Make Money-- well, Never Make Money -- Home Business Scams

While there are many legitimate home based business opportunities available today, there are also no shortage of home business schemes and scams. It can be quite difficult to know the difference at times. Here is a list of several well known home business scams. Hopefully this list will help you from losing your hard earned money to these scammers. Envelope Stuffing
This scam has been around forever it seems, and don't worry, it's still as popular as ever to those who don't know about it. You typically answer an ad that looks something like this:
"$500 - $1,000+ a WEEK working only 1 hour per day from the comfort of your home stuffing envelopes! All supplies included. FREE information"
It sounds very appealing doesn't it? What an easy way to make a living. But what is the real story. You will most likely be required to send in $20 -$40 for a kit to get started. Usually, you'll get nothing in return and that's the end of the scam. But, if you do get something back it will tell you to place small classified ads (like the one you responded to) and use your address to collect money from the next batch of unsuspecting people. The cycle continues.
Or, you may actually get some materials and send out mailings, thinking you will be getting a check, only to find out that you didn't do them properly and there will be no check, or, no one ordered anything from your mailings so there is no pay coming back to you. Envelope stuffing is complete scam. Don't let yourself fall victim to it.

Get Paid To Surf Companies
Here is a favorite Internet scam that has been going around for a number of years. The idea is that you get paid to click on various website ads. The more time you spend clicking on sites, the more money you supposedly make. How can this be? The get paid to surf company charges fees to its advertisers. The advertisers in turn hope that you will see their ad and then buy their product.
Of course, you may never be paid for the time you spend surfing, but if you do you can expect it to be very little. Perhaps $20 a month if you are lucky, and that's after spending hours upon hours a month clicking on ads.

Get Paid To Take Surveys Online
This sounds like an enjoyable home business. Take a survey every day, express your opinion, and get paid for it. Let's look a little closer at how it really works.
You have to register with one of these survey clubs or sites to get started. They all charge you a fee to join, some as much as $49 or more. You get access to their database of survey companies. They will usually email you a list of surveys every day to look over. What you will then find out is that you are not qualified to take 95% of them, so it can take a while before you even get qualified for one survey. Next, when you do take a survey the company will most likely pay you with "credits". It may be something like 25 credits for each completed survey. Then, when you have for example, 500 credits, you can redeem them for cash, generally around $10-$20 per 500 credits. This can easily take you 3-6 months to just make $10, if of course you get paid at all.

Mystery Shopper
This business opportunity sounds really cool. You get to go out shopping at a retail store or eating at a restaurant and get paid for it after providing a review of the experience. It sounds great, so what's the catch?
There is a huge list of companies offering jobs as mystery shoppers. The pay rate varies, and is generally $10 or a little more. You must be willing to travel where you are sent. With gas prices so high, this can easily eat up your pay, because you are not reimbursed for travel expenses. If you are sent on an eating assignment, many times the meal will become your pay.
There have been numerous scams over the years involving the Secret Shopping industry, which include advertisements that seek to attract applicants by offering lucrative pay and Secret Shopper Jobs. These ads will charge a “small fee” ranging from $20 to $50 for registration and promise you the best Secret Shopper positions available in your area. To convince you further, they will also post “testimonials” of previous applicants who had “made it big”.
Victims of such scams who responded to the Ads are likely to receive worthless information regarding Secret Shopper companies. There is not much one can do because there is no refund and phone calls or emails are never answered. One should remember that genuine Secret Shopping Companies never charge fees to the applicant.
There have also been reports of scam where already employed Secret Shoppers are requested by some “company” to send or divulge information regarding completed shop reports, companies worked with and pay slips etc, with the promise of more rewarding positions. The actual intention here is not known but it’s best to never disclose personal Job information to anyone.
While applying for a Secret Shopper Job, if you come across a hiring company Advertisement with the promise of instant riches, beware. You cannot and never will make millions with a Secret Shopper Job, which is only meant to be part time. Earnings, for example are rarely more than $20 to $40 per assignment, especially if you are a beginner.
Remember, a genuine legitimate company will never promise you the moon. Only scammers do. Do not deal with people on the phone who will not disclose their names or the name of their enterprise. If you visit any website, find out the kind of information and how much is given, and build your judgment accordingly.
The number of assignments are few and far in between, and unless you live in a major metropolitan area your chances of getting any assignments are zero. If you make $25 a month, consider yourself lucky.

Get Paid To Read Emails
One of the biggest scams on the Internet are the get paid to read email companies. Supposedly you are going to be paid to read emails by the company you signed up with. The emails are really just ads, and the company gets paid by the advertisers, but it doesn't really matter. The fact is, you will never be paid! You can jump up and down and shout all you want, but you'll never get any money from them. Eventually these scams get shut down by the government.
But, let's pretend though that you do find a legitimate company and actually get paid. The standard pay rate is around 1-2 cents per email read. You might get 10-25 per day. That comes out to around $3.00-$10.00 per month. Is that anyone's idea of making money? If it is, then you can do a Goggle search and find tons of these home business opportunities.

Internet Research
This is more like a job than a home business, but I wanted to include it nonetheless. As an Internet researcher your job is to search the web for information and provide it to the company paying you. Sounds easy enough, but there is much more to it. You will practically need a Masters Degree in order to get one of these jobs. The subjects will be highly technical in nature. You will also need to have excellent search engine skills. Finally, the pay is not good. If you're lucky enough to land one of these projects you may get paid $20 for an entire days work. Not exactly a good way to make a living.
Home Assembly Companies
I saved the best (or worst as I should call it) for last. Perhaps the worst scams to be found anywhere are home assembly companies. They have been scamming people for many years now and continue to do so. Here is how it works.
You answer an ad and get sent a letter in the mail. The letter contains instructions on getting started making small crafts and sending them in to the company for approval and payment. You will need to purchase a materials kit from the company that can cost from $20 up to $75 or more in some cases. You could easily buy these materials for a much cheaper cost at Wal-Mart, but you must buy them from the company. You may also be required to pay an up-front registration fee to set you up in their system.
When you complete your first project and send it in you will be credited with the cost of your kit along with payment if you have been approved. And that is where the scam begins. You will never have your work approved! It doesn't matter if you followed every instruction to the letter, you will never be paid. You will receive a letter from the company telling you that your work was not approved no matter what. All of these home assembly companies sound good from reading the ads, but the truth is they are scams. Don't give them your money.

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