|
Home Business Scams and How to Avoid Them
You’ve
heard their highly tempting proposition at least once: with
this job or business, you’ll make money fast and in large
amounts, without having to work as hard as you’re working
now, and in the comfort of your own home. But are such
offers to be trusted? How can you tell if a home business
offer is fake or for real? Here are a few of the most common
business scams you should avoid:
The
Classic “Envelope Stuffing” Scam
Perhaps the
most infamous of all home-based business scams, this one
requires you to send a small fee to a company who will send
you a specific number of envelopes to stuff. You are
promised to be paid a fee for every envelope that you stuff,
but more often than not, the money never comes, and instead
of earning, you’ve actually lost money because of the fee
you initially paid the company.
The
“Call 1-900-“ Scam
Advertisements for this scam will tell you to call a 1-900
number in order to obtain more information on a
home-business offer or a work-at-home job. But 1-900
numbers, unlike 1-800 ones, are not toll fee and require a
fee, so you end up losing money by just making the call. And
the information they promised? Often such information is
next to trivial, and totally useless.
The Scam
that Turns You into a Scammer
With this
one, you’ll usually receive an email promising you lots of
earnings by just using your computer at home to send out
some emails. All you have to do is send them a small fee to
receive some instructions.
What you
get for the fee you paid them are instructions on how you
can send the same email you received to other addresses. And
the payback you get? Non-existent.
Some
Tips on How You Can Avoid Home-Business Scams
1. If it
seems too good to be true, chances are, it probably is. If a
home business idea or work-at-home-job offers you huge
amounts of money for doing next to nothing, chances are,
what you’ll actually get in return is next to nothing – or
worse, you would’ve lost money as well.
2. Never
pay a company for the chance to work. Remember, you’re
looking for a job home-based business because you want to be
paid, not the other way around.
3. If it’s
spam, it’s most likely a scam. There’s only one thing to do
with spam, and that’s hit delete.
A
home-based business can be a very lucrative and fulfilling
venture, but make sure that you’re starting one that’s
legitimate and with actual worth. Otherwise, you’ll realize
that you’ve left your job only to be taken advantage of.
|
