{"id":58023,"date":"2022-04-30T11:35:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T06:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/?p=58023"},"modified":"2022-04-29T18:08:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T12:38:18","slug":"how-to-know-fake-online-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/review\/how-to-know-fake-online-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"How to know Fake Online Agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone thinks they&#8217;re smart enough to spot a false online agency, but scammers are becoming more inventive every single day.<\/p>\n<p>Madbird, a fancy, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/8-ideas-for-building-and-guiding-a-successful-digital-business\/\">digital design company<\/a>, received a shocking BBC report.<\/p>\n<p>More than 50 remote employees were part of the &#8216;company&#8217;. Most were hired on a commission-only basis within the first six months.<\/p>\n<p>After a few months, however, the newly hired employees realized that many of their online colleagues were fake. They wouldn&#8217;t get any pay because no project deals had been finalized and the founder was a pathological liar who created his entire online persona.<\/p>\n<p>Crazy stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to avoid being scammed by these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/precedent-setting-legislation-for-the-future-of-flexible-work\/\">fraudulent remote agencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Trust Your Instincts<\/h2>\n<p>Imagine a company like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Has years of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/how-mobile-apps-can-change-the-e-commerce-industry\/\">industry experience<\/a><\/li>\n<li>All types of services are available<\/li>\n<li>Promises results within a very brief time<\/li>\n<li>Quality customer service available 24 hours a day<\/li>\n<li>Below-average charges<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Does it sound too good to be true It probably is?<\/p>\n<p>Every company that is worth its salt takes pride and joy in its work.<\/p>\n<p>It will not offer all services. It will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/future\/3-ways-to-create-sustainable-wealth-in-the-metaverse\/\">instead offer niche services<\/a>. Why? Because it knows its strengths and won&#8217;t let subpar work ruin its reputation.<\/p>\n<p>These companies will tell you upfront how long it will take to get meaningful results.<\/p>\n<p>They know the value they bring and won&#8217;t be cheap.<\/p>\n<p>Trust your gut when you sense that there is a catch.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t matter if your instincts are incorrect. There is plenty of other fish (agencies).<\/p>\n<p>If they are right, however, you can avoid having your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/blockchain-technology\/the-beginners-guide-to-trading-in-bitcoin\/\">hard-earned cash go to waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n<span class=\"seethis_lik\"><span>Also read:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/security\/forgot-notes-password-reset-notes-password\/\">Forgot Notes Password? 7 Quick Way To Reset Notes Password on iPhone\/iPad<\/a><\/span>\n<h2>Search The Company&#8217;s Office Address<\/h2>\n<p>These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/artificial-intelligence\/how-artificial-intelligence-pave-the-way-of-digital-security-for-businesses\/\">fake online businesses<\/a> no longer use a P.O. Instead of using a physical address, these fake online organizations now use a P.O. box or another mailing system.<\/p>\n<p>To look more genuine, they now proudly display a traceable address for their office. It makes sense since most people won&#8217;t bother to verify the address. It must be true if it is mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>Wrong! It is important to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/mobile-apps\/7-best-attendance-tracking-apps-to-try-for-your-business\/\">track of the office address<\/a>. This is how Madbird&#8217;s employee discovered the scam.<\/p>\n<p>She wanted to see how the commute would look after the pandemic. Alarm bells began to ring in her head after Google Street View showed only a block of flats. This was far from the chic workspace that Madbird featured on its website.<\/p>\n<p>To confirm her suspicions, she immediately contacted a realtor who also had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/5-reasons-why-isps-should-invest-in-customer-service-to-grow\/\">a listing at that address<\/a>. Madbird&#8217;s global headquarters was, in fact, purely residential.<br \/>\n<!-- Home page 728x90 --><br \/>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 728px; height: 90px;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9864771813712812\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Perform A Reverse Image Search<\/h2>\n<p>Do you remember being impressed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/how-to-start-a-career-after-digital-marketing-course\/\">a digital portfolio of an agency<\/a>? It could have been stolen from another website, I hate to say it.<\/p>\n<p>You can do an online reverse Google Image search to determine if the work belongs to the agency.<\/p>\n<p>This will help you to find:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>URL from which the image was first published<\/li>\n<li>Other pages where the image was posted<\/li>\n<li>Similar types of images<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is easy to complete and takes only seconds.<\/p>\n<p>All you need to do is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Start the browser on your Mac or PC<\/li>\n<li>Go to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/top-ways-to-improve-organic-search-rankings-on-google\/\">Google Images main page<\/a><\/li>\n<li>In the search bar, click on the camera icon<\/li>\n<li>You can either copy the URL of the image or upload it directly from your computer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You will now be able to determine if the work belongs to the agency.<\/p>\n<p>This method can also be used to verify if employees at the agency are genuine.<\/p>\n<p>Simply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/top-10\/top-5-tools-to-download-instagram-video-and-content\/\">copy the URL<\/a> of their headshot image and paste it into the search box to see if any similar photos appear.<\/p>\n<span class=\"seethis_lik\"><span>Also read:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/top-10\/10-best-chrome-extensions-for-2020\/\">10 Best Chrome Extensions For 2021<\/a><\/span>\n<h2>Get in Touch with Their Clients<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s now a common marketing strategy to include glowing testimonials on a website homepage.<\/p>\n<p>This fosters trust. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/blockchain-technology\/rising-blockchain-investments-lead-to-applications-in-several-industries\/\">encourages trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not. Why? These testimonials can be easily falsified.<\/p>\n<p>Simply download a stock photo of a male or female, make some comments about the agency, give it some praise, and then you&#8217;re done! Now you have a &#8220;genuine&#8221; testimonial.<\/p>\n<p>Contact testimonials to verify the authenticity of an agency.<\/p>\n<p>Ask them questions about their agency experience by searching their LinkedIn profiles or websites.<\/p>\n<p>If there aren&#8217;t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/business\/top-5-ways-to-promote-your-website-and-grow-your-business\/\">testimonials on a website<\/a> ask the agency for information about former clients.<\/p>\n<p>Fake agencies will often use the excuse of &#8216;breach of privacy&#8217; to justify their actions. Genuine organizations will not hesitate to share their success stories.<br \/>\n<!-- Home page 728x90 --><br \/>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 728px; height: 90px;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9864771813712812\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Verify the Domain Authority<\/h2>\n<p>Fake online agencies will have fake websites. A fake website will also have a bad domain authority (DA).<\/p>\n<p>Moz created DA, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/future\/top-7-programming-languages-used-in-popular-websites\/\">search engine ranking score<\/a>. It&#8217;s widely used to calculate the website&#8217;s chance of ranking in search engine result pages.<\/p>\n<p>It shows how to trust websites have with search engines such as Google.<\/p>\n<p>A newly created website&#8217;s DA will be 1. Facebook&#8217;s DA is 100.<\/p>\n<p>Online agencies with a minimum of 30+ DA are best to avoid falling for a scam.<\/p>\n<p>Is this to say that a website with more than 30 DA is always secure? No.<\/p>\n<p>Is it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/development\/best-practices-of-building-websites-using-wordpress\/\">possible for websites with a DA<\/a> below 30 to be fake? No.<\/p>\n<p>Why is a 30-plus DA agency more trusted? It takes hard work and a lot of time to reach 30.<\/p>\n<p>These people don&#8217;t have patience or diligence, I think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone thinks they&#8217;re smart enough to spot a false online agency, but scammers are becoming more inventive every single day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":58024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[43],"tags":[12823,12826,12827,12824,12825,10893],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58025,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58023\/revisions\/58025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/58024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-next-tech.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}