Here’s one of the downsides of having a widely read blog – you get many calls from BizOp promoters.

I’ve had called from boiler room operators offering to sell me some “hot” over-the-counter stocks that are supposedly going to hit the big time (interpretation: some offshore stock brokerage somewhere bought a whole bunch of dead stock and are looking for investors/suckers to buy it in the hopes that it might go up because of some “hot” tip or impending news). -> scam.

I was just contacted regarding a “joint venture” to promote something called the “Reverse Funnel System” developed by Ty Coughlin.

It’s masked in internet marketing talk, with jargon like copywriting experts paid $20,000 to come up with the sales copy, and terms like landing pages, sales conversion, autoresponders thrown in for good measure to appeal to internet marketers.

Heck, the system is so “exclusive” that you have to pay $50 just to see the thing, without any idea of what it is…

Once you get in, you’ve offered an options to pay $2,995, which looks like it will go towards some type of timeshare membership (you get to stay in timeshare units) and there’re a bunch of endorsements from members who claim to be generating $30,000 per month.

[If you’re wondering why I’m not linking to the Reverse Funnel System website, that might give you an indication of what I think of the scheme…]

Here’s my assessment of business opportunities, especially on the Internet.

• Risk Vs Reward: Does it sound too good to be true? Do you really think there’s a business out there which allows you to earn five figures per month, sitting in your pajamas at home, playing xbox360 all day, without lifting a finger to do much work, or little work? I’ve been blogging for the past 2 years and although it doesn’t take much time now, I had to invest quite a bit of effort in the beginning. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• “Quick Cash” Dream: Anything worth working on is going to take time to master. If you are going to earn huge cash in a short amount of time, I don’t think the cash is going to be long term, expect the bottom to fall out at any moment.
• The Internet is your friend, use it: Yes, quick cash is always tempting, but as Jason Bailey would say, “Use your noodle”, more importantly, use your friend, Google.com, do a search, look at some of the scambuster sites. If in doubt, head over to Ask.com or Yahoo! Answers, put in a question “Is (name of scheme) a scam? Has anyone had experience with it?”
• Skepticism can protect your savings: The internet is rife with opportunists, some much less ethical than others. Beware of the “paypal account verification” scam from China, beware of the “Google Adwords account verification” scam, you need to be responsible for your finances.

If you’re still wondering about the Reverse Funnel System or RFS, check out Gator Byte’s Reverse Funnel System post.