How to avoid online home business scams.

Sadly, like many people I have fallen for online money making schemes one way or another over the years and have been taken for quite a lot of money. There are multiple ways these nefarious online groups can fleece you out of your hard earned money. I have compiled 11 of them and ways to protect you below.

Auctions

A website selling you, on making money quick, can be a website where you are given a guide (after purchase) about an auction listing business opportunity. The guide will train you how to purchase items for cheap and then resell them for profit using EBay. This business has been around as long as online auctions have been. Auction sites like EBay have complete instructions on how to setup, join and run a business on EBay as well as a dedicated community that can help you further your business there.

Home Craft Assembly

This treats you to assemble a range of craft projects at home with the promise of high per-piece rates. All you have to do is pay a fee up-front for the starter kit... which includes instructions and parts. When you finish assembling your first batch of crafts and contact the company, you'll be told by that they "do not meet our specifications." In fact, even if you did it perfectly, it would be impossible for you to meet their “specifications”. The company is making money selling the starter kits -- not selling the assembled product. So, you're left with a set of assembled crafts... and no one to sell them to except maybe someone on Ebay.

Medical Billing

In this scam, you pay $300-$900 for everything (Apparently) you need to start your own medical billing service at home. You're promised state-of-the-art medical billing software, as well as a list of potential clients in your area.

What you're not told is that most medical clinics process their own bills, or outsource the processing to firms, not individuals. Your software may not meet their specifications, and often the lists of "potential clients" are outdated or just plain wrong.

Email Processing

This is a variation on the "envelope stuffing" below. For a low price ($20 -$50) you can become a "highly-paid" email processor working "from the comfort of your own home." Now... what do you suppose an email processor does? What you get for your money are instructions on spamming the same ad you responded to in newsgroups and Web forums!

"A List of Companies Looking for Homeworkers!"

In this one, you pay a small fee for a list of companies looking for homeworkers just like you. The only problem is that the list is usually a generic list of companies, companies that don't take homeworkers, or companies that may have accepted homeworkers long, long ago, or companies that will charge you a fee to join.

"Call This 1-900 Number For More Information."

Waste no time (or money) on this one. 1-900 numbers cost money to call and WHAM they got your money. Don't call these numbers for more information about a supposed work-at-home gig.

Typing At Home

How it works: After sending the fee to the for "more information," you receive a disk and printed information that tells you to place home typist ads and sell copies of the disk to the MENDICANTS, I mean prospective applicants, who reply to you and thereby turning you into a scammer!

"Make Your Computer Into a Money-Making Machine!"

Translating it should read: "Turn your computer into a money-making machine... for spammers! Once you paid your money, you'll be sent instructions on how to place ads and pull in people to "turn their computers into money-making machines."

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)

If you have heard of network marketing (like Amway), then you know that there are legitimate MLM business models based on agents selling products or services.
A big problem with MLMs is when the pyramid and the ladder-climbing become more important than selling the actual product or service.

If the MLM business opportunity is all about finding new recruits rather than selling products or services the Federal Trade Commission may consider it to be a pyramid scheme and not only can you lose all your money, but you can be charged with fraud.

One MLM company advertised the product they were selling as FREE. The fine print, however, states that it is "free in the sense that you could be earning commissions and bonuses in excess of the cost of your monthly purchase of" the product.

Chain Letters/Emails ("This was big back in the 1990’s")

They promise that all you have to do is send the email along with some money by mail (post office) to the top names on the list, then add your name to the bottom. Then your name will move up the list by others that will send in money to you and so on and so on. This is a pyramid scheme, and most times the names in the chain emails are manipulated to make sure only the people at the top of the list make any money.

Envelope Stuffing

This is one of the oldest work-at-home schemes. It's been around since the U.S. Depression of the 1920s and 1930s. There are several variations, but here's a sample: Much like above, you are promised to be paid $1-2 for every envelope you stuff. All you have to do is send money and you're guaranteed "up to 1,000 envelopes a week that you can stuff... with postage and address already affixed!" When you send your money, you get a short manual with flyer templates you're supposed to put up around town, advertising exactly what you are doing and those pre-addressed, pre-paid envelopes? When people see those flyers, all they have to do is send you $2.00 in a pre-addressed, pre-paid envelope. Then you stuff that envelope with another flyer and send it to them.

I would also note that giving money to someone that does not show what the actual business is about is a very bad move. Also, if the payment system is not PayPal or Click-bank, and you paid your money and then determine you don’t like the business model, you have to directly appeal to that website for your refund, and then it’s at their judgment whether or not they return your money and if there is no refund policy in their Terms page, which generally means they don’t offer refunds. While it does say on the sales page that there is a 30+ day money back policy, generally these extended policies say that you must have documented proof that you tried their system step-by-step and then failed to make a single dollar before the company will give you your money back.

MY STEPS TO KEEP YOU SAFE

When browsing for online work at home jobs.

1. Use Firefox as a browser and add the WOT addon. www.mywot.com WOT is the web of trust community that watches out for scams and malicious adware/malware websites. This addon provides that, (upon looking at a search in a search engine) a colored circle is posted at the end of every searched link. This circles color represents the danger level of that particular weblink.

· For instance ‘Green’ means good and ‘Red’ means dangerous. Clicking on the circle will give you the option of looking at what other people have to say about their experience with that particular site. This will help in determining if that blah-blah-home-internet-millionaire-job dot com site has a good reputation or not.

· Also, this helps you if you are doing a browser image search and click onto a malicious site by accident and if it’s been recorded then it will pop a warning about the site before you reach the site and execute any male-ware scripts.

· Also, using the WOT gives you the ability to weed out the bad review sites that say they that blah-blah-home-internet-millionaire-job dot com is a good site by looking at the level of trust these review sites have as well.

2.  Research the site thoroughly

· For instance in your search engine type the name of the site or its owner and the words ‘Scam’ or ‘Review’ and look at the sites that have reviews and forums for people to discuss their situation on that particular site. Again WOT will help you weed out the bad review sites.

3. Use Trusted consumer review sites such as these two below:

www.sitejabber.com

SiteJabber is a consumer protection site which helps people avoid fraudulent websites and they. check for scams, frauds and complaints.

www.staysafeonline.org

A serious situation of the continued bad economy has been a surge in the number of online work-at-home scams reported on SiteJabber. In response to this, staysafeonline has developed a resources to help consumers avoid getting scammed.

Finding a job at home can be a rewarding and exciting time. Keep safe and knowledgeable and you will be the better for it. Happy Hunting!!!