After giving birth to Roger, a strange oikomania was creeping in my body and mind. I kind of decided to extend my leaves and stick to home in order to spend maximum time with my newborn instead of leaving him in the hands of caregivers. My family members and friends label me a cynic mom, however, I regarded myself as a protective, careful mom, suspecting sincerity of babysitters and caregivers. If I would be suspecting of that e-commerce work at home scamster as well, then I could save my time, efforts, enthusiasms and money, above all.
E-commerce scams
I chose this e-commerce work at home project which asked me to pay a one-time fee of thousand dollars against building a website. The site would be an e-commerce website to sell common household products. Affiliated website as it seemed from my role in the project that was to drive prospective buyers to make purchase. Then I would be given a fairly slice of the sales. I was promised that things related to inventory and shipping will be handled by the merchandiser. And then, the self-proclaimed merchandiser simply disappeared with my web development fees leaving me in shock and conned.
Later I decided to carry out some research on the Internet about such evil work at home ploys and to my dismay, I explored that there are numerous work at home ploys conning unsuspecting moms or others. So, I wanted to advise my readers about these shady schemes before the next victim becomes you –
Craigslist Ads
These work at home schemes charge monthly fees of $9.95 for working for freelancer projects. However, I would suggest you to not to step in to such sham offers. Many poor job hunters try to find jobs through free job posts and listings at Craigslist ads those usually fake as “Make Money on Craig’s List”. Those jobs will ask you for signing up for the service or asks you to accept bogus bank deposits. Scam artists do not need to spend a penny or a dime to post these offers on Craiglist ads. If you have given your personal information, your license, social security number, credit card details or bank details, you will be at the grave risk of being robbed.
How to identify?
- These jobs include generic and vague job titles such as customer service representatives etc.
- No specific job locations, but city name
- Too-good-to-be-true hourly wage
- Job title scarcely match job descriptions
- Relaxation of ‘No experience necessary’
- The link that redirects to an irrelevant website with nothing to do with the job title etc.
Medical billing scams
Several companies require work from home services to work from home with alluring offers of making thousands of dollars every week. They even cite seemingly real examples of housewives and homebound people making money by doing easy paperwork. You will be asked to buy marketing materials and training materials, software etc, for a fee that is sizeable enough but look meager as compared to the amount of money you can earn. After you invest hundreds and receive the package, they tend to procrastinate training and consequently seize the project and disappear.
How to identify?
- Mention of ‘No experience needed’
- The toll free number that is received by a rep that gives list of eager doctors needing your help
- Every type of assistance to venture your medical billing business from home
- List of potential clients
- Instant technical support etc.
You should also be cautious about
Envelope staffing: that promises to make you earn thousands in exchange of a one-time “small fee”. After you pay out, you will be asked to tell about the job to your family and friends to buy this money-making venture and you will earn money as more people will invest in. however, you do not get any share of transactions.
Craft work: requires you to spend hundreds of dollars into buying supplies or an equipment to craft items that company need. However, after you paid the money and send your crafts, the company would not pay you anything telling that your work was not ‘up to the mark’ or ‘up to the standard’.
Hence, be watchful and invest your time in research on the work at home project that you would be conned with instead of rushing to investing your money. Keep your eyes open, friends!