Many work at home business are honest, but there are also many that are scams. Work at home scams are only looking to rip off honest citizens such as yourself and make a run for your money. With recent advances in communications technology, namely the Internet, it’s so much easier now to defraud and scam someone about work at home schemes that promises easy cash and instant wealth.
To avoid such work at home scams, you can arm yourself with the proper munitions, in this case, research work and information about scams. You can also find out more about the companies that will help you in case you do get entangled in a work at home scam.
Research
One of your best defenses against work at home scams is information and that can only be acquired through research. In this regard, you can work the Internet to your advantage. With the ever rising popularity of the Internet, access to information is becoming more available, to say the least. Read about work at home scams from websites that specialize in such. There are a few sites out there that host articles about real victims of work at home scams. You can treat their stories as learning experiences and make no mistake of falling for the same trap.
Where to get help when you are a victim of a work at home scam
There are actually several places where you can check if you need help concerning work at home scams. If you find that you have become a victim to fraudulent claims made by con artists, you can go to these places and ask for help. The good thing about these places is that they also provide some important information about work at home scams.
- Fraud.org – This is the official site for the National Fraud Information Center. Here you can find listings of work at home scams that have been going around both online and offline.
- BBB.org – The Better Business Bureau is another such center that specializes in helping victims of work at home scams cope. The site offers a link to the BBB in your area as well as information on work at home scams.
- ScamBusters.com – Scam Busters is a private entity that helps people protect themselves from Internet scams.
- WorldWideScam.com – Another website that publishes articles about work at home scams. They take a more humorous approach to some of the more outrageous scams today.
Before starting any work at home opportunity, always do your research first and learn more about the business you’re considering. Talk to others that are in the same business and find out what challenges they have faced.
Many websites claim to offer home business opportunities. Some people do make money at home through online jobs, but many of these so-called opportunities are scams. How do you know the difference? Here are some tips for avoiding home business scams.
First, use some common sense. If you are looking because you’re short on funds, it can be easy to talk yourself into believing the promises you will read online. Try to look at the offers objectively. Many scams try to convince you that you will become wealthy with little effort, and you might even see on the website that this is some “secret” for making money that is just now being revealed. Much later they reveal the cost for learning the secret. Before buying this kind of information, take a moment to wonder why it’s being sold. If it’s really that effective, the person selling it should be wealthy and not need to sell anything.
Second, don’t get involved in a pyramid scheme. These are programs that pay you to recruit but don’t really have a product to sell. You make money by getting other people to join the system. This only works for those who start the pyramid scheme, and is illegal in several states. Note that this is not the same as home party or similar plans where you get a percentage from what you sell in addition to a percentage from those you recruit.
Third, don’t pay to stuff envelopes or make products. In fact, don’t pay to work for anybody.
Avoiding home business scams means avoiding anything that offers easy wealth. It also means avoiding paying to work for somebody. Don’t expect anything online that makes no sense in the real world. Don’t get scammed.