Work at home scams have been around since long before the internet however the increasing reach of the net has given the scam artists a new method of getting their schemes out to more and more victims. We’ve all seen ads and emails promising us wonderful lifestyles and great home businesses for just a small investment of our money and time and many of us will have been duped in some way or other ourselves. There are also many real opportunities and genuine ways of working at home, the difficulty is in sorting through the scams to reach the gems.

Firstly, your gut instinct can be a pretty reliable indicator, you know that feeling you get “it sounds too good to be true”? - Well yes that instinct is usually correct! Classic home business scams also show signs such as:

Claims of Insider or ‘Secret’ Information

Promises of Huge Profit for Little Effort or Investment

Unrealistic Claims of Simplicity “so easy a child could do it”)

No Previous Experience or Knowledge Required

Testimonials from people you can’t possibly identify or contact (J.Smith, London)

They can only tell you more about the great opportunity after you sign up

A look at the small business magazines shows some real old chestnuts are still going strong. Some of these scams have been around since the printing press. Be especially wary of scams like these ones:

Envelope Stuffing at Home - Come on, how on earth could anybody afford to pay you heaps for a couple of hours stuffing and mailing envelopes when the job can be done on simple office equipment? You’ll more than likely be offered other work at home plans all needing just a small investment! You’ll also be told to buy envelopes and supplies from the promoter and then be told to place ads offering money for stuffing envelopes so you can do the same to someone else!

Assembly Work at Home - You could end up spending your hard earned cash for materials to assemble into whatever item it is promoted only to find that the company then refuses to pay for your work because your workmanship is apparently not up to their standards. Now you’re left with a bunch of useless items that nobody wants.

Claims Processing for Insurance Companies - Apparently the world’s medical practices all need you to help process their claims work and for just a small investment (yes there it is again) you can have the software and be connected to a centralized computer system which will allow you to make a fortune selling your services to medical practices. Happy? - Now try and find a medical practice to have you do their work!

Share Trading Scams - You’ll be asked to pay for expensive software which will analyse info input by you and/or by a connection to the promoters system and then generate share trading recommendations. Not only is the software completely overpriced (it’s usually just a spreadsheet or fancy calculator) but you’ll often find the system recommends many many trades so the ‘recommended broker’ (the same group who sold the software or a business partner) is the one making all the cash from all those commissions!

There are many more home business scams all waiting to trap you, so please use some common sense and only ever hand your money over when you know exactly what you’re getting! When I buy any form of work at home material I do so with a good knowledge of what I’m getting. I expect a website to inform me enough as to the product or service, e.g. I know it is some home business software or perhaps an eBook explaining how to use Google advertising effectively and I look for money back guarantees such as those offered by Clickbank. I know for certain I am not buying into some pyramid scheme where the only money comes from bringing other victims in!

Unfortunately for some genuine marketers, they too have fallen into the habit of making exaggerated claims as to how wonderful their product is, though I guess we kind of expect a little exaggeration in most advertising. The key difference is that the genuine sellers leave you in no doubt as to what you’re actually paying for. By the way I have only ever looked for a refund on one item purchased through Clickbank, a piece of software which just didn’t work for me. The other purchases have all been good ones!