Billions! That’s how much internet marketing and advertising scams are costing businesses and marketers every year. There are so many scams out there targeting everyone and everything and in the business world, it is no different. So many of these scams are targeting small business owners by making outrageous promises. Social Media and the ever-growing and ever-expanding internet are making it easier for scammers and harder for business owners to tell the difference.
In a quick Google search, we were able to come across dozens of known scams and frauds targeting the business owner and are geared towards helping business owners market and drive traffic. We found, phishing scams, pyramid schemes, SEO scams, and click fraud, fake affiliate Marketing, and Advertising bots to be the most common.
Business Licenses Scams
According to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), some of the scams you need to be aware of are; Business Licenses Scams, Tech Support Scams, and even scams offering to list your business in phony directories.
The Business License Scam in particular offers to help individuals get local business licenses to start businesses like salons, auto repair shops, or retail establishments. They charge a fee without ever filing any paperwork for the person. Before you pay for a service like this you should check with your local licensing agency or government and check with Small Business Administration.
The FTC says that business owners need to be wary of solicitations to have their business listed in different directories for a cost and to watch out for fake logos and email addresses that match the Yellow Book. Also look out for solicitations asking you to “verify” your business information as scammers use fake emails to capture your responses and can steal your business’s vital information including credit cards, bank information, and even your customer’s information.
These are all designed to look fancy and flashy and promises great results in very little time. They promise that they can make you rich by building your business for you and getting lots of traffic to your website and social media accounts without any work on your end. They promise to “optimize your website” or get you more leads than you can handle”. It all sounds great but beware. Don’t fall for it!
According to ppcprotect.com, advertising fraud costs companies and advertisers over six million dollars a month and one of every five ad websites promising great returns is actually a fraudulent “bot”. These “bots” are designed to view and click on ads resulting in tons of fake traffic. This fake traffic costs millions of advertising dollars with no return. Especially if you are paying per click. This fraud bot scam is now one of the fastest-growing mobile fraud scams. In a recent report published by “The Australian” click fraud is growing at a rate of 50% per year. It is even worse for smartphones where click fraud increased 102% in one quarterback in 2017.
You have to trust who you do business with. You have to trust and partner with the company that can help you get real results. The problem as we see it is that a lot of business owners don’t know who to trust or even who to talk to and are caught off guard by false promises.
We are here to help! At Ossisto “Our Clients Come First”. We are available to talk to our clients to help them solve their business problems and concerns. Our live professional staff is here for you to talk to, have a real conversation with and to discuss your options, and go over what realistic results will look like.
This is not something you will find with any of these marketing and advertising scams or schemes out there. Our digital marketing assistance program is up to date on all the tools and applications on the market to help your business. We analyze every stage of any marketing campaign and make sure we are doing all we can to help you get the desired results with no smoke and mirrors or over-promising quick results with no work on your end. Our experts are here to work with you to partner with you. If you are unsure about a marketing program promising great results online. Ask us first. Let us be your partner.
Remember: If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
Sources: www.ftc.gov
