Scams
are every where online. Just about every where you
go online you will find ads for so-called "easy
and fast money" jobs. Anything that promises
"easy money" or "big bucks part time"
is full of it. Don’t waste your time on something
that promises fast and easy money because it’s not
going to happen.

Let’s delve into the scams out there and then talk
about resources you can use to research a company!

Common work at home scams to avoid

Typing "Jobs" - you can type in typing
jobs in any major search engine and you’ll pull
up many of these so-called "jobs" typing
for "easy" money. Most of the time you
will pay a fee, and then they will send you information
about how to place ads in local papers to "sell"
this so-called job to others. This simply is not
a "job" and it’s nearly impossible to
make a decent income with this. They post testimonials
that are either made up or of successful internet
marketers in order to persuade you into believing
this is a great "job" for you.

Envelope Stuffing - I’m sure you’ve seen this one
everywhere and might have fallen for it. I sure
did. Not once, but twice! I thought, "Well
the first company was just a scam but this one looks
legit" and, yes, I was wrong. I got scammed
by this little sucker twice! Please do not fall
for this tempting "job". What you’ll probably
receive (what happened to me) for your "small
fee" (which is usually how its worded) is a
letter telling you to place that same "envelope-stuffing"
ad in newspapers, magazines, online sites and anywhere
else you can get your ad. The only way you will
earn money is to pass on this scam to other moms
who desperately want to work at home. There’s no
stuffing of envelopes involved. You simply pass
on this scam to others and get paid by charging
a fee…the same way it happened to you. Please
don’t fall for this HUGE waste of time and please
don’t pass this scam on to others.

Assembly/Crafting Scams- If you want to make money
with assembly or crafting your best bet is to start
your own business and sell your work online, locally
and at fairs. The so-called jobs online for assembly
or crafts are scams. Usually you will be required
to buy supplies or a kit and then, after days or
weeks of work, you would send in your work for payment.
What usually happens is your work supposedly didn’t
meet the standards they have and they will either
send it back for you to fix or they will keep it
and not pay you. If you get the chance to "fix
it" and send it back you’ll again be
told it didn’t meet the standard. It’s a nasty
on going cycle and the end result is that you’ve
wasted your hard earned money on the "kit"
and you’ve wasted your valuable time for nothing.

Processing Government Refunds- Boy this one sounds
pretty interesting huh? Yet another scam for you
to avoid. What the meat of this scam? Basically
you’ll see ads that you can earn $500 to $1500 a
week processing 3rd party government refunds via
your computer. You are told that you’ll get a list
of people who might be home owners and might be
entitled to a refund by HUD. They make you pay up
to $300 (or even more) for this list. What you’ll
do is contact these people and try to get them to
share the refund with you, BUT what they fail to
tell you is these people can get refunds FREE by
calling HUD themselves.

So, if you go through this list and find a few
people owed a refund, phone them up and tell them
why you’re calling, one of three things will happen:

1. They will hang up on you

2. They’ll listen to you, then tell you that
their going to research this themselves. Doing so
they will find out they don’t need you and can get
the refund on their own. Therefore you make nothing.

3. You find someone who actually takes you up on
your offer. You "help" them get the refund
they could have done on their own and you collect
your portion. You’ve basically scammed that person
out of all the money owed to them by withholding
the fact that they can do this on their own and
collect all the money.

Just stay away from this - it’s bad for all concerned.
And in fact, the HUD site warns people of these
so-called "tracers" … that the public
can collect a refund without a “tracer.”

Chain Letters- This usually guarantees you to earn
large amounts of money with a one time small investment.
(See the trend? Scams ALWAYS ask you for money.)
The typical chain letter scheme usually requires
you to mail the chain letter, along with a specified
amount of money to six (or more) people. And then
they must do the same. There just simply aren’t
enough people in the world to make this worth your
time. AND, it’s illegal! The post office says that
chain letters are a form of unauthorized lottery
and may violate federal mail fraud laws. They also
warn not to waste your money! Read more about this
at US Postal Service Inspection Services

Medical Claims Billing- I’m sure you’ve seen this
everywhere and it may have caught your eye. This
one caught my eye, but I was fortunate enough to
meet someone who told me to stay away. The ad will
usually state you can make tons of money part time
doing "Medical Billing/ Claims Processing.
The fee for the software and training can be as
high as $7500 or even more. You supposedly get a
list of doctors and sample letters in order to gain
clients. Although this isn’t necessarily the typical
scam, it’s not as easy (or possible) as they claim
it to be. If you want to do this I would take a
local class on Medial Billing (or an accredited
online school) and then get an offline job doing
this…then build your client list and make it home-based.

What have we learned from the examples above? If
you have to pay a free, it’s a scam, rip off or
just not worth your time! So stay away from the
above scams.

I would also like to discuss some common red flags
to look for with any job offer.

They ask a fee - you should NEVER pay for a job

They claim it’s easy work - a real job is never
easy

They claim you can earn great money for little
work - a real job will never claim you can make
riches with little to no work.

They have testimonials about the "job"
- a real job offer isn’t going to need testimonials
posted. Why would they? If they aren’t trying to
sell something to you, then they won’t need to convince
you that it’s worth your time.

If it says "no kits, no fee’s, not MLM…etc."
- a real job isn’t going to post that in their job
ad. If you find a "job" advertised like
that you can guarantee it’s a business opp. or outright
scam.

The words "No Experience Necessary" -
although there are some jobs out there that don’t
require experience they often won’t make that a
big part of their ad (or at all) and usually you
find this on scam ads.

A 900 number to call for more information - any
legitimate company will call you or provide you
with an 800 number. If they are a smaller company
and don’t have an 800 number, then if you inform
then you don’t wish to use your long distance to
call them, they will usually call you.

Resources-
The Better Business Bureau
Web Assured ("Watch List" to see complaints
on companies)
The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Response
Center
Scambusters - newsletter you can join too
The National Fraud Information Center

ABOUT THE
AUTHOR:
Nell Taliercio is the owner and founder
of www.telecommutingmoms.com
– which is a leading resource website with
work at home jobs and everything a telecommuting
mom would need. Come visit us today!

This article is available for reprint with author’s
resource box intact and all links live and clickable.
Copyright is reserved by author.