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Most Work-At-Home Job Offers Are Not What They Seem
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(Note: we split some of the paragraphs to make this article
easier to read. The content, however, has not been changed at
all.)
Would you like to earn lots of money in the comfort of your
own home? Generate thousands in income in your spare time?
Ads offering work-at-home opportunities can be found
everywhere from Internet employment websites to neighborhood
telephone poles.
This might seem like the perfect solution for retirees who
want to bring in some extra dollars. But, there's a catch --
most of these work-at-home opportunities are scams cleverly
designed to leave you with less money than when you began.
Among the most common work-at-home scams...
* Stuffing envelopes
Lure: Earn big bucks for folding papers and sticking them into
envelopes, usually more than $1 per envelope.
Trap: You will be asked to pay for your supplies or training.
You'll typically receive only worthless instructions suggesting
that you con others into applying for envelope-stuffing jobs.
Reality: Bulk mailers use machines to stuff envelopes.
* Medical billing or insurance claims processing
Lure: You can make big money processing medical paperwork.
Trap: You will be asked to pay hundreds of dollars for the
software and training required.
Reality: The majority of medical offices process their own
bills or outsource to large companies. Very few hire
individuals.
* Assembling crafts or sewing together clothing
Lure: Are you good with your hands? Then these companies claim
to have a career for you. They will send you unassembled parts
and instructions, and you assemble them and send them back.
Trap: The company will ask you to pay a deposit up front
because it needs assurance that you will do the work and return
the assembled goods. When you send in your completed products,
most or all will be rejected as not meeting specifications, and
the company will keep your deposit.
* Email processing
Lure: Earn big bucks by receiving email sent to the customer
service websites of major companies, then forwarding these
messages to the proper departments. For a fee, you can receive
a list of companies anxious to hire you.
Trap: This list will be worthless, perhaps just companies
pulled at random from the Yellow Pages.
Reality: Businesses usually do not hire individuals to work at
home processing email.
* Payment processing for international companies
Lure: A company with clients around the globe needs a US
representative to handle incoming checks. You will receive
checks from overseas, deposit them in your account, take a
small cut as your fee, then send your own check for the
remainder to your foreign employer.
Trap: The checks you receive will bounce. By the time your
bank informs you that there is a problem, the check you wrote
will have cleared, and your "employer" will have disappeared.
* Mystery shopping
Lure: Earn thousands of dollars by reporting on the quality of
the service you receive in stores.
Trap: Anyone who says that you can earn high pay mystery
shopping is a scammer. They might be trying to con you into
paying for mystery shopping information that you could find
online for free.
Reality: Legitimate mystery shopping assignments typically pay
up to $10 an hour (in some cases, as high as $20 per hour), or
perhaps you'll receive a free restaurant meal or a token amount
of some merchandise. For information on legitimate mystery
shopping opportunities, see the Idea Lady website.
http://www.idealady.com/sb.html
Variation: You are told that you are evaluating a financial
company, such as a bank or money-forwarding service. You are
then sent a large check and told to deposit this money into your
own account, then wire some portion of the funds to the address
provided. The check bounces, leaving you responsible for the
money wired.
Some work-at-home scams can be applied to virtually any
work-at- home occupation. Be suspicious if you are told...
*"We overpaid you with your first check. Please send the extra
money back." Your new employer "accidentally" sent you more
than you were owed and asks you to send back a check for the
excess. Sometime after you send this check, your bank tells you
that the original paycheck bounced. Your "job" was a ruse to
get you to send the "overpayment" check.
*"You got the job! We just need your Social Security number so
we can pay you." It is perfectly reasonable for an employer to
ask for a prospective employee's Social Security number.
Scammers take advantage of this by posting legitimate-sounding
job offers on career websites, then stealing applicants'
identities.
Do not provide your Social Security number until you have
thoroughly researched the employer and are confident that the
company and job opportunity are real.
Scam Avoidance
Job websites Elance, Guru and RentACoder offer legitimate
work-at-home opportunities, but usually only for workers with
specific skills, such as computer programming, Web design,
writing, sales or engineering. (Use caution even on these
websites -- there might be scams among the listings.)
http://www.elance.com
http://www.guru.com
http://www.rentacoder.com
To avoid becoming a victim of work-at-home scams...
* Ignore work-at-home job opportunities that arrive unsolicited
via email. Legitimate jobs are not advertised by spam.
* Avoid offers that promise big profits without asking for
specific skills or experience.
* If someone trying to sell you on a business opportunity
swears that there are dozens of potential clients in your
region anxious to work with you, insist on speaking with at
least two or three of them. If no names are forthcoming and/or
these "prospects" don't confirm their interest, move on.
* Be skeptical whenever money heads in the wrong direction.
Legitimate employers pay employees -- they do not charge
potential employees for training materials or interview fees.
It is reasonable for a company to charge a fee if it is going
to help set you up in your own independent business, but be
cautious of these offers, too.
Likewise, avoid any job that requires you to deposit checks or
send checks from your own account.
* Do a Web search to research any company. A legitimate company
should have a professional-looking website (though this is no
guarantee of legitimacy). You should be able to locate the
company's phone number and address, not just a post office box.
The company website should not be the only place that the
company's name turns up on the Web. Skim the mentions of the
company that your search uncovers. Do any of them say the
company is a scam? Also, check with the Better Business Bureau.
http://www.bbb.org
* Check the employer's email address. Legitimate corporate
email addresses usually end with the company name, not the name
of a free Web-based email service. Example: The email address
rwjohnson@xyxcorp.com is more likely to be legitimate than is
rwjohnson18259@yahoo.net.
* Consider how you would hire employees for this job, and how
much you would pay, if you were the employer. If an offer made
to you seems too good to be true, walk away.
Bottom Line/Retirement interviewed Audri Lanford, PhD,
codirector, Internet Scambusters, a website devoted to
informing the public about scams and cons, Boone, North
Carolina, www.scambusters.org
Reprinted with the permission of:
Bottom Line/Personal
Boardroom, Inc.
281 Tresser Blvd, 8th Floor
Stamford, CT 06901
http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com
That's all for today -- we'll see you next week.
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