Our Community in Fairfax County, Virginia
Work At Home Scams
Work at Home, Make Lots of Money-For Someone Else!
By Dave Conway, January 2001
Newspapers, magazines, e-mail, and even illegal signs on utility poles are constantly bombarding us with opportunities to work at home and make lots of money. They scream at us with headlines such as "Earn Thousands from Home," "Own A Computer," "Tell Your Boss Goodbye," or "Start Your Own Business." We know that these are probably scams, but the information that they provide makes their scheme sound like the one that will really work.
Work-at-home schemes have defrauded consumers out of millions of dollars. They all have several characteristics in common:
- You must send money to a person or an organization that you don't know before you can get started.
- Your payment must be by cash, check, or money order-no credit card payments allowed. (Credit cards give you a way to get your money back, something that scam artists never allow.)
- The place where you send your money to is in another state or another country, such as Canada. (The further away, the more difficult to follow-up on after you have been defrauded.)
One of the most common work-at-home scams is envelope stuffing. In some envelope-stuffing scams, you pay a fee for materials with the prospect of ridiculously large profits of up to $4 per envelope, only to receive nothing in return for your money. In others, you receive a notice telling you the only way to earn money at home is by placing an ad like the one you answered and defraud other people with get-rich-quick dreams, while the company at the root of the scheme reaps a hefty chunk of the revenues. Other common schemes:
- Asking consumers to purchase craft-making kits, where you make the crafts and then are supposed to be able to sell them back to the company for a sizable profit. After you have performed the work and assembled 200 sewn and hand-painted dolls or whatever, the company rejects them as not meeting their quality standards. In reality, no product ever meets their quality standard because they never intended to pay anyone. Instead, they sell the products you made for 100% profit. (But send more money and try again-"You'll do better next time!")
- Asking consumers to purchase craft-making kits, make the crafts and then sell them to an alleged "market" of sure-thing buyers. You then find that no market exists for these finished crafts.
- Asking consumers to purchase software that allows them to work at home as so-called medical billers. In theory, you'd be working as employees of medical professionals who want to hire work-at-home billers. Unfortunately, many consumers have discovered after purchasing the billing software that they can't locate any doctors or dentists who want to use this service. Or you find that the software is inadequate, outdated, and generally useless.
- Asking consumers to call a phone number to find out more about an alleged once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These numbers are sometimes 900 numbers or 800 numbers in foreign countries, which can charge consumers $2, $3, even $5 per minute for the privilege of listening to a lengthy, prerecorded message. By the time you hang up, you've already emptied your wallet, and without knowing it.
If you become defrauded, file a complaint with Consumer Protection Agency or the Attorney General's office in the state where the company is located. That office may be able to help you and the other victims of this scheme. You may also file complaints with your local Postmaster (the Postal Inspection Service investigates mail fraud claims). Also, if you responded to an ad in a newspaper or magazine, call the publisher and let them know about the problems you experienced.
The word "home" has led some of us to believe that perhaps this style of work is easier. But working at home is a challenging venture, whether you go into business for yourself or not. Let's face it, if getting rich quick from home was such an easy task, we'd all be home-based entrepreneurs. In reality, the only people who make lots of money from Get Rich Quick schemes are the ones offering the schemes.
Despite these scams, many work-at-home businesses are reputable and have helped families, retirees, homemakers and single parents achieve greater financial independence. If working at home is your goal, do your homework, and align yourself with a legitimate company. Search the Internet for more information, or call your local chapter of the Better Business Bureau. Get advice from people you trust, not strangers who place ads to catch your eye. Even if a company sounds legitimate and promising, have the company investigated before you respond to their pitch. You have nothing to lose and everything to save.