What is a Scam?

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We all see the word, "Scam" all over the place.
Some of us even use it ... But do we really know what it is? I spent sometime looking it up.
Here are some ... of theword Scam: From Camb We all see the word, "Scam" all over the place.
Some of us even use it ourselves. But do we really know what it is? I spent sometime looking it up.
Here are some definitions of theword Scam: From Cambridge International Dictionary of English: scam, noun [C] INFORMAL, a plan or action for making money which is dishonest, illegal and often clever. He burnt his own house down so that he could claim the insurance money - what a scam! From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: scam Main Entry: Pronunciation: 'skam Function: noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1963 : a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation (an insurance scam) From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:Fourth Edition.
2000: scam ...Slang A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle. Inflected forms: scammed, scam·ming, scams To defraud; swindle.
Origin unknown. scammer -NOUN...
From The Newbury House Online Dictionary: scam n. a plan to make money by deception or fraud, (syn.) a swindle: They ran a scam where they burned cars and collected insurance money.
From yourdictionary.com: scam (skm) Slang n. A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle.
From the Dictionary of Slang: scam Noun. A trick or con.
As you can see there are very specific definitions for the word. A scam is something that is set up to rip people off.
To taketheir money. It is not, as we sometimes think, a company that is havingproblems with their systems.
All companies have problems. Lookat AOL.
They have lots of problems with their systems. But theyare not a scam.
Just because we loose money or don't make money, doesn't makethe company a scam. Just because a company is having problemsgetting their members paid on time, does not make them a scam.
Companies do have problems that are beyond their control. It's how they handle them that tells you a lot about the kind ofcompany that they are.
If they are honest and up front about theproblem, that is a good thing. If they hide the problem with alot of double talk or no talk at all, that is a bad thing.
Itdoesn't make them a scam, but it does say a lot about how theycan be expected to do business. When you look at companies, really look at them.
What is the first thing they say about themselves? Do they talkabout the product or the service they offer? Or do they justlaunch into how much money you can make? If the first thing youread is all about the money to be made. Watch out.
It might notbe a scam, but it tells you that is all they are about. To themit doesn't matter what the product or the service is, it's allabout the pay plan.
These companies, may not be scams, but they maybe illegal. Therehas to be a real product or service being offered.
If there isno product, if it is just passing money from the ones below tothe ones above, it is illegal. How many of you have seen this kind of thing? A program sets up a list of members for you to pay directly orwith the help of the program, and you then take the first nameoff the list and add your name to the bottom.
It doesn't matterif they tell you that you are ordering a report or somethinglike that from each of the members, it is an illegal ChainLetter. It will not last and most people will not make money.Most people will loose money.
The ones who will make out likebandits, are the people who started it in the first place. Or how about Gifting Clubs.
I don't care what they tell you on the Website to make youbelieve it is all legal. I don't care what they say aboutGifting being a time honored way of sharing.
To do it in aprogram like this, is illegal. It will get shut down, and mostpeople will again loose money.
Only the ones who start it willget the big pay offs. I see both types of programs being offered all the time.
Don'tfall for them. If you want to have any kind of reputation DO NOTpromote these kind of things.
"But what about the ones who get in first… won't they makemoney?" They can, but think about this. Think about the people who willbe asked to join later.
Think about the money they will be askedto pay. Think about the money they are going to loose becauseall the greedy fools who are going to join have joined and theycan't find anyone to cover their costs.
Think about all thepeople who will be out if the thing gets shut down by the Law. Most of these things never get big enough for the LegalAuthorities to get involved.
They just die of their own wait.Are you the type of person who can sit back and tell yourself,"It's all right, I got mine." It's not all right. You are setting people up to loose money if you join and promotethings like this.
But just because someone sets up a Gifting program or a ChainLetter type deal, doesn't make them scammers. They may have thebest intentions and honestly believe what they are offering isperfectly legal.
It isn't, but they may think it is. In case you haven't noticed, PayPal is coming down hard on a lotof Network Marketing companies.
They are not doing this on theirown. MasterCard and Visa, are the ones who are forcing them toget out of Network Marketing companies.
Why? Because the CreditCard Companies are getting hit Very hard with Charge Backs, andFraud. Stolen Credit Cards are being used all over the World tojoin Network Marketing companies.
The Thieves clean up, and theCredit Card Companies and sometimes the honest programs take thehit. MasterCard and Visa have both long had clauses in theircontracts that people could not use their services for MLM typeprograms.
Now they are enforcing it. If the company you are with has not had these kind of problems,they will and they should be prepared for them.
Companies thatare going through this, are not all scams. In fact my guess isthat if this happened to a scammer, they would just close upshop and move on with whatever money they could.
A Real Company,will find a way to work around the problem. So the next time you read someone calling this or that company ascam, think.
It maybe a perfectly good company that is workingthrough some problems. A Real Scam is something that is set up just to take your Moneyand Run.
A Real Scam will not try and work through problems.They will just pack up and go on to something else. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .