internet-scams-ptr5. Look for unclear statements that contain large amounts of money. E.g. “All e-mails worth $300”. Does this mean it costs the advertiser $300 or earns the PTR member $300? Statements like that are usually vague for a very good reason. A surprisingly large number of PTR Internet scams have bizarre (and often funny!) statements that they use for advertising. One of my favourites is this quote from Numenmail, “all honest members will be paid”. Who decides if they are honest, god? Santa?! If you find any funny quotes be sure to send them to me!

Those are the main ‘on-site methods’. They only take a few minutes to carry out and are well worth the effort. There are other ‘off site methods’ which involve a little research to find out what other people think of the PTR site.

Off-site methods

6. Google the name of the PTR site and have a read of the results. Look for the opinions of people who are not using their affiliate link which would mean they are only saying good things about the program because they are planning to make money out of your sign-up. Admittedly if they are trying to refer you they clearly think the program will pay out.

7. Google the name of the site followed by the word ‘scam’. This will mean your results are bias in favour of those who think the site is a scam but will allow you to dive right in to find out why other people think the site is a scam.

8. Ask on relevant forums but be sure to check the site hasn’t been previously discussed or you will probably only end up with a few angry responses. Many of the Google results from steps 6 and 7 may be forums but don’t believe every member who simply states ‘it’s a scam’ with out giving any reason for their opinion. A good forum to use for this is Scam.com and Mylot.

9. Do a ‘Whois’ domain search using this free tool. It reveals information about who registered the domain and for how long (as well as other details). No damming conclusions should be drawn from the Whois search but a genuine PTR site would plan to be around for at least a year. The longer the domain is registered for the better.

10. If all of those fail to leave you certain about whether a site is a internet scam then contact me with a review request! I will review the site myself and it will be put under the close scrutiny of the Affiliate Programs and Internet Scams community.

Those 10 simple steps can make all the difference in avoiding the scams. I am yet to add a PTR site to the recommended affiliate programs list, hopefully one will emerge soon!