Signs You are Just a Mark for a Scammer

When I used to sell furniture, during our training we had to be able to distinguish between real wood and fake wood. In the beginning it was pretty easy, but as technology advanced, it became harder to tell them apart. There are ways, but that's not the point of this post. "It's just selling you a dream" One of my friends a few years ago, practically turned purple trying to convince me that some people who claimed to be the cat's meow on Twitter, were really, not. Particularly, the hardest part was distinguishing between a real business versus someone who tells you how to do something they have never done themselves because that's where the money was.They start charging for freely available information.So, what got me thinking on this today. I was perusing a site I like to look at for tips and such. At one time, this site was innovative and they really had good content. But, that was then, and this is now. Then the site had how-to pieces, magazines, videos, and more. Now, if you just want to ask a question you have to pay $8.95 per month. Missed Opportunity to Adjust BusinessWhy the change? It's pretty simple really, lots of the stuff that she was "teaching" and supposedly doing does not work now, though it did in the past. That's the problem when you teach people unique things, it makes it common. In fact, every person that I know of that were so called experts in this field have moved into other areas or are finding a way to make money (like subscription services) while not actually doing anything in that area. It wasn't their fault the industry got run over by con artist, but I think in this particular instance, the person was not honest about the change because she thought she would lose her list. If handled correctly, it would have been a great teaching moment on learning to adjust your business model.Final ThoughtsJust like the wood furniture needs a little closer look to make sure it's the real thing, so do some of these "teachers" who don't have any proof that what they are teaching actually works. Let's just face it. Online, some have found it really easy to make money by teaching the new trend. Sort of like all the ebook experts that came out, where most only made one book, and then charged $97 to teach you how to do it. I like to call them legal con artists.