When Should You Pay for a Work at Home Job?
Let's face it... finding a work at home job is far from easy.
There are so many opportunities out there that just look so
appealing. All you have to do is send in a payment for $xx and
you have a job. What's the harm?
Time to get real. You don't pay to get a job. You don't pay to
get an outside the home job, so why pay to work at home? It just
doesn't add up.
There is one exception, however. Some companies now charge you
for the background check they do before hiring you. This happens
at outside the home jobs too, so it's legitimate, if barely, and
to my mind a poor hiring practice. However, as some companies
that do hire and, more importantly, pay their at home employees
regularly do this, it is not strictly a warning sign. I would
call for caution with any background check, however, and
investigate thoroughly first, as there is also a scam out there
where they have you fill out a form for a background check, then
steal your identity.
Charging to apply is far from the only work at home scam out
there. Some can get the police or FBI pounding on your door, and
people have done jail time.
One form of this scam has you working placing eBay ads for
someone in another country. You place the ad and collect the
payment, forwarding it to the other country, where the item
should be shipped from. It never is.
A variant is where they persuade you to give them your bank
account information, then they steal directly from you.
Let's make this perfectly clear. There are no jobs out there
forwarding money to your employer. There are no jobs where your
employer needs to know anything about your credit cards, banking
information or any other personal financial information.
Many work at home job seekers are desperate to work at home, and
as such are perfect targets for scammers. No matter how badly
you need to start earning an income, you don't need to lose
money to a scam.
There are a few basic warning signs. Some scams are well-crafted
and won't have these signs, while a few legitimate opportunities
may show one or two symptoms of being a scam, so still use your
head.
* Free email account or website hosting - Most real companies
will have websites that they are paying for, and email addresses
assigned to employees. It doesn't cost that much for them to do
so. * Lots of misspellings or other errors in email or website -
Sloppy work is not promising for a real opportunity. * You have
to pay to work - As I said above, don't. * Envelope stuffing
opportunities - Machines can stuff envelopes for very little
cost. No one is going to pay you to do it, no matter how often
you see their sign on the side of the road. * Home assembly - If
you're good at crafts, you're better off making your own and
selling them on eBay, to local stores or at flea markets.