One of the first things to remember is that there is no shortcut to success. Most of the get-rich-quick schemes that thrive on the Internet are pure fiction and their only aim is to draw as much money from you as possible. There are many people who have been successful working from home but they had to put in a lot of effort and a lot of hours before they could quit their day jobs. So if you come across sites that claim to give you money that is way out-of-proportion with the work you put in, you can easily assume that it is just a gimmick to lure you.

There might be many legitimate data-entry jobs over the Internet and on the same page the number of scams outnumbers the legitimate ones. Most of the advertisements for data entry ask for a “nominal” fee and it is a remarkable indicator of a scam. Never pay money for people to give you job. Even if you were working from home, an authentic job offer would not ask for any payment from your side. This holds true for other scams like filling up surveys and advertisements asking you for money to send you assembly kits.

Other scams include websites that ask you for a small sum of money to download their excellent product that will help you in setting up online business. This could be a rip-off in two ways: 1.The download might just be a book giving you tips on setting up online business but it will have no original information. All the so-called “precious” information offered by the website, will be available freely on the net, all you have to do is search long enough. 2. It might contain spyware that will infiltrate your database and take all your personal information like your bank details! So, if you are downloading anything to increase your potential for working from home, be 100% sure that is authentic.

If you have not applied for a job and you get offer for working from home, be very careful. There could be some hidden problem there. It is advisable not to trust the scams that send you a well-composed offer letter, buried in it are questions about your bank account.

Another great scam doing the rounds in the name of working from home opportunity is the internet based pyramid schemes with no product. While all MLMs and legitimate network marketing offers are not scams, there are not many success stories out there. Know who you are working with. The numbers of people who make it big are only a handful, so it is advisable to steer clear of these schemes if the people you are working with are not successful themselves

The first step is to search for jobs in the right places. Don’t simply click on ads to find work. Try to find helpful groups of Wahms who have successful work at home jobs to guide your search. You can try searching on message boards or finding e-mail groups for ideas of where to start your work at home job search. Many of these women can give you insight into which work at home opportunities are actually worth your time.

Keep in mind that there are no real ways to get rich quick on the Internet or by working at home. The only people who get rich are those who are scamming others. Never believe an ad or an “employer” who claims that you will get rich instantly.

There are also a few red flags to look for when you are searching for Internet jobs. You should never have to pay for work or job lists. There are plenty of free listings available that can provide tons of work at home opportunities. Companies that want to charge you for lists of jobs are just trying to get your money. The lists are often filled with dead job leads, or lists of companies that want to charge you money. Many work at home scams will also require you to pay a start-up fee or cover the cost of “necessary” training. Again, legitimate jobs will never require you to pay them any money for you to work.

Another warning sign is if the ad or website tells you to “act now.” You should always do research before joining a company and never feel pressured to make a decision right away. Many websites are set up with text that says that the offer will expire on today’s date. But if you revisit that website the next day, the ad says that the offer expires on that day.

If you are unsure about a company, do some research on the Better Business Bureau website. The BBB has files on all businesses that have had complaints filed against them. You can see what other people have to say about a particular company and be steered away from scams.

There are some scams that have been around for years that should be avoided at all costs. These business scams have unfortunately been successful for the scammers, so they continue to take the money and time of hardworking Wahms. If you see an offer for any of the following types of jobs, run the other way.

Envelope stuffing is a common scam, although it is being seen less and less these days. These jobs are normally listed as mail service jobs, and then you are asked to pay for a start up kit. After you receive a start up kit, you are given instructions to place your own work at home ads. You basically just sell the start up kit to other people and become a scammer.

Craft assembly scams can take many forms. Typically, you receive a set of crafts to complete with instructions. You generally pay for the set and then are told you will be reimbursed for the kits and also paid for their assembly. After working hard at assembling the kits and returning them, you will be told that your work is not up to their quality standards. You will be out the cost of the kits, and they will sell your crafts anyway.

There are legitimate jobs out there for Wahms, but you have to do some research on the opportunities first. With a little time and careful analysis you can find a work at home job that will be rewarding and scam free.

No longer can you could assemble parts for manufacturers, make stuffed toys and make greetings cards. The economy today is internet based so you will need a reliable internet connection and a computer.

Work from home scams

Here is what you should avoid. I will not focus on any company but instead share with you some scam scenario you may encounter. I am also going to stick to internet based scammers.

First off I will mention is where they offer to sell you a list of companies that are looking for home internet workers. In general be wary of what you are paying for, whilst some of the companies on the list may well be looking workers many of these lists are out of date and not worth the money.

Secondly there are the pyramid scams. This is where you will be charged a fee to join and earn money by getting others to join. These schemes are illegal in most countries and people who join rarely make any money.

What are legitimate work from home typing jobs?

You can find many ways you can earn money using your typing skills on the internet which allow you to work at home and work the hours around your family life. Whilst most of the type of work is typing based there will be instances where non-typing work is required, such jobs are where you become a mystery shopper.

Something you can do is contact local offices, businesses and medical establishments in your area offering your typing services. You will find that many have typing work they cannot manage due to backlogs that their own staff can’t clear. If you explain to them about your typing level, accuracy and reliability and also explain your situation can find local part-time work this way. Whilst this may not give you all the work you need it’s a start.

If on the other hand you need to remain at home then the internet is your best option for finding typing based work. There are several avenues you can investigate, as I mentioned earlier there are the traditional quick starter jobs you can do. These include getting paid to click, paid to search, online surveys, paid to complete offers, reading email offers, typing review, typing comments and other similar opportunities.

Whilst these options are a good starting point you may want to eventually move on to more higher paid work. This more advanced typing work requires more effort on your behalf to find but is more rewarding. There are webmaster’s all around the world that often require jobs doing. These include writing articles, participating in forums and communities, typing descriptions and creating other unique content.

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” – Zig Ziglar

The internet is filled with opportunities but there are numerous cons out there. Here are 3 of the more common cons and a basic idea on how they operate.

Home Assembly and Stuffing Envelops - These two are quite commom. You pay what seems like a nominal amount to get the parts to assemble/stuff with the promise of payment for work done upon completion of the project. But after you’re finished, they tell you your work is below the required standard.

Pyramid Schemes - This scheme has been around since before the advent of the internet. Just as with the other two schemes, you need to part with some money to be a member. Soon it will dawn on you that you make money from the recruitment of new members and not from selling actual products.

Suffice to say it would be a good idea to avoid claims that boasts the ability to make you a lot of money in ridiculously short period of time without putting in much effort. Many of these sites make absurd claims but have next to nothing when it comes to content. They require you to ‘buy in’ but they offer no clear way to achieve your goals. Sure some sites have unbelievable product testimonials but they lack links to legitimate working sites. Even if they do its probably a variation of another site. How about this, just type ‘internet work from home scams’ and hit the enter key.

But for now let’s talk about how you can avoid home business scams.

If you’re thinking of working from home you have to realize that at least 99 percent of the offers out there are scams. Now really if is so easy to pay a few dollars and make thousands, wouldn’t everyone be doing it by now? Here are the biggest scams out there, how to recognize them, and how to avoid them.

First where did you see the ‘Big Money’ work from home offer? If you received it in your email, saw a poster tacked to a bulletin board or one of those little signs on the side of the road then I can almost guarantee you that it’s not a legitimate offer. If you saw an ad in a newspaper, a job magazine or on a job website, then it’s more likely to be legitimate but not always. Remember always check out any offer, and assume it’s a scam until you have proof it’s not.

Envelope Stuffing is one of the most established work from home scams. The way it works is 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.

Then you stuff your envelopes and pay to send them out. You could make some money if someone responds to your ad but the chances are slim. Don’t waste your money on this one.

Home assemblers wanted. Charging for supplies is hard to pin down to any one scam it’s the way almost all work at home scams work. First you will be asked invest in the materials needed to do the work and then you will be sent very cheap materials that aren’t worth anything like what you paid for them. Once the product is assembled you’ll find that there’s no one who will buy it.

Quick tip: If anyone asks for money up front run away fast. A real company should be willing to deduct any fees from your first paycheck. If they won’t do that for you, then that’s because they don’t ever plan to pay you.

A variation on the scam common with crafts is that you might be asked to work at home making clothes, ornaments or toys. Everything seems legitimate you’ve got the materials without paying out 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. Never do craft work from home unless you’re selling the items yourself.

Now let us discuss home typing and medical billing scams. There are lots of work from home scams that will lead you to believe that they have more work than they can handle so they need people to work from home. What will happen? You will be told that you would be typing documents, or entering medical bills into a computer.

These scams have one thing in common. They say all you need is your computer and then all you have to do is buy their special software to do the job.

This software might appear to be from a completely unrelated company, but don’t be fooled. The whole reason the work from home ad was there to begin with was a sneaky way to sell you their software.

I hope this helps you see running a home business that involves you working for one company is a bad idea. You don’t know whom you’re dealing with. Remember even with entirely legal work at home offers that does pay you for your work, you still won’t make near as much money as you can with your very own home business.

As I mentioned above, I really recommend you full utilize the internet to generate income online. Check out all the online resources that time permits as your understanding and application of knowledge is the thing which will set you apart from the competition.

These tips may help you avoid being the victim of a scam. First, let’s agree on a definition of the word scam. In scam situations you are handing over money or goods for something that either does not exist, or does not operate properly. It may be of extremely poor quality, or fail to live up to the exaggerated claims of performance. Maybe it was never the vendor’s product to sell in the first place. Work-at-home scams are often presented to appear as if you are being offered a job. This is because most people are more trusting of job offers as opposed to business opportunities. The best way to avoid these internet scams is to thoroughly research each opportunity before you move forward with it.

These scams can be broken down into various categories. The scams we shall be dealing with initially are brought to your attention via the Internet. These are the popular Home Business offers of over night prosperity which try to attract you initially with lots of hype, lots of CAPITAL LETTERS, lots of punctuation and lots of highlighted text. I am going to give you a quick rundown of so called work at home opportunities to avoid. You should memorize this list and avoid these offers like the plague. The most common home business scams are envelope stuffing, product/craft assembly, pyramid schemes, type-at-home projects and unsolicited emails.

To avoid being labeled a home business scam you need a business that provides something of value at a reasonable price. You also need a way to securely receive payment, and a way to deliver the goods in a timely fashion. Yes, there are scams out there, but the majority of the ads you will see are offering real opportunities that can make you money. Recently, (mid 2007) the Better Business Bureau has been receiving reports that even some online employment agencies, are being targeted by scam artists. Their only aim is to steal bank details and other sensitive information about people seeking employment. In other words, Identity Theft.

Internet home business scams are all too common, which places a burden on legitimate businesses to prove themselves to be legal. These hints on avoiding home business scams are only meant as a guideline to help you stay away from fraudulent and misleading deals. Recognizing home business

opportunity scams is something every person must learn if they truly want to find a legitimate home business opportunity. If it sounds too good to be true it usually is too good to be true.

Here are some examples of some work at home business scams:

Scam #1: Envelope Stuffing
This is the classic con which many of us has come across at least once in the past. You see an advertisement or a junk mail announcing that you can gain $1-$2 for every envelope you stuff. Sounds like you can earn money easily, right?? Think again. Most of the time, you need to pay a start-up fee of somewhere $30 or more to join the envelope stuffing program. When you receive the start-up package, you realize that the instruction tells you to spread the word about this envelope stuffing business, then you will get paid. The trick is that they want you to help in earning the start-up fees by sending out the same junk mail you received in the first place. The trick is to get your start-up fee (your money!) first before you realize how this home based business scam really works.

Scam #2 : Processing Medical Bills
This home business scam requires you to pay anywhere from $300 to $900 for the tools you need to start your own medical billing service at home. They will promise you some advanced billing software as well as a list of would be clients in your neighborhood. Don’t you think that most medical institutions would process their own medical bills or outsource the processing to a legitimate company, instead of individuals with no experience or knowledge whatsoever? When the package arrives (if it ever does!), you will find that the software is not up-to-date or does not work at all and the list of customers is just plain wrong. Chances are you will never be able to get a refund..

Scam #3 : Craft Assembly
In this home based business scam, you are told you will be given an extremely huge amount of money for every toy, doll, jewelry or other craft item you assemble at home. In order to start, first you are required to pay a start up fee to receive a starter pack which includes instructions and parts. When you are done assembling the product, you are told by the company that they do not meet their specifications therefore you will not get paid for it. Actually you will never be able to reach their expectations because the scam gets money by selling the starter packs. At the end of the day, you are left with a bunch of unwanted products cluttering up your home.

Scam #4 : Data Entry
There are numerous advertisements and postings for data entry opportunities on the Internet and even on online employment sites. All you need to do is just pay $10 to purchase a training package and they would send you all the training materials. You should also see that the job scope is normally very blurry and no prior experience is required. The “job description” is usually that you will need to mail out advertisements and brochures similar to the one you received to other unsuspecting victims. Once they pay up the $10, then you will get half of the money and the person who recruited you will receive half as well.

Scam #5 : Email Processing
This scam is actually similar to the classic envelope stuffing scam stated above. Typically you will be required to pay an upfront fee of about let’s say $49.95 to receive an instruction manual and an email distribution list. The instructions will inform you how to process the emails and you will supposedly get about $25 for each email processed! Seems like the ideal work at home opportunity, doesn’t it?? Wrong! The instructions they send you are actually on how to spam other people’s emails with the same advertisement which motivated you to pay $49.95 in the first place. Then when another unsuspecting person (like yourself) takes the bait and pays $49.95, the spam company will (maybe) pay you your $25.

Ask yourself, is that the kind of work at home job you want to invest your precious time doing? Is it ethical? Is it legal? You are actually associating yourself with a con if you join such work at home business scams, which disguise themselves as genuine opportunities. One thing working from home moms should know is that there is no shortcut to success. Yes, sometimes with luck you can get there speedier than others but most of the time, it takes lots of effort and then some.

Home-Based Business Scam Targets
With many of these businesses the only money earned is the money that the scammers take from unwary opportunity seekers. These scams are aimed at people who want to make money working from home. Many are aimed at mothers with young children who want to do something to improve the family financial situation but who also want to be home for their children. These scams also play on the psychology of people who are really desperate to pay their bills and are having problems doing so.

Make Money Fast Schemes
Three of the most common work from home scams are craft assembly, medical billing and email processing.

In craft assembly you pay up front for a starter kit. When the completed projects are sent back, you are told by the company that your work does not meet their standards. Nothing will ever meet the standards. The whole operation is set up to make money selling the kits (and the promise of income to people who desperately need it).

In medical billing you pay a fee for a list of clients in your area and billing software. Medical clinics rarely if ever outsource their billing to individuals. The work is normally done internally or outsourced to medical billing firms. Trying to get a refund on the money you have paid up front is next to impossible.

In email processing the scammers try to involve you in their scam. They get you to pay up front for the privilege of participating, and then you send the same emails out to others in the hope of taking their money. This has become a lucrative (for the scammers) home business scam.

Pyramid Schemes
A pyramid scheme involves recruiting people to invest money with the promise that your money will be returned many times over (for example, invest $500 and get $5000 back). In this scam you invest money and then you recruit others to invest money. Pyramid schemes are illegal in most places but they are still very common. Pyramid schemes are very similar to the email processing scam. What happens is that a very few people, those at the top of the pyramid, make money while those at the bottom never see any return on their investment. People who get into the scheme early are paid from money collected from participants who get in later. Eventually, the whole scheme collapses.

Don’t Give Your Money Away
Be wary of work from home offers that require you to put up a cash deposit for the privilege of doing the work. Avoid pyramid type schemes where you pay money to someone who promises that you will recover your money many times over just by participating. Home business scams have always been with us, but with the proliferation of these scams on the Internet, it is much easier to rip off unsuspecting victims. Be careful. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Stuffing Envelopes – There are no legitimate envelope-stuffing jobs out there. Please don’t fool yourself into believing there are. Companies can very easily purchase a beautiful machine for a few thousand dollars that will not only stuff the envelopes, it will also fold, collate and apply postage to the envelopes. Why would a company pay you thousands of dollars a month to stuff their envelopes? They wouldn’t. If you send in your fee for this scam, you will receive a copy of the same ad you responded to, and you will now have to scam other people by placing the ad and having them send you their money. This is illegal.

Typing and Data Entry – Similar to the scheme above, if you sign up for this and pay your fee, you will receive a copy of the same ad, and have to place ads to get other people to send you their money. You earn $20 per “application processed” because you are charging people $20 to get the information. Again, illegal. There are some legitimate companies that will hire you to do typing and data entry (such as transcription or coding) — but they won’t charge you a fee to work for them. If a fee is being charged, it’s a scam.

Craft Assembly – Most of these opportunities are scams because they make their money by the start-up fees you pay. When you receive your kit, you will assemble dozens of earrings, potholders, magnets (or whatever), send them in for payment, and they will not pass inspection. You can try to fix them as many times as you like, they still won’t be accepted. The company doesn’t want the items you assembled, they want your money for the start-up kit. There are a few legitimate companies out there, however. Disciple’s Cross and New England Crafters are two we’ve found so far. We are researching others.

Medical Billing – There are companies that will train you to become a Medical Biller from home, as long as you purchase the Medical Billing software for your computer from them. (Usually costs a few hundred dollars at least) What they don’t tell you is that YOU will be responsible for finding your own clients (Doctors/Dentists). This can be incredibly difficult to do, since most medical professionals already use a billing service, or do their own billing in the office. With the new Privacy laws, medical professionals need to be extremely careful with patient records, and most will not want to trust someone with no billing experience to handle the office billing at home.

Payment Associate/Specialist – A company wants to hire you to place auctions on eBay and accept customer payments using your own accounts). You get to keep a portion of the money, and send the rest to the company. The company is supposed to ship the product to the customer, but they don’t. (or they ship stolen goods) You are now in big trouble with eBay and Paypal for fraud. Don’t do it! Don’t ever use your own accounts for anything other than your own business. Companies should be able to set up their own accounts just as easily as you did for yourself.

Pyramid Schemes – A pyramid scheme is when money changes hands but there is no product or service being sold. “Joe” charges you $200 to join the scheme, and then you in turn need to charge others $200 to join, and they charge others, etc. This is illegal. Remember, there must be a product or service being sold.

Gifting Programs – This is also an illegal pyramid scheme, but they call it a “gifting program” — in other words, you “gift” Joe $200, and then you need to find others who will “gift” you $200, and so on. Illegal.

Chain Letters – These have been around for years! They used to come by postal mail, but now they also arrive via email. There are usually 5 names on the list, you need to move each name up a spot, removing the top name, and place your name at the bottom, and then send $5 to each name on the list and send it out to everyone you know. Highly illegal. There is also a version for online payment services like Paypal, you send $2 or $5 (the amount varies) to the people on the list, and others are supposed to do the same for you. Don’t get caught up in something like this, it can ruin your life.

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