It’s an Internet Marketing Scam – An Appeal to Fairness in Accusation

We all fear wolves in sheep’s clothing. Report Scam Many of us have been bitten by the wolves. On the outside, they advertise themselves in attractive or enticing clothes, but on the inside … well, they deceive in order to steal or otherwise do harm. Lottery scams. Windfall scams (Nigeria 419). Work at home and MLM scams. Investment scams. Health cure scams. Real estate scams. Dating service scams. Identity theft. And in particular here, internet and affiliate marketing scams.

It is enough to make one want to head for the hills. To add to the mix, there are otherwise reputable, trusted internet and affiliate marketing companies that may sometimes promise more than they deliver. Or there is the potentially misleading statement which is slippery or ambiguous enough that in hindsight could mean … you know the type. If the price of liberty in the political and legal sphere is eternal vigilance, can we expect an easy road online?

Of course, one must be careful not to be overly dramatic. A good company or supplier beset by some relatively minor scandal may perhaps redeem itself in time. Arguably there is a practical difference between a temporarily wayward organization and an incorrigible one, between a soiled reputation and a scam. At least the distinction seems fair.

I realize some may use the word “scam” more broadly, for example, of any product, service, or company with which they have had a negative experience. Negative in their opinion, at least. But at some point, the word “scam” seems to apply to too much.

Indeed, if scams are as pervasive as they seem, it would stand to reason that the same kind of people that perpetuate scams on, say, the affiliate marketing seller side are pervasive on the buyer side. If it is within human nature to lie and steal, are customers immune from the same kind of temptations, motives, and actions?

As a reputable company may act like a scam by delivering less than promised, so a customer may “scam” the otherwise good reputation of a company by slander. If I am not as successful as others using the same internet marketing method, can I say the method is a scam or am I just transferring blame? As the cartoon character Pogo once said: “We have found the enemy, and he is us.”