Work from Home -
how to avoid scams and cons

Avoid Work at Home scams
The web offers some great ways to earn extra cash but it also offers
even more ways to lose it. For every honest and legitimate home work
opportunity, there seem to be ten scams, so it's vital that you research
thoroughly before
you sign up to anything.
Advance Fee Fraud
Firstly, be very wary of any Work from Home job that asks
you for money up front.
You may be asked for money as a registration fee, for essential materials,
for training or simply to get the information or ebook that promises
to tell you how to get rich fast.
But however promising 'the offer' looks , it's unlikely to be worth
what you're being asked to pay.
Scammers like to target the needy, vulnerable and desperate as they
are more likely to take the scam at face value. If you're desperate
to earn fast cash, the chance to make money quickly can make you throw
caution to the wind.
You can easily be tricked into signing up to something that will
not make you any money, and even worse could lose you money, leave
you a victim of identity theft and possibly even facing criminal proceedings.
The most popular internet-based Work at Home scams revolve around e-books
and 'data entry' jobs, which promise you will make hundreds or thousands
of pounds, euros or dollars a day.
How to spot a scam website
They are big on testimonials and usually short on information as to
what the wonderful money-making idea is.
They generally contain a lot of marketing hype that promises, in various
ways, how your life will be changed if you sign up, e.g. 'I made $3500
in the first day online - two months ago I was broke and now I have
a speedboat!'
Many sites will use big print,
highlighted text ,
BLOCK CAPITALS and bold text to make sure that you
understand how much you can earn by following
the plan. Finally, a scam site is usually difficult to leave, it'll bring up
pop-up windows, special offers and discounts in a last-ditch effort
to get hold of your cash.

'it says we get it half price if I click today...'
What do you get for your investment?
If it's an e-book reselling opportunity, then you'll generally
receive out of copyright or specially written material which will
be of very limited use and value.
Why limited use and value? Well, if it was any good
it would be in a real book and sold on Amazon - not distributed free
on the web.
Either that, or it's made up of information that's in
the public domain and already available for free.
Top 10 ways to avoid being scammed
Don't get ripped-off.
Do your research!
1 |
Research the opportunity - ask questions and don't
go ahead until they are fully answered. What will the total cost
be? What do I get for my money? Who pays me and is it a salary
or commission? Use a search engine to check out the offer. Enter
the
company, business or website name, then search it again with 'review',
'scam', 'sucks' or 'rip off' as part of your query - you'll be
amazed
at
what this returns. |
2 |
Ask yourself why you are being presented with the opportunity.
What does the seller have to gain? If the money-making potential
is that great, why doesn't the seller do it himself, get his friends
and relations to do it or pay a room full of people minimum wage
to do it? |
3 |
Ignore testimonials and 'real-life' stories - they are easy to
write, mean nothing and are often used to push the unwary into clicking
on that 'buy' button. |
4 |
Don't send any money. No really - don't. There are lots of ways
to make money at home without parting with your own cash to do
it - check
out our FREE ideas! |
5 |
Subject to 4 above, if you must send anyone money DO NOT
GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD OR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS - use Paypal
or a similar service. Don't use money transfer
services to pay someone you've never met. Online fraud is becoming
more and more sophisticated, so be wary of fake escrow services
and sites that try to look like banks, or money transfer services.
If you aren't sure then don't use it. |
6 |
If you want a refund how can you get it? Is there a telephone
number? Address? (Be extra cautious if there is no address, or just
a PO Box ) Money back guarantees may promise much but deliver little
- once the scammer has your cash, he's not likely to return it. |
7 |
Don't send any money unless you are prepared to lose it.
Web forums are full of people who borrowed money to raise the necessary
cash to buy a 'business opportunity' and then found they didn't
earn a penny. Scammers prey on the poor and desperate - they really
don't care whether you can afford to lose the money or not. |
8 |
Discuss the idea with with family or friends. Seek advice
from consumer groups, your
local council's trading standards department, citizens advice and
watchdogs, etc. |
9 |
Be suspicious and don't allow yourself to be pressured into signing
up in a hurry. A favourite tactic of the scammer is to put a time
limit on a deal - 'if you sign up right away it's much cheaper',
or 'there are only
two places left' etc. A legitimate business won't mind you taking time
to think about things or take advice. |
10 |
If it sounds too good to be true, then it is! |
What
about getting paid to shop or fill in surveys?
Taking surveys or acting as a 'mystery
shopper' can be a genuine Work at Home job opportunity, which can ask
for a registration or joining fee.
But be careful as there are lots of make money online
scams out there. Think about it - if the earnings are as great as they
say then why do you have to pay up front? If it's not a rip off then
surely they could make it free to join, and then take the joining or
registration fee out of your first couple of days earnings.
Some are genuine and offer limited earning opportunities, but treat
them with care and don't hand over any money unless you can afford to
lose it. You might make a little cash if you're lucky, but it will be
limited by the amount of time you can spend on-line. Paid surveys are
fine for a little extra cash if you are housebound and would just be
surfing anyway, but they are not really a viable second income source.
Always read the small print and you'll see that while all these kind
of sites are big on headlines showing huge earnings, they don't actually
guarantee that you'll earn anything.
Read more about internet scams and find legitimate
ways to earn money with your PC
Well-known Scam 'opportunities' exposed
Envelope
stuffing
Envelope stuffing - No, No, NO - all you'll receive
in return for your fee is a letter telling you to stuff envelopes with
flyers asking people to send you a registration fee to learn how to...err
stuff envelopes.
These days all commercial mailings are automated and there is virtually
no requirement for homeworkers to stuff envelopes.
Stuffing envelopes used to be accepted as a genuine way to earn extra
cash, when working from home. But since the 1950's, bulk commercial
mailing has become more automated with sophisticated machinery able
to print, fold and insert letters and mailshots into envelopes.
Modern computer-controlled machinery now completes the work of envelope
stuffing much faster and cheaper than humans (even those from third-world
countries willing to work below the UK minimum wage).
There is no demand for people to manually stuff a couple of hundred
envelopes a day at home, when a machine can stuff hundreds of thousands
of envelopes in the same period. It just is not viable to employ anybody
to stuff envelopes by hand anymore, and it has now become a well known
scam targeting vulnerable and unemployed people.
More on Envelope Stuffing
Is male escort work a scam?
Adverts looking for men to work as escorts are pretty
much guaranteed to be nothing more than a quick way of losing your
money!
The male escort
scam
works like this: you call the number on the advert and after a quick
chat the person on the other end says:
'You sound just like the kind of guy we need. We have lots of work
for you but we can't start you until you've paid the registration fee'.
(This can be hundreds of pounds/dollars).
If you're dumb enough to
pay this, the 'definite' work will vanish to be replaced by a whole
range of excuses. In practice, there is pretty much zero demand for
male escorts, so don't be taken in by the promises made on the websites. Read the small print - none of them guarantee you will be required
for a 'date', and none will pay your joining fee back.
Similar Scams
This scam is a variation on the old car advert. You advertise your
car in the local paper, or online, and get a call from an agency or
website saying that they have a buyer looking for exactly the vehicle
you're selling. However, they can't send the contact info until you
pay to register. If you pay, then 'Sorry, the buyer we told you about
just found a car, but we'll keep your details on file/on site.' Don't
expect to hear anything soon - you've just bought another expensive
car advert.
The same applies to working at chat
and sex line services - there is no demand for males to work
in chat apart from a small market for gay chat lines!
Arts and Crafts or assembly
This popular make money from home scam can easily part you from your
money by asking for an up-front fee for materials and instructions.
Once you've sent your hard-earned cash, you'll receive either:
A: Nothing
or
B: A selection of materials to assemble, paint, decorate
or whatever and send back to head office on completion.
Two things are practically certain : the materials, if you receive
them, will be worth a small percentage of the amount you are asked to
pay for them and you won't receive any payment if you do complete the
work. Your efforts will be rejected and returned as having failed quality
control. Money back guarantees for home work are rarely honoured - once
you've parted with your cash, it's unlikely that you'll ever see it
again.
Data entry or administrative work
Some ask for a set up fee and some don't, but all these 'jobs' offer
the scammer the chance to rip off the applicant in a number of ways: Get the full story on so-called 'data entry jobs'.
Visit our Home Data Entry Jobs page
for more information on Data
Entry Scams Find out more about scams schemes from Consumer
Advice Guide (opens in new window ) more
on scams (opens in new window )
More information on scams, cheats and frauds (open in new window
):
Fraud.org
- avoid work at home scams and general advice
Financial
Conduct Authority - warnings on investment scams
Action
Fraud - the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting
centre
|