The Internet is a great place for information and opportunity, unfortunately though it is very easy to get scammed when you are looking for opportunity, so lets go over some of the more common scams used in working from home.
First of all there is the opportunity to be a payment collector. This is where you get an email saying the company will have its customers send you the money, and all you have to do is take a percentage, then send it to the employer by check or money order and you get to keep a percent. Here is what really happens.
The employer pretends they cant use paypal so they need you to collect funds. You collect the funds usually by check or e-check on paypal from the customers. You subtract the amount you are promised usually 10% then you buy a money order and ship it to the employer. In the mean time the check you have accepted as payment bounces and you now owe your bank or paypal the amount of the check, not to mention you are out the 90% of the funds you sent as a money order.
Another common scams is the promise of millions of dollars because of some long lost relative who died and there is no place for the money to go. You provide them your banking information to get the money deposited and they wipe your bank account clean.
Next up is the very common data entry position. You are offered a position where you will do data entry but here is what happens. You pay the enlistment fee of $10 and you get a packet of information that teaches you about your new “job” The packet is really only a few copies of the same ad you saw when you signed up and then a list of different places to place the ad. When a new person finds the ad and signs up you get the $10.
Another huge scam on the Internet is the Ebay and Paypal scams where you get an email from Ebay or Paypal saying something is wrong with your account, immediately frazzled you click through to go to their website, you login and it says something is wrong, etc. The reality is you click and login to a site where they are collecting your information and using it for no good. What you need to do when you get an email like this is to delete it, then go to the website, by typing the name in the search box and then logging in. Only then can you tell if your account is having some kind of trouble.
