The idea behind both “ScamFreeZone.com” and “ScamFree.com” is that I wanted to build websites where people could learn about making money online free from scams. There will always be people who haven’t encountered a “pyramid scheme”, a “get rich quick scam”, a “chain letter rip off” or a “Nigerian fee swindle”… I wanted to educate people on what to avoid, as well as what could be done to make money online properly.
Personally, I think the Internet will be the greatest invention of my lifetime. At the end of the day, the Internet is just a distribution medium… it only transfers bits and bytes to and from people’s computers. But what’s incredible is the reach of the medium… people can send and receive email, upload and download pictures, read news, go shopping, listen to music, sell software and ebooks, access digital libraries, check their bank account details, visit bulletin boards, play online games and so much more. It’s amazing.
From a personal point of view, I’m interested in starting and growing online businesses. The ease with with you can get online, grab a domain name and start building webspages is just incredible. The startup costs are tiny compared to an offline business… and even smaller now that you can get domain names for about $10 per year. I remember when it was $70 minimum registration fee for a 2 year dotcom domain registration from Network Solutions… that was probably the biggest single cost to starting an online business if you already had a computer. After that, you simply build webpages, write sales copy for your newly written ebook, link to a payment processor and send your new customer to a download page after a successful payment. The transaction could take place at 3am your time and, as long as nothing goes wrong, you don’t need to interact with that customer. You’ve got an automated business! Of course, that’s an ideal purchase… you will get customer questions, feedback and comments… but compared to the offline world where your business couldn’t make sales unless someone was there to process the sale, the online world allows a great deal of automation of the whole process.
But… here’s the problem…
I’ve changed over the last decade. I’ve realized that the main scam in your lifetime is probably not going to come from the Internet. The main scam you’ll encounter is the way in which you’re kept in slavery by the banks. When you’re young you aspire to buy your own house. When you’re able, you put down a deposit and the rest of the purchase price is paid by your bank… that’s your mortgage. Generally the mortgage runs for 25 years… a life sentence. In fact, the word “mortgage” comes from “mort” (Old French/Latin) meaning death and “gage” (Germanic origin) meaning “pledge”… so you have pledged to pay the mortgage until you die. Isn’t that nice?
I’ve had two mortgages since I started the ScamFreeZone. I’ve paid one off and moved to a bigger house where I started a second mortgage. I’ve managed to pay off over half of the second mortgage in two years. There is no WAY I’m paying off a mortgage over 25 years. Did you know that, with a general interest rate, you’ll end up paying the same amount you borrowed in interest? Borrow $100,000, pay back that $100,000 PLUS $100,000 in interest. Nice little earner… for the bank.
So, my aim is now to help people avoid the biggest “scam” of their lives… their mortgage. Pay it off early. Don’t pay massive sums in interest. Don’t make the banks richer. Pay every penny you can onto your mortgage and make it disappear… then you won’t have to pay a monthly mortgage payment or payment protection insurance… and of course, you won’t pay rent… so probably your biggest single monthly outgoing since your teenage years will have disappeared.
That’s when you’ll be “Scam Free”!
Of course, if you have debts with higher interest rates than your mortgage (credit cards, personal loans etc), you should pay those off first. Once they’re paid off, put the money you were paying on those cards and other debts onto your mortgage. Once that’s paid off you can put the money you were paying on your mortgage into stocks, shares, bonds, rental properties and other mechanisms to earn you passive income. When your passive income exceeds your monthly expenses, you will be effectively retired. 
So who wants to join me? Who else wants to use the Internet revolution to make money online, pay off their debts, and become “Scam Free”? I pledge to help all those who want to follow the path to becoming “Scam Free” with advice, tips, reports, software and hopefully, an inspirational story. Here’s the start of it… when I began the ScamFreeZone, my net worth was effectively zero. I was in a one-bed rented flat with a beaten up car and was working as a Ph.D. student getting paid by a cancer research charity. Fast forward almost a decade and my net worth is close to half a million dollars. I still have a small mortgage… but only because house prices in Britain are just ridiculously high…. which is down to people’s greed along with the greed of the banks. People get wealthier as their average earnings rise, but instead of spending that money on investing in their future by buying shares they go out and spend on houses… which increase in value… which forms a vicious circle… everyone spends their extra money on houses and we all end up where? With massive mortgage debt and houses over-inflated values. In Britain we now owe 1.17 TRILLION POUNDS of which almost a TRILLION is mortgage debt and 200 billion is consumer credit (loans, credit cards, store cards etc). Presumably this money has to be repaid. Also, presumably, the banks are charging us a fortune in interest. Don’t be part of this scam. Become Scam Free!
My projected “Scam Free” date is 1st January 2008. When’s yours?
