First thing you need to take a look at is yourself. Are you trying hard enough? Did you follow proven marketing methods known to work? If so then you may have just been scammed. So how do you protect yourself from scams online?

Well that's a tough one there are sites everywhere showing you ways to make fortunes online and knowing who to trust can be a tough choice. I couldn't possibly tell you which sites out there are legit and which are not since there are just too many sites on the internet.

If you're interested in a certain opportunity you can do a search online for reviews for that opportunity. This will let you find out all you want about a certain opportunity. Another great place for information is a forum on your topic. It is basically a buyer beware situation. If they offer a money back guarantee you can request a refund but most people actually never get around to requesting a refund even if they hate the product.

Of course that is not getting scammed because you have every opportunity to request the refund but stats show that most people don't take advantage of the refund as it requires work on their part. Plus you have to remember to request the refund, most forget.

Nowadays you can get a business set up in minutes by placing google adwords ads. This will allow you to be in business in minutes and if you get a little lucky and make a sale then you would have made money in minutes. Think about that the internet lets you make money so fast that the headlines for products online seem to be a lot of hype when they can in fact be real.

Lets look at the example above. If you saw a headline that read "start your own online business and be making money in 15 minutes" well wouldn't that sound like a load of bull. It sure does but it is possible in this internet age so you really do have to be careful out there. In the above example you can make money fast but the average person will not have such luck even though the possibility is there.

A good example of a scam are the emails that say they are from paypal or ebay and they need you to go to their site and re-enter your account information. If you click on the link you go to a site that looks exactly like paypal or ebay and this is how they lure people in by appearing to be the actual company. This is a good example of a scam and the above is an example of a product with a lot of hype in the headlines.

So when dealing with the internet it is a little hard to tell what the scams are and aren't but you can always follow that old saying that says if its to good to be true then it probably is. Just beware of anyone asking you to re-enter account information that includes your credit card number. Everything else is just a hyped up headline and you have to use your own good judgement on products like that.

While I would love to provide a list of sites that I believe are scams and the ones that are not in this article, I cannot. So it comes down to you and the choice you make in choosing your opportunity so choose wisely.