Home Based Business Scams - Tips on Avoiding Them
Maybe the reason you're interested in setting up a home business
is because you've seen an ad that perked your interest or you
were approached by a friend or colleague about a great home
business money-making opportunity and those entrepreneurial
juices started to flow. Your imagination starts to flow and
dreams of quitting your job fill your every thought.
Hello, hey, ok... time to stop dreaming. I hate to burst your
bubble or stop your fantasy ride but before you give your boss a
piece of your mind there's a few things you need to consider.
First, you need to realize that probably 99% of all home
business / work from home offers out there are flat out scams.
After all, if it was that easy to pay a few dollars and make
thousands, wouldn't everyone be doing it by now and why tell you
about it?
Below I've listed and briefly discussed how to recognize and
avoid a few of the biggest scams out there.
Location... Location... Location Check out every offer and
assume it's a scam until you have iron-clad proof that it's not.
A few things to consider are: Where did you see that work from
home offer? If you got it by traditional mail or by email or saw
it on a poster taped around a telephone pole, then I can
guarantee you right now that it's not a legitimate offer. On the
other hand, if you saw the ad in a newspaper, in a jobs magazine
or on a jobs website, then it's a little more likely to be legit
- but not necessarily.
Envelope Stuffing Will this scam ever end? Well, not until
people stop falling for it. This is the most established
work-from-home scam of all time and it's been going on for what
seems like forever now. How it works is that once you pay your
money and sign up to work from home, you are sent a set of
envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to. The whole
idea is to simply get names of people who are interested in home
business ops and get a quick buck. You could make a little money
if you mail to the right mailing list but don't count it. Work
from home offers like this are simply illegal pyramid schemes.
You will not make money putting letters into envelopes - so get
over it and move on!
Shoddy Supplies The practice of charging for supplies is hard to
pin down to any one scam - it's a common most work-at-home scams
work (including the envelope stuffing scam mentioned above).
You'll be asked to make a minimal "investment" for whatever
materials will be needed to do the work and then you'll receive
a collection of very shoddy materials that are worth a fraction
of what you paid for them and last but not least you'll soon
realize that there was never a market for work anyway.
Don't walk - run... if anyone asks for money upfront. Any
company worth it's salt would be willing to deduct any "fees"
from your first paycheck. Any company not willing to do that, is
in all likely-hood simply out to scam you into giving them some
upfront money and then as the saying goes... "leaving dodge" as
quickly as possible.
Working for Free This variation on the scam is common with
crafts. You might be asked to work from home making clothes,
ornaments or toys. Everything appears to be legitimate - you
received materials without paying any money and you're doing the
work. Unfortunately for you, when you send the work back, the
company will tell you that it didn't meet their "quality
standards" and will refuse to pay you. They will then sell what
you've provided and move on to the next sucker.
Never do craft type work from home unless you're selling the
items yourself. Remember, you don't need to restrict your sales
to consumers only... you could also be selling to wholesalers.
The bottom line is this, you need to be the one deciding what
you make and then collect the money yourself.
Medical Billing, Typing From Home and More Many work-from-home
scams involve persuading you that some industry has more work to
do than it can handle and so it has to outsource to people like
you, working from home. For example, you might be told that
you'll be typing legal documents or entering medical bills into
an electronic database. These scams have one thing in common -
they all say that all you need is a computer and they go on to
explain that all you need to do to make big bucks is to buy some
"special software".
The software is package so it appears to be from a completely
unrelated company, but don't be fooled - the whole purpose
behind this so-called opportunity is to simply sell you the
over-priced and worthless software. And of course, once you open
and load the software on your computer you will never get your
money back because that's how all software guarantees work. Once
you break the seal you own it.
Starting your own home based business is a dream that millions
of people have and it's a legitimate and worthy endeavor.
Unfortunately, the crooks out there know this and they play on
these desires and so you need to be very cautious. And remember,
starting a home business that involves "working" for another
company isn't the best idea even if they offer a completely
legitimate opportunity. The reason is because even if they do
pay you for your work, you still won't earn anywhere near the
income could if you were to start a home-based business where
you created your own product or service. So why even bother with
these outside companies at all?