what this type of scheme is doing. An example of what I mean is illustrated in the picture below:
As you can tell by the image above, the numbers increase as you go down a level. For the ones that still don’t understand the illustration, it basically means that there is one referral at the top that refers 10. The 10 users he refers will refer another 10, which adds up to 100 total. As the levels go lower, there are more users and this usually earns the person on top more and more income. If some of you have heard of the “USANA” group or similar MLM programs, they basically run a pyramid scheme, but no one have gone in to stop them yet. It is highly illegal in some states because there is no actual money being made except by new members that contribute. As long as the percentage of new members joining stays high, the program will run.
There are more quick rich schemes that include AutoSurfs and Matrix schemes, but I’m not going to go into details on those.
Beach Bum Scam
I’m sure there are a lot of you that do not understand these type of programs, so I’m going to take the “Beach Bum” affiliate site as an example. Most of you think that this program actually teaches you how to make $3,000/day, but I’m sorry to say it does not. You’ll probably get some tips on how to make money, but there’s probably only about 1% of the customers making that actual amount using the tips provided when you purchase the “eBook”.
So how do customers end up making the promised $3,000/day amount? That question is easily answered by experienced users that make money online. I don’t know the exact details for the “Beach Bum” program, but I’ll assume it’s what I’m about to say. The whole scam begins with telling you how much money you make and what you may be able to purchase after you make it big. Besides telling you about the money, there are usually pictures to motivate you, but if you haven’t already known, these pictures are the same everywhere…including eBay. As soon as you receive the eBook, you’re most likely to receive an “affiliate link”, which gives you the opportunity to make back 50-90% of what you spent if someone signs up under you. This is the main reason why you see SOOOOO many different links leading to similar pages offering similar type of programs, or should I say eBooks.
Why are there so many of these type of ads on well respected sites/blogs?
What more can I say about this…the site/blog owners want to make profit by selling their ad spots. I’m sure you guys know who these people are and they’re actually promoting these programs. Come on…they do know these programs are scams..
Shame on you scam promoting owners!
How do I know so much about these schemes?
Before all this blogging fiasco to “making money online” I’m sure most of you heard of high yield investment plans, aka HYIPs, which basically earns you usually double the amount you deposit in a short amount of time. I admit I invested a lot into these HYIPs and I’ve actually scammed, which I totally regret now, about $9,000 in less than a week. These “quick rich schemes” get addicting because they suck you in and make you think you’ll earn more money when in fact, you lose.
Don’t worry, I’ve learn from my mistakes including scamming, which I got caught in the end, but people make mistakes. Just make sure you guys understand the concepts of these schemes and don’t make a similar mistake like me. I actually lost a couple $1,000 dollars of hard earned money.
Nicely written.
Although I never tried Beach Bum I am quite familiar with Pyramid schemes and got burned on them few years ago. Actually people at the top if it probably make more then officially promised, hence the hype but you really have to get in early
Otherwise you just waste money … Either way I ignore those type of “opportunities”
Alex’s last blog post..If Napoleon Hill had been an Internet Marketer…
Alex » I didn’t want to get too much into detail with this because I’m not encouraging people to go out and get into these “pyramid schemes”.
ahhh hahaha… gosh, I remember 12dailypro! And how people were making huge money for so long, and that Charis was like this charismatic lunatic whom some people treated like a prophet, it was crazy!
I put in $6k after a friend twisted my arm for 2 weeks and it went bust like 6 days later. I tried a couple more after that and they all did the same, it was such a shooting gallery that it was both sad and fascinating.
I even started the “12DailyPro Madness” blog and it got 1000s of hits per day in no time.
You know, ironically, GIT is still going strong but they follow the only model I ever determined could be viable… they rolled into a phase 2 where they turned their greedy charter members into a massive sales force for their “condo cards” - they had a legit travel/condo business waiting on the backside…
…and they just connected to it and rolled everyone into it with new products.
quite fascinating…
Anyways, nice of you to be honest, scammer.
j/k
Sam
Sam Freedoms Internet Marketing Controversy Blog’s last blog post..Sam Freedom’s - Drop Squad - The First Entrecard Meme Known to Bloggers
Good article, thanks. I’ve seen the beach bum thing around the net, but it did not appeal to me for some reason…good thing!
I got involved in an offline pyramid a few years ago and lost $2,000! Learned my lesson there.
Bah Humbug!
AL
Allyn Paul’s last blog post..Contest: Big Pap is giving away an IPOD over at The Big Bald Blog!
Very nicely written. I’ve never bought into any yet. However my Grandfather once did over an investment scheme. Good thing he only invested like $400; he was trying to do more but he couldn’t, which was a good thing. They’ll always find ways to get you.
ZingWat - Make Money Online’s last blog post..Marketing Your Blog In 2008 - Part 3
Here’s the post…yeah, there are alot of these out there…I remember seeing the Beachbum site before. They usually try to sell you an outdated method of making money online.
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[...] What I mean by this “hole” is scammers, hackers, and anything along those lines. I experienced those auto-surfs, hyips, and pyramid schemes, so I do know how it ends up, but it might take some [...]