10 Work at home Scams to Avoid

You are searching the Internet and you come across a company that guarantees to pay you $500 a week to do data entry from home.  To make the offer even better, you are only required to work part-time hours.  Doing data entry from home is just what you were looking for.  You think to yourself, “This would be the perfect job for me.”  But is it legit and can I really trust that this company will pay me for the work that I complete?

These are good questions to ask.  Some people even feel embarrassed about questions of this nature that they refrain from asking but you don’t have to.  You will never get an answer if you don’t ask any questions and some of the most intelligent people ask questions.  It is fundamental to learning and learning leads to knowledge and knowledge leads to power which will give you the upper hand when it comes to detecting a legitimate work at home opportunity from a scam.

I have seen a variety of scams in my online research and I want to share with you some of the more popular ones so that you can avoid them altogether.  But if you ever happen to question a job proposal or offer that you have received from someone, please feel free to post your questions on Workersonboard Community and someone will get you an answer or go to a trusted resource or person so that you can find out the truth.

1. Membership Fees – If you come across a website that tells you that you will have to pay a membership fee for lifetime access to work at home jobs for a certain dollar amount, make sure that you investigate the company before you send any money.  There are some legitimate companies that require you to pay for a background or credit check, certification classes, and things of that nature but if the site is asking you for money upfront for access to see a list of jobs, please use extreme caution.  There are too many free resources of legitimate work at home jobs posted online for you to check out that do not charge you any money.
2. Stuffing/Mailing Envelopes – You may from time to time come across a company that claims to pay you cash to mail out envelopes.  The most common claim is that you will make $1,200 a week doing this from home but what they don’t tell you is that you will have to send them about $30 or more for materials and possibly a processing fee to get started.  Watch this video about this same scam below.
3. Paid Social Media Jobs – Even though there are some legitimate companies like Appen and others who need social media users to work from home that actually pay you, there are still some scams that you will want to avoid.  If you stumble upon a website that says you will make $25 per hour to post on Facebook, Instagram, and so forth, please do your research and never send any money upfront to be a member of a program or to get instant access to this kind of work because it is most likely a SCAM!
4. My Flex Job – My Flex Job, not FlexJobs is a site that will charge you $25 thinking you are applying to legitimate work at home jobs only to find out that you will be downloading My Backup PC software that could potentially harm your computer.  You will be asked to download and purchase additional software that could end up costing you close to $100.  This company has absolutely no work at home jobs on their website.
5. Starcom Staffing – Even though this company is no longer online, they were luring individuals to apply online with work at home jobs that didn’t exist.  They even would pressure applicants to complete their application with a $40 to $60 fee for a background check.  The fee was supposed to be reimbursed when you were hired but I hardly believe that anyone ever worked for that company.  I even made a video about this scam to warn others but the company threatened that I remove their name or face legal action.  You can watch the video for more details about this scam below.
6. Data Entry – I posted on Workersonboard.com about a company called Data Plus that hires data entry keyers to work from home but one of my readers alerted me to the fact that a lady who goes by the name of D. Smith had contacted her daughter about a job regarding printing payroll checks and mailing them out.  The company is not even owned by this person.  In fact, D. Smith has nothing to do with this company and the company was not hiring at that time so if you get an email with a similar job offer from D. Smith who claims to represent Data Plus, she is a fraud.
7. Mystery Shopping – A lot of individuals or companies will cleverly disguise themselves under a legitimate mystery shopping company name like BestMark, Market Force, and others using their logos, trademarks, and symbols to send you an acceptance letter along with a large check for you to deposit into your bank account.  The check is counterfeit leaving you responsible to cover the check.  The check could be as high as $2,000 so it is a good idea to have the rule that you will never deposit a check from someone you do not know or are not familiar with.  Remember never to send in money to be a mystery shopper.  This is most definitely a scam.
8. Craigslist – This popular site had more work at home scams and schemes back in the day then legitimate work at home jobs but Craigslist has been careful about screening out these job posters to make sure that they are legit.  You still have to be very selective when you look for jobs on Craigslist.  I would recommend that you only apply to companies that you have heard of before when using this site.  You can watch this video tutorial about how to use Craigslist below.
9. Craft/Assembly – I have rarely found any craft/assembly companies that will pay you to create crafts and other items from your home.  Even though this seems to be a highly desired work at home job and a lot of companies advertise them, the majority of them are scams.
10. Business Investments/Offers – If you have to use a credit card or invest money in a product that you are not fully trained on how to use or have little knowledge of, you could risk losing your investment.  A lot of companies like to catch your eye with the promise of making BIG money but there are no guarantees.  A lot of the income you will earn has to do with your selling/marketing skills.  If you are not able to sell the products you will not earn any money.

These are just a few of the work at home scams that you should avoid.  Have you ever been scammed or close to being scammed by any of these programs?  Do you know of any more that should be included on this list?  If so, please leave me your comments below.