Work At Home Scams

Basically, this isn't rocket science if you really think about it.

Here's the nuts and bolts of what I have learned:
1. If it sounds too good to be true... it is! (Never heard that before have you? LOL)
2. Stuffing envelopes will make you rich... uh, NOT!! The only person that will get rich is the con that had you pay him/her upfront for your "supplies". Real bulk mailers use machines to stuff envelopes not people.
3. E-Mail processing for receiving emails sent to customer service of large companies and re-routing them... oh, please! The only person that's making the big bucks on this one is the con that had you send him/her money to get a list of businesses. Most companies use their own people for handling customer service emails, and they don't work at home.
4. Payment processing for International Companies... (you do listen to the news don't you??) Stay away from this offer!
No legitimate company is going to ask you to receive checks, deposit them in YOUR account, take out your meager fee and then write THEM a new check from YOUR checking account!
5. Assembling crafts or doing sewing projects.... If they ask you to pay a deposit up front to insure that you will do the work and return the assembled goods... bid them a good day and hang up the phone. First of all, why would they pay the postage rate sending things all over the country instead of hiring local people to do their work in a factory? I understand that a lot of these companies get your "deposit" and when you return the finished product it is deemed as not meeting specifications and they keep your deposit.
6. Earn thousands and keep your purchases by Mystery Shopping... First of all, you won't earn thousands doing this. Most of these companies only pay $8 - $10 for a "mystery shop" and you don't actually buy anything or you buy something very small that they may or may not reimburse you for. If they don't reimburse, don't do it! There are many legitimate companies out there but many are just simply scams.
7. I got involved with one company which has several names, but it promises to give you websites and set them up for you, give you a personal email, etc etc all for the one time charge. I was told that it would only take a little of my time per week to get traffic moving to my websites they created and I could just sit back and let the money roll in. Well, first of all my free websites cost me $299.00 or something like that and I couldn't figure out exactly what it was that I was supposed to be selling or how to get "traffic" to my sites. WELL, for a modest $1000 or so, then they would give me email lists to send these "used car salesman" type emails to so I could get traffic to my sites. WELL, I turned that down and accused them of being a scam agency... I stopped receiving their multitudes of (unhelpful) "help" emails AND my credit card was miraculously credited for what I had already paid them. Nary a word was said from them before this happened. I was glad to be rid of them and glad I got my money back.
8. The company I originally had contacted is the one that got me in touch with the company in #7. This original company seemed fairly legitimate - for my $49 they gave me a website (which took them 4 months to set up and it was absolutely UGLY), gave me my own "store" at my website which I stocked with articles from their ware house, gave me my own blog with which I was supposed to somehow drive traffic to my website with the blog, gave me membership to a "write for money" BS thing which I wrote two articles for and got so annoyed and frustrated with them that I have not written anything else for them, and got me a google account. Actually, after the $49, then I gave up an additional $199 for their help etc etc. Bottom line here was that the website is just sitting there looking ugly, the stuff in their warehouse (like movies, books and that sort of thing) are all OLD stuff not NEW stuff, and since I won't give them more money I have received little or no assistance from them.
NOTE: now with the examples in 7 and 8, doesn't it seem that if THEY make money from the success of MY websites, why should I pay THEM to make the sites successful? I personally think they are both scams, but lessons learned, I should have known better. Oh, and one more thing.... the ad that I had originally responded to was something advertising typing just a few lines into a forms for Google or something like that. I have YET to type in a few lines in a form for Google! When I asked about that, I was told "well, doing the blog and website makes you more money than typing in a few lines in forms"..... then I KNEW I had just been GOT!
9. I got an email a couple weeks ago about becoming a Researcher or Researcher's assistant. To be an assistant costs you nothing, but if you chose to be an assistant instead of a Researcher you can NEVER EVER be a researcher! WHAT? That's just crazy. But to be an assistant you have to take a test and I'm sure that somewhere down the road it will cost the fledgling assistant money to have that job in the form of necessary software or classes or something. I did not partake of this opportunity!
10. I looked into a "game testing" opportunity too. Sounds like fun doesn't it? The website was misleading as to what you would get for your $39.00. It lead me to believe that it had listings of gaming companies that wanted their beta versions of games "tested" before putting on the market. WELL, what it was is just a listing of links that are companies that make games and you can sign up with some of them to test their stupid games, but you have to go to the company itself and sit for hours playing games - for free usually. That wasn't what I was looking for or lead to believe the money would get me, so I have tried twice to request a full refund, which they say you can have if not satisfied but have not found an email for the website company that will actually go through and not come back to me as undeliverable!!!

Well, those are my tips and experiences, I hope they will help you in your own decision making.

I subscribe to a news letter called BottomLine/Retirement, which is part of BottomLineSecrets which I just love! In it there are some job websites that offer legitimate work at home opportunities, but again, be wary and watchful.... never PAY for a job - they are supposed to pay YOU to work for them!
The sites are: www.elance.com, www.guru.com, and www.retacoder.com. Also, these companies normally want workers with specific skills like computer programming, web design, writing, sales or engineering. The other site they offer is for information on legitimate Mystery shopping: www.idealady.com/sb.html.

I have another website that lists all types of companies for Mystery Shopping, Merchandising and all sorts of stuff and that is what I found my legitimate companies through. I will post it as soon as I figure out where I kept the link in my bookmarks! ha ha

Take care and good luck!