I came across this post on Locker Gnome about the biggest Internet scams of 2009. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 20% more complaints of internet scams in 2009 when compared to 2008. And guess what? Despite the notoriety of work at home scams, they weren’t the biggest category.

That doesn’t say anything about how bad work at home scams are, of course, just that they aren’t the most heavily reported type of fraud reported to IC3.

What is really amazing to me is that the dollar loss when up so significantly. In 2008, the dollar loss reported was $264.6 million. In 2009, it was $559.7 million. Rather a significant increase in dollars considering the complaints increased 20%. Some complainants lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while more than 20% lost less than $100.

The most heavily reported were email scams that mentioned the FBI, and this made up 16.6% of crime complaints. Non delivery of merchandise or payment was next at 11.9% of complaints.

Work at home scams certainly made the list of common scams reported to the IC3. While the report doesn’t specify numbers, it noted a wide range of work at home scams ranging from high pay job offers to survey scams to check cashing and money order scams.

The check cashing and money order scams I would say fall into the overpayment fraud categorization. This is hard to figure out until you get far enough into the report to see how they define everything. That would make them 7.3% of complaints. That’s pretty amazing to me to see just how widespread such fraud is.

An interesting one I hadn’t heard of is a survey scam where they ask for a photocopy of a payroll check in order to participate in a survey about employer/employee relationships. The interesting part about this one is that it is the employer who loses money, not the person sending in the copy of the check. The scammers use the account information on the photocopy to write fraudulent checks on the employer’s account.

The report overall is interesting, just to see how many kinds of internet scams there are. It’s easy for me to focus on the work at home scams, since that’s an area I work in. But there are many more scams online that it pays to be aware of.

You’re excited. A company has just contacted you with an offer for a work at home job, and you’ve been searching for weeks or even months. Finally all your hard work seems to be paying off.

There’s just one problem. They want you to pay for a background check, and you aren’t quite sure you remember the company name. Or maybe you do kind of remember them, but you can’t find any good information about them online or anywhere else.

What do you do?

It’s a sad fact that there are many work at home scams out there, and a popular one is to get people to pay for a background check for a job that doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, a very few legitimate companies also make potential employees pay for background checks, making it very difficult to know for certain what you should do when asked.

Your very first step is to start asking around if someone else knows of the company.  Many work at home message boards have very knowledgeable members who can help you figure out if you should consider taking the chance.

They’ll probably tell you no unless the company is well known.

There’s a simple reason for such skepticism. Most often such offers are scams.

Sure, the cost of a background check doesn’t seem like much. It’s not hundreds and hundreds of dollars, after all.

But that’s what they count on when they send you the job offer. They’re trying to get past your “I can’t afford to lose that much money” radar and give you the feeling that you can afford to risk a small amount if it means you’ll finally be working at home.

When you’re looking for a work at home job, no matter how frustrated you get with the difficulty of the entire process, it’s vital that you not let your guard down. Don’t suddenly start trusting an offer just because you really, really need the job. You have to be a skeptic. It’s the best protection you have.

Your best bets are to always stick to reputable companies that are known for hiring at home employees and resources that provide screened opportunities. If you go beyond these resources in your search, increase your skepticism.

There are legitimate work at home jobs listed even on sites such as Craigslist where anyone can place an ad. But the lack of screening means that scams do get through.

You should be wary if they ask for any money at all. You should be wary if they want your bank account information, even if they say it’s for direct deposit, doubly so if you haven’t actually received any pay at all yet. You should be wary if the pay is oddly high for the work you’ll be doing.

You just plain need to be careful if there’s no proof that you’ve found a legitimate company.

Sadly, a healthy mistrust of unproven opportunities is a good thing when you’re job hunting at home. It can save you a lot of money and heartache.

What is the difference between a work at home job and a home business?

A work at home job is a job you perform from your home office. You may be telecommuting from a job that you previously did from an office. You may work 100% from home or have to drive to an office occasionally or to client sites at times.

You may work as a contract employee or a regular employee.

A home business is a business you run from your home office. You pay all the expenses associated with your home business. Sometimes your home business involves working as an independent contractor for another business but you may also have a network marketing business, website design business, affiliate marketing business, etc.

When should you pay for a work at home job?

Never is awfully close to the truth, but it can depend on how you’re defining paying for a job. It is acceptable to pay for a service such as Home Job Stop that helps you to find out about new work at home jobs, but you have to be careful that you pick a legitimate service. There are similar companies out there that do not provide current information.

A very few legitimate employers, such as Arise, have expenses associated with getting a job with them. Some expect you to pay for your own background check.

Never, ever pay to prove that you’re serious or anything like that. If a work at home job is suggesting that you pay anything, check them out extremely carefully before sending in any money, even just a few dollars.

How do you spot work at home scams?

Work at home scams can be easy to spot, but the can also be quite devious. I go into many of the more typical work at home scams on this site sometimes.

Some basic rules of thumb:

Don’t pay for a job, see above.

If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

No one is going to pay you $3000-5000 per month for part time, easy work. You earn that kind of money part time, it’s probably a home business and you’re risking some of your own money. And if they promise you that kind of money even for a home business they may not be trustworthy.

Understand what you’re getting paid to do.

Do not give out your bank account information until you know for certain you have a trustworthy employer.

Do not agree to cash cashier’s checks or reship products.

When in doubt, ask someone else, whether it be a spouse or the people on a work at home forum.

Are the jobs full time or part time?

Many work at home jobs can be either part time or full time. However, it can be hard to get work for all of the hours you sign up for in some jobs. It can take more than one job to get all of the hours you would like to work.

Customer service jobs, for example, typically pay on talk time, not scheduled time. That’s a big difference if it’s a quiet day on the job.

Many pay on production rather than hours worked anyhow. Be more productive and you earn more in less time.

Do I have to work a set schedule?

This depends on the job. When I worked in medical transcription I had to set a schedule for myself. If I couldn’t work it I needed to let them know. But I could change it around quite easily.

What kind of work can be done from home?

Just about any job that can be done on a computer that does not require face to face interaction can be done online. Data entry (real data entry, not the scams), customer service, computer programming, general, legal or medical transcription, administrative work, writing, accounting and more are all possibilities.

Will they train me?

Depends on what you mean by train you. Will they take someone with no job experience and train them to a highly difficult job? No.

Will they teach you what you need to know for the particular job you’ve been accepted for when you already have the background and experience? Yes.

Will they provide the equipment I need to work from home?

This varies. In many cases you are expected to provide your own computer, phone and internet connection. Some employers will provide equipment to you or have it available for rent.

Do I really need daycare for the kids?

That depends on what you’re doing, the age of your kids, when you want to work and other factors. Consider my recent post on using daycare when you work at home.

Some jobs require absolutely silent backgrounds. Customer service jobs, for example. If your kids are too noisy you can lose you job. Think carefully on the childcare issue.

One of the big reasons many moms choose to work at home is so that they don’t have to pay for childcare. It’s a huge savings on the face of it. But would paying for a little childcare allow you to earn enough to make up for it?

It’s not something that all moms want to think about when they decide to work at home. You have your goal of being there for your kids, and it’s hard to say “but I’ll pay someone else for just a few hours so I can really work.”

Is It Fair to Your Family?

Depending on just what you’re doing and how many hours a day you really need to focus on working, it can be too much. Sometimes by far. You really need to be able to figure out whether or not you’re being fair to your family.

Working in spurts as the kids let you can mean you spend more time working and less time with your family than you would by paying for a little childcare. You may not have time to build the focus that you need to really get projects done.

You may also be building your frustration level. Believe me, I know exactly how frustrating it is to get interrupted while working on a project. It’s pretty miserable.

It’s not exactly fun for the kids either to have a mom who is grouchy from being interrupted, or to always be told they have to wait. Hearing that sometimes is fine, even a good thing as kids need to learn that they are not the center of the universe. Hearing that all day, every day isn’t so good.

Is It Fair to Your Marriage?

It’s not just the kids you can be unfair to when you work at home. It’s your marriage. Skip out on making time for your marriage isn’t a good plan.

Working all night, every night, plus all weekend, really doesn’t leave you much time to build your marriage, which really needs to be more important than your business. A supportive spouse is a good thing, but you can take their support too much for granted.

No, putting your husband into daycare isn’t the answer. I doubt the daycare provider would appreciate it. But using childcare enough that you have time for your husband and a break from your business is a good thing.

Is It Fair to You?

If you’re working yourself so hard that you don’t have time for anything else, yet you still struggle to get anything done with your business you probably aren’t being fair to yourself either. Using childcare can mean that you get a break for yourself later on.

Is It Fair to Your Business?

No, your business won’t care if you neglect it or are distracted, but it won’t grow as fast. If you have clients, on the other hand, they will care if you aren’t able to complete in a timely manner the work you agreed to perform.

Only you know exactly how much you want to grow your business. Not everyone wants a multi million dollar income from their business. It can sound nice, but if the work required doesn’t fit into your lifestyle, you probably aren’t going to welcome the idea so much.

But if you’re running a home business you need to be able to reach the goals you do have. If you aren’t working toward them because you need more time for your family, are you being fair to your business?

How Do You Find Childcare?

If you don’t already have a provider, finding one can be a bit tricky. There are services such as Sittercity that can help you to find a caregiver. You can also check for ads in the phone book, talk to friends about who they use or check newspaper ads.

What If You Can’t Afford Childcare?

I know this situation well. It’s not cheap to pay for childcare. But if you’re lucky you have options.

Local family is the best. From my own experience, I can state that retired, local and eager grandparents are absolutely the best. One of the hardest things about moving last year was moving away from my inlaws, who had previously taken my kids overnight once a week most weeks. A hard benefit to lose, as it gave me both work time and time alone with my husband.

If local family isn’t available or isn’t willing, it’s time to start looking at trading childcare with friends. Make friends with the parents of your children’s friends and you can make arrangements to trade care. Many families will appreciate the idea.

This means you will sometimes be caring for extra kids, but if they play well together that can mean you get more work time. Busy children don’t need as much direct supervision after a certain age. That means you’re freer to do what you need to get done.

Whatever you do, find the right balance between caring for your family, your marriage, yourself and building your business. It’s a tough balance, but one you need to figure out.

Many people make mistakes when they’re trying to find a work at home job. There are so many wild promises out there, it’s easy to do. But if you know what you should and should not do you can keep yourself out of much of the possible trouble.

Do:

Do know the difference between a work at home job and a home business.

Also know the which one you’re really searching for. Knowing whether you want a job or want to start your own business can really help you to focus on the right kinds of opportunities and help you to avoid a lot of scams. For the rest of this article, I’ll be assuming that it’s jobs you’re looking for.

Do have your resume ready.

Just as with any other job, potential employers may be interested in your work history. You’ll probably want to customize it a little depending on the particular job you’re applying for, but having a basic one ready is a big help.

Do your due diligence.

Don’t forget to be careful about what you do apply for. If you got the company name and contact information from a trusted source it’s probably okay, but sometimes companies or websites do change hands. Pay attention to what they’re asking, and when in doubt ask for opinions from other people. People on work at home message boards can be very helpful.

Do consider whether paying for access to a work at home job database works for you.

This is very, very different from paying to show interest in a job, paying for a job, etc. The payment is for resources and links to work at home jobs you probably won’t find elsewhere. It’s not for everyone and you may be able to land a job without buying a membership to a database.

If you do buy, make sure it’s a reputable one. There are more bad databases than good ones. Home Job Stop has an excellent reputation as a good, regularly updated resource.

Do know what common work at home scams look like.

There are some basic signs of work at home scams, many of which I’ll be covering in the “Don’t” section. Reading up on work at home scams in general can be a big help in weeding out the false leads you will almost certainly encounter.

Don’t:

Don’t pay to show you’re serious.

Somehow this very basic scam works, probably because it’s generally a fairly low payment. But you wouldn’t pay to show you were serious about an outside the home job, would you? Same principle, and legitimate employers won’t ask you to do this.

Don’t trust jobs that promise oddly large pay for easy work.

It’s not true. If working at home were as wildly profitable as some claim, we’d all be rich. That’s especially true when you’re looking at jobs rather than home businesses.

Don’t assume websites have screened all of their ads.

Even huge websites often don’t have full control of the ads on their sites. It can be problematic, but it’s true. If you find a bad ad it doesn’t hurt to let the website owner know about it so they can do what they can to get rid of it.

Don’t give out your checking account information too easily.

Direct deposit is a wonderful way to get paid. It saves so much trouble. But don’t share anything as personal as your checking account information until you know that this is an employer you can trust.

Similarly, think before sharing your social security number. Legitimate employers will need it for tax purposes. But if the application asks for it and you aren’t 100% certain you trust the employer, just fill it in as zeroes. If you can, indicate that you will fill out the proper form when necessary. This may make it a touch harder to get the job if the potential employer doesn’t like having to get the information later, but it’s a small detail if you’re really qualified.

A little caution goes a long way when you’re working for a work at home job. Be smart, ignore the hype, do your research and you can cut your odds of falling for a scam way down.

A lot of people start looking for a way to earn money from home because they’re desperate. Maybe they got laid off. Maybe their credit card bills are out of hand. Maybe they’re suddenly going to be a single parent due to a divorce. Whatever the reason, they just desperately want to earn money from home and will do just about anything to accomplish that.

It’s probably the worst frame of mind for finding a legitimate opportunity, even though it’s one of the most motivating frames of mind for getting work done for some people.

What do you do?

1. Rethink whether earning money from home is really the right solution.

If you need money right now, get a job. Any job that you can do. Don’t be proud. If it means flipping burgers, go flip burgers and do a good job of it.

If childcare is an issue, yes, this can be tough. You may be able to work out a solution with family members helping you out or by trading care with a friend. If you need it, find a way to make it happen.

This doesn’t mean giving up on earning money from home, just that you need to be sensible about earning the money you need to live on first.

2. Be realistic about your skills and interests.

If you need to know that you will earn money for the work you do, a work at home job is your best bet early on. You’ll generally know what you get paid for completing a particular kind of work. But this doesn’t mean apply for any and all work at home jobs. If you can’t do that kind of work or have no experience, you’re probably wasting your time

Being realistic means that you can focus on getting the jobs you have a chance of landing. It won’t guarantee you get one, as the competition for work at home jobs as a rule is pretty fierce. But at least you won’t be wasting time on things you have no chance of getting.

3. Learn about the common scams.

There are many signs of a work at home scam you should be aware of. Simple signs such as excessive claims of easy money should warn you away from many a supposed opportunity.

If you can learn to dig through the hype, follow the money and figure out where the money from a particular opportunity is supposed to come from, you’re ahead of the game on spotting scams. It won’t guarantee that you never fall for a scam, but it will help you avoid more of them.

4. Consider quick writing jobs.

This can be particularly helpful if you’re considering starting an online business. Go to sites such as Associated Content, Bright Hub and Demand Studios that pay you by the article accepted. Start writing for them on the topics you understand. You’ll get some pay and some good practice at writing content, something you’ll need for many types of online business.

5. Try freelancing.

What are the skills you’ve used when working outside of the home? Can you make use of them as a freelancer?

The life of a freelancer can vary between too little and too much work, but it’s a place to get started earning from home. There are websites such as Guru and eLance that allow you to bid on jobs.

6. Look at other kinds of home businesses.

There are tons of possibilities out there for running an online home business. You can blog. You can be an affiliate marketer. You can set up your own online store.

Whatever business you choose, be passionate about it. Love what you do. Work hard at it. Passion won’t guarantee your success, but it’s a great motivator.

Use your desperation also. If you need to earn money, make it happen. Push your limits. You don’t know if something will work if you don’t try.

Do your best to not let your business worsen your financial situation. Don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. Most businesses of any type fail. They are a risk. But if you succeed you’ll have a fair chance of making more than you would at a job. Keep things sane and it’s not a bad gamble at all.

Deciding which work at home products and home business opportunities to trust is a tough decision. There are so many out there, and too many are scams. Picking out the good ones is not easy. It’s important to be able to figure out which ones are possibly right for you.

Finding Product Reviews

If you’ve been trying to find work at home for a while, you are probably already on a number of mailing lists and hear regularly about the latest product. All too often they’re being recommended without having been tried out. Many of the big product launches provide affiliates and joint venture partners with basic emails that they can send out as is or just customize a little.

It doesn’t make for a clear understanding of whether or not the product is any good.

It’s hard to figure out if a new product is any good. You can tell some by the reputation of who created it. If the creator of the product has a reputation for quality, you have a good chance of buying something that will be worth it.

If you’re not sure, give it some time. There are many ways to earn money from home. You don’t have to jump on the latest, hottest one to have a chance. You have options.

What About the “Is Product X a Scam?” Reviews?

When researching a product or opportunity that’s been out for long, a common research tactic is to search on whether or not it’s a scam. That’s a good idea, but not as effective as it once was.

A popular way to recommend a product now is to write an article asking if it’s a scam, then noting that it’s not. Pretty much no matter what the actual quality of the product is or whether or not it really is a scam. Some people don’t care so long as they get their sales commission.

If you want to know if a particular opportunity is a scam, Scam.com can be a good place to start. Or my forums, of course. It’s amazing how well a fresh perspective can spot a scam.

How Do You Recognize a Quality Recommendation?

The best reviews come from people who have already and continue to use the product or are still in the business opportunity they’re recommending. If they’re really doing well with it they probably know what they’re talking about.

Trouble is, you can’t always tell if that’s the truth or not. It’s the internet. It’s easy to say anything.

It’s a good idea to look at multiple reviews when you can. If they’re all saying the same thing, the reviewers probably all got it from the same basic source. Don’t trust those.

A good review will also note any problems with the product. Real issues, not just something scraped up like “the only trouble was deciding how to spend all the money!”

A good review will also have more information than you could find yourself by going to the product or opportunity website. If it’s all rehashed from the sales letter page, you really haven’t learned anything new.

Screenshots are nice, but very easily faked. Take them with a rather large grain of salt.

An ongoing review can also be nice. I don’t find these very often, but it can be nice to see someone start reviewing a product from the time they purchased it through the early parts of working on it, to making money, and how it goes from there. It’s a hard kind of review to write, especially without revealing more than one should about product details.

Consider also who is recommending the product. If you’ve read a lot of recommendations from that person, and they’re all rave reviews, there’s probably a problem. If they are more balance there’s a better chance that the review is honest. If they don’t review a product but have a generally good reputation they would want to maintain, they’re probably also going to be honest in their product reviews and recommendations.

What About Paid/Commissioned Reviews?

You’ll note that I’m not paying too much attention to whether or not a review was paid for outright or earns the reviewer a commission on sales. That’s because an honest reviewer will give the same advice either way. The money’s nice, but a good reviewer won’t let that impact what they say.

The FTC has much to say about paid endorsements these days. There’s a good bit of debate still on what must be said, but you should see some sort of disclosure on the page.

Disclosure still doesn’t tell you if the reviewer is being 100% honest about their experience with the product unfortunately. You hope they are but as always there’s no real way to know.

Know That You Won’t Always Get It Right

Even when you try hard to avoid the scams, it’s entirely possible that you will get scammed. No one can spot every scam perfectly. All you can do is try your best.

Pay attention to refund policies. If a product goes through Clickbank, it’s pretty easy to get a refund if you feel the product really isn’t for you. Other vendors will have other policies, and it may or may not be easy to get your money back.

Know That Not Every Opportunity Works for Everyone

This is incredibly important to understand. Just because a particular opportunity doesn’t work out for you don’t mean it was a scam. It might, but it could also mean that it just wasn’t a match. Be honest with yourself about where the failure is when something doesn’t work out. Remember that most businesses fail and even the “gurus” have ideas that just don’t work out and have failed in business.

Writing is one of the most popular online jobs. There’s a good reason for it – it’s relatively easy and many people can do an adequate job of it. Some even do a great job of it.

Writing online content doesn’t necessarily pay well in many cases, but it’s relatively easy to get something for your efforts. It’s not going to pay what you would get if you had an article published in a major magazine, but then most magazine articles are much harder to write and get accepted. The standards are different.

That said, if you aren’t interested in a career as a freelance writer for magazines, newspapers and so forth, but just want to write simple articles in quantity it’s not a bad way to go. The pay’s not great but the flexibility is there. You’ll generally be able to write completely on your own schedule.

The trick comes in how you get paid. I strongly recommend getting paid by the article in most cases. It’s nice to know what you’re going to get. You can get $5 per article or even less at some sites. I really don’t recommend accepting under $5 per article even if you really need the work, or under $10 if you’ve been doing the work a while. You should be reasonably compensated for your work, after all.

Sites that pay per article accepted include Associated Content, Bright Hub and Demand Studios. You may also want to consider trying for a Guide position with About.com, as they pay a set rate monthly with expectations of how much you will write for them, for the first two years, and then base it on the ad income that comes in.

Some sites would rather pay based on impressions, then pay out when you reach a certain level. The trouble with this is that there’s no guarantee you’ll get anything if you don’t reach the payout level. Many articles just don’t get that much traffic. And if you do get paid, it’s not too uncommon for things to stick at that under $5 level even over a period of time. It’s just not worth it on average.

Get an above average response to an article that pays on views and you might do better, but that’s a huge if.

Other sites pay on ad income. This can be good or bad also. Overall you aren’t likely to get much on most articles. This can be sites such as Squidoo where you can even include ads in your content on your own, or blogs that accept articles and handle ad placement on their own.

Anything where you’re getting paid on view or on ad income, the site will encourage you to also drive traffic to your articles so that you earn more. In essence, they expect you to write for them and promote for them. It’s a lot of extra work, potentially.

There are also sites where you can get paid to blog, either on your own site or on someone else’s. Same kind of deal as writing content for other types of sites. You’ll want to decide if you’re paid by the post or by the ad income or page views.

This isn’t work that will make you rich, as a general rule, but it can bring in that bit of money you need to help your income when you’re at home.

Please note, this is intended as humor. None of this would be a good idea and could get you into trouble if you tried it.

You’ve been thinking about working at home, haven’t you. You want it all, the money, the house, the car, the free time. All without effort. Well, now is the time!

It’s easy! All you have to do is stuff envelopes. Tell people that you’ll send them information on how to start their own business for just $19.95. Get their money and tell them to put up the same ads you just did. They can then do just the same as you. They’ll love you for it. The Postmaster will love you for it. Everyone will love you for it. Even your future cellmate will love you for it.

Once you’ve started that, it’s time to start some data entry. All you have to do is fill in some forms and off you go. You’ll be making money in no time. Pay no attention to the money flying out of your wallet as you pay for the ads that the forms create.

Now just to be sure some money comes in, let’s apply for a work at home job. The application fee just means you’re interested, right? And the software they want you to buy looks great. Really useful. $5000 per month working part time is just amazing. Life’s going to be so good.

Hey, is that a package in the mail? Now who wanted that shipped to them? Overseas? No problem! Just cash that traveler’s check and send them the extra, keeping your share for pay. This stuff is just so easy.

Wait. Google wants to pay you? Yippee! Such a small cost to get started you know it has to be good. Pay no attention to the fine print hidden in the terms of service. You might even be able to do the same with Twitter! Tweet, tweet!

Now is the time to share the bounty with friends. Join a group and all of you gift $1000 to a randomly chosen person. Keep doing that until you’re all rich from those $1000 cash gifts you’ve given each other and don’t forget to bring in some new recruits! Remember, it’s a gift so of course the IRS will have no problem with it.

Isn’t it wonderful how little effort and money all this cost? Now where’s my mansion and sports car?

Reading and commenting on blog posts can be a good use of time or a complete time suck. Take some time before the end of the year and figure out which blogs in your reader are worth your while.

In some ways this is like yesterday’s suggestion to clean out your email newsletter subscriptions. You don’t want to read the blogs that aren’t providing you good information or are overly promotional.

But you should add in some consideration for which ones you comment on. Whether the links are follow or no follow, blog comments can be useful in bringing attention to your own site. Think about which blogs you often find you have some thoughts to contribute.

Also keep subscribing to any blogs that you are considering being a guest blogger on. You want to keep up on what topics get covered there and on any requests they have for guest posts.