Internet marketing's darker side: 5 Common scams and schemes

The billions in revenue generated globally and the millions of marketers from around the world who use it are proof that Internet marketing is an effective and invaluable resource for both organizations, businesses and entrepreneurs alike. All are looking to target new customers and wanting to develop sustainable revenue by retaining clients. That's the good side of Internet marketing -- the 'light' side that identifies emerging customer needs and links them to quality products and services sold by reputable vendors through creative and often very innovative marketing campaigns and strategies.

But as always, where there is light... darkness is never far away.

Internet marketing unfortunately has a darker side. The dark side of Internet marketing is primarily out to make a quick buck. It has no care for what kind of negative impact is causes in the process (both short and long term). Usually, the quickest and most effective way to make said quick buck is to abuse trust, ignorance or a combination of both.

The five most common strategies used by marketing scammers are detailed below. Some of these scams have been around for many years, and it is shocking how common they still are even with so much information available. Let us look into more detail in to these darker Internet marketing practices and in so doing, you may save yourself from finding yourself in their clutches, or even worse, leading your customers and clients into these dark corners.

#1 Pyramid and multi-level schemes

Pyramid schemes have been around for about a century. You would think humanity would have wised up by now, but the pyramid scheme is still going as strong as ever. These days, it has evolved into what is more commonly known as multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes.

From the perspective of the scammer, the MLM scheme is simple. Set up some sort of product, usually propped up by the same sort of grandiose claims used to sell rebilling products (see scam #2 below), then recruit people to sell it. Charge them a fee and take percentages of their sales for the privilege of selling your product. The people beneath you then have to make money by recruiting their own downstream affiliates. Eventually, you hit a point where you have a bunch of people in the lower tiers paying fees, but not actually able to sell the product.

It's much more complicated from the perspective of the low-level would-be sales people or marketers who are being played by the scammers at the top. The remuneration system is usually overly complex and involved and is purposefully done so, in an attempt to hide the fact that it is indeed a pyramid scheme.

#2 Rebilling scams

The basic concept of rebilling is to get the customer to willingly divulge their VISA information in the belief that they're paying for a one-time transaction for a particular product or service. Unbeknownst to them, they are actually signing up to a reoccurring monthly "subscription" to whatever service or product their originally paid for. To add insult to injury, the product or service in question is usually of poor quality and in most cases does not do what it promises.

You can find rebilling scams in a variety of different product categories, but they are by far the most common in health, fitness and weight loss supplements. These products are by and large not properly regulated by the medical boards, so marketers can get away with making over-the-top claims backed by very questionable science.

Some of the most detestable scammers offer a "free sample" or "free trial" of a product, but require that you provide a credit card to cover minimal shipping charge. Hidden in the fine print is language authorizing a monthly charge to your card for more of the product, unless you cancel the subscription within a very short period of time. Of course, if you aren't aware that you've subscribed to anything, you aren't likely to cancel the subscription until the deadline has passed and you've been billed for the first month!

#3 Website hosting scams

This form of darker internet marketing is often targeted at entrepreneurs and small business owners who are attempting to set up their own site with no prior experience. The scammer usually offers to build a site for the client at a suspiciously low price, or possibly even for free. This is conditional on the site owner signing a web hosting contract with the developer for a fixed period, usually one to several years.

What the inexperienced entrepreneur or business owner does not know is that the scammer is going to register the domain name (usually not in the business owners name) and will host and develop a website at a fraction of what they charge their client -- usually a process that the client could have easily accomplished on their own. However dark this may seem, it is usually legal, albeit dishonest and exploitative.

#4 Parasiteware

Parasiteware attacks the affiliate links or cookies of the site it is installed on, covertly overwriting them with the affiliate numbers of the software's creator so that scammer receives all the commissions insted of being distributed to the partners. Parasiteware is often bumped onto websites in the form of simple code like a plugin or widget, usually in the form of things like toolbars and coupon ticket generators. In some cases it can also be installed by an end user, and will subsequently change any compatible affiliate links that the user follows.

Unlike the other scams listed here, parasiteware is often out in the open and provided by major companies on an entirely legal basis.

#5 Black hat SEO

This is another dark marketing corner that targets small business owners and bloggers who have their own website. A black hat search engine optimization technique is one that offers a shortcut to higher page rankings by doing something that the search engine prohibits or bans from its listed sites. Not only can this backfire and get a site penalized or even blacklisted by a search engine, many of the techniques that "black hat" providers use are badly outdated and will either do nothing to help the site or even hurt it in the rankings.

Most of these companies don't come right out and label themselves as "black hats" or illicit service providers, but they can usually be identified by their overblown promises (such as guarantees of immediate first-page rankings) or by cold calling via unsolicited emails and private messages on forums. In many cases, in order to 'sweeten' their deal, the scammers will offer a heavily discounted or even free SEO platform or analytic dashboard with a rebilling scheme added so even more profits find their way to the scammer.

Internet marketing's darker side can be tempting for both sides, but it usually promises much more than it can deliver, and can end up doing far more damage to an organization or business in the long run. From a global perspective, it also drags the name of legitimate and sound Internet marketing through the mud, causing customers to look at legitimate service providers in the same way they look at scammers and con artists.

Please feel free to leave your comments, thoughts or even experiences with the Internet marketing's darker side in the comments below. If you are aware of any current scams or schemes making the rounds on the Internet, please do share as a service to this community.

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