We’ve all been seduced by adverts promising untold wealth for very little effort or for very little investment. Sadly a few of us actually part with our hard-earned cash on a pointless scam. These scams are usually written with highly attractive sales copy designed to encourage us to buy into something that usually only results in lots of cash for the scam artist. Here are a few tips to help you identify potential scams quickly and easily.

The promises

The old saying “it’s too good to be true” is a very reliable rule for identifying scams. For example, offering unrealistic earnings, the potential to make money with no knowledge or something that is borderline illegal are fairly obvious indicators.

The proof

It is quite common for sales copy to feature some so-called proof of what you can earn. If you have seen any share investments, there is often some warning that “past performance should not be used as an indicator of future performance”. That means any proof offered on sales copy is misleading and unreliable. You will probably see a list of blacked out PayPal transactions or other payment system. These accounts are claimed to be what your accounts will look like if you purchase the product.

The rush

With virtually any product being offered in a sale, there is usually some kind of time limit designed to rush you into making a purchase. Have you seen banners with phrases like “this weekend only!” or “for a limited time only”? These tricks are designed to make you rush without doing any research or making a rational decision.

The testimonials

Every decent salesperson knows that word-of-mouth referrals are invaluable and easily out-rank pretty much any other marketing technique. That’s why it’s so common to see advertising with an everyday person saying how great a product or service is. These faces humanize the product and attempt to engage your trust in them and the product.

The payment

Particularly with sales copy, the price is invariably at the end. The seller does not want you to discover the price until they have convinced you that you want the product. If they put the price at the top of the sales letter, you would probably dismiss the products without reading the whole sales copy.

As you can see, there are lots of tricks used to entice you to part with your cash and purchase a product. I’ve just touched on a handful of these above. I know we all could do with some extra cash. Such a strong desire can make us blind to some very obvious money making scams.

For a perfect example of what a sales letter is designed to do, I suggest reading Click Here You Idiot.