Latest Work-At-Home Scams

Okay, you just finished eating a meal after a hard days work, you get on your computer and do a search on Google or yahoo for “work at home no scam opportunities” and you get 152,000,000 search results. You go through the first three pages and then you get overwhelmed. There are just too many work at home programs on the internet with each promising you that you can become rich with 30 days and quit your job. Lets face is the thought of making $5,000- $10,000 per month is very tempting.

But at the end of their long sales pitch, they ask you for a $39.95 membership fee.

If you are like me, you don’t mind investing $39.95 if you can make $5,000-$10,000 in the next 30 days. This question comes to your mind “is this a work at home scam?”

I can tell you that I have been scammed more than 10 times on the internet and that is with proper research by checking with the better business bureau. These are the common work at home scams that wannabe work at home moms fall into:

Envelope stuffing: This work at home scheme requires you to send a $39.95 (it varies) registration fee with a $20 fee for expedited shipping. You receive a package in the mail that that tells you that you will not be stuffing any envelopes. Instead you will be sending ads out to people with the hope that people will send you their money. In fact no envelopes are provided for this and you have to purchase your own envelopes, stamps and rent a post office box if you don’t want to advertise your mailing address.

Other companies that actually give you envelopes to stuff refuse to pay after you must have done the work.

They get away with it because they know that most victims are too embarrassed to make formal complaints. This has made it difficult for the internet police to know which work at home scheme is a rip-off.

Whether it involves stuffing envelopes, processing medical insurance claims most victims never get paid for their work or ever recover their investments. The most likely prey includes senior citizens, stay-at-home mothers and people with low incomes.

With the internet, the envelope stuffing scams are gaining more grounds and spreading like wild fire, so beware!

Money mule: This is another work at home scam that is very popular. This involves scammers recruiting US based agents to cash fraudulent or stolen checks and transferring the money to a foreign account using the agents bank account.

According to the Better Business Bureau, a Russian Business Online Company, Once recruited a stay-at-home mom who said she saw an ad for a "transfer wire agent" in her local paper. After signing up on Rustransline's Web site, she began to receive checks from a client in Cape Charles, Va., which she cashed and then wired to a bank account in Moscow, as instructed.

Guess who was hooked when the checks turned out to be fraudulent? She was on the hook with her bank for $6,000. (Rustransline's listed phone number was not in service, and repeated e-mails to the company were not returned.)

Liquidation Business: The liquidation business is a very lucrative business and a great way for stay home moms to make a killing. In this business, you are recruited by a liquidations firms as a “close-out finder” In other words, your job is to contact various business in your local yellow pages, online business directories inquiring if they have any over-stock in their inventories or if they needed more space for new stocks of products. If they say yes, you ask them for the quantity of the over-stock( which at times could be as much as 100,000 pieces). You offer them a price which is usually about 25-35% of the market price. If they agree to your price bid, you ask them to send 4 samples to the liquidation firm you represent. Now this is the scam. The scammer sells you various promotional items such as post cards, a list of potential companies to contact and a letter headed paper and envelops. You could spend up o $500 on these items. After you have your customer send their 4 samples, you get a reply from your liquidation company after 2 weeks that your samples are not of food quality or the asking price is not competitive for their buyers, You are left with a huge phone bill at the end of the month and $500 has just gone down the drain.

They contact you again encouraging you to buy more promotional items and keep on working on your new business until you get that sweet deal and can make you $20,000 profit.

Don’t do it. Check with the Better Business Bureau first to see if any complaint have been made against such companies and be aware that such companies usually change their names and addresses just to cover up their tracks.

Mystery shopper: This is another common work at home scam. I have spoken to different bank managers and most have confirmed that these scammer are from Canada. They send you a letter in the mail with a Canadian stamp on it. They offer you a mystery shopping job with a $500 paid training. All you need to do is call the number on the letter to speak with your personal coach to get you started with your first mystery shopping assignment. The tone of the letter carries a sense of urgency. “you must call this number within 24 hours to keep your position or they would assume you are not interested in this opportunity and give it to someone else” This is the first sign of a work at home scam. Never feel pressured into acting on any work-at-home offer. This opportunity becomes very tempting because you do not need to invest a dime. In fact, the letter comes with an enclosed check of $5,000 for your first mystery shopping assignment.

When you call your coach, you will be asked to cash the check and complete your mystery shopping assignment within 24hrs. This is the catch. You will be instructed to go to a money transfer point usually western union and money gram. You will be asked to transfer $4,350 splitted between the two money transfer companies usually to the scammer. You spend the $150 at the mall and the remaining $500 is your paid training. Cool money right?

Do not be deceived and try to play it smart. If you call the bank phone number written on the check, you will speak to a live agent; another scammer who will verify the check as being authentic.