One of the more popular spam emails circulating through unsuspecting people’s inboxes right now is the Google work at home scam.

This scam is NOT condoned or ran by Google. There are actually legitimate ways to use Google AdWords and other marketing tools to make money off of affiliate marketing with Google. However, the program is not “easy as 1-2-3″ and not everyone can succeed with “little effort”. Working with AdWords and similar PPC campaigns takes a lot of work, and knowledge of internet marketing, search engines, and the rules of these services.

There are hundreds of scam websites dedicated to the Google work at home scam. They send out thousands of e-mails and attempt to recruit anyone telling them that for the “low price of $299″ they can get all the secrets of making millions with Google, doing nothing. It’s really not that simple. These sites are convincing to the unsuspecting eye, though. The problem lies here: people see others making money off of programs like Google AdWords and Yahoo! PPC, and they want a piece of the pie. They don’t realize that these people are marketing specialists and know what they’re doing, and that they work hard for their successes.

All the websites, spam emails and infomercials that spew promotions for “internet success” and “making millions off the internet doing nothing” have us brainwashed to believe that if we pay someone enough money that they can teach us the secret to becoming a millionaire. With so many people hurting for cash, scams like these are very attractive to the unsuspecting mind. Everyone wants to be rich, and if they can learn the “secrets” to financial freedom for only a few hundred dollars, they’re willing to do it.

This is the main problem with the Google work at home scam and other marketing scams. People are too willing to believe that they can actually make a decent living with little or no effort, and are so bent on financial independence that they are willing to pay someone to tell them how to do it. It truly doesn’t work that way. Yes, you can make money with Google. You can also make money with Yahoo!, eBay, and other online companies. However, it’s not as easy as the scammers make it sound, and you won’t be an overnight millionaire.

That’s not all. Are you ready for the best part?

Everything these scamming idiots try to sell you, you can learn for yourself simply by researching different affiliate marketing programs and ways to make money with different websites and companies.

Wait. What?

There’s no secrets? No “tricks to making millions”?

Nope.

The scam artists play on people’s desire to be financially idependent, and convince them that they can, if only through buying their book or training kit with all the “secrets” exposed. They seal the deal by telling you that you can’t find these tricks anywhere else, and that they’re “exclusive” to the program.

That, my friends, is a load of crap. Excuse my frankness, but it is. These people take money from unsuspecting people, and then leave them with marketing solutions that aren’t as simple or lucrative as they originally were told they would be, and people are left $300 or more poorer, with no real “secrets to success.”

The Google work at home scam is just one of many that are floating around the internet right now. Let’s hope that people start to wise up and realize the golden rule of working at home, and really for anything in life:

IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS.

Don’t let the scam artists win. Keep this information in mind, and tell all your friends so that no one is left high and dry by these con artists.