How To Avoid Work
at Home Scams and What To Do When
You're A Victim
By Vishal P. Rao
As more and more people opt-out
of conventional jobs and instead
choose to work from their homes, the
number of work at home scams has
also increased. Each year thousands
of people find out the hard way that
opportunities which are too good to
be true usually are but not before
they invest and waste millions of
dollars a year.
You don't have to be one of those
unfortunate people. All you need to
do is to become more informed, ask
the appropriate questions, and know
what to do if you are the victim of
illegitimate opportunity.
Become More Informed
One of the first things you
should become aware of are the types
of business opportunities which are
most frequently scams.
One of the oldest of these scams
are stuffing envelopes and/or
assembling items in your home.
You'll find these opportunities in
lots of sources, even some that are
legitimate. However, what most of
these ads fail to say is that you
have to pay them a fee to begin.
Then after you complete your job,
your work is often rejected as
substandard and, of course, you
never see a penny. The other thing
that happens is that you have to
send in money only to receive
instructions on how to place an ad
just like the one that you've just
placed in order to bring individuals
just like yourself.
Another common work at home scams
are Pyramid schemes. Pyramid schemes
are often passed off as MLM
(multi-level marketing)
opportunities, but there is a key
difference. Pyramid schemes are more
concerned with having you bring in
more people and less concerned with
selling products. The reason is that
they aren't making their money off
of selling anything to actual
customers but from taking money from
hopeful entrepreneurs like you. Most
of these schemes ask you to make an
investment or a purchase in order to
become a full-fledged participant
and/or to receive all of your
potential profits. Generally, you
never see any of the earnings
promised in their advertisements.
If an opportunity you've found
seems to fall into one of these
categories, you should start asking
questions before signing up for
anything.
Ask the Appropriate Questions
Even though these work at home
opportunities often state that you
have to act now or join by a certain
time to secure your spot, you must
take the time to ask questions.
Then, don't join unless your
questions are answered to your
satisfaction.
Here are some of those questions:
1) Ask exactly what type of work
you will be expected to perform.
2) Ask how you will be paid. If you
are going to be paid by commission,
be sure to ask exactly what your
percentage will be.
3) Ask exactly how much money you
need to spend, including fees,
supplies, inventory, etc.
4) Ask how long the company has been
in business since non-legitimate
companies frequently change their
name to go out of business.
5) Ask to get copies of the
company's sales materials and
product descriptions, so you can
determine how product-focused the
company is.
Know What to Do If You Are a
Victim
If you are the victim of one of
these scams, then you need to know
what to do next.
Your first course of action
should be to notify the company.
Talk to someone as high up in the
business as possible and be sure to
make them aware that your plan to
contact the appropriate authorities.
If you don't receive any
satisfaction from the company, your
next step is to report the company
to the authorities. You should file
a complaint with at least one, if
not all, of the organizations below:
1. The Federal Trade Commission –
You can file a report through their
web site at
www.ftc.gov 2. The Better
Business Bureau – You can contact
them through their web site at
www.bbb.org. 3. The Attorney
General of Your State – You can find
out how to contact the attorney
general in your area by doing a
search for “Your State attorney
general” at
Google.com. The right page
should be the first or second that
appears in the search results.
The bottom line is if a business
opportunity seems to good to be
true, then it's worth checking out.
Any business that tries to pressure
you into making a hasty decision
isn't a business you should be
working with.
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Vishal P. Rao is the owner of
Home Based Business Opportunities
- One of Internet's leading website
dedicated to starting, managing and
marketing a home based business |
