Avoiding Shady Work-at-home Schemes
Working from home is an ideal opportunity for many individuals, particularly stay-at-home parents or people who are languishing between jobs. As a result, if you're in such a situation, the offer to engage in this type of low-stress work can seem ideal. After all, who wouldn't want to be able to make his own schedule, be his own supervisor, feel the fulfillment of getting work done and make decent money all at once?
As appealing as that may sound, you have to be extremely careful if you choose to look for these employment opportunities. Some can be perfectly legitimate, and plenty of others can be either entirely unscrupulous, and potentially illegal, or at the very least rife with false promises.
The nature of the work in some of the most common work-at-home gigs is quite varied. Some offers may state that you'll be assembling crafts or other products on your own, spending out-of-pocket money on materials and equipment, to sell the finished items to various companies, who will then refuse to buy them based on the quality of your work.
Others include doing various internet-based or administrative tasks - running searches on prominent websites, processing medical claims or rebates, or stuffing envelopes for supposed "promoters." For these offers, the specifics of the catches that make them invalid are different, but they essentially involve either tricking you out of money or offering you "legitimate" work that is incredibly tedious and minimally-paying.
If you see an advertisement for one of these offers and are tempted to give it a shot, do a great deal of research on the company behind it before you do anything. Ask for information about the nature of the work, payment, out-of-pocket costs and any other relevant details to be sent to you in writing. Also look for complaints regarding them on legitimate Internet channels, or with your local Better Business Bureau.
Have you encountered any of these shady offers?
