Article DetailsWork at Home Scams |
| Date Added: November 08, 2011 01:27:52 PM |
| Author: admin |
| Category: Financial Services |
Work-at-Home SchemesBe part of one of America’s Fastest Growing Industries. Be the Boss! Earn thousands of dollars a month from home! Ads like this are everywhere — from the telephone pole on the corner to your newspaper, email and favorite websites. The jobs might be different, but the message is the same — start earning a great living today working from home, even in your spare time. When money’s tight, work-at-home opportunities can sound like just the thing to make ends meet. Some even promise a refund if you don’t succeed. But the reality is many of these jobs are scams. The con artists peddling them may get you to pay for starter kits or certifications that are useless, and may even charge your credit card without permission. Others just don’t deliver on their promises. The ads don’t tell you that you may have to work a lot of hours without pay, or they don’t disclose all the costs you might incur — say, for placing newspaper ads, making photocopies, or buying the envelopes, paper, stamps and other supplies you need to do the job. People tricked by these ads have lost thousands of dollars, not to mention time and energy. Here are some examples of work-at-home schemes to avoid: Envelope Stuffing. For a “small” fee, the ad says, you’ll learn how to earn lots of money stuffing envelopes at home. But once you pay, you find out the promoter never had any work to offer. Instead, after you send in your money, you get a letter telling you to get other people, even your friends and relatives, to buy the same envelope-stuffing “opportunity” or some other product. The only way you can earn any money is if people respond the same way you did. Assembly or Craft Work. According to the ad, you can make money assembling crafts or other products at home. You may have to invest hundreds of dollars for equipment or supplies — for example, a sewing or sign-making machine from the company, or materials to make items like aprons, baby shoes or plastic signs — or spend lots of hours producing goods for a company that has promised to buy them. But after you’ve paid money and done the work, the company doesn’t pay you — supposedly because your work isn’t “up to standard.” Unfortunately, no work ever is, and you’re left with equipment and supplies — but without any income to show for it. Rebate Processing. The ad in your email says you can earn money by helping to process rebates. And the fee for training, certification or registration is nothing compared to what you’ll earn processing rebates from home, according to the promises in the ad. It says the #1 certified work-at-home consultant behind the program will show you how to succeed like she did. What you get are poorly written and useless training materials. There are no rebates to process, and few people ever see a refund. Online Searches. The ad on the website piques your curiosity — earn $500 to $1000 a week, or even $7,000 a month, running Internet searches on prominent search engines and filling out forms. Even better, you can be your own boss and do the work right from home. What have you got to lose, except a small shipping and handling fee? Unfortunately, you have a lot to lose. The company isn’t really connected with a well-known search engine — scammers are just lying to trick you into handing over your credit or debit card information. If you pay them even a tiny fee online, they can use your financial information to charge you recurring fees. Medical Billing. The ads lure you with promises of a substantial income for full- or part-time work processing medical claims electronically — no experience needed. When you call the toll-free number, a sales rep tells you doctors are eager for help, and in exchange for your investment of hundreds — or thousands — of dollars, you’ll get everything you need to launch your own medical billing business, including the software to process the claims, a list of potential clients and technical support. But companies rarely provide experienced sales staff or contacts in the medical community. The lists they give you often are out-of-date and include doctors who haven’t asked for billing services. The software they send may not even work... Read full article Source: FTC.gov |
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