5 Make Money Online Websites You Need To Avoid

what's up digital Hustlers it's Shane your friendly neighborhood scam Buster and boy do I have a treat for you today picture this you're scrolling through your phone dreaming of quitting your 9 to5 when suddenly bam an ad pops up promising you'll make thousands while sitting in your pajamas sounds amazing right well hold on to your wallet folks because we're about to dive into the Shady underbelly of the internet today we're exposing five types of online money-making scams that are slicker than a grease pig at a county fair and trust me that's a skill that's more valuable than any get-rich quick scheme out there so grab your Det Ive hats and a healthy dose of skepticism because we're about to go on a wild ride through the world of digital deception are you ready to become a certified scam spotter well let's dive in but before we do let me tell you why this is important in today's digital age scams are everywhere and on a serious note they're getting more sophisticated more convincing and more dangerous and it's not just about losing a few bucks anymore these scams can steal your identity ruin your credit and even get you into legal trouble in fact according to the FBI's internet crime complaint center in 2020 alone Americans lost over 4.2 billion dollars to cyber crime with a significant portion of that coming from various online scams and guys that's billion with a b and those are just the reported cases and I've seen countless people that have watched this Channel people that have commented on the channel and people that I've even met that have fallen for these traps and it's honestly heartbreaking and that's why I'm on a mission to educate as many people as possible about these dangers because knowledge is power and by the end of this video you'll be armed with the knowledge to protect yourself and your hard-earned money so let's go ahead and dive into the nitty-gritty of these scams and buckle up because it's going to be a bum bumpy ride the first one is the clickbait cash grab and this one is the classic bait and switch or as I like to call it the clickbait cash grab and it's like being promised a gourmet meal and getting served a rubber chicken so let's take a bite out of this scam shall we so a prime example of this is paid verts and here's how it works they promise you can earn money by clicking on ads and you accumulate a balance thinking you're on your way to riches but when you try to withdraw surprise your cash balance is suddenly converted into add points or some other non-withdrawable currency so it's kind of like ordering a steak and getting served a picture of a cow not quite what you had in mind right and on trust pilot you'll see reviews like this from some people now this type of scam isn't new in fact it's been around in various forms for years remember the infamous iPod for a penny scams from the early 2000s people thought they were getting an iPod for just one cent only to find out they'd been signed up for an expensive subscription service and in 2009 the FTC cracked down on one of these operations run by Adept management which had scamed consumers out of more than $50 million and the company used fake blogs fake testimonials and deceptive advertisements to lure people in promising free products but delivering Hefty charges instead and the lesson be wary of sites that make it easy to put money in but hard to get it out if the terms keep changing especially regarding payments Run for the hills now that we've unmasked the clickbait cash grab let's pyramid scheme our way to the next scam see what I did there no well you will in a second and that is the multi-level Mirage yes the classic pyramid scheme The Shape Shifter of the scam world and I call this one the multi-level Mirage because it's like a game game of financial Hot Potato except you're always left holding the Spud let's peel back the layers of this onion-like scan so one example of this one would be Neo bucks and here's how it works you sign up and you start clicking ads for tiny amounts of money and you quickly realize you can't earn much this way and they tell you the real money is in the referrals get others to sign up under you and the more people you recruit the more you earn from their work sound familiar well it should because it's the classic structure of a pyramid scheme and there has been people who have spent months clicking ads every day only to earn a grand total of a few dollars and pyramid schemes have been around for decades but they found new life online now one of the most infamous cases in recent years was the collapse of telex free in 2014 this company claimed to be a telecommunications provider but was actually a massive pyramid scheme that defrauded investors out of nearly $3 billion worldwide and telux free operated much like these online schemes were discussing they promised High returns for promoting their service and recruiting others but in reality there was no real product just an endless chain of recruitment that eventually collapsed and the Fallout was devastating in Brazil alone where the scheme originated over 1 million people lost money the company's Founders were arrested and legal battles continued for years now remember if a business model relies more on recruitment than on providing a valuable product or service it's likely a pyramid scheme and these are of course unsustainable and often leave people worse off than when they started now speaking of disguises our next scam is wrapped in more misleading packaging than a grossly oversized bag of chips let's crunch into the smoke and mirrors Money Maker sometimes a website isn't exactly a scam but it's not what it seems either this type of scheme which I've dubbed the smok and mir's Money Maker involves misrepresenting the nature of the opportunity and often making it seem much easier or more lucrative than it actually is mind Sumo falls into this category it's often marketed as a typical Beer Money site where you can earn easy cash in your spare time but in reality it's a platform for solving complex business problems which require significant time effort and expertise and if you don't believe me there's trust pilot reviews out there that basically explain the exact same thing now this kind of misrepresentation isn't limited to small unknown sites even big players have been caught overselling opportunities take Uber for example in 2017 the FTC found that Uber had exaggerated the yearly and hourly income drivers could make in certain cities Uber claimed on its website that Uber X driver's median income was more than $90,000 per year and over $74,000 a year in San Francisco and the FDC found that less than 10% of the drivers in these cities actually earned that much and Uber ended up settling with the FTC for $20 million which was distributed to the affected drivers the takeaway always research what's actually involved in an opportunity if a site is vague about the nature of work or the skills required be skeptical look for detailed explanations of what you'll be doing and realistic descriptions of the time and effort involved from fake Ferraris to phony pharoh our next scam is selling you the Brooklyn Bridge one game key at a time so let's press play on the pixel Pirates Cove ever heard of the saying there's no honor among Thieves this next scam the the pixel Pirates Cove is like a digital Black Market where the only thing you're guaranteed is a lighter wallet game on g2a is an example of this it's a Marketplace for game Keys often sold at suspiciously low prices here's the problem many of these keys are purchased with stolen credit cards the keys are then sold onto g2a at a discount when the fraud is discovered the keys are revoked and you're left with no game and no money and there are lots of reviews online of people who have fallen for this now the issue of fraudulent marketplaces selling game Keys came to a head in 2016 when game developer tiny build accused g2a of costing them $450,000 in Lost sales and Tiny build claimed that many of the keys sold on g2a were obtained through credit card fraud leading to chargebacks that cost the company significant amounts of money and this controversy LED several game developers speaking out against GTAA and in 2019 Mike Rose founder of no more robots started a petition asking g2a to stop selling indie games altogether stating that the platform was killing indie games and this situation got so bad that some develop velers like Ramy ishmail of vamir publicly stated that they'd rather people pirate their games than buy them from g2a as at least piracy doesn't result in costly credit card chargebacks the lesson if a deal seems too good to be true it probably is so stick to authorized retailers even if it means paying a bit more pay full price for a game you can actually play than to save a few bucks on a key that might disappear at any moment now for our grand finale we're diving into a scam that's more too fac than a politician during election season get ready for the digital dopper G get ready for the digital doppelganger get ready for the digital doppelganger deception scam wow say that one three times fast identity theft isn't just for credit cards anymore and these scammers are The Chameleons of the digital world and they blend in by pretending to be legitimate businesses so it's time to unveil these Masters of Disguise crash crate for example it used to be a legitimate survey site but it shut down in 2019 now scammers are setting up fake sites claiming to be the new cash crate and people have been commenting about these fake sites online and we see the same thing with sites like a focusgroup.com which is posing as a legitimate research site personation scams have become increasingly sophisticated and widespread in 2020 the FBI reported a surge in these types of scams particularly those impersonating government and health organizations during the covid-19 pandemic and one of the largest impersonation scams in recent years was uncovered in 2019 when the US Department of Justice charged 35 people involved in a massive operation that impersonated at least 15 different companies and government agencies and the scam which operated out of India defrauded thousands of US citizens out of hundreds of millions of dollars the scammers set up call centers where they pretended to be from the IRS Social Security Administrations or other official entities and they threaten victims with arrest or deportation if they didn't pay the supposed debts or fines while the scam operated primarily via phone it does demonstrate how far scammers will go to impersonate legitimate entities and the same tactics are now being used online with fake websites mimicking everything from government agencies to popular survey and microtask sites so always double check the URL of the sites you're using especially when they're asking for personal information or promising money and if you're unsure do a quick Google search of the site name plus scam or legit to see what others are saying now by the way YouTubers such as kit Boga make tons of money basically clowning on these scammers and YouTubers such as myself make tons of money showing good opportunities for people out there and if you want to become a YouTuber yourself so that you can educate others and help others I do have a free training which is basically a crash course on how to start YouTube and it'll tell you everything need to know to get started so definitely check that out it'll be down the description in the pin comment below and wrapping this up and also trying to be a little bit more on the positive side of things I'm going to refer you to a video about some online websites where you can actually make money online and you can check that out by clicking right here