Envelope stuffing work at home

Stuffing envelopes used to be accepted as a genuine way to earn extra cash, when working from home. But since the 1950's, bulk commercial mailing has become more automated with sophisticated machinery able to print, fold and insert letters and mailshots into envelopes. Computers and printers are now cheap to purchase for most companies.

Modern computer-controlled machinery now completes the work of envelope stuffing much quicker and cheaper than humans (even those from third-world countries willing to work below the minimum wage).

There is no demand for people to manually stuff a couple of hundred envelopes a day at home, when a machine can stuff hundreds of thousands of envelopes in the same period.

It just is not viable to employ anybody to stuff envelopes by hand anymore, and it has now become a well known scam targeting vulnerable and unemployed people.

Adverts for Envelope Stuffing jobs

Many of us are looking for flexible work that we can do at home, and there are always loads of adverts for stuffing envelopes. The reality is that it is no longer a valid way to earn money - machinery completes the work much cheaper than anyone could do manually.

Envelope stuffing ads are now unfortunately nearly all scams - only there to part you from your hard-earned cash by asking you for an upfront fee. That is usually the only point that any money is made from envelope stuffing, and it isn't you doing the earning!

A typical advert might ask you to send a 'registration', 'sign up' or 'enrolment' fee of anything from 20 to 50 GBP/USD, or
money for a 'business' or 'starter' pack. The advert will generally promise high earnings (typically hundreds per day) for minimum effort filling envelopes with no skill required.

Sound too good to be true? It is!

Once you've sent off your fee, you'll either receive nothing or you'll be sent a letter which explains how you can earn money persuading other people to do just what you did: i.e. post advertising to get new victims to respond to your ads.
It is like a chain letter of empty work promises - there is no 'work' apart from perpetuating the scam by getting other people to sign up and send you money. There are many variations on a theme, but they all promise much and deliver little.

The alarm bells should ring if an advert contains any or all of the following:

Some scams will take a two stage approach where the initial information is free. In this case you'll receive a flyer explaining the 'benefits' of the scheme and asking for payment to be sent to get you started. They will usually guarantee that you make money or get a refund but in practice this almost never happens.

There is always a high demand for work which can be done at home, so the scammers only have to convince a small proportion of their target audience to send in money for that 'golden envelope filling opportunity' and they can make a good profit.

The envelope stuffing scam has worked for years and will unfortunately continue, as long as there are people who are desperate for money looking for unskilled work they can do at home.

Always ask yourself what the advertiser has to gain by going to the trouble of farming out this kind of work - if it was that lucrative, they'd do it themselves or pay minimum wage to a warehouse full of fillers. In the end it's just the advertiser that makes money - your upfront fee is the answer to their advertised 'secret of success' with envelope stuffing.

Legitimate Envelope Stuffing Jobs There is always the exception that proves the rule, and some small to medium sized businesses do have a requirement for some manual envelope filling and labelling work. Also some graphic design and marketing companies occasionally need people to manually pack specialist mailshots which aren't suitable for mechanical handling. Legitimate envelope stuffing can take the form of Christmas and other greeting cards, special invitations and promotions. People will often still open a hand-written envelope, whereas they will bin anything that looks like an advertising or marketing mailshot, so there is still a niche market for envelope stuffers. We must emphasise that there is, in reality, a very limited legitimate job market for envelope stuffing from home. Don't forget that you can combine this kind of work with other skills you may have such as design and calligraphy to make a package that might be attractive to business users. If you have the necessary skills and PC / printer equipment, you could also offer a full direct mail service to small companies, organising mailing lists, mailshots and newsletters etc. This kind of work although genuine, can be hard to find even when it's outsourced - it's rarely advertised, but more often placed with 'friends of friends' or employees as overtime. The best way to find these kind of vacancies is to enquire with small businesses in your area - you could even try mailing them with a sample of your work. Although it will not make you rich overnight, it may provide some extra money and it is real work that you can do from home.