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business it is, what the product might be, how you would contact pos- sible customers, or what the total costs might be, be cautious. This “great new way to make money” may be nothing more than a scam.
Work-at-home scams don’t include the details because the advertisers aren’t really interested in helping you make money. Instead, they are more interested in taking you for as much money as they can and then disappearing from the scene. They are successful because they appeal to our desires to earn more money, avoid having a boss, work fewer hours, and stop commuting. Often scammers tap into people’s dreams of being rich and famous. “All you have to do is spend a few minutes a day and earn all the money you need to make all your dreams come true.”
Here are some of the more common work-at-home scams to watch out for:
Envelope Stuffing . This is the most
common work-at-home scam, says the
U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The
promise is that if you send in money,
you will receive information telling you
how to earn money by stuffing envelopes at home. What you actu- ally get are instructions to sell this scheme to others by placing ads in newspapers to illegally entice new victims. You make nothing unless you recruit others to work for you.
It seems like every newspaper or weekly circular has at least one ad in it promising hundreds of dollars a week, just for stuffing envelopes. Some even promise to pay $4 or $5 per envelope stuffed. So, many people send off their hard-earned money for the required “registration fees” so they can get started on this easy work.
The most prevalent envelope stuffing con game requires that you send in a fee, say $25.00, for which you receive nothing more than a copy of the ad you originally responded to, along with the wording to a classified ad telling people how much money they can make stuffing envelopes,
Creating Extra Income 27
There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.
—Beverly Sills