Don't-get-scammed websites really tick me off and it just got worse. Most people have seen the "don't get scammed" and "this is the truth" websites that are all over the Internet like a bad case of acne. I have a real problem with these sites, they drive me nuts. I don't know why this should be as I am normally a patient non-violent individual and there are bigger evils in the world more deserving of attention than phoney websites. However, one glimpse of one of these fake scam-hunter websites and the red mist comes and takes me over.

For one thing their claims are so obviously bogus, it's an insult to be asked to take them seriously. They claim that their (usually one man) team of investigators have researched every get rich quick scheme on the Internet and found that 99% of them are scams. Fortunately, however, the very last get rich quick scheme to be sampled turned out to be a genuine, honest to goodness, straight up, legitimate gold mine of an opportunity to get indecently rich without expending too much effort. Hurrah, Yahoo (and other sounds of rejoicing). Wow, can you believe it - a get rich quick scheme that works? You'd better not believe it!

The claim about having investigated all the get rich quick schemes they could find is obviously untrue. There are just too many get rich quick schemes with new ones starting up all the time, no one person could possibly investigate each one in depth as they pretend. Here it is worth remembering that one of the first rules of avoiding scams is: beware of unrealistic claims.

Apart from the farcical claims that they have carried out an in depth undercover investigation to lay bare a truth anyone with half a brain could recognise, their style is nasty. Some people maintain it is a legitimate marketing tactic but I can't trust any business that seeks to promote itself merely by claiming that all its competitors are rubbish, scams or possibly both. If you need to rubbish all the competition, there must be something seriously wrong with your business.

The truth is that no get rich quick schemes work (online or off). You can make money online but you will have to work for it. The don't-get-scammed mob tend to lump all money making opportunities into the same class as the get rich quick schemes and this is just plain nonsense. When you make money online, you get back pretty much what you put in: if you work at a legitimate opportunity, you can earn money from your PC without ever leaving home (as the ads say). If you believe in one of the "make money online without doing any work" types of advertisement, you will be heading for disappointment. There are all sorts of ways to make money online. If you want to make some quick easy money, this is possible but you should not expect to make large amounts of money on a regular basis without having to work. If you want to make a large amount of money online, you will need to work at it. If you want to earn a good steady income online, you will need to continue working at it.

The don't-get-scammed-like-I-was brigade have recently taken their campaign to a new level and by that I mean up a few notches on the annoyance scale and down a few notches on the believability scale. We are now subjected by one of their number to boring video presentations on You Tube. One thing that makes the videos boring is that all you get to look at is a figure shown in silhouette. Another thing that makes them boring is the fact that all you get to listen to is a droning voice drivelling on and on about working under cover and offering to share secrets that will enable you to get rich quick. The videos, in fact, just narrowly miss being funny but there's only ever a very fine line between comedy and tragedy.

At least the video gave me something to think about - like what could have been in his mind when he selected The Jackal as his undercover name. He really should have guessed that to detractors he would be "The Jackass".