Introduction: Are you eagerly searching for a way to make an extra buck online? Maybe you’re looking to augment your income through an ‘earn from anywhere’ scheme or diversify your portfolio with high returns from crypto investments or the next big DeFi project. While there are legitimate opportunities out there, it’s critical to know that many ‘get rich quick’ programs you find online are often scams, with the sole intent to rip you off and leave you penniless.
To protect yourself from online earning scams, you need to know what to look out for. In this post, I’ll walk you through the red flags that come up with every scam platform and give you tips on how to protect yourself from them.
Promises of unrealistic returns: ‘Become a millionaire overnight!’ ‘Get double your investment in a week!’ Such promises are what we call ‘too good to be true.’ Ask critical questions before committing. How does the platform generate profits? What evidence do they provide to back up their claims? If they can’t answer these questions convincingly, it’s best to walk away.
Most genuine platforms will never promise quick easy money. If you see a platform asking you to deposit money promising to make it triple within 10 days or more, it’s an alarming sign that the platform is a scam.
These types of platforms are created by Ponzi scheme scammers who will only benefit the owner and will run after they cause some damage.
Be watchful and avoid such offers and instead invest your time into legitimate trading or investing sites.
Cryptocurrency investment scams: Cryptocurrencies are unregulated, and dozens of get-rich-quick scams are promoting themselves on social media, trying to trick you into investing in fake coins or desperate projects. Scammers will create fake social media accounts to shill their shady coins and pressure you to buy in quickly. Be cautious of any unsolicited contact from people you don’t know. Research the coin/ICO/project and the people behind it extensively before investing your hard-earned money.
Pressure to invest: Scammers will do anything to separate you from your money – they will pressure you into investing before letting you do your due diligence or understanding the risks. If a platform is pushing you to invest quickly without giving you the space to assess risks and benefits, then it’s a red flag.
If a platform offers a promotion that goes beyond their usual returns policies (such as a 50% return on investment in just 10 days), after already having paid out from other packages they have, it may be an indication that the company is planning a rugpull scam. Rugpull is a term used to describe a situation where a company disappears with all the funds invested by their clients. Be extremely cautious of the scammers who are attempting to build up excitement for their final package before they vanish entirely.
Lack of transparency: A legitimate investment platform should have a transparent product or service, and a whitepaper or business plan that explains the investment strategy and detailed information on the background of the team and their experiences. If a platform is evasive on critical information, run away.
Locks your funds: If an investment requires you to commit your funds for a specific period of time or restricts your access to them, it is probably a scam. This is because they want to prolong the Ponzi scheme by locking your funds and paying you little or no returns while enticing others to join.
If your funds are locked, you won’t be able to withdraw them. This can make it easy for scammers to run away with your money without giving you any recourse.
Impersonators: Scammers often use social media and email to create fake accounts to impersonate real people like company CEOs, government officials, or crypto personalities. These accounts are used to offer fake investment opportunities for people to make fraudulent transactions. Always take an extra step to verify before engaging with anyone online. Never make investment decisions based on accounts and DM’s until proper verification is done.
Poor website design and support: Some scammers usually won’t spend the resources for top-quality design, support, and customer service. Check for grammar and spelling errors on the platform website. Are there contact information and a physical address? Is the website secure with an SSL certificate? Do they have a robust customer service system to answer all your questions? If not, it’s best to steer clear.
It’s important to remember that scammers may create convincing websites that appear legitimate. Refer back to the previous steps we suggested to ensure that the system is indeed trustworthy.
Fake Markets: Some scammers create fraudulent markets that show trades ending with huge profits and few or no losses. By manipulating these markets, they make it seem like their system is successful and that you are earning money through their broker, which is often a fake one as well.
To ensure accuracy, you can confirm the trade timings by cross-checking with reputable brokers or markets such as Tradingview. Although some markets may display slight variations, it is a red flag if the trades and profits do not match with any other market. It could indicate a fraud and an intricate Ponzi scheme.
If there are no more people who can be tricked to invest, scammers may create false signs of a market crash that would cause the account to lose all its money, even though the money was simply stolen.
Recruitment is heavily pushed: If you come across a system that promotes recruitment extensively, particularly with multi-level affiliates or a binary-based system that prioritizes the “stronger” leg, then you are most likely in a pyramid scheme. These schemes solely rely on recruiting people to make money and do not offer any other meaningful products or services.
The system cannot sustain itself because there are not enough people in the world to join, and once all potential recruits are exhausted, the scam will collapse, and payments will stop for everyone involved. It doesn’t matter how many people you have recruited or how successful your recruitment was, the outcome remains the same.
Conclusion: Investing, whether in crypto or not, is always a risk. It’s critical to protect yourself from online earning scams, so you don’t lose everything to fraudulent schemes. Always do your research! Don’t believe guarantees of quick wealth, and never invest money that you can’t afford to lose. Remember, your money is precious; don’t trust it to a random online platform.
But before you go,
There is a silver lining…
If you are looking for a legitmate system that allows you to keep 100% control of your funds, not have them locked into any platform for an extended period of time, allows you withdrawals and deposits any time you wish, and does it all for one simple monthly subscription that you don’t have to commit to, then you should check out our earning offering with Fortune Masters. This system allows you to earn money on the forex, metal and indices markets with experts who take the trades for you and target a 8 to 10% return monthly.
So if you are interested, do yourself a favour and learn more on Fortune Masters right here today.