Here’s The TRUTH About Work From Home Scams

I’ve been very eager to put together an article about work from home scams for a while and now that I’ve got the chance I want to walk you through the various techniques used by scammers to target you whilst you are looking for work from home opportunities or browsing the net in general. I’ll explain how the scams work and how you can avoid them.

A brief background of myself-

I have worked in credit management for large multi-national companies for over 10 years. Working in this industry has had its various challenges but among them all, the one challenge that remains the biggest threat is RISK.

No company wants to provide credit to a customer that won’t pay up or worse, never had the intention to do so.

It’s no different when it comes to YOU choosing a reputable online business venture in a landscape that is riddled with scams. 

Using good judgment and sniffing out bad business risks is a part of my daily routine and I want to show you how this is something you should arm yourself with to avoid those nasty crooks that are waiting to happily grab your money and run.

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Living the dream or is it?

The prospect of working from home and being your own boss sounds like the ideal lifestyle for everyone. Some of the benefits are- there is nobody to answer to, you can work the hours that you choose, go on holidays whenever you like and best of all no office politics!

This all sounds all well and good and is the basis of how scrupulous companies target you and lure you into a false sense of security by selling you this lifestyle and promising an easy autopilot route to achieving this.

Terms like ‘earn money whilst you sleep’ or ‘automatic money making machine’ should ring alarm bells to you. Making money online isn’t difficult but it doesn’t happen overnight- it requires good discipline and persistence (more on this later).

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So How Do You Identify A Scam?

I am very upfront and honest as I know how it feels when a person or company promises the earth but doesn’t deliver. Here is a list of things that you should be checking/doing before you commit to a company-

1. If a company is promising to make you thousands but you need to pay them an initial large sum of money to use their product, don’t fall for this! A reputable company will usually let you try before you buy.
2. If you have recently discovered a company that you are thinking of using then it’s advisable to type the company name, company website or owner’s name into Google followed by the word Scam and see what people are saying about the product/service. Online reviews are a valuable commodity. You can learn from other people’s mistakes.
3. If a company is Good, Bad or Outright Ugly you will start to notice a pattern whilst doing your research online. You can see what comments people are posting and the general trend by visiting various sites or forums that pop up when when you type in your keyword (as described above).

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How Do You Avoid Scams?

If its too good to be true then it probably is… You have probably heard this saying a thousand times over but sometimes its a simple approach like this that will save you from losing money to scams.

• Don’t act on impulse and automatically jump up for products that promise instant wealth.
• Always do your research before committing by follow my steps above.
• Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. It’s easy to get fooled into thinking that a product can make you an overnight millionaire. Patience and persistence always wins.
• Don’t pay for a product without reading customer reviews first.

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Types of Scams

There’s countless forms of scams online but some of the most common persistent scams I’ve come across are-

Trading scams–

Ever heard of Binary Options? There’s plenty of scam sites out there selling products designed to make you think that you can purchase an automated bot that can do all the hard work for you and make you a tonne of cash. Don’t do it! Trading takes a considerable amount of time to master. Here is an example of a scam product that I reviewed. 

The traders that I know have worked hard and patiently to learn the mindset required to trade successfully. They know exactly how do deal with losses which DO happen. Trading is definitely not for impatient people- impulse will almost certainly lose you thousands. If this is a profession that you want to pursue then I advise that you get proper training.  

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Paid Online Surveys–

These are more of a data capturing tool than anything. In other words once you have signed up, your details are usually sold to 3rd party companies for marketing purposes. Don’t get me wrong, they are a few legitimate survey companies out there BUT the time that you would have to commit to complete all those surveys vs the payout is hardly worth the effort.

I remember trying this out and the total amount that I earned in relation to the time that I put in equated to $0.70 per hour. Would you get out of bed for a job that was paying this little?

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The Lottery Scam–

Technically this isn’t a work from home scam but its worth mentioning because of the large amount of people that unknowingly fall for it.

The scam usually goes like this-

You get a cashier’s check in the post with a letter claiming that you have won the lottery. Here’s the catch- there’s a phone number on the letter that you have to contact to claim the lottery money. When you contact the number you are then instructed to send a sum of money upward of $1500 to a miscellaneous bank account before you can claim your lottery.

At this point you have 2 options-

I suggest you end the call immediately and throw that worthless cheque in the bin or Option 2 is to kindly ask the person on the other end of the phone to use some of the lottery prize money to pay for the costs. Shouldn’t be a problem?

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Infomercial Scam–

The infamous late night infomercial that pops up on the T.V. when you are having trouble sleeping- promising you staggering earnings between $5,000- $10,000 a month working from home for only an hour a day. Yes there’s no shame in admitting that most of us have seen the adverts and were either took the bait or nearly did so.

The problem is that T.V. is such a powerful medium in convincing people to act on what they see whether it’s consciously or subconsciously.

Here is a question for you-

If it was this easy to make money wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

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Email Inheritance Scams–

Has a “Lawyer” of a long lost relative (that has recently passed away) been in contact about a million dollar inheritance??? This is probably one of the longest running scam that has been circulating online and has made many predators rich.

These predators usually operate in gangs and send out a variation of the same email to trick you into getting in contact with a phony lawyer who eventually asks you to transfer money to have access to the inheritance.

A good example is if you google search “Yahoo boys” you will see countless stories of how this gang has made fortunes from scamming people. Don’t become one of their victims!

HERE’S A SCAM LETTER I RECEIVED LAST NIGHT

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I could be here all day discussing plenty scams that you’ll encounter online. But the above scams are a few examples of some of the most persistent scams that I’ve come across whilst navigating the online world of making money from home.

My best advice is:

(1). Research, research, research!  (forums are your friend).

(2). Spot the trend (whether good or bad).

(3). Don’t take out your credit card before you try the product

(4). Definitely don’t transfer money to anonymous bank accounts in anticipation of promised wealth.

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If you have any questions please feel free to leave them below.