Working at home is not for everyone; investigate every work-at-home offer.
With the rise of the Internet and increasing encouragement of telecommuting, myriad work-at-home opportunities exist, but, unfortunately, there are just as many work-at-home scams. It's important for anyone considering such a situation to check the offer against several of the known hallmarks of work-at-home fraud tactics.
Instructions
1. Research the company. Any company offering a work-at-home opportunity should clearly identify itself, and any parent company, if applicable. Review the company's website, any news articles about the company and other positions for which it is recruiting. Search court records in the locale of the company's headquarters to see whether any suits have been filed against it, especially worker-related claims. One of the easiest ways to learn about a company's reputation is to look it up through the Better Business Bureau, which accredits businesses, keeps a record of complaints against them and mediates disputes.
2. Ask questions. Legitimate job ads and offers tell you up front the tasks involved in doing the job, the terms of your pay and the qualifications you need to do the job. You should ask who will pay you, when you will be paid and what expenses you are expected to incur to do the job.
3. Know the warning signs. Common techniques used by illegitimate work-at-home schemers include advance fee fraud. If a job requires you to put up money before you do any work or before you can be paid, check it out. Some of them make their money by requiring you to buy training materials or inventory, and there's no job waiting for you afterward. Another twist is if you are sent a check before you do any work. This is common for mystery shopping schemes. They tell you to shop, keep a small portion and send the rest back to the company. The check is usually fake, but your money, if you send it, is real and gone forever.
Pyramid schemes that require you to buy lots of inventory and then recruit lots of people often are scams that quickly fall apart. In addition, overseas scammers use spam email and free jobs sites to persuade you into acting as an agent, doing anything from shipping, converting currency, holding funds and otherwise participating in potentially criminal activity.
Some of the oldest schemes involve envelope stuffing, product assembly, coupon refunding, newspaper clipping, TV monitoring, chain letters, reading email, mail order, reviewing books or websites and surfing the Internet.
4. File a complaint if you find yourself working for an unscrupulous operation and suspect you have been scammed. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center can investigate the matter and pursue prosecution, as can the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel and the Better Business Bureau's Complaint service.
