The online scam that almost ruined my life.

This is not one of the success articles you normally want to see. But I felt someone needs to hear about a scam that can literally cost you your freedom so I am going to share my story.

About a year ago I decided to start finding part-time employment online as my career of 10 years at an Insurance company had ended. My department was being replaced and a different position was offered that I just wasn't interested in. I decided to pursue schooling in the medical field as a nurse. Even though I am older than high school students, I always wanted to help people in some way. But I still needed to earn a living so why not try the internet at home while attending school. Others do it why can't I?

I came across a few websites that offered to pay you for taking surveys. I thought this was easy enough. So I began doing them every day every spare minute I had. I must of done thousands of them. Then I realized a month had gone by and there was no talk of when I actually was going to get paid. There wasn't even a place on the site to show how much I had earned. I figured I was wasting my time so I stopped doing the surveys and proceeded to see how else I can work online.

A few weeks later I received a Federal Express envelope in the mail with a letter thanking me for doing the surveys and a check for a little over $1000!! I could not believe it. It stated on the letter they had many other opportunities for me. We then started emailing back and forth. I thought to myself, " I hit the internet jackpot of working from home and getting paid". Boy was I wrong. It was actually the beginning of a nightmare.

I took the check and deposited it in my bank. It cleared about 3 days later and I paid my bills. Approximately 1 month later, there was a police officer at my door asking me to come with him for questioning on a bad check. I immediately knew it must be that check because I didn't any other checks. I brought the letter and envelope with me to show where I got it from. At this point I was confused as to why the bank hadn't contacted me first and why would they clear the check? I was very confused but very confident the officer would see I was scammed.

After giving my story the officer then told me I was being charged with felony fraud. I just about died right there. I never had a criminal record and felt my life was over. I couldn't believe this was happening, how was this even possible? I didn't actually go to jail, he was nice about that. I got a ticket and court date to come back. I was assigned a court appointed lawyer who told me I should of never been charged. I went thru so much just trying to wait for court dates. My lawyer wasn't moving as fast as I needed him to. I was scared and I couldn't to obtain any employment while a criminal charge was all pending. There goes my nursing school plans out the door!

Finally, after 8 months of investigating and finding out this scam had been done to thousands of people trying to get their bank info, a judge decided I was wrongfully charged and dismissed the charges. I felt it was only right to pay the money back as it seemed like dirty money anyway. The charges are actually going to be expunged from my record like it never happened! God was with me!

I was so afraid to go anywhere near the internet. Once I started to come back online, I somehow seen an advertisement about affiliate marketing. I dug into and wanted to give it a try. I honestly don't know how I got an email about Wealthy Affiliate. I think I even emailed back asking if this was a scam. LOL. It took me to research WA for about a month before I would even go onto this website. Once on I was still skeptical. Since it was free to join I went ahead and within a month in a half I upgraded to premium.

I have been thru so many heartaches and tragedies , that I think it's a breathe of fresh air to be a part of an honest, helpful, online community as Wealthy affiliates.

I'm on my 3rd month here at WA, no I haven't earned one cent of cash yet, but I have learned so many tools to help me start my online success that is worth more than what I bargained for. If your stressed and want to give up and think the grass is greener on the other side of Wealthy affiliates, think again because you might run into something out there that will ruin your life! I did end up geting my NYS License for Certified Nurse Assistant too!