[RapidBlue]

If the site said you will earn $5 per referral and you could earn $25 for a simple task in a day, the site is scam to me. You can easily tell because the site might brag paid millions with fake members earning $300+ for a week?

The same here, if a site promises you a very huge amount of money in a short period of time, that sounds scam to me. Also if it has a lot of pop-ups advertisement, I really don't like it, it is quite annoying and we are forced to see.

Yesss, that's a huge one for me, too; if it over promises and sounds too good to be true, RUN for the hills! That's my mantra.

I also tend to steer clear of sites that have been known to fold, having cheated its members out of their hard earned money, which then come back as an altogether different site as if nothing happened. Each time I hear this, I take myself far, far away from such a site.

This is a speculation only; you can't know if a person who starts a website, also has the sponsors or a personal income to back it up.
You can't know if an old paying page is going to suddenly fold up ( WikiNut) for some particular reason.

If you act based only on a hunch, you will end up doing much less and earning far less then you could if you give it a try.

It is very easy to see through the scammer, specially if you are selling content ( essays, translations, photography...) - just make a portfolio and hand out a payment processor, a scammer will give up in 3 seconds, but a buyer will be curious and buy based on your quality or if he finds a good stuff that he needs and he will ask you details.

It is as same as any shopping; first they buy a little and if they find it fit and great, they will either order a larger sum or will continue using your service.

There is a reason why the content resellers and scammers ask for the newbies, extremely low prices, making issue about everything... because the newbies don't have any experience to protect themselves from these criminals.

You will think it is normal, but it is not . Always count yourself as a 'shop', there is a price, if they can't pay it, it's their problem not yours.

You will also noticed how they have a bidding applications filled by a people asking to work for the ridiculously low prices. Bad news? These are the ghost accounts.

If you decide to work for a content mill, the principle is the same, you sell.

If there is no money - take it somewhere else.
If payment threshold rises - take it somewhere else.
If payment threshold drops - stay alerted to take it somewhere else.
If members start to get sacked - take it somewhere else.
If admin starts to play around - take it somewhere else.
If admin starts to make you an issue - you know what you can do...

No page will outlive you, no page is worth of too much hassle and you can always take it somewhere else.

[tpicks]

What I normally do whenever I am in doubt of the realness of a site I check it out through credible sites like scamadviser. I try to see people's view about the site and how long it has existed. I don't really care about the outlook or design all I need to know is that I am not being scammed.

[thisnthat]

What I normally do whenever I am in doubt of the realness of a site I check it out through credible sites like scamadviser. I try to see people's view about the site and how long it has existed. I don't really care about the outlook or design all I need to know is that I am not being scammed.

Good point. You can always check it out elsewhere to see if you should bother with it.

My question was more about a "gut feeling." Another site lets you look for just a few seconds and then asks if you think it looks trustworthy or not. I just wondered what prompted others to say yea or nay.

[DreekLass]

What I normally do whenever I am in doubt of the realness of a site I check it out through credible sites like scamadviser. I try to see people's view about the site and how long it has existed. I don't really care about the outlook or design all I need to know is that I am not being scammed.

But even scam sites like Probux had/have many seals of approval. Official seals of approval too. And that turned out to be a scam website. You just never know these days.

[thisnthat]

But even scam sites like Probux had/have many seals of approval. Official seals of approval too. And that turned out to be a scam website. You just never know these days.

Do you mean those badges and stuff that they display? I don't give much credence to those either.

A scam site can often look legit. It may even start out that way, but end up not paying people later on. We've all see plenty of that.

[oldbuddy]

I go down blind staircases, but I keep my hands firmly gripped on the banisters.

[DreekLass]

That's a good point, @rchas. Not everyone has skill or good taste. Some people like wild and bold, but I think they should probably avoid it if they want to appear professional. I have seen some awful looking sites that are still good ones. There are also probably plenty of rip off sites that look good.

When I see a garish design on a website, I leave immediately... if I am actually able to, because half the time garish websites lock my browser and computer up, and I am frozen until further notice.

[tpicks]

Wow, so even though Neobux is a legitimate site, it still supports these videos by displaying them on their site? The problem with that is that a lot of people who trust Neobux are likely to fall for those scams because they trust Neobux to have their back. There's always someone who's new to online working who will fall for these scams, sadly

As long as advertisers are willing to pay the fee, Neobux is going to take the money and you can't blame them since that is the business they are in. It would be a cat fight if they evaluated every ad someone wanted to post.

That's unexpected of the site. For trust and credibility sake I think Neobux should mandatorily check or screen every ad that is being posted on their site.

[oldbuddy]

That's unexpected of the site. For trust and credibility sake I think Neobux should mandatorily check or screen every ad that is being posted on their site.

Surely you are not serious, but just in case you are have you considered how much manpower that would take with thousands of ads being submitted every hour? Especially when you realize most people on there don't even look at the ads, they just pick up pennies and move on to the next one. They are making a fortune from their business already from people who don't care what is advertised, as long as they get plenty of ads to click and you want them to pay people to throw some of them out?

[DreekLass]

At this point, I don't even think that it is about manpower. neobux would lose a lot of money if they were to do as suggested above. Although I feel like screening would help users, I cannot see neobux doing so because it would not be practical for them as a business.

[tpicks]

If a site does not look trustworthy I will thread on the site with caution. I will simply allow time and do all necessary back check on the site before I dare any serious business with them

[DreekLass]

If a site does not look trustworthy I will thread on the site with caution. I will simply allow time and do all necessary back check on the site before I dare any serious business with them

That is te only thing tat we can do, although some sites are smart with how they operate to the point where nobody has any proof that the site is not to be trusted yet, but people are just suspicious of it. Like with PTC sites. Everyone is always skeptical, but they go along anyway due to the fact that the money that could be earned is too tempting.

[thisnthat]

That's a good point, @rchas. Not everyone has skill or good taste. Some people like wild and bold, but I think they should probably avoid it if they want to appear professional. I have seen some awful looking sites that are still good ones. There are also probably plenty of rip off sites that look good.

When I see a garish design on a website, I leave immediately... if I am actually able to, because half the time garish websites lock my browser and computer up, and I am frozen until further notice.

Oh, like with all the flash and stuff? Yeah, I'm out. If it takes forever and a day to load, I also usually just bounce.

[DreekLass]

That's a good point, @rchas. Not everyone has skill or good taste. Some people like wild and bold, but I think they should probably avoid it if they want to appear professional. I have seen some awful looking sites that are still good ones. There are also probably plenty of rip off sites that look good.

When I see a garish design on a website, I leave immediately... if I am actually able to, because half the time garish websites lock my browser and computer up, and I am frozen until further notice.

Oh, like with all the flash and stuff? Yeah, I'm out. If it takes forever and a day to load, I also usually just bounce.

Yeah, with all the flash videos and the pictures and videos. Half of that content is unwarranted to begin with, and secondly, you can't access any of it anyway because your computer gives up trying to process all of it. I will never know why web masters and site owners do it.

[tpicks]

It is a monumental waste of time and energy to be conditioned unknowingly to a site that's a scam, with the hope of cashing out at the end. It's bad enough for the time invested there but if you had invested money that would be really terrible.

[DreekLass]

It is a monumental waste of time and energy to be conditioned unknowingly to a site that's a scam, with the hope of cashing out at the end. It's bad enough for the time invested there but if you had invested money that would be really terrible.

Well that is sometimes the tragedy - that the sites are actually trustworthy, but they do not look or seem that way upon landing on the website's landing page. Of course, on the other hand, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is probably a duck. Knowing the difference can be hard though.

[thisnthat]

Well that is sometimes the tragedy - that the sites are actually trustworthy, but they do not look or seem that way upon landing on the website's landing page. Of course, on the other hand, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is probably a duck. Knowing the difference can be hard though.

Yeah, it can be really hard to tell. Just look at some of those "get rich quick" sites. They have a nice, professional looking site, but... SCAM!

Then there are sites that are good that may not look like much. Being honest doesn't go hand in hand with knowing how to build a website.