The Internet is still rich with opportunity for those who have a good idea,
plenty of energy and a wallet-full of cash.
Unfortunately it's still the perfect medium for growing the kind of bacteria
which prey on the inexperienced and gullible.
One only has to look at the number of scams which arrive in most people's email
boxes each week by way of spam. "$15 Cable TV Decoder", "Earn $50,000 in 50 Days",
"Become a Millionaire In 3 Months", etc, etc.
One eagle-eyed Aardvark reader pointed out the following "great deal" to me and
I'll leave it up to you to figure out whether it represents the great value
it purports to -- or if it is just a system that relies on people's ignorance
of the Net to extract money from their wallets.
First up -- few seasoned Net users can not be aware that there are literally
hundreds of places where you can get free web hosting for your personal homepage,
club or even your business -- providing you're prepared to carry the hosting
site's banner or engage in some other trade-off. Geocities, Xoom, Angelfire, etc --
the list of such free hosting sites is long and growing longer every day.
So why would anyone pay $125 to get something that other sites offer for free?
Well, if you believe
4 The SkyBiz 2000 Business
then it certainly is -- not because YOU are getting anything special, but because
you get the chance to go out and flog exactly the same thing to your friends,
family and any unsuspecting idiot who might similarly think that this is a
quick road to riches.
Although there is some small value in what's being flogged here, I'd say that
this looks suspiciously like the old system which promises to make you rich
by selling you seven valuable reports -- which you then have to sell to others
in order to earn your money.
Multi-level marketing? A pyramid scheme? It's a blurred
distinction -- but any way you look at it I don't think I could ever advise
anyone to get involved with such a system.
Ethical?
Well here are some quotes from
4
The SkyBiz Presentation which
tell members how to sell the concept to others:
- "You would want to briefly discuss how SkyBiz 2000 is going to bring the World
into the Computer Age"
- "SkyBiz 2000 is the first company to launch with full Global capabilities"
- "discusses the value...No Over~Priced Products here"
Are your alarm bells ringing yet?
Okay, maybe I'm being harsh, perhaps this is just another MLM product -- but
I must say that I frown strongly on the fact that it would appear to rely on
convincing the naive that there is a fortune to be made by flogging websites
to others -- along with the promise that they too can get rich by doing the
same.
And do you want to see what those "customised" websites look like? Well
I managed to find the site of one NZer who has gotten tangled up in this
scheme.
Would you pay US$100 per year for
4 this??
And could you, in all honesty, sanction selling that kind of thing to a friend,
family or a business looking to gain an Internet presence?
Caveat Emptor folks!
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
