Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Top 4 Biggest Work from Home Scams



Envelope Stuffing
Most companies already have a mailing house that send out their literature for mere pennies. Therefore, it's not likely any company would offer more than that to have someone stuff envelopes for them. This is a scam where one is typically asked to pay a deposit for "office supplies" or the like only to receive a packet that shows how to rip someone else off in return. Not only is this NOT a legit work from home opportunity, it's bad karma. Bad, bad karma.

Medical Billing/Claims Processing
For legal reasons, the medical profession is very specific with their privacy practices. Therefore, it's not likely just anyone will be allowed to handle private medical information. (Honestly, would you want just anyone handling yours?) Billing services are typically handled by established companies with trained and certified workers at an onsite location.

Assembly Work
Whether it's assembling toys, jewelry or anything else, these are the types of jobs that typically end up in offshore factories. Why? Because the labor is cheap and can be done for pennies on the dollar. It's simply not financially feasible for a company to pay a worker thousands for assembling birdhouses from the comfort of home.

Refund Recovery Work
In this scam, one buys a "special software" to help track lost UPS and FedEx packages in order to get refunds for customers and make a commission from the recovered amount. In all reality, a customers who are due a refund can simply look up the information and call customer care by themselves on the UPS or FedEx website— and do it all for FREE.

Not sure if the work from home opportunity you just found is a scam?

Never, NEVER pay to work from home. While some legitimate telecommuting jobs require you to invest in equipment such as headsets or software, beware of anyone requiring a "down payment" or deposit for a "special packet of information". 

Do your research. Check the company out with the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and Fraud.org. 

Ask questions. A company offering a legitimate work from home opportunity should be able to easily answer what tasks will need to be performed, whether a salary or commission is paid, who does the paying and when the first check is sent out.

Use your intuition. If it doesn't feel right then listen to your inner voice, leave it behind and don't ever look back. The rule is: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.