The Work at Home Scam Blog

It’s no surprise that so many people are becoming interested in working at home. With gas prices obscenely high, and the economy on seriously shaky ground, who wouldn’t like to cut the daily commute out of the budget? I’ve read on forums about people who are buying $250 worth of gas a week just to go to work. That’s terrible.

The thing is, with all of this interest in working from home comes an increase in scams. According to this video from KTVK 3TV in Phoenix, the BBB took nearly twice as many complaints about work at home scams during the second quarter of 2008 as they did the first quarter. Maybe part of that has been due to an increase in the number of people who are looking for home jobs, but you know the scammers have got to be loving the fresh prospects and redoubling their efforts.

With new scams being developed all the time, it’s up to us to remain vigilant. If you want to work at home, it’s important to research every opportunity thoroughly before getting involved. And if you receive an email claiming to be from a job search site, please don’t click any links in it. Type the domain of the site into your browser’s address bar and log in from there. It might take a little longer, but it can save you from inadvertently downloading dangerous spyware or having your login information stolen.

There are more legitimate opportunities out there than ever before, so don’t let these scammers stop you from trying to find a home job. But don’t let your desire to work from home cloud your judgment, either.

Buying an established website is a great option for those wishing to work from home. If you’ve got the cash to put into it, you can get a site that already has content and an audience. Then your biggest concern is adding fresh content and keeping the visitors coming back for more.

As with any work at home opportunity, however, there are pitfalls that you need to watch out for when purchasing a website. Here’s a hypothetical scenario: Let’s say a website owner has been running a site successfully for some time, and has the web statistics to prove it. Maybe they’re selling candles. Then out of the blue they cease to ship products that have been paid for. Angry customers start spreading the word, and soon they have no customers. In an attempt to get money out of the site one last time, they decide to sell the site to some unsuspecting work at home parent.

That’s just one example. Unless you have intimate knowledge of the website you are looking to buy, it’s hard to know just what incentive the owner has to sell it. So it is absolutely vital to do as much research as possible before you fork over the bucks. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Search Google for the site’s name and URL, and for the name of the present owner. Go through at least the first 10 pages (if that many results are listed) with a fine-toothed comb. Look for any complaints about the site, company, or business owner.
• Search Technorati for the same items, and for terms related to the site. Blogs are an excellent source of information from disgruntled customers.
• Check scam forums, and forums related to the site’s topics. They are another common place to find complaints.
• Don’t rely on statistics provided by the site owner. Even third-party measurements, such as Google pagerank and Alexa ranking, can be manipulated to make a site look more popular than it is. You could ask for screenshots of, or links to, their stat software, or copies of their log files. To find out who else is linking to the site, just do a Google search for “link:http://www.siteaddress.com” without the quotes.
• Check the site’s whois information and make sure there’s nothing fishy about it. Whois lists the name and address of who the site is registered to, as well as how long the domain has been registered. Compare it with the info given by the seller.

If you do decide to buy, keep records of all communications between yourself and the seller. This is vital in case they don’t deliver.

Owning a website is a great option for work at home parents, and getting your hands on one that is already well established can save you a lot of hard work. Just be sure you know as much as you possibly can about the history of the site before you spend your money on it, and it could prove to be a very worthy investment.

You might have seen commercials on cable about various sorts of kiosks that you can buy and set up to make money. One that I saw a while back was advertising public Internet access sites that you can place in businesses such as malls. Another one that I saw online was a DVD rental kiosk.

Use caution when considering these, just as you would with any other business opportunities. It sounds like easy money with a legitimate investment, but it’s quite possible that many of these deals could be too good to be true. I have heard horror stories about people who ordered and paid for their kiosks, only to receive faulty equipment and no support for it.

Are there legitimate kiosk companies? I’m sure there are. I can’t say that I know from experience, because I’ve never had the cash to invest in them to find out. But as always, you must do your homework before giving them your hard-earned cash. Check them out with the BBB, and do general online searches of the company’s name and the names of people at the top. I have also heard tales of the companies giving prospective buyers names of supposed satisfied customers as references, only for them to turn out to be paid to sell you on it. So seek out opinions on your own if at all possible.

I just finished reading about a direct sales company that started up recently, but turned out to be nothing but a sham. Apparently the company’s owner started up a fake direct sales program just to get sensitive information from people who thought they were getting in on the ground floor of something great.

It’s a shame that things like this happen. It really puts a damper on legitimate companies that are trying to get started, because people have to be so leery of anything that’s new. Here are a few things to consider if you are looking at a new direct sales opportunity:

• Is the website professional? If someone is serious about starting a new business, they will most likely take the time to make their website look professional. This means appealing design, good spelling and grammar, and logos of familiar payment processors or organizations that you can check out their affiliations with. Note: A professional website does not necessarily mean that a company is legit, but an unprofessional one is a good indication that they’re probably not.
• Beware of companies in a “pre-launch” phase. This means that they are only accepting signups for consultants and not selling products yet. Legitimate companies sometimes do this, but wouldn’t it be convenient for someone who just wants enough information to steal your identity to say that they’re not selling products yet? Then they could avoid all the hassles of undelivered items.
• Take unbelievable or unsubstantiated claims with a grain of salt. If a new company with no affiliations with a larger, more familiar company claims to have already signed up a large amount of reps, there’s probably something fishy going on.
• As always, do your homework! Search for the company’s name on Google and see what pops up. Check out the scam forums, consultant check groups, and the like. Ask around and find out if anyone you know has any experience with the company.

Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If they ask for sensitive information and you just don’t feel right about it, don’t give it to them. If the company is indeed legitimate, you can always join later. It’s not worth risking the loss of your identity and money for any sort of incentive they may offer to join now.