ISLAMABAD – Tempting and seductive advertisements of significant onlineearning may be a trap by cyber-mafia to pick pocket vulnerable people,specially youth. Information technology (IT) experts have warned the youththat there should be specific steps to ensure that the process is secureand fully judge the credibility of such sites, offering income and profitwhile staying at home. An expert from the Ministry of IT, requestinganonymity, explained the myths and realities of online earning to APP. Hesaid, “One click doesn’t bring money rather it requires skilled hard workand patience”. But he regretted that the country’s educated unemployedyouth were more prone to the Internet crooks and urged to raise awarenessamong the exposed segment.
He said the temptation usually came from random sites and the unskilledpeople were more attracted as the required job description was tactfullyprepared by the schemers to make them fit for the job. Enticing narrationssuch as “Gharbethay 50,000 rupay mahana kamaeye, sirf computer ka istehmaljan’na zaroor hai,”some how attract the unemployed youth.
He regretted that there was no national institution to create publicawareness against such mafia and the vulnerable, particularly the youth,who had been left at the mercy of racketeers.
He, however, said one could easily judge the credibility of such sites’source by checking their status on “alexa.com” and “domaintools.com” thatprovided complete information of a website.
“The positive thing is that a fake site does not have security certificateas it is too costly,” he added. Another software engineer Attique urRehman, highlighting the different ways of online earning, said, “It is acomplex subject as genuine sites do not require mere registration but seeka user’s full information. There are different kinds of online earning,such as online trading, freelancing through ads and affiliating market.”The earning through ads, he claimed, was the most popular way as lot ofpeople in Pakistan were earning considerably via AdSense (in which one canupload ads on his websites or YouTube channels) that also requiredconsistency from a user.
The most popular among all was stock exchange’s business, but “expertise isa prerequisite for trading on Internet and there is high risk of losingmoney before one logs in to an authentic business entity,” he added.Attique warned that without proper knowledge and safety measures, theinitiative could financially cost a person.
The enticers, he said, would demand to deposit Rs 5,000 to 10,000 asregistration fee to start earning but later disappeared and reappeared insome cases with a different name as a new stratagem.
Highlighting the importance of blogging for educated segment of thesociety, Attique said, “One can sell his skills, especially, writing skillon Internet to anyone across the world by making his own blog thatincreases one’s earning with the boost in his ranking.”
He said one’s profile was updated keeping in view of his clientele thatboosted his ranking. Attique said the skilled unemployed youth could beengaged after some training to earn livelihood through Internet and boostthe country’s IT sector.
He, however, urged the authorities concerned to introduce short courses andtraining on online earning like the developed nations where the IT sectorwas the most revenue generating entity and contributing to their nationaleconomies.