Recently ABC’s 20/20 reported on the proliferation of fraud in the Work At Home industry, the economic downturn is providing an unending supply of new suckers. One expert reports “54 out of 55 work at home offerings are scams.”
Short video excerpt (2:39)
Examined case studies included a classic envelop stuffing offer charging a $37.94 setup price, in this example they simply took the money without delivering anything, other envelop stuffing walk the fine legal line by fabricating reasons to reject the workers product, costing them shipping charges on top of the setup fee, the arrest of one of these scam artists was shown.
Another profiled case involved a more advanced, secret shopper scam. The victim/employee is sent a check for $3990 with the instructions to deposit it, then immediately evaluate a moneygram service by sending $3500 back to the secret shopper service, keeping the $490 balance as payment. By the time the check is discovered to be counterfeit, the victim is out $3500, and is subject to financial and legal responsibility for the lost funds. [ Banks routinely advance funds before the check is processed. Always wait for the check to physically clear the issuing bank before drawing funds from it, no matter how authentic it looks. The same bad check scheme is used in an endless variety of scams, including the classic Nigerian prince email scam.
The 3rd scam investigation involved a rebate processing service bait and switch scheme, in which rebates applied only to sale of worthless, impossible to sell products.
Full video, part 1 (6:34)
Full video, part 2 (7:34)
The investigation spent some time focusing on fake testimonials and faces for hire, commonly used in TV commercials as well as internet marketing prior to the recent FTC clarification of how their regulations apply to internet marketing, your much less likely to find fabricated testimonials on legitimate sites.
Always investigate a company before investing any money with them:
- Search the web for the company name, it might pop-up in scam reports, don’t let a single isolated unsatisfied customer complaint or fake endorsement throw you off.
- Look the company up at the BBB online. Some fly-by-night operations come and go before there’s time for complaints to be filed.
- Check their web site for contact information, is there a physical address, there should be a phone number, go ahead and call them to get a better feel for who you are working with. Web site domain owner information can be looked up and compared to the contact page info., unless they opted for private registration which is understandably used by small businesses working out of a home, but suspicious for any substantial business.
Virtually every successful businessman has made losing investments in their careers, just try to minimize the losses, some advise to “Fail quickly” so you can move on to the next venture sooner.