The Number One Work at Home Scam Explained

by Stephen Kreutzer

Published on this site: February 28th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Working at home is very popular. As with anything that is popular there are people out there who like to try to scam those looking for work at home jobs. Scams can sometimes be hard to recognize, but if a person knows what to look for they can raise their chances of not being caught in a work at home scam. A popular way to get taken by a scam work at home company is when they ask a person to pay them money.

The first key that a work at home opportunity may be a scam is that the company asks for money up front. This is also something that can be confusing because some legitimate companies ask for money, too. The main rule about paying money is that if the job were not work at home would it be reasonable to pay money up front to work with this company. If it is a job where the person is required to keep an inventory of products than it is reasonable to pay something upfront for the inventory. However, if the payment is for administrative fees that is a red flag. A work at home job is like any other job. Nobody would pay a company to process their employment papers, so it is unreasonable for a work at home company to request payment for this purpose.

What usually happens when a company is running a scam by asking for money up front is that the hopeful work at home employee loses their money and gets no real job in return. Many scam companies try to use the trick that they will refund the money after a person has worked for them for so long. Once a person pays the money and begins working for the company they learn there really is no refund. In these cases the work at home employee usually also finds out the job duties are completely different from what they were originally told. The whole
concept is the scam company makes their main income off potential work at home employees, not through a real business.

Almost any good reference on working at home will mention not to ever pay money for a work at home job. It may seem like common sense, but can be confusing for someone who is new to the work at home industry. Many of these scams seem real and also come across as a way to make big money fast. This type of money scam is the biggest of all work at home scams.

Stephen Kreutzer is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides home business tips on Home Business Roundup http://www.home-business-roundup.com.