Top Work At Home Scams

The following are the top scams, most of which are listed on the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC.gov) site year after year:

Assembly Work At Home Scams - 99.9% of Assembly work at home offers are scams. Lynie Arden does mention a few legitimate ones in her Work At Home SourceBook which you should be able to find at your local library.

Scam overview: Scam operators charge workers for equipment and supplies and then don't pay them for the work done by claiming that the "work is not up to standard".

Chain Letters -  Chain letters are a dangerous scam which you should avoid at all costs. Not only are they mathematically doomed to failure, but if you participate in a chain letter that promises any kind of return, you could be prosecuted for mail fraud and face legal action from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Coupon Business Scams -  The claim is that the person reselling the booklets should make big profits selling the booklets to consumers. And consumers should save money by using the coupons when buying groceries and/or other items. The truth is, the only one who makes any money is the scam artist selling the "Coupon Booklet Business Opportunity" in the first place.

Dating Entry Scams - Ads claim you can make hundreds or thousands per day doing data entry at home. They typically charge you $47.00 or more for this information. When you get the information you learn that you have to BUY advertising and only make money if you sell products that you advertise.

The Deception: They call "Typing the ad" "data entry".

Display Rack Scams -  Display Rack business opportunities are often sold by unethical marketers who often engage in shady business practices such as charging retail prices for wholesale merchandise, providing shoddy or worthless merchandise, or simply folding up shop and leaving you high and dry after taking your money.

Email Processing Scams -  When you answer the ad you're asked to pay a one time registration fee of $10 to $50. And after you pay the fee, you're sent instructions telling you that to make your money you should place an ad for "Email Processors Wanted" just like the one you answered and charge the same $10 to $50 processing fee.

Envelope Stuffing Scams -  FTC attorneys shut down these scams year after year. 

Scam overview: After you send your money, you're likely to get a letter telling you to place the same "envelope-stuffing" ad in newspapers or magazines, or to send the ad to friends and relatives. In nearly every case, the only way you'll earn money is if people respond to your ad; in fact, the government says, the promoters themselves rarely pay anyone.

Free Home Business Kit Scams - These are kits for running a home business that claim that you only have to pay for shipping and handling. However, many people discover that they end up with monthly charges on their credit card for a membership site they didn't realize they were signing up for.

The Deception: The fact that you are signing up for a membership site is hidden in fine print - typically in a section called "Terms of Service" hidden at the bottom of the site's web page.

Gifting Programs -  Many people are misled into thinking a cash gifting clubs and opportunies are legal because the ads say that members consider their payments a gift and expect nothing in return. As the FTC points out, this is merely an attempt to make an illegal transaction look legal.

Greeting Card Business Opportunity Scam - The ad states that with just 30 locations selling only 10 cards per day, you will earn $135,000 per year. However, after you send your money for this opportunity, you are sent cards for the wrong seasons or aren't sent any cards at all. You also discover that even if they told you they'd help you secure locations, they actually never follow through on that promise.

Home Mailing Scams - The scammers typically sell a "Home Mailing Kit" claiming you can earn an extra $30,000 to $100,000 per year.  However, what you actually get for your money is instructions on how to run a work from home mailing letters scam yourself.

Lottery Scams -  The most common lottery scams are foreign lottery scams. Most promotions for foreign lotteries are phony. After you send your money, either the company doesn't buy the lottery tickets or the company does buy the tickets, but keeps any winnings for themselves. They may also use your bank account numbers to make unauthorized withdrawals on your credit card numbers to make additional charges.

Medical Billing Scams - The only real way to get into the medical billing business is by attending a medical billing school that is accredited by an organization approved by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which is the accrediting agency officially sanctioned by the U.S. department of Education.

SweepStakes Scams - There are various versions of this scam, but  a common ploy used by operators of sweepstakes scams is to ask you to provide a credit card number to verify your prize "eligibility." The card number could be used to make unauthorized charges on your account.

Turnkey Website Scams - The scammers advertise a turnkey web business with "business and internet marketing coaching" included along with a 1-year guarantee is offered. The "marketing coach" actually is a high-pressured sales person who tries to sell you thousands of dollars worth of worthless traffic for your website. After you discover the traffic doesn't produce any sales and complain, you also discover that the 1-year guarantee doesn't include refund rights to the traffic you paid thousands of dollars for.

Typing Work From Home Scams - Scammers charge anywhere from $19.00 to $79.00 or more for an "application fee" to show "you're serious". In return you get a useless bunch of photocopied sheets of organizations that "might benefit" from someone with typing skills.

Alternate version of scam: scammers tell you to place ads for the "typing work at home" opportunitie and pay you a commission when someone buys the worthless pieces of photocopied lists.