If you’re looking for extra income, you may be tempted by
“work at home” promises. Before you proceed, learn to
recognize the most common work-at-home scams.
Assembly work-at-home: This scheme requires you to invest
hundreds of dollars in instructions and materials and many
hours of your time to produce items such as baby booties,
toy clowns, plastic signs, etc., for a company that has
promised to buy them. Once you have purchased the supplies
and have done the work, the company usually decides not to
pay you because your work does not meet certain “standards.”
Envelope stuffing: When answering such ads, you may not
receive the expected envelopes for stuffing, but instead
get promotional material asking for cash just for details
on money-making plans. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service
says it “knows of no work-at-home promotion that ever
produces income as alleged.”
Multi-level marketing: Multi-level marketing, a direct sales
system, can be a legitimate form of business. On the other
hand, illegitimate pyramid schemes can resemble these
legitimate direct sales systems. An obvious difference is
that scams place the emphasis is on recruiting others to
join the program, not on selling the product.
Processing medical insurance claims: You’re told you will
process insurance claims on your home computer for health
care professionals such as doctors, dentists, chiropractors,
and podiatrists. Most likely, the expensive training
sessions and software programs you buy will prove to be of
little use while the market for your services is very
small or nonexistent.
If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it’s a scam.
