Step 1 - What Constitutes A Scam?

In common layman's terms, an Internet scam is simply a ploy for unscrupulous people to get your money. And in today's ecomony, they're springing up with more frequency than mosquitos on a warm summer day.

They can do this by pyramid schemes (inviting people to sign up others for "downstream" profits), offering cut-rate prices on goods and then not delivering them, making grandious claims about future profits for investments, and much more. The old adage "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" certainly applies in this case.

Have you ever received email that is addressed to friend@anywhere.com or someone other than yourself? Ever wonder why you received it, if your name doesn't appear?

With today's technology, it's easy to doctor up the email headers to make it appear it's coming from a completely different person and sent to a completely different address. Why would people choose to do this?

The most popular reason is because these emails will generate a lot of hate mail in response. Using a bogus return address ensures the sender won't be bombarded with complaints. And by using a fake To: address, naive recipients might think they had received it by mistake, and not complain. Anyone who doesn't stand behind their product is a vendor worth ignoring.

Scams range from the "Make Money Fast" to "send out these recipies to 30,000,000 people and watch the money roll in!" to pyramid schemes, crooked Internet Web site design, to many more things. In a pinch, anything which spouts unrealistic promises right up until you part with your money is a scam.

Step 2 - If It Sounds Too Good...Resources To Help

One of the best places to learn about Internet scams is The Internet Fraud Watch. This page contains information about identifying pyramid schemes, credit repair, work at home scams, and much more.

A rather humorous and extremely well-done site is The MMF Hall of Humiliation. This site includes a question and answer section, The MMF of the Week, and many additional resources.

The FTC discusses some popular email scams here.

Did you know that a blacklist of Internet advertisers exists? This list contains folks who spammed the Internet inappropriately.

Step 3 - The Two Most Crucial Internet Sites To Learn About Scams

By far, the best sites I've seen to help you learn about scams and how to avoid them are:

• Scams 101 - a crash course in biz-op self-defense. This wonderful site was put up a person who experienced just about every scam out there. She also runs a great home-based business board called "Friends In Business."
• Internet Scam Busters - "The Premier Publication On Internet Fraud -- Avoid Getting Ripped Off By Internet Scams, Fraud, Misinformation And Hype." You'll find a free newsletter and tons of popular scams to avoid.

Step 4 - MLMs by any other name....

What is it about MLMs? Multi-level marketing or network marketing can work. The killer word there, of course, is can. For more folks, it rarely does. It's takes an incredible amount of energy, resources and time on your part to make it work.

Some great sites for more information about these thingees include:

• Multi-Level Marketing - What it was. What it became. What it is today.
• Business Analysis of the Quixtar Amway Opportunity - Extremely comprehensive.
• MLM Survivor - Lots of resources about the different types of MLMs you'll encounter
• MLM Woman - Resources for those who are already in MLM.

This is your money about which we're talking. Certainly you would like to make it big...just remember, nothing comes without hard work and sweat. It's your responsibility to get the facts first.