Work at Home scams

There are many scams that advertise work from home opportunities, promising easy pay or no money down. These ads can be found in your local newspaper, online, and on flyers. The content of these ads is often misleading and not even remotely realistic. Statistics show that there are many different types of work from home scams targeting everyone from the elderly to stay-at-home moms to college students with majors like business or communications. Here are some common types of work from home scams to watch out for.

Some companies hire independent contractors for door-to-door sales. These individuals are told they will make money with no experience, plus they would be allowed to keep all their earnings minus a few expenses. However, there is a catch; these individuals must pay to get the job by buying thousands of dollars worth of inventory. The presentation often goes on as follows: "In the first few weeks, you'll make more than your initial investment back on sales! After that, you're in business and making even more money!" Of course, most will never get back the money they spend on the inventory or earn enough to cover their expenses.

Many work from home scams involve government programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and other programs. The focus of these scams is to get people to pay for services they do not receive. The sad truth is that there are a lot of people in this country who need health insurance but can't afford it. People who need food stamps also cannot afford to get them. These are real needs and can't be fulfilled without financial help from the government. The goal of the scammers is to fraudulently provide fake assistance or make the customer think they are receiving government services for free.

Another work from home scam is found in the form of a "get rich quick" scheme. Successful people can make a lot of money, but you have to be smart about how and when you invest. A common scam involves the sale of an investment product promising high returns with little risk. The catch is that the real return should be low, and that there are hidden risks to consider. For example, some schemes promise high returns if you just buy and hold a stock for several months until it goes up by 100 percent! When people are told to buy a stock they know nothing about, they are then asked to spend thousands of dollars that might not even be needed for their new investment strategy. In reality, you would be better off just investing in your favorite stock or mutual fund.

Some work from home scams involve offering a low-paying job to college students, but at least pays a lot better than the typical campus jobs. These jobs offer good pay, flexible hours and no experience required. What student wouldn't want some extra cash? However if you do some research, you'll find that many of these jobs are only seasonal. During the fall and spring semester, these companies will hire thousands of students to promote their products online. This involves things like entering contests and online events; basically spamming other people's profiles to advertise for their company.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many scams out there that are only after your money. It is important to be aware of these to avoid becoming a victim of one of these and losing your hard earned money. If you do work from home and have questions about the company you work for, never hesitate to ask! Just because a company doesn't provide annual reports does not mean they are not doing anything wrong! Don't let yourself be pressured into doing something illegal or unethical. Take the time to research the company thoroughly before signing up as an employee; read some of their reviews online and get to know them before making any commitment.

Article by Megan Swartz [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.