How to work from home

Work from home - how to avoid the scams and cons

How to avoid the work at home scams

The web offers some great ways to earn extra cash but it also offers even more ways to lose it fast! For every honest opportunity there seem to be ten scams, so it's vital that you research thoroughly before you sign up.

Firstly be very wary of any work from home job that asks you for money up front. You may be asked for money as a registration fee, for materials, for training or simply to get the information or ebook that tells you how to get rich fast.
But whatever terms the offer is couched in, it's unlikely to be worth what you're asked to pay.

Scammers like to target the needy, vulnerable and desperate as they are more likely to take the scam at face value. If you're desperate to earn fast cash, the apparent opportunity to make money quickly can cause you to throw caution to the winds and sign up to something that, at best will not make you any money and at worst could lose you thousands, leave yoy a victim of identity theft and possibly facing criminal proceedings.

The most popular internet based work at home scams revolve around e-books and dodgy 'data entry' jobs, which promise you will make hundreds or thousands of pounds, euros or dollars a day.

How do you spot a scam website?

They are all big on testimonials and usually short on information as to what the wonderful money-making idea is.

They generally contain a load of marketing hype that really does nothing apart from promise in various ways how your life will be changed if you sign up. e.g. 'I made $3500 in the first day online - two months ago I was broke and now I have a speedboat!'

Many will use highlighted text or BLOCK CAPITALS and bold text to make sure that you understand how much you can earn by following the plan!

Finally, a scam site is usually difficult to leave, it'll bring up pop-up windows, special offers and discounts in a last-ditch effort to get hold of your cash.

What do you get for your investment?

If it's an e-book reseller opportunity, then you'll get a load of out of copyright or specially written material which will be of very limited use and value. Why limited use and value? Well - if it was any good, it would be in a real book and sold on Amazon - not distributed free on the web. Either that, or it's made up of information that's in the public domain and already available for free!

Top 10 ways to avoid being scammed

1	Research the opportunity - ask questions and don't go ahead untill they are fully answered. What will the total cost be? What do I get for my money? Who pays me and is it a salary or commission? Use a search engine to check out the offer. Enter the company, business or website name, then search it again with 'scam', 'sucks' or 'rip off' as part of your query - you'll be amazed at what this returns!
2	Ask yourself why you are being presented with the opportunity. What does the seller have to gain? If the money making potential is that great, why doesn't the seller do it or get his friends and relations to do it?
3	Ignore testimonials and real-life stories - they are easy to write, mean nothing and are often used to push the unwary into clicking on that 'buy' button.
4	Don't send any money. No really - don't - there are lots of ways to make money without parting with your own to do it.
5	Subject to 4 above, if you must send anyone money DO NOT GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD OR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS - use Paypal or a similar service. Don't use Western Union and other money transfer services to pay someone you've never met. Online fraud is becoming more and more sophisticated, so be wary of fake escrow services and sites that try to look like banks or money transfer services. If you aren't sure then don't use it.
6	If you want a refund how can you get it? Is there a telephone number? Address? ( Be extra cautious if there is no address or just a PO Box ) Money back guarantees may promise much but deliver little - once the scammer has your cash, he's not going to return it!
7	Don't send any money unless you are prepared to write it off. Web forums are full of folks who borrowed money or caused themselves financial hardship to raise the necessary cash to buy a 'business opportunity' and then found they didn't earn a penny.
8	Discuss the idea with with family or friends and check out advice from consumer groups, citizens advice and watchdogs etc.
9	Be suspicious and don't allow yourself to be pressured into signing up in a hurry. A favourite tactic of the scammer is to put a time limit on a deal - 'if you sign up right away it's much cheaper' etc. A legitimate business won't mind you taking time to think about things or take advice.
10	If it sounds too good to be true, then it is!

What about getting paid to shop or fill in surveys?

Taking surveys or acting as a 'mystery shopper' is a work at home job opportunity which can ask for a registration or joining fee.

But be careful as there are lots of make money online scams out there. Think about it - If the earnings are as great as they say then why do you have to pay up front? If it's not a rip off then surely they could make it free to join, and then take the joining or registration fee out of your first couple of days earnings!!

Some are genuine and offer limited earning opportunities, but treat them with care and don't hand over any money unless you can afford to lose it! You might make a little cash if you're lucky, but it will be limited by the amount of time you can spend on-line. Paid surveys are fine for a little extra cash if you are housebound and would just be surfing anyway, but they are not really a viable second income source.

Read the small print and you'll see that while all these kind of sites are big on headlines showing huge earnings, they don't actually guarantee that you'll earn anything.

Male Escorts

Adverts looking for male escorts are pretty much guaranteed to be nothing more than a quick way of losing your money. The escort scam works like this: You call the number on the advert and, after a quick chat, the person on the other end says that 'You sound just like the kind of guy we need!

'We have lots of work for you but we can't start you untill you've paid the registration fee' (can be hundreds of pounds/dollars). If you're daft enough to pay this, the 'definite' work will vanish to be replaced by a whole range of excuses. In practice there is pretty much zero demand for male escorts so don't be taken in by the promises made on the websites. Read the small print - none of them guarantee you will be required for a 'date' and none will pay your joining fee back.

This scam is a variation on the old car advert one where you advertise your car in the local paper or online and get a call from an agency, website or whatever saying that they have a buyer looking for exactly the vehicle you're selling but they can't send the contact info untill you pay to register. If you pay, then 'Sorry, the buyer we told you about just found a car, but we'll keep your details on file/on site.' Don't expect to hear anything soon - you've just bought another expensive car advert.

Envelope stuffing

Envelope stuffing No, No, NO - all you'll receive in return for your fee is a letter telling you to stuff envelopes with flyers asking people to send you a registration fee to learn how to...err stuff envelopes.

These days all commercial mailings are automated and there is virtually no requirement for homeworkers to stuff envelopes.

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.

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.

Arts and Crafts or assembly

This popular make money from home scam can easily part you from your money by asking for an up-front fee for materials and instructions. Once you've sent your hard-earned cash, you'll receive either:

A: Nothing

B: A selection of materials to assemble, paint, decorate or whatever and send back to head office on completion.

Two things are practically certain : The materials, if you receive them, will be worth a small percentage of the amount you are asked to pay for them and you won't receive any payment if you do complete the work. Your efforts will be rejected and returned as having failed quality control. Money back guarantees for home work are rarely honoured - once you've parted with your cash, it's unlikely that you'll ever see it again.

Data entry or administrative work.

Some ask for a set up fee and some don't, but all these 'jobs' offer the scammer the chance to rip off the applicant in a number of ways:

Get the full story on so-called 'data entry jobs'. Visit our Home Data Entry Jobs page for more information on Data Entry Scams

Find out more about scams schemes from consumer direct (opens in new window ) more on scams (opens in new window )

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