The following instructions cover a variety of categories where scams and dangers lurk online. We have more information on related topics listed at the bottom of the page. This page is designed to cover the risk specifically related to operating a small business.

Work at Home Scams

Make money online, work at home, earn cash in your spare time - all these phrases are catch phrases for online scams. The bad thing is, they are also legitimate things to do, though not in the way people hope they are. So how does one tell the difference?

First of all, follow the rules of email. Do not reply to unsolicited email, etc. No reputable company will EVER send you an email you did not specifically ask for. If they bought your name on a list, they are NOT going to help you make money! I cannot overemphasize this! No Exceptions!

If you believe that there is some option out there to make money quickly, without much work or investment, then you will get scammed again and again. I know people like this. I hear them say, "Something will eventually work." After ten or twenty failed attempts, they still keep looking for the golden goose. They forget that even the golden goose had to be tended, fed, and watered long before it ever laid an egg! And nobody is going to do that for you without wanting something in return. Sometimes what they want is hidden, or sometimes they wait until later, after they have softened you up before they go in for the final fleece.

In general, anything you buy into is highly suspect. To get all the details on Work at Home scams, and how to spot them, check out our review site at: http://www.skinnyshoestring.com/reviews/

Protect Your Online Accounts

Perhaps the most dangerous online threat to anyone is something called "phishing". We warn and warn and warn people, and they still fall for it because it is such a subtle scam.

It works like this: You get an email with a return address of eBay, PayPal, or some other popular online financial presence. It says that your account information needs updated - sometimes they say that their servers had a problem and everyone needs to confirm their account login. There is a link on the page which you are directed to click, and then you are sent to a site that looks identical to the bank or account site. You enter your login into it, they say thank you, and you go on your way thankful that your account did not get locked out because you didn't update in time. Then a week or two later your checks start to bounce, because your checking account has been cleaned out.

Every single online company tells you that you should NEVER click on a link in an email to go to an online account site. This rule is the BEST protection you have! I cannot emphasize it strongly enough! Always open your browser and type in the address by hand, or use your bookmark to go there and see if there is an announcement on the home page. Believe me, if any company like that ever did have such an event requiring that you confirm your account, it would be stated plainly on their homepage!

Next, forward the email without making any changes, using the Forward command in your email program, to the fraud department of the company it purports to be from. You can send eBay or PayPal ones to spoof@ebay.com, or spoof@paypal.com.

Now, the thing that makes me REALLY MAD, is that EVERY SINGLE one of the online accounts that I have, that tell me not to EVER click on a link in an email to get to their site, PUTS EMAIL LINKS IN THEIR EMAILS!! How utterly stupid! They are just confusing the issue!

Sorry for the shouting there, but this scam just aggravates me. I keep hearing from people I know (even my husband!), "why am I getting email from PayPal when I don't even have a PayPal account?" It is not from PayPal, it is a scam. Scammers just blanket send these emails, and hope that they will get a live one. They keep doing it because they keep getting people who bite.

Just remember the rule - NEVER click on a link to get to PayPal or any other online bank or sensitive account info. ALWAYS type in the address or use a bookmark to get there! If you remember that rule, you won't get caught in the net when someone goes "phishing" for you.

Opt-In Newsletters and eZines

Nearly every legitimate site, and a good many scammers run online Newsletters or eZines. The legal ones are called "opt-in" newsletters, because they supposedly only send them if you choose to receive them. The good ones won't sign you up unless they first email you to confirm the subscription. Others run under the guise of opt-in newsletters, and are something else entirely.

If you get a newsletter via email that you did not sign up for, then it is a scam list.

The scam lists tend to deal with a single subject or product. And they usually won't let you opt out via email, they require that you visit their website. Do not do it! You don't know what is going to pop up in front of you if you do click. Further, once there, they will try to get you to confirm your email address, or ask for other info, supposedly to confirm your identity. You are better off just consistently deleting it or blocking it.

Some newsletters will sell your email address. Others will not. In general, a reputable one will state their privacy policy and mailing policy on the page that you use to sign up, and they will send you a confirmation email to make sure you really dis sign up. If they are legit, they will state outright that they won't sell or share your email address.

The danger in the scam newsletters is not just that someone might believe the misleading information, but that you might try to unsubscribe and end up giving out info that you should not. The only other risk is SPAM, which is merely annoying, not dangerous.

Remember, the rule for newsletters is the same as it is for other unsolicited mail - If you did not ask for it specifically, then you cannot trust ANY content in it. Even if you did ask for it, be skeptical and keep your common sense firmly in place.

Free Classified Sites

Free classified sites are sometimes viewed as a means of getting free advertising. The reality is far different most of the time though.

Free classifieds come in two forms:

Small topical or community centered sites.

Larger open forums with automatic posting capabilities (sometimes require login, sometimes not).

Smaller forums are generally safer than larger ones. You’ll understand that better if you understand the way they each work.

Smaller community oriented sites usually exist to help a group of people exchange items or sell within the community. They often have second hand items for sale, such as homeschool supplies, rockhound items, hard to find items, etc. The purpose is to help the community function better together.

The larger sites have quite a different motive. The stated motive is always that they want to give people a chance to advertise freely. The reality is quite different. They exist for two main purposes:

1. To get you to click on paid ads that are on the edges of the page, or sprinkled through the middle.

2. To get your email address for sale. Often Free Classifieds have a topic. And they require you to sign up. Somewhere in the fine print in the signup they will inform you that they may share your email address with a few select partners. Basically, that gives them license to do what they want with it, and within a short time, your inbox will be flooded with SPAM. Of course they will claim that you asked for the information, even if you did not specifically say you wanted it.

You know all those “targeted email lists” that you get invitations to buy? They come from such sites. In fact, if you visit just one, you will end up with those very invitations flooding in! They play both sides!

The last thing you need to know about such sites is that they tend to be very busy. And each page only holds a certain number of entries before they scroll down and are dropped off the bottom never to be seen again. In some sites this can happen as quickly as a few hours. So even if the SPAM were just the price you had to pay for a service, the service in this case is not nearly worth it!

Now, you will hear from various sources that you can use these sites to advertise, as part of an overall strategy. But these are usually people who are trying to sell you something, or someone who just did sell you something that wasn’t worth what they charged. Free classifieds are generally a waste of time as a valid marketing strategy, they only work when they are for specialized groups exchanging hard to find items.

Email Risks

When your email account is new, you don't really understand what all the fuss is about concerning SPAM. You sign up for a few innocent sounding items online, and suddenly you have all kinds of stuff coming into your inbox that you did not want.

Email is a huge arena for scams. They come in many forms, some of which I will discuss in other areas. Here is a brief overview:

1. Nuisance Mail. Companies will email you stuff that is not offensive, just unwanted. Generally there is a link at the bottom that you can click to unsubscribe if the company is legit. Do this if it is a name you know. Otherwise clicking the link may be the same as a jerk on the end of the fishing line - it may just tell the sender that they got a live one!

2. Fraudulent offers. If you did not request information specifically, then the offer is highly suspect. In fact, no legitimate company will send email that you did not directly request. Especially beware of emails using brand names when you did not sign up at the manufacturers site.

3. Illegal product offers. Now really, if they are offering something illegal, do you seriously think you can trust them to be honest with you?

4. Counterfeit Account info requests (phishing). These are potentially very harmful to you, please read our instructional page on Protecting Your Online Accounts if you do not know how to recognize this.

5. Offensive emails. These come in all forms, from obscene text to suggestive language. Usually they contain a link to a paid porn site. This is covered more in the Porn and Obscenity section.

6. Viruses. These are covered in the Viruses section.

Email has some rules:

1. If you did not ask for it, it is a scam. Period. No exceptions.

2. Never click a link to an account through an email.

3. Do not reply to anyone whom you do not know, or have reason to know (trickier with a business, but you can usually tell when it is a potential customer).

4. Never open an attachment other than a picture. More in Viruses section.

5. If the message has garbage characters in it, it is not legit. Ever.

6. If the sender name is something like Anxious P Nervousness or other words combined like that, and obviously not a real name, it is not legit.

7. No one will ever offer you a prize, job, or bargain through email unless you emailed them first. If you get email that says otherwise, they are lying.

You can try several things to respond to SPAM.

1. Block Sender. Outlook Express lets you block a sender, only it is not smart enough to block anything other than an email address, so if the same spammer keeps sending stuff with the same name, but different email addresses, it still comes in.

2. Create a Rule. Most programs allow this. You can tell it to weed out certain subjects, texts, senders, etc. And you can specify a name in addition to an address, and it will catch either one.

3. Use a filter. These can be set to restrict everything except people you specify. A pain to set up, plus you have to tell it to add each new sender. Other ones look for keywords, or stop all bulkmail (even if you wanted it). Whether you choose one depends on how willing you are to let the computer decide if you want to see it or not.

4. Use an autoresponder. Set up an autoresponder that tells everyone who emails your public email address to resend to a private one that is listed only in the email. This weeds out automatically sent emails.

I cannot possibly cover all the ways that people will try to scam you through email, but if you follow the rules, and use common sense, you will quickly learn to spot the scams.