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Avoiding Common Work At Home Scams
Scam
Alert! Be Careful Out there.
Work at home scams are common and
scammers are getting more creative every day, coming up with new
ways to take your money. Anyone who wants to have a work at home job
should be aware of the most common scams today:
Stuffing Envelopes - There are no legitimate envelope-stuffing jobs out there. Please don't fool yourself into believing there are. Companies can very easily purchase a beautiful machine for a few thousand dollars that will not only stuff the envelopes, it will also fold, collate and apply postage to the envelopes. Why would a company pay you thousands of dollars a month to stuff their envelopes? They wouldn't. If you send in your fee for this scam, you will receive a copy of the same ad you responded to, and you will now have to scam other people by placing the ad and having them send you their money. This is illegal.
Typing and Data Entry - Similar to the scheme above, if you sign up for this and pay your fee, you will receive a copy of the same ad, and have to place ads to get other people to send you their money. You earn $20 per "application processed" because you are charging people $20 to get the information. Again, illegal. There are
some legitimate companies that will hire you to do typing and data entry (such as transcription or coding) -- but they won't charge you a fee to work for them. If a fee is being charged, it's a scam.
Craft Assembly - Most of these opportunities are scams because they make their money by the start-up fees you pay. When you receive your kit, you will assemble dozens of earrings, potholders, magnets (or whatever), send them in for payment, and they will not pass inspection. You can try to fix them as many times as you like, they still won't be accepted. The company doesn't want the items you assembled, they want your money for the start-up kit.
Again, there are a few legitimate companies out there, but you have to be
very careful. Check with the BBB and, if possible, other people who
have worked them.
Medical Billing - There are companies that will train you to become a Medical Biller from home, as long as you purchase the Medical Billing software for your computer from them.
The software may cost a few hundred dollars or more. If go this
route, be very careful. What they don't tell you is that YOU will be responsible for finding your own clients (Doctors/Dentists). This can be incredibly difficult to do, since most medical professionals already use a billing service, or do their own billing in the office. With the new Privacy laws, medical professionals need to be extremely careful with patient records, and most will not want to trust someone with no billing experience to handle the office billing at home.
Payment Associate/Specialist - Here is the scenario. A company wants to hire you to place auctions on eBay and accept customer payments using your own accounts. You get to keep a portion of the money, and send the rest to the company. The company is
then supposed to ship the product to the customer, but they don't. You are now in trouble with eBay and Paypal for fraud. Don't do it! Don't ever use your own accounts for anything other than your own business.
Legitimate companies should be able to set up their own accounts just as easily as you did for yourself.
Pyramid Schemes - A pyramid scheme is when money changes hands but there is no product or service being sold. "Joe" charges you $200 to join the scheme, and then you in turn need to charge others $200 to join, and they charge others, etc. This is illegal. Remember, there must be a product or service being sold.
Gifting Programs - This is also an illegal pyramid scheme, but they call it a "gifting program" -- in other words, you "gift" Joe $200, and then you need to find others who will "gift" you $200, and so on. Illegal.
Chain Letters - These have been around for years! They used to come by postal mail, but now they also arrive via email. There are usually 5 names on the list, you need to move each name up a spot, removing the top name, and place your name at the bottom, and then send $5 to each name on the list and send it out to everyone you know. Highly illegal. There is also a version for online payment services like Paypal, you send $2 or $5 (the amount varies) to the people on the list, and others are supposed to do the same for you. Don't get caught up in something like this, it can ruin your life.
Surveys & Mystery Shopping - While not all survey and mystery shopping companies are scams, there are quite a few that love to charge you a membership fee, claiming you can earn hundreds of dollars a day. When you sign up, you find more companies that want to charge you a fee to join, and companies that will pay you very little for your time and energy.
NOTE: There are some legitimate companies out there, and you don't have to pay to find them.
Be aware that you probably won't get rich from doing surveys and
mystery shopping, but it can certainly bring in some decent pocket money.
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