It has been a while since I last wrote about a topic that should be top of mind for anyone who is interested in working from home – scams. If you are thinking of finding a home – based business opportunity instead of creating your own home – based business, this topic should be of particular interest to you. People who are looking to work at home are a target of many different types of fraudulent activity. It is important to know how to spot home – based business scams so that you do not lose the money that you have set aside to enable yourself to make the switch to home – based work.
One very popular scam involves a web page that looks like a news outlet. There are videos, testimonials, and even a stock ticker to make the page look like a legitimate news source. Unfortunately, the videos have been pirated from other web sites, the stock ticker is just an animation, and the “testimonials” are fake. In fact, the testimonials were probably written by the scammer who has set up the “news page” in hopes of luring unsuspecting home – based hopefuls into buying their “story” and entering their credit card information into the web site in order to learn more about the “business opportunity”.
Also, if you are looking for freelance work, be wary of postings that you see on Monster or Craigslist. As a general rule, you should not have to pay in order to see job opportunities. There are plenty of reputable places to find work, like Elance and oDesk.
The bottom line advice regarding home – based business scams is do your research. A few minutes or even a few hours spent investigating an opportunity before jumping in could save you thousands of dollars. It can also help you to avoid getting involved with a legitimate business opportunity that, while legitimate, is a completely wrong fit for you.
Photo by jkt_de on morguefile.com.