Tips to Avoid Home Based Business Scams
Home-based business and work-at-home opportunity scams rank very high on the list of the top types of Internet fraud. In this issue, we’ll focus on the Top 10 home-based business/work-at-home scams. We’ll give you the straight goods on envelope stuffing, mystery shopping, and other common home-based business “opportunities” you may have seen floating around the Net. Then in the next issue, we’ll give you some important tips you can use to kick the tires of any online job offers or business opportunities you find so you can protect yourself from those that are scams.
Tips to avoid Home Based Business Scams
All the marketing information you need to learn is available online for free. There is no need to buy an e-book or subscribe to a service that promises to share with you the secret to online success – as a matter of fact, here is the secret to online success – you must adopt a “failure is absolutely not an option” attitude and combine that with the aforementioned hard work and dedication. You must commit to a plan and follow through for a period of at least one year.
Be sure the website offers testimonials of satisfied customers. If they don’t offer testimonials, there are no satisfied customers. At the same time read the testimonials to ensure they are not fake. You can spot a fake a mile away, they often say exactly the right right things, or how outlandish claims like “I made $10,000 in my first week with 1 hour of work”. A true testimonial will often have smaller claims of success and be less polished.
Never, Never pay for the chance to work!
This is the cardinal rule. You should treat working at home just like you would treat working for an employer at their place of business. If you were going for a job interview in the ‘real world,’ how would you react if the interviewer asked you to pay $50 or $100 to land the job, for starter materials, or for a ‘good faith’ payment to make sure you were serious about the business? You’d think it was absurd. No legitimate company charges employees a fee for a job. Whenever you’re asked to pay for the chance at a job, or information about work-from-home jobs, you know it’s a scam.
Stay away from exaggerated claims.
This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people fall for hyped-up income claims. Work-at-home scams often make outrageous claims. If a work-at-home opportunity tells you that you’ll earn $10,000 in your first month, that you don’t have to sell anything or that you don’t have to do any work, these are danger signs of hype. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Work-at-home scams prey upon the hopes and dreams of others. Remember that there is no such thing as “easy money” or the secret, hidden business opportunity that will make you rich in a few weeks.
