Joe Paterno certainly is not the first sports figure to fall from public grace. But the breakdown of leadership, accountability, and due diligence surrounding him and Penn State University officials is so all-encompassing and so inexplicable, it's enough to shock even a legitimate internet marketer – and if there's one thing we know, it's false gurus.

Joe Paterno has been a football coach for one team longer than many of us have been alive, and has accumulated enough positive accomplishments to fill an encyclopedia – right down to a statue of him outside the football stadium. But he may never be famous for those accomplishments again.

An assistant coach witnessed a retired Paterno assistant turned youth counselor named Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulting a child. He reported it to Paterno, who in turn reported it to his superiors. But as it moved up the chain of command, the incident got watered down to "inappropriate horsing around," and all Sandusky had to do was promise not to bring his charges onto the Penn State campus again. It never became criminal matter, even though Sandusky had been involved in a pair of similar incidents years before.

Now Sandusky finds himself with a virtual life sentence for assaulting nearly ten children, two Penn State officials are charged with perjury, and the now late Joe Paterno has lost his legacy. Students rioted the night he was fired, destroying a news van as though the media coverage was the root of the problem. Their cries to reinstate Paterno was really infantile whimpering because the statue of him had sprouted feet of clay.

What's so appalling about the whole thing is how no one at Penn State – NO ONE – put the welfare of victim first: not even the eyewitness, who did not stop the assault. And for what? The "protection" of Penn State's pedigree and Paterno's reputation? The assurance that income from alumni, supporters and advertisers would not dry up? It was beneath those factors that the innocence of children had to literally be buried alive?

That is the precisely the attitude that powers the online marketing "gurus" and "veterans" who invade your e-mails peddling digital snake oil, with breathtaking titles like "Super Duper Double Secret Fast Cash Supernova." What they're expert at is recycling the same product under a different name. They show off exponential sales figures, which are accurate: they're making a fortune off people like who want to make fortune without actually working for it. And they promise that in order to have money flowing from your computer screen like Niagara Falls, the hardest work you'll have to do is send them a few bucks.

But then the honeymoon ends. You either don't hear from them again, or they ask for even more money for additional software that will ensure that what they originally sold you will actually work. They count on two things: your not being able to unravel the program before the 30-60 day refund period ends, and your blaming yourself for being "too dumb' to figure it out.

Fortunately, there is a way to make money online with a legitimate Internet marketing course explaining it all before you commit any money. And unlike at Penn State, it's your success – not theirs – that remains their first priority.