Work at Home Scams and How to Avoid Them

If you've looked for work anytime in the past decade, you've no doubt run across any number of work at home scams. These are the job listings that seem too good to be true, that crop up in your e-mail, in online ads, or occasionally show up on legitimate job websites (although most make an effort to police their listings). Now, some work at home job offers may be totally legit, so there's no need to go throwing the baby out with the bath water and assume they're all work at home scams. However, if a job posting seems too good to be true, you can be sure it is!

How to Tell Legitimate Jobs from Work at Home Scams

There are a number of warning flags that will indicate whether the job being offered is above board, or if it is just one of these work at home scams.

Work at Home Scams Usually Promise You'll Get Rich Quick

If a job promises to make you rich fast or guarantees any kind of financial success, you should probably avoid it. Be especially wary of jobs that offer ridiculously high income for part-time hours. No matter how much you'd like to believe otherwise, that smiling mom in the picture isn't really pulling down $36,000 a month working three hours a day or less.

Work at Home Scams Often Ask for Money Upfront

Hang on to your cash! Legitimate employers don't charge you to work for them, and won't ask for any kind of fee to “get you started.” You should also ignore any ads offering to sell you “work at home directories” or “start-up kits.”

Work at Home Scams Often Fold Under Close Scrutiny

Even if a job posting seems legitimate, it's still a good idea to gather as much information as you can before committing to it. Find out if you're working for a salary or if you're being paid on commission or piece work. You should also ask how you'll be paid (cash, check, direct deposit) and how often. Finally, ask what equipment (hardware and software) will be provided and what you'll be expected to provide yourself.

Work at Home Scams Usually Won't Provide References

If you have your doubts about the company's legitimacy, ask for a list of other contractors or employees you can contact. If the company does provide you with a list, call the references and ask them specific questions about their experiences working there. If the company isn't willing to provide references with legitimate contact information (names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers), then you should probably look elsewhere.

Types of Work at Home Job Scams

Here are some of the more popular work at home job scams. No matter how tempting they may seem, steer clear of these “opportunities.”

Assembling Kits

You're not going to get rich assembling craft kits or any other kinds of kits for distribution or resale. However, the person who originally wrote the ad might get rich if you send in money for the “package to get you started.”

Posting Ads

A lot of work at home scams promise big bucks to workers who are willing to post ads on bulletin boards, message boards, and other online forums. However, if you read the fine print, you'll see you're not getting paid for posting. Instead, you're being offered a pittance for every person that responds to one of your ads and signs up for a job similar to yours.

Data Entry

There are a lot a work at home scams involving data entry. Most of these are either jobs posting more ads for work at home scams (see Posting Ads above), or they're offering to sell you that ever-popular “kit to get you started.”

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)

Despite the snazzy three-letter acronym, MLM is a pyramid scam, pure and simple. These work at home scams involve recruiting new people to sell a product. These new people, in turn, recruit more new people, and so on. If your income hinges on gathering new recruits, keep in mind that you're probably competing against thousands of others who are attempting to do the same thing (including the person who posted the original job listing). Admittedly, a few people might get rich from this scam, but you probably have better odds of getting struck by lightning on the day you buy a winning lottery ticket. Also, bear in mind that MLM is not a paying job. It's an attempt to start a very risky business, with absolutely no guarantees of success.

Stuffing Envelopes

Want to find out how you can earn $3 or $4 per envelope to stuff them? Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but you can't. Any company that does mass mailings is going to have a postage machine to stuff, sort, and meter their mail. Anyone that tries to tell you otherwise (for a fee) is simply fishing for your hard-earned money.

Processing Claims

This one almost sounds legitimate, until you find out you have to pay a large fee upfront for your equipment, software, and training. These companies make far more from “hiring” people than you ever will by working for them.

Starting Your Own Online Business

Do you want to start your very own online business and make lots of money? Well step one involves not responding to these ads. Basically, these work at home scams are selling you a “guide” that contains information freely available online.