Scam Warnings

Work From Home Scams – Suspicious Emails

April 19, 2013 0 comments by

suspicious work from home emails - from realwaystoearnmoneyonline.comHave you ever gotten an email in your inbox inviting you to work from home for a company you’ve never heard of, or don’t remember applying with? I know I have. And these messages can be really confusing if you are someone who applies for lots of work from home jobs on a regular basis. It may be hard to know for sure if it’s real because you might not remember the names of all the companies you’ve applied to.

Scammers obtain email addresses through shady methods and send these messages out all the time. I usually find them in my spam box — which is a great place for them — but occasionally…

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Is it Ever OK to Pay for Work at Home?

December 10, 2012 4 comments by

Work at Home Jobs That Pay WeeklyI feel pretty safe in saying that the majority of the time, no, it is not OK to pay for a work at home job. Being asked to pay is always a red flag and you should proceed very cautiously as soon as payment of any sort has been requested.

That said, there are a few certain instances where payment is acceptable. Below, I’m going to break down for you what these are –
Background Check
Some companies won’t hire you until you’ve submitted to a background check, and you might additionally be asked to foot the bill for it. I’ve seen many, many legitimate companies that require you pay for your own background check…

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Watch Out For the Package Shipping Scam

November 16, 2012 5 comments by

package shipping scamThere is a work at home scam that’s been floating around for years that I still see on occasion, and it’s one of the worst — the package shipping scam. This is very similar to the check cashing scam, only much worse with more legal repercussions.
What is the package shipping scam?
You see an advertisement for a work at home job that sounds pretty easy with good pay. All you’re expected to do is receive packages at your home (which might be anything … electronics, DVDs, who knows) and then reship those packages to someplace else (possibly overseas). You’re told that you’ll be paid a flat…

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The Definition of “Scam”

October 7, 2012 5 comments by

I see various work at home opportunities get labeled as “scams” quite often when this is not the case at all. It happens not only in the comments here on this site sometimes, but on forums I visit as well.

The bottom line is this — simply having a bad experience with a company does not mean they’re a scam and in fact calling out a company as such is very serious so be careful when you say that, especially when you aren’t 100 percent sure you’re right.

So what exactly is a a scam? Well, it’s safe to say that a company is a scam when they’ve tried to take your money or steal your personal information to use for their own purposes. For example, these fake…

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Zeek Rewards Shut Down By SEC

August 20, 2012 6 comments by

The past few days lots of people have been buzzing about Zeek Rewards being shut down by the SEC, accused of being a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. This was something a lot of people in the work at home community were involved in, and in the past I got a lot of emails from people asking me about it, was it legit, etc. This was something based around penny auctions. To be honest, I never 100 percent understood how it worked because the setup (as is typical with lots of MLM/investment type things) was extremely confusing to me, and that definitely made me uncomfortable with it.

When asked about Zeek Rewards, I would typically direct people over to Eddy’s…

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Don’t Be a Fool …

March 30, 2012 10 comments by

April Fool

 

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Perfect Example of a Work at Home Scam

January 11, 2012 10 comments by

While it’s for sure not always possible to tell a work at home scam site at a glance, there are still several glaring examples out there of sites you should probably not look at for longer than a few seconds before you click away. Here is a screenshot (which if you click on it will take you to the actual site so you can view the large version) of a very obvious scam work at home website. This site was created as part of an educational campaign by the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation in an effort to help inform people of the types of “work at home opportunities” to stay away from. The site itself isn’t an actual business and if you click anywhere on it, it…

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How the Check Cashing Scam Could Land You in Jail

December 21, 2011 6 comments by

The Check Cashing Scam It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about a scam, but there are two — the check cashing scam and the package shipping scam, that could land you in jail. Today I’m just going to focus on the check cashing scam. You may know about this one, but if you don’t, please read! The more people who are educated about this, the better.
How it Works
You’ll get a check for some bogus reason. Sometimes it will come from someone saying you’ve won the lottery or won a prize in a contest. Or, perhaps you see an ad for a work at home job or secret shopper position in the newspaper or on the internet…

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Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes

October 7, 2011 4 comments by

Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid SchemesWhen you start researching work at home, you’ll inevitably find some info on multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes. These two are not exactly the same and it’s important to understand the difference because this is territory where you need to step very carefully before getting involved.
Pyramid Schemes
Pyramid schemes are illegal. They work something like this: You’re invited to sign up for an opportunity that requires a cash investment from you that’s on the high end, possibly as much as $500. You are told you can make your money back and then some by recruiting more people to be in your downline where you will get a cut of what they pay to start up. And…

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Scams Involving 1-900 Numbers

September 26, 2011 9 comments by

1-900 NumbersI’ve done several posts lately on work at home scams and what to watch out for. Today I want to briefly discuss one of the scams than can cost you dearly — in many cases moreso than several of the other things I’ve mentioned. 1-900 scams are everywhere and they don’t just involve working at home, but many do.
Here’s What You’ll See
If you are browsing the Internet or a newspaper looking for ways to earn money online or at home, you may come across an ad claiming that you can make a certain amount per week or month doing some job. But for more information, you’ll have to call a number. If the number starts with…

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Avoiding Craigslist Writing Scams

September 12, 2011 4 comments by

avoiding Craigslist writing scams

Craigslist can be a great place for freelance writers to find work, but it’s also filled with scam job postings for writing work (and also other kinds of work from home). I’m posting this today because one of my regular readers had a bad experience after taking a writing job she found posted on Craigslist. I’ll follow up her story with a few tips for dodging the shady opportunities.

The person who contacted me last night said that she saw an ad on Craigslist advertising $30 for several 200 word summaries. All she had to do to get the money was call some companies and ask specific questions, kind of like phone mystery shopping. She…

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