A scam taking hold as the unemployment rate soars is one in which victims are offered lucrative pay in exchange for working from home. While there are many legitimate ways to earn income from a home-based business, there are just as many if not more work from home scams. So be careful.
Some scammers get victims to pay exorbitant upfront fees or to disclose valuable identity information — such as Social Security numbers — before agreeing to “sign them up” for a job. The job, of course, never materializes.
Other scammers force victims to buy outrageously overpriced supplies or merchandise that are supposedly required for the job — such as envelopes to be stuffed or cosmetics to be sold. In those cases, victims spend hundreds of dollars on supplies that normally cost much less, and the scammers disappear with the profit.
John Breyault, who heads the fraud divison of the National Consumers League, warns against falling for work-at-home scams that seem too good to be true. “Be cautious if you have to buy supplies, especially if the company doesn’t offer to buy them back or if they only offer to buy them back at 50%,” he says. “If it sounds like it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”
Source: MSN Money.
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