If you've been thinking about working from home, you should know that there are several work from home scams that you should be aware of. Many of these scams promise that you can become rich overnight. Sadly, work from home scams make it difficult for people to find legitimate ways to work from home. Before you start looking for a work from home job, take a look at some of the most common scams and watch out for them.
Data entry positions are one of the most common work from home scams that we see. I will agree that there's a small number of individuals who have legitimate data entry jobs from home, but the majority of the listings for data entry jobs are scams. If you find a listing for a data entry job, be sure to do research the job before you proceed. One easy way to do this is by searching for information about the company on work from home forums.
Sadly, many people fall victim to the envelope stuffing scam with hope that it will turn into a career. After all it does sound very appealing. Many advertisements say something like, “Make $1,000 per week stuffing envelopes from home”. That would be a dream come true for many people, if it were true. Unfortunately, after you pay the start-up fee, all you get is a flyer and information on how to send the same information you've received to someone else.
Perhaps you have seen ads in your local newspaper about making money by assembling crafts. With this scam, you simply purchase a craft assembly kit. After you assembly the crafts, the company will then pay you for each craft. That sounds easy enough, but there's a catch. When the company receives the crafts, they decide that the crafts aren't good enough and refuse to pay you. Plus, you lose the fee that you paid to get the craft kit. If you enjoy making crafts, consider making and selling your own items at places like flea markets, craft fairs, Etsy, and eBay.
Processing emails is very similar to stuffing envelopes. With this fake job, you receive an email telling you that if you pay a small fee, which can be up to $30, you will get information on how to start your career as an email processor. Unfortunately, all you get is an email telling you how to send the same email you've received to someone else.
With this at home scam, your job title is "financial manager”. As a financial manager, you will be mailed a paper check from a company. Once you receive the check, simply cash it, keep your earnings, and mail the rest of the cash to the address stated by the company. Many of these fake checks look very real and your bank may not discover that they are fake for weeks. Once the bank discovers that you cashed a fake check, you are liable for the money.
There are legitimate medical billing jobs that you can do from home, but there's also a ton of medical billing scams. With a medical billing scam you pay $500 - $1,000 to a company and in return you get all the tools needed to start your own medical billing company. Unfortunately, most of the items that you receive from them are useless. Many times all you receive is old billing software and the names of a few medical billing companies.
With this scam, a company promises to give you a great list of work from home jobs. They advertise that they have researched these jobs and that you can easily get hired doing one of them. All you need to do is to pay them a small fee, which could range from $20 - $200 and you will get the list. Unfortunately, some people never receive a list after they pay for it. Others get a list that contains the name of a few different companies, which may not even hire people to work from home. This is a very sad attempt to make money.
If you want to work from home, don't let scams discourage you. There's a great job out there for you. Just remember to do lots of research before committing to anything. Have you ever been the victim of a work from home scam?
Sources: forbes.com, workaholics4hire.com