| Inside Job: Avoiding Work-at-Home Scams; Don't Be Taken In |
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Byline: Audri and Jim Lanford
Had enough of the rat race? Maybe it's time to start your own business -- and many people have had success opening shop from within their homes. In our Inside Job special feature, we've gathered information you can use to learn the ins and outs of doing a home-based business right.
washingtonpost.com: I'd like to start the discussion off with a general question about ScamBusters. Who are you, why did you start the web site and what do you consider the primary need you are attempting to address?
Audri Lanford: ScamBusters.org is a public service that we've been publishing for 12 years to help people protect themselves from Internet scams. We have about 2 million visitors and 110,000 subscribers to our free newsletter. Scammers are getting more and more clever, so we want to help people not get taken.
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Forestville, Md.: I'm retired and looking into working out of my home, something to supplement my retirement. I have been trying to do paid surveys and have yet to earn any money. Recently I've signed up for eBay. My question is can you actually make the kind of money they advertise that you can or is it just another scam?
Audri Lanford: Paid surveys will most likely not lead to earning any decent money. You might earn a few dollars and get a few products, but that's it.
You can earn money selling on eBay -- tens of thousands of people do. However, you have to know what you're doing. And, you do work -- it's not that you get money just popping up in your bank account.
Start small.
You can find some good advice by going to Ezine Articles and typing eBay into the article search.
http://ezinearticles.com/
Another legitimate way to earn money is to register with eLance.com. It is basically a marketplace for people hiring freelance writers, graphic artists, consultants, programmers, you name it. We have successfully dozens of people from eLance for years.
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Leonardtown, Md.: How safe is it to sell items on eBay?
Audri Lanford: Great question. There are millions of items sold each day on eBay, and the vast majority are bought and sold legitimately.
However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be careful. You definitely should.
We wrote a ScamBusters issue awhile back about online auctions that I think you'll find useful. It's called "Online Auctions: Deal or Steal?" You can find it here:
http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters43.html
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Washington, D.C.: I've heard these "Secret Shopper" programs you can sign up for are fishy? Are they legit? Or, are some OK and others not reliable?
Audri Lanford: Secret or Mystery Shopping is a field filled with scams. However, we recently did a special issue of ScamBusters where we interviewed an expert on the topic, Cathy Stucker, and I was surprised to learn from Cathy how much was legitimate. Cathy explained in detail what the scams are and how to avoid them. You can find the article here:
http://www.scambusters.org/mysteryshopper.html
We did an update on another secret shopper scam in yesterday's issue, which you can find here:
http://www.scambusters.org/secretshoppers.html
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Manassas, Va. : Is there anything illegal about participating in the "classic" work-at-home businesses, like trying to get people into envelope stuffing, etc.? Is it against the law to recruit for these things, or is it just immoral (taking advantage of greedy fools)?
Audri Lanford: It depends. Envelope stuffing is definitely a scam -- we've never seen a non-scam version.
Many scammers are incredibly clever and stay just within the law. So, you need to know what the scams are to protect yourself and not rely on things being illegal.
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Washington, D.C.: Are there clear "red flags" you can point me to so when I am presented with an opportunity I know to be wary of it?
Jim Lanford: First, if it comes from spam it is a scam.
Then check out: Top 10 Work At Home and Home Based Business Scams
http://www.scambusters.org/work-at-home.html
_Audri and Jim Lanford are co-directors of Scambusters.org . They were online to discuss the pitfalls awaiting those who don't snoop out work-at-home scams -- and how to avoid them.
The Post's Annys Shin examined the topic of work at home scams in her latest entry to her consumer blog, The Checkout .
For more on entrepreneur ism, visit last year's Small Business 101 special feature. And there is plenty more information on jobs and careers in our online Jobs section .
The transcript follows below.
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Washington, D.C.: Who are you to say what's a scam and what isn't, so long as it's legal?
Audri Lanford: We haven't gotten this question in a long time...
We're the founders and editors of Internet ScamBusters, the #1 publication on Internet fraud. We've been publishing ScamBusters for 12 years as a public service, and have about 2 million visitors and 110,000 subscribers to our free weekly newsletter.
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Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 @ 11:08:11 CDT by Site_Admin |
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