News Article

Despite all of the stories to the contrary, there are probably numerous honest people selling used cars. The same can’t be said about people who claim to be able to help families, for a fee, increase the amount of college financial aid they will receive.

If you’d guess that such scammers bilk families out of $100 million a year or more, you would be correct.

They do it by preying on families worried about the cost of college; families who know little or nothing about scholarships and financial aid; families who are often easy targets.

It all starts with a letter from a company with a name that makes it sound like a benign organization whose mission is to assist students and their families.

The letter often looks like it comes from a top college or university. Thats not an accident. The font, the grade of paper, and the logo are chosen by the scammers to give the letter an academic look. Its junk mail alright, and its far more malicious than most, but thats not what it looks like. As a result, instead of throwing the letter away, many families open it. Thats mistake number one.

The letters generally start by appealing to fearby talking about the high cost of college.

But, the letter says, we can help. We can show you how to receive more financial aid. In some instances the letters will mention secrets colleges dont want you to know. Sometimes the letters will talk about millions of dollars in “unused” scholarships and financial aid; money just waiting to be found by and given to students who know the ropes.

What all the letters have in common is that they invite families to a free seminar, often at a local hotel. Because the letter offers the hope of extra financial aid, and because the evening is free, many families accept the invitation. Thats mistake number two.

The gathering, whatever it is called, is a well rehearsed sales pitch. The gist…you need money, we can help you get it. And, nowhere do you get the one piece of information you need most…everything of value these people can offer you is available elsewhere, for free.

The initial presentation is followed by an individual meeting with a high pressure salesperson who uses a well-formulated approach…like those of the very worst car salespersons…developed to collect up to $2,000 and a signed contract from families before they have had too much time to think about it.

Its sad. And, it happens every year. Dont let it happen to you. Get all of your financial aid advice from your school counselor, college financial aid office, and reputable publications and websites.

I want you to imagine for a while that you are looking to buy a business. As you look through the advertisements in the paper. You come across an ad that says, “Profitable Ready Made Business it goes on to explain that it’s an ice cream van in a hot sunny area.

This sounds a really good business. I could really enjoy this. This is for me. You find that it comes with a brand-new ice cream van, plenty of ice cream and chocolate topping. The area that your franchise is assigned to is a new suburb, so new in fact; there are no houses, no people, no customers. This means you really have no business.

Many products on the Internet just the same. You can buy ready-made websites, loaded with products ready to go. You are told, you can start making money within 24 hours. So you buy the product and set up the site on your new web hosting account. You make sure all the payment buttons are working. And then you sit back and wait, and wait, and wait. Nothing happens.

Your new business is just like that ice cream van. It is beautiful and new and very well stocked, but you have no customers.

You were told this product is selling like hotcakes. You will have your money back and more within 24 hours. That was just hype. Hot air.

Is there a difference between hype and being scammed? There is a similarity in that both hype and scams are designed to get money off you. But there is a difference. Hype is not a total untruth. Hype is stretching the truth to make something appear better than it really is.

The difference is a scammer is much like a con man. The scammer uses totally dishonest means, total untruth to get you to part with your money. They often pose as something they’re not. I’m sure you have received e-mails from people posing as PayPal asking you go to the site and fill in your login details. With this information, they can fraudulently use your account your money.

Hype, on the other hand offers you a legitimate product, but it over states the truth. Any product on the Internet that promises you instant success is hype. If you want to start a business on the Internet there is no such thing as instant profits. Anyone that promises you other wise is stretching the truth.

As in any business venture be it online or off-line, it will take time to build. You will need time to build a customer base. You need to get your customers trust. And even more important than all of this, you need to get customers.

On the Internet, your new website is much like that ice cream van in the middle of the Sahara Desert. You have no customers. You don’t even have people browsing. You need to draw traffic to your new site. This is not something that happens over night. This is a long slow process that takes a lot of work.

To get traffic to your site is really another subject. I will explain this in another article.

Email phishing is a very dangerous and potentially financially fatal trap that is sent via email from what appears to be a financial institution to an individual. Most of the phishing emails that one will receive are very easy to notice as fraud emails, but there are some that are very sophisticated and can take time to identify.

How email phishing is being used is to collect your private information such as personal data and financial accounts data. Once he has these, the email scammer can then use your information fraudulently. He could go straight to the financial accounts you gave him information about and steal the funds within the account. Or he could use your personal information to set up ways whereby he can still get money but end up leaving you holding the bag such as taking out a credit card in your name.

One popular phishing email is the foreigner who wants to or needs to move money out of his country to the States. Feeling sorry for his plight, the generous email receipient will allow give him the information needed to access their own bank account. To tell the truth, what often precipitates this generosity is the simple fact that greed takes over for the poor foreigner will offer to pay you from the funds transferred. You might just see a small amount of money transferred to the account but the next thing you know, all you have will be removed from your account. As long as these scams have been around, some people still fall for them.

There is another type of phishing email that is even harder to catch. It is an official looking email from your bank or credit card company or some other financial company. It requests that you update or modify your personal information at their site and provides you with a link to go there. Since it looks very official, many people click the link, go to the site and enter their login and password. After all, it looks just like your bank’s site. This is what can make these scamming emails so much harder to detect. Everything looks like it should. However, you should be aware that most financial companies will not ask you to update your information this way.

One of the most important things that one can do to help prevent email phishing is to report each and every email that one gets that appears suspicious. It is far better to be too safe with your identity and finances than not safe enough.

… by Starting Your Article Marketing Campaigns Now and Transform Your Business In a Way You Had Only Ever Dreamed About Before!!

You need to be writing articles and submitting them because it’s an extremely powerful method for promoting your websites, products, and services. And being an Internet marketer, your objective is to reach prospective customers. No better way is there to successfully achieve this objective day after day than using this incredible article marketing method.

Establish a business relationship with your target market. Become established and well known and build your credibility.

By applying this unique article marketing method you will get higher ranking in the search engines resulting in more and more free targeted website traffic, more customers and more sales and thus more profits. This method is hands down the greatest way to achieve this and most cost effective.

Look at the amazing business-transforming benefits of this unique Article Marketing method:

1. Skyrocket the Incoming Links Pointing to Your Website

Every time one of your articles is reprinted, another link pointing to your site will be created and picked up by the search engines. You will find this is much more effective than trying to get reciprocal links from other webmasters. As you continue to provide unique content more and more quality websites will start linking back to you and causing the search engines to take notice.

2. Get Higher Page Ranking

You will get links from websites that are relevant linking back to your site. Search engines looks at each link pointing to your site as a “recommendation” and the more you have of these… the higher your ranking will be!

3. Achieve Far Better Search Listings

Dramatically boosts your website traffic, sales, and opt-in mailing list as a result of submitting your articles to Article Directories. Your articles will be picked up by other website owners and then they will be featured in newsletters and passed out in e-zines. This will create additional traffic resulting in even more exposure! Your credibility will be growing and growing as you continue article marketing. You might even become well known as a Guru in your chosen field with legions of faithful followers.

4. Achieve Better Conversions

Building great credibility is an enormous factor when it comes to having traffic convert to sales and because of your article marketing efforts your conversions will vastly improve. Your traffic will be coming already excited having read one of your many published articles and liking what you had to say. This is called highly-targeted visitors and the more you have the better your conversions will be.

5. Grow Your Income

While reaching an authority level status and becoming a highly-regarded expert in your field you will have more and more people acting on your recommendations, buying your products and referring new customers resulting in you making a lot more money.

With internet marketing and having success online you need to be getting more visitors to flood your site. Starting your article marketing campaigns will greatly impact you having success and is by far the best route to take. So take it now.

Today, with the increase use of the internet, identity theft is growing at an alarming rate. When a person steals your identity a person can commit a crime under your name or apply for a credit card, maxing it to its limit and leaving you with the bill.

How Identity Theft Takes Place

* By going through your trash or stealing your mail.

* From the database of old computers that have been thrown away or files carelessly disposed of.

* Locating information from public records, government websites or registries.

* From lost or stolen wallets or handbags.

* Skimming a credit card through a card reader that reads the information on the card.

* Stealing information from a computer via the internet.

* Posing as an employee of a trusted organization and then asking for personal information.

* From social network sites as MySpace and Facebook to obtain information.

How to Prevent Identity Theft

There are several simple ways to help prevent identity theft.

* Shred or tear up personal mail and papers before throwing them out. This includes credit card offers, bank account details and tax return information.

* Avoid dangerous websites and do not reply to emails requesting your account or personal details, even though they may look like they are from authentic sources.

* When you give your credit card over to pay for products keep it in your sight at all times. This will make it harder for a would be identity theft to take your card and put it through a skimmer to retrieve your information.

* Never give out information over the phone, regardless who they say they are.

Doing these simple things are just the first steps in protecting your personal information. If you are concerned about identity theft there are identity theft protection companies available. Costing around $10 a month these companies will monitor your personal information and credit data to ensure that no one steals it.

Counterfeit money is an uncommon yet unfortunate reality. The chances of receiving counterfeit dollar bills are very small, but not impossible. Many incidents have been reported of people unknowingly getting fake money from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and bank tellers.

If you suspect you have been given fake money by an ATM, there are many ways you can verify your suspicions. Compare the bill to another of the same denomination that you are sure is not counterfeit. Closely examine the printing, the patterns, the colors, the text and the feel of the paper. Does it feel and look the same? If so, then the bill is likely not counterfeit. If you notice any discrepancies, you are likely looking at a fake bill. Hold the bill up to a lamp and look for the verification strip running through it. Is it there? If not, you are surely looking at a fake. If you are still unsure, you can easily procure a special marking pen that will help you verify the bill’s authenticity.

If you suspect your bill is indeed a fake, do not try and spend it. Even though you came by the bill through honest means, trying to spend it is a crime and can get you in serious legal trouble. Even if you claim you didn’t know you were dealing with counterfeit money, you will have a hard time explaining your case to the police.

The first thing you should do if you draw counterfeit money from a bank machine is contact the bank. Most major banks in the United States have 24-hour telephone operators standing by to help their customers deal with problems and questions. Scan the area inside the bank. You’ll likely find the 800 number printed somewhere on or near the ATM machine. If not, flip over your bank card and look for the number on the back.

If you make contact, tell your bank’s representative about the situation in the utmost detail. The bank might also want to contact the authorities, local police or the U.S. Secret Service, which deals with issues of forged and counterfeit folding money.

If you are not able to contact your bank’s representative, call the police and apprise them of the situation. Make note of the time and the location of the ATM or bank. The police might want you to turn in the counterfeit money, or hold onto it and turn it in to the bank the next day.

Whatever you do, do not spend the money. I cannot express how important it is that you do not attempt to pass counterfeit money.

If you follow the correct procedures, you should be able to get your money back without incident. Unfortunately, that is not guaranteed. If you have trouble getting your money replaced, examine your renters’ or homeowners’ insurance policy, if you have one. Many of these policies have provisions safeguarding against counterfeit money, and you may be able to get your money replaced.

Nobody wants to get fake money from an ATM machine. But if you do, you should do your best to be responsible and rectify the situation.

Choosing the right sponsor is one of the most important steps toward a successful home business or network marketing opportunity. Begin with yourself. Examine your experience, what kind of support you need, the outcomes you are seeking, and the time and effort you are willing to put in.

After countless internet hours of looking for the right sponsor, I found many questions one should ask. Here are a few of the more common questions to ask prospective sponsors:

1) Is there a written plan that I should follow the first 30-60 days?

2) Can you guarantee that I will see the results i’ve read about on your site?

3) Will I get a website that is made for me? With my picture, email address and phone number?

4) Are there conference calls with real substance that I can bring my prospects to for both the business opportunity calls and the retail membership product?

5) Are you available provide three way calls with my prospects while I am still learning to help me bring prospects into the business?

6) Is there real, tangible sales training available for those that need it?

7) I am on a limited budget - how exactly would I be able to succeed in this business?

My short answers to these questions - Remember, these are the SHORT answers. Some of these questions can have entire articles devoted solely to them.

1) I find that generic 30-60 day plans are far too impersonal for my taste. Person A might not wish to follow the same structure as Person B. So I feel it is better to guide the individual based on their needs.

2) Nothing in business is guaranteed. If you are willing to commit your time and efforts you can achieve anything you put your mind to.

3) Yes. I will even show you how to produce and edit your own webpage and recommend software to use.

4) Yes. Yes there is. Global Resorts Network has regular conference calls relating to a variety of topics.

5) Yes. In the event that I am personally not available. My sponsor is more than willing to help you close sales. That’s the kind of team we are.

6) Yes there is. Besides the training we personally provide there, we also constantly search for new training methods.

7) Obviously with a limited budget you advertising options are ‘limited’. However, there are a great number of free advertising sources available. As always, perseverance is key.

With the right sponsor you will be spending time with the person. They treat you as a person, not a sale. If they are not talking to you about your needs and desires, or willing to get to know you and what is important in your life, and I would, personally keep searching. As a sponsor in Global Resorts Network, I invest my time to help my network partners be successful, and I have found it is much more comfortable when I get to know them… After all, the people you sponsor don’t work FOR you. They work WITH you.

I hope this helps your search for a sponsor.

I feel this is the most important piece of information contained in this article. Any program comparisons extend beyond just the product. There is no question that one has to exert their own effort to succeed. A great sponsor, great support, and the right philosophy can assist one in being successful provided they are willing to work to achieve their goals. If not, the greatest sponsor on the planet will not make them succeed.

www.joecorp1.com