Australian Navy brass have ordered a two-month shutdown over Christmas, and have told personnel with child-care problems that they can work at home.

All unit heads have also been ordered to allow personnel affected by the collapse of the ABC Learning child-care company more flexible working arrangements including working at home if necessary until they have found alternative care.

Australian military services, like most of the public service, relied on ABC Learning for child-care services for its workers. Hundreds of children of navy personnel are affected by the collapse of the child-care giant.

Local unit commanders were told that “following the announcement that ABC child care has gone into receivership”, they must be “understanding of this stressful situation as the new working year approaches”.

“Local commanders are to make every effort to negotiate flexible working arrangements that allow families to manage their commitments at home and at work until the situation is resolved,” the directive says.

The telecommuting, work at home, freelance world of home office work is rife with scams. Even scammers warn of scams. But the worst scam you’ll come across is one you run on yourself. Your business is not the place to be lying to others—or yourself, for that matter.

Lately there seems to be a growing trend to accept reality as whatever you say it is. That was especially true during the elections, particularly so in mass media. It was also true back in the Dark Ages. Little exaggerations turn into bigger exaggerations turn into outright lies—the idea that Harvard Business School teaches the Mark Kay business plan is a case in point. They don’t. They merely use a case study that mentions Mary Kay incentives, and that was mentioned in a newspaper article, and now true believers at Mary Kay tout the lie as if it were gospel.

A successful business is built on reality and facts not wishful thinking. In business when you lie to yourself you’re setting yourself up for failure. When you lie to others you’re setting yourself up for a lawsuit…and failure.

So when Beth Hodgson over at InventorsSpot.com writes on November 8th, “I wholeheartedly endorse” The Thriving Office audio CD we have to object.

The CD is two tracks, a noisy office, and a very noisy office—phone ringing, typwriters clacking (does anyone still use those monstrosities?), and people yakking. In other words, all the things that make working at home more productive.

She goes on, “…it’s a great business idea, (and) I am sure there are many entrepreneurs out there want their clients to think that their company is in demand, with lots of strenuous corporate activity being completed by a slew of staff members.”

But Beth’s heart seems to be in the right place, though, even if her ethics aren’t. She acknowledges that, “in demand and successful as they [entreprenuers] may be, the office might consist of the lone founder slaving away with their laptop on the Lazyboy; dog at their feet and baby napping an arm’s length away.” She even admits, “I can’t help but wonder where the perception that a noisy office is indicative of success came from in the first place. Isn’t there a reason that management and corporate executives are typically tucked away in one of the few fully enclosed office spaces that come with a door to cut out the noise? With that in mind, wouldn’t your clients think of you as more important, and therefore highly successful if your voice carried over the phone from a silent surrounding?”

We think this disk is a really bad idea, and we wholeheartly disagree with her recommenation of The Thriving Office CD.

Here’s a first-hand account of a brush with scammers, from one of our readers. Fortunately she did her homework, and avoided wasting her hard earned money paying for a bogus kit.

Hello readers, my name is Jill and I would like to tell you about my experience. I am an educated woman and worked as a manager until recently, but due to personal reasons I have had to take a career break. However, I still wanted to earn some income, so I’ve looked at ways at working from home.

I have been viewing various websites, but have become quite skeptical about some of them. I wanted to make sure that any job advertised working from home was genuine, realistic and not a scam!

I came across sites about surveys at home, selling products via websites, writing blogs, etc., but was very dubious about them. Every so-called ‘company’ wanted me to pay for introductory packs upfront, and would continue to contact me via email knocking the price down each time.

I then came across a company called ABC Marketing Limited based in London, and the job involved stuffing envelopes at home. It seemed pretty easy, and once I left my details they sent me information via the post. This information was very interesting indeed, and very professionally done. However, they wanted a fee for an instruction pack which made me start to think, and also do my homework on this company.

From the small print on the back of their information I knew they were registered with Companies House and a VAT registered company. I researched Companies House and yes there were indeed registered and seem legitimate although I had to pay to see any reports on the company. I then looked up the BBC Watchdog website to view their details on Internet scam companies and was pleased they weren’t listed. However, I still was not 100% convinced. I then stumbled across this site ‘Undress4Success’ which lists information on all scams on the Internet. This site was full of information and confirmed the doubts I had, even though they had only one detail of an envelope stuffing scam – was this my company?? I emailed Tom who very quickly replied to my email and gave me advice and direction.

I then emailed ABC Marketing Limited a list of questions I had regarding the information they sent. I emailed again and rang them twice leaving messages either to ring me on my mobile or to answer my email . . . I am still waiting!! Obviously they are not that desperate for home workers or perhaps they are avoiding me and do not like the content of my email as they may realise I am not one to be sucked in!!!!  We may never know.

Be sure to look carefully at work-at-home job offers. You can bet, if they ask for money, that’s it’s a scam. Don’t lose your shirt when yuou Undress For Success.

As long as people fall for scams, and the scammers make money, there will be work at home scams. A couple of months ago we posted a warning about onlinejobstoday.org because it looked like a rip-off, and walked like a rip-off, and quacked like a rip-off. . . .

But yesterday Cindy (the sister of the guy who runs the site, apparently) posted this comment here and lied about who she was:

I had ran into that site, onlinejobstoday.org, and I did order the database, and I did receive many, many legit online job openings from their database. It was well worth the 20.99 to me, it saved me a lot of time because I have been searching for these kind of jobs for a long time.

That’s a lie too, of course—and illiterate, but that’s kinda what I would expect from someone dumb enough to be this dishonest.

You can save your money and reviewed the same jobs for free. We’ll show you how, and look at their website in more detail so you can tell why we think it’s a rip off.

They say they offer legitimate jobs. They do. But the jobs they want to sell you are compiled by someone else, and provided elsewhere for free. Go to jobster.com or simplyhired.com or indeed.com or carrerbuilders.com and you  can see their job ads—free. You can even create a website just like they have, and display the same jobs, at no charge to you. How do we know? We do it ourselves. Look at the ‘Job Search’ tab at top of this page. Are they legitimate jobs? Yes. But did you have to pay to see them? No.

They claim to have, “…built business relationships with many Large Corporations, Top Employers, and busy Webmasters.“ Really? Just because they use a job board that contains job openings posted by the companies they list DOES NOT mean they have any relationship with those companies. If I do a Google search on Fortune 500, does that mean I have a relationship with any of the company’s the search produces. Of course not.

They claim, “We have built a solid reputation as one of the most trusted provider of legitimate online jobs.” Really? Then why are there so many web sites and forums posts that describe them as a scam or rip-off?

They claim they are a non-profit. Really? How come they wouldn’t send me their 501(c) registration number so I can claim the ‘donation’ they require as a charitable contribution tax deduction? One site says the IRS is after them, and that sure wouldn’t surprise me.

They claim the $20.99 is a ’contribution’ to cover website hosting costs. Really? What costs do they have when they use Microsoft Office Live, a free web hosting service?

They claim, “You will easily generate income by working from home on your own computer, finally. You should have no problem getting a job today.  Get ready to work from home immediately!“ Really? Are you qualified, experienced, educated? If not, do you think an employer will be pay you just because you want to work from home?

Working from home IS NOT something you do if you can’t find ‘real’ work. Working from home is a new way to work, but it’s a real jobs and it takes real talent, determination, and hard work. That’s what employers are willing to pay for, after all. If someone claims they’ll pay you big money to stuff envelopes, build toys, or collect refunds ask yourself how a company could make money doing it.

If all that isn’t enough, what do you think of someone who posts bogus jobs on free websites and then claims that onlinejobstoday.org is their ‘outplacement agency‘? I think they’re liars and stupid. Outplacement agencies find people jobs, they don’t offer jobs. Outplacement agencies are used by companies when they fire someone (generally executives), as part of a severance package. ‘Outplacement’ sounds important—and it is—but it has nothing to do with finding work at home job openings.

Finally they claim they’re a members of BBBonline, and display the logo. They aren’t. You can see for yourself at bbb.org. They also display Verisign and PayPal logos. Big deal. They probably do use those companies to rip people off, but—as you can see—a dishonest webmaster can slap any logo on a site.

Sadly, these folks aren’t doing anything unlawful, except for claiming non-profit status. They deliver what they promise (more or less). The problem is you can get the same thing for free, without all the misleading hype. That’s immoral and dishonest, but they obviously don’t care about such things.

If you’re looking for work at home jobs, telecommuting opportunities, or freelance work PLEASE come here and ask us if we think it’s legitimate before you waste your money. We’ll check up on ‘em, pronto, and tell you what we find.

It’s free too, just to be clear.