Work-at-home ads proven over time to lack credibility

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Work-at-home ads proven over time to lack credibility

Dear Action Line: We all fear losing our jobs, and some of my co-workers want to answer these late-night cable TV ads for making money working at home or starting a medical billing business. Do any of these really make money, or are they just scams? — N.T., Tulsa.

They always have been and always will be scams, said Rick Brinkley, president and CEO of the Tulsa Better Business Bureau.

"Work-at-home schemes are historically the No. 1 problem for Better Business Bureaus," he said. "We have never seen any consumer make the money promised in the ads. Most complaints involve medical billing, envelope stuffing or craft making — all businesses people desperate for income believe can be conducted at home."

Medical billing: Victims are told that by sending amounts up to thousands of dollars, they will receive information necessary to start their own medical billing company. But they are never able to make any money at this because in this day and age, medical centers and doctors' offices use large companies to handle this — not people working from their kitchen tables.

"Be leery of anyone promising you big bucks by working from home in medical billing," Brinkley said.

Envelope stuffing: "This is the oldest of the work-at-home schemes," he said. In this scam, consumers respond to small ads in newspapers saying that for $29 they can make $500 to $1,000 per week stuffing advertising flyers into envelopes for mailing. But this is impossible — modern technology can perform such tasks a lot quicker and cheaper than people can by hand.

"Usually, consumers who send money rarely get anything back," Brinkley said. "Or they receive photocopied instructions to advertise in publications for work-at-home information and to scam respondents using the same scheme."

The U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service Web site says, "In practically all businesses, envelope stuffing has become a highly mechanized operation using sophisticated mass mailing techniques and equipment which eliminates any profit potential for an individual doing this type of work at home. The Inspection Service knows of no work-at-home promotion that ever produced income as alleged."

In a 12-month period, the Postal Inspection Service reported that it put 3,500 work-at-home operations out of business through administrative mail-stop orders, consent agreements and criminal proceedings.

Arts and crafts: These ads say you can assemble arts and crafts projects at home to make money. Scam version 1: The company sells you the material and then tells you to assemble the product and sell it to your friends. This proves difficult because most people don't have enough friends to buy enough stuff to keep them in business. Version 2: The company tells you to buy the materials and that it will pay you to assemble the product. After assembly you must send the product back to receive payment, but your work is never good enough to satisfy them, and you are never paid.

"Every day, the Tulsa Better Business Bureau receives calls from consumers checking on these types of businesses," Brinkley said. "It's a major problem in this area. These scam artists target people who have the least to lose — low-income families looking for ways to make ends meet."

By PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor

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