Don't Fall for Work-at-Home Scams
We would all love to work fewer hours for more pay from the comfort of our home. Work-at-home scams know this and prey on human nature, raking in 427 billion dollars a year. Here are some tips for differentiating between legitimate opportunities and scams.
1) Go to the Better Business Bureau website (www.bbb.org), and look up the company. You can also Google the company to see if it looks reliable. Look at who links to it, and see if it has been acknowledged by any major media outlet.
2) Don't pay for work. Legitimate companies pay you to work and not vice versa. There may be an initial investment needed for supplies, but don't ever pay just to begin working. You should also ask about the company's refund policy on the equipment required for the business.
3) Check references. Ask the company for contact information for other employees or contractors, but be careful that these people aren't in on the scam.
4) Don't accept oral assurances. Ask for everything in writing.
5) Use common sense. If the website looks like a 10 year old made it, don't trust it. If the opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Comments
Not to quibble about your basic premise - which I agree with - but there are two points I'd like to make. Not every worthy company can afford to buy website designers and they may not be able to create a well-done one themselves. And not every well-designed website indicates trustworthiness. I would stick with points 1, 2, and 4 - if the company is really bad, they would not hesitate to give you a crony's name for a reference, and the crony would be in on it all.
Basically, if your current boss isn't offering work-from-home status, give it up.
How ironic that the similarily themed ads by Google all point to the types of sites the article warns about...
How ironic that the similarily themed ads by Google all point to the types of sites the article warns about...