Avoiding Work at Home Scams

December 22, 2007 | No Comments

There are many work from home job scams. The following are the most popular -

Envelope stuffing scams - make money stuffing envelopes from home after paying an up-front fee for the package and materials you need.

Reality Check - the package never arrives, or the package tells you you’ll make money when you advertise the stuffing envelope job and get people to pay the up-front fees.

Assembly or craft scams - make money by assembling crafts that the company will purchase from you, after paying a large up-front fee to receive the materials you will require.

Reality Check - you are sent all of the materials but the work you do never meets the standards of the company and they don’t buy the products you make.

Data entry scams - Make good money from the comfort of your home performing simple data entry work after you send in a small fee to receive the guide you need to get the job done.

Reality Check - the guide that is sent is completely useless as it only provides basic information and gives a list of businesses that are not interested in hiring you, or will pay you an extremely low rate.

Medical billing scams - Make excellent money by starting a home business that offers medical physicians electronic billing services. Simply send in an up-front fee (usually thousands of dollars) and you will receive everything you need (IE. training, the necessary software and technical support). You may also be provided with a list of clients.

Reality Check - Medical billing is a job that requires specific qualifications, and hands-on experience. No physician will trust a newly certified medical biller who works from home with no onsite experience to handle their medical billing.

Pyramid scheme scams - Make excellent money selling a company’s products or services.

Reality Check - Although this job offer appears to be a legitimate form of multi-level marketing where you would earn a commission on both your sales and the sales of those distributors who you recruit, in actuality, the only people who make money are those at the top of the “pyramid” who advertised the job in the first place.

In order to protect yourself from scams, it is imperative that you -

Find out about any company offering you a job you are interested in by contacting them
Don’t trust the claim that any work form home job can promise you a high return fast. All jobs that pay well require skill, hard work and dedication
Investigate the company by contacting the Better Business Bureau or visiting their website
Find out if a job you are interested in has legal requirements or specific qualifications. This is especially true for jobs regarding medical practices. Call the Labor department to find out the real deal.
If you are required to pay for something make sure you get all the details. Carefully analyze the refund policy and make sure you contact the company to find out exactly what the job entails, and ask for references. Exercise extreme caution. Remember, the request of an up-front fee is one of the biggest warning signs of a scam.
Find out if the work being offered actually has a market

Written by Vishal P. Rao of Work at Home Forum.

Posted in Working from Home