“Currently there’s a 54-to-1 scam ratio among
work-at-home job leads on the Internet,” said Staffcentrix co-founder,
Christine Durst, who screens up to 5,000 online job offers every week and rates
them on her Web site.
“That means that for every 55 [work-at-home] job leads
that you find on the Internet, 54 of them are going to be outright scams or
downright suspicious,” warns Durst.
Not only is this true for home based job opportunities, it
is true for those home based business opportunities; those claiming you can
make boatloads of money with little, if any effort and simply “with the press
of a button.”
It’s Getting Bigger by the Second
The problem is growing in epic proportions, especially in
light of the current economic situation. Otherwise cautious people are being
sucked into situations that give the promise of financial security. Sadly many
people lose time and money to many of these “too good to be true”
opportunities. Some lose a few dollars while others lose thousands.
This is not to discourage you from pursuing your dream of
working at home. However, it is to encourage you to avoid jumping into a
situation without doing your homework.
Not Everything Is As It Appears
Before believing testimonials, guarantees, amazing earning
potentials, etc., research whatever it is you are thinking of doing.
If you have to send money for a job opportunity – BEWARE! If
you don’t know anything about the company that promises you only have to work a
few hours a week and make thousands upon thou
sands of dollars – BEWARE!
ABC News 20/20 had an excellent segment on the reality of the situation. In essence, they also warn avoid the opportunities that make it appear as if you don’t need to do anything and you can rake in the money.
Does this mean there are no legitimate and lucrative
opportunities? Absolutely not. What it does mean is keep a level head about any
offer you find.
Here are a few steps you can take to minimize being taken
advantage of:
- Check out the people behind the offer. Dig deep to see if
there are complaints against the company you are considering working for. A
Google search can be a first step. - Avoid any opportunities where you cannot easily get in touch
with someone from the company. Even when you do get in touch, realize there are
ways to make things appear legit. - If the offer appears too good to be true it likely is.
- If there are promises that you need no experience at all and
you can lay on the beach while raking in the money, avoid this like the plague. - Give yourself a cooling off period. If you have a feeling in
the pit of your stomach indicating this is not a good choice for you, trust
that feeling. A feeling like this is likely the best indicator.
For those of us that offer legitimate opportunities, we
welcome inquiries. We also will be the first to say, “Yes, you can make great
money working from home, but you will have to actually work at whatever
business or job you are planning on doing.
Remember this , “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure.”
Kathleen, 20/20 should have had you on to speak! I’m so surprised this is still happening, although I guess I shouldn’t be.
We need more qualified insight and advice, like this…from folks like you… to steer people the right way.
With the economy in the dumpster, and folks being told how “easy” it is to make money online, from home, the legitimate work is getting lost – as you noted here. It makes me wonder how we — you, me and our connections in the real online world of doing business — can help folks find the right business for them.
This post should be required reading.I’ll pass it along via Twitter…that might help.
Having a home based business myself I seem to attract a lot of offers. With so many people becoming jobless it becomes easier for them to fall victim to those who prey on their hopes and needs. The average person doesn’t have many resources to thoroughly investigate some of the more clever scams. The old adage of: “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” is still relevant.
I actually wrote 20/20 on their blog and sent my permalink for this post to the producers. I recommended they do interview some legit home based business owners.
Sadly, many people will now think that every opportunity is a scam when those of us making a living online do so by treating our business like and business and not expecting, nor misleading others to believe, we will get rich quick nor have to work at what we do.
Thanks for the comments.
Kathleen Gage
Although I have been pretty lucky not to be sucked into situations that give the promise of financial security, I admit having lost a few dollars at such opportunities.
However, very early in the building of my home-based psychotherapy/coaching practice, I’ve had the privilege of meeting with trustworthy people such as you, The Blog Squad and Mari Smith.
Now that I have a lot more experience on the web, I am way more cautious when it comes to online opportunities. Let’s remind that not all of them are scams; there are still legitimate opportunities being offered on the web!
Chantal Beaupre
Hello Chantal,
Thank you for your posting and you kind words. Yes, there are plenty of us who have home based businesses that are honest, trustworthy and reliable.
I am hoping 20/20 will do a follow up segment on that aspect of the industry.
Kathleen Gage
I understand where the 20/20 piece is coming from, AND totally agree that it’s completely one-sided. Many of us are making a very good living working from home…and underscore that word…work!
We do not sit in a beach chair sipping a cold drink (except when we are taking that much-deserved vacation) but offer quality products and services to our customers like any other brick and mortar business.
Many of us also offer training and products to help others benefit from starting a business on the internet. And we would never gloss over the amount of work involved in doing so.
I agree with never glossing over the amount of work involved. I make sure that anyone who takes my training courses, whether in a group environment, home study course or one on one mentoring fully understand that there is work involved.
Thanks for your post Ellen.
Kathleen Gage
I agree with everything you said. I’ve “worked at home” since 1999 doing Web marketing for companies all over the country. Before that, starting in 1996, I did the same work but I had an outside office. What’s interesting is if you were to call it “telecommuting” it would be considered legitimate. In many cases working at home means working for yourself (and boy do you work). That’s the missing piece that’s often misunderstood. And for people with computer skills who are not self starters (entrepreneur material), there are so many of us looking for virtual assistants and outsourced web maintenance.
Teri McCready
360WebMarketing
http://www.360webmarketing.com/
Well said Teri. I remember years ago when I was with GTE and telecommuting was just beginning to be accepted in the corporate environment.
And yes,work we do. If we love what we do it makes the sometimes long days easier to handle than if we were doing something we didn’t enjoy.
Kathleen Gage
Hi Kathleen,
Thanks for highlighting this issue. The sad thing is that many people at this time are looking for alternative sources of income and with the increasing numbers of job lay-offs home-based work is very appealing.
However, as you have pointed out, it is important to do your due diligence when investigating any of the myriad of opportunities that are being promoted. Often it doesn’t take much research to discover whether or not an opportunity is all that it appears to be on the surface.
This is also how networking plays a very valuable role. You get to know and trust certain individuals and so you have confidence that when they recommend something that it is genuine and, if something of interest, at least worth considering.
Nickolove
Thank you for your post Nickolove. I am in total agreement about due diligence.
I really appreciate what you say about networking. As a matter of fact I had someone recently who contacted me about an opportunity she had heard about, I went to some very trusted colleagues and found that this was in fact, “Too good to be true.”
Kathleen Gage
There are many legitimate opportunites on the Internet. Its ashame 20/20 didn’t show people how to tell the good from the bad.
1) do a whois search to get the contact information of the owner
2) do a Google search on the name of the opportunity or website to see if anyone has written about it being a scam.
3) you can even ask to speak with someone who has been successful at this opportunity.
4) look for a money back guarantee
As with everything else, do some research before deciding.
Janis Pettit
http://smallbusiness-bigresults.com
Great recommendations Janis.
The more we do our homework, the better off everyone will be.
Kathleen Gage
I’d caution against making a final decision based on what you find on Google. Think about who sounds off–a disgruntled customer or a satisfied one. More often, it’s the disgruntled one. In fact, I’ve read that a dissatisfied customer of a brick-and-mortar store will tell on average 10 people, while a satisfied one may tell one or two.
Add to that the reprehensible practice of taking a widely-recognized name and attaching ‘scam’ to it in a headline just to get traffic to one’s own offer.
The power of the internet is that the same person who would have told 10 about their unsatisfactory experience can now reach thousands. It could easily be a lazy, something-for-nothing type of person saying ‘such-and-so is a scam’, when in fact it is nothing of the sort. Legitimizing that person’s complaint by giving it more credence just because you found it on Google could be devastating, not only to the business person whose business it hurts, but also to the investigating prospect, for whom that business could have been the perfect fit!
If you’re going to use Google to do research, be sure to do it right. Find the people behind the company and contact them. Then take the time to interview them, ask for evidence, etc. Interview others in the business who have no economic incentive to tell you a lie.
Don’t just believe every negative thing you see on the internet. That would be as big a mistake as believing all the get-rich-quick claims. And by the way, that gut feeling that something might be wrong? Sure, listen to that if you think it isn’t just fear getting in your way. But also pay attention to that other gut feeling that it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for.
Too many of the old clichés are accepted as true when they aren’t. Smoke doesn’t always mean fire, for example. And I’ve seen a lot of things that were too good to be true and turned out to be true after all. Most of them I passed up, and missed the opportunity because I’m just too cautious for my own good. Luckily, that other old saw isn’t right either…opportunity actually knocks every few minutes!
Cheri
Cheri Merz
Nouveau Riche
Independent Sales Associate
Thank you for your post Cheri. You are correct, Google is not the only tool one should use to determine whether or not something is legitimate or not. With anything, dig deep.
Take time, check with others and if there is this “Gotta have it right now” feeling, it may be best to have a cooling off period before making a decision.
Many people have gotten into trouble due to making impulsive choices, not checking things out and not being willing to walk away when it was the best thing to do.
On the other hand, there are those that simply want a “get rich quick deal” and look for an easy way to wealth.
As I wrote in my original post…(notice that a Google search is simply a first step, not the full step in and of itself)
Here are a few steps you can take to minimize being taken advantage of:
1. Check out the people behind the offer. Dig deep to see if there are complaints against the company you are considering working for. A Google search can be a first step.
2. Avoid any opportunities where you cannot easily get in touch with someone from the company. Even when you do get in touch, realize there are ways to make things appear legit.
3. If the offer appears too good to be true it likely is.
4. If there are promises that you need no experience at all and you can lay on the beach while raking in the money, avoid this like the plague.
5. Give yourself a cooling off period. If you have a feeling in the pit of your stomach indicating this is not a good choice for you, trust that feeling. A feeling like this is likely the best indicator.
For those of us that offer legitimate opportunities, we welcome inquiries. We also will be the first to say, “Yes, you can make great money working from home, but you will have to actually work at whatever business or job you are planning on doing.
Remember this , “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”