Beware of Marketing Scams

You might not know it, but you are a perfect target for a marketing scam. A small business entrepreneur just like you is tasty meat for the highly aggressive marketers and scammers that are so plentiful these days. And while not all marketing efforts are scams, even legitimate marketing efforts can be overly aggressive.

That’s why I’m providing you with a checklist. My goal is to help you become aware of overly aggressive, if not illegal, marketing tactics. To keep from getting “conned,” education helps, along with skeptical, rational thinking.



Among potential scams, the most pernicious tactic may well remain the seminar or free lunch. Once you are in an environment that the marketers control, you could be subjected to all sorts of high-pressure tactics. (Of course, some informational sessions are legitimate. You will need to be reasonably skeptical to decide between the two.) If you know and can recognize the high-pressure tactics as they occur, you will be well-prepared to avoid the scam.

Red Flags

Here are some red flags that the marketing effort directed at you could become overly aggressive.

__ Higher Priced Industries. Scams are most common in the real estate, stock market, investment, money management, health care, estate planning, personal growth, and business development industries.

__ Free Anything. Is the item part of a lure to make you more vulnerable to high sales tactics, such as going to an event or signing a document?

__ Getting You in Their Environment. While some free educational sessions may be worthwhile to attend, often such sessions simply make you more vulnerable.

__ Becoming Your Friend. We tend to do business with people we like.

__ Getting You to Sign. Once you sign a legal document, it may be all over for you. Therefore never sign anything without reading it thoroughly and understanding it clearly. In scams the document commits you to buy a product or service, or to prevent you from buying the product or service from anyone else.

__ Emotional Appeals. All marketers use some form of emotional appeal, but scammers go for the jugular. Unfair appeals include those to patriotism, wish fulfillment, awe of others who are successful, creating a sense of “us” against “them”; playing on a sense of high mindfulness with inspirational quotes, or working on your self-doubt about being afraid to take risks.

__ Urgency. If you only have ten minutes to save hundreds but spend thousands, slow down and think.

__ Exclusivity. Scammers want you to think they’re the only ones on the planet who can solve your problem, make you rich, or cure your ills.

__ Bargain Pricing. To make you think their $3,000 product is such a bargain, aggressive marketers will force the comparison by comaring the item to something irrelevant like a car or a MBA degree that costs $35,000.

__ Enthusiasm of Others. Once one person (often a plant) rushes to the sign-up table, we can feel like we’re going to miss out. It’s important not follow blindly.

Remember, often the best protection against a scam is to become educated about them and to approach marketing offers with skeptical, rational thinking.