Work at Home Scams
This page is a constantly growing archive where we’ll add new names of work at home scams as we (and you) discover new ways people are ripped off. Leave a comment and let us know if you’ve discovered new work at home scams (or even old ones) we haven’t listed.
Rebateprocessorjobs.com—They say they can guarantee you income by filling out forms . . .after paying a $39 fee, of course. To collect the rebate you first sell a product that offers a rebate, offer a rebate of your own for some % of the company rebate, then process your own rebate. You get paid when the rebate check arrives, which you then have to split with your ‘customer.’
Medical Transcription Certification scams—Many companies claim to offer Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) credentials. Some try to charge as much as $7,400 for the training they claim will prepare you for the certificate, but it’s bogus. Learn more here.
FutureMT.com—These ripoff artists will sell you a poorly written book and a CD that leaves you unequipped to succeed in the highly technical medical transcription field. See what one unfortunate victim has to say about these work at home scams here.
ProcessAffiliateRebates.com—The ‘program’ is just a basic course in affiliate marketing, a system where you get paid for promoting other companies’ products. But no one pays you to process affiliate rebates, and the earnings are meager. The rebate actually comes out of your pocket, and you end up making less than if you’d just signed up for an affiliate marketing program directly, which you can do for free.
Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.—The “opportunity” to make money as an associate is consistently touted on the company’s website, in earnings releases, and during conference calls. It’s promoted as a viable business opportunity for anyone. Or not. Associates stop selling after only 5 months, on average, according to the companies own statistics. Details here.
Transam Associates—They’ll sell you some useless software, and then try to upsell you on better software and a foot pedal. Of course none of that really is helpful in preparing you for the demanding and technical medical transcription work. Details on this work at home scam here.
FreelanceHomeWriters.com—The company charges $2.95 to become a member (which only lets you log into the site) and commits you to a $47 a month charge. Good luck trying to cancel that. And what do you get? The chance to make $20 an article . . . assuming you actually get paid. Details here.
Mary Kay, Amway, Nu Skin, Usana, etc.—Multilevel marketing (MLM) or pyramid schemes pretend to offer participants executive level incomes while working just a few hours a week. The facts show that is not the case. Mary Kay, in a company press release, reported in 2006 that out of about 34,000 Canadian ‘consultants’ only 2500 made over $100 and only 362 made more than a poverty level income. In 1980 the Wisconsin State Attorney General’s Office revealed that out of about 20,000 Amway distributors, the top 1% lost $900—and that’s not counting product they bought and used themselves or gave away. Only 8 made more than the minimum wage. Details here and here, and especially these comments by a professional fraud investigator here.
Michigan Supply Company
Ashley Furniture Company—While neither Michigan Supply Company or Ashley Furniture Company are scammers themselves, both companies’ names have been used for phishing. Whoever these work at home scammers are, they send out recruiting emails that ask for personal information under the guise of hiring you for a work at home job. No legitimate company will ever ask for your Social Security number (unless and until you are actually hired), checking or savings account numbers, or credit card information.
The Results Group—Working out of a boiler room in Phoenix, these work at home scams charged between $99 and $599 to build and host Web sites “affiliated” with the Web sites of Fortune 500 retail companies, such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com. Consumers would make money when those retailers paid commissions for sales made through the consumers’ sites. In fact, the large retailers were unaware of any such affiliation, and consumers made no money. The operation falsely represented that purchasers would receive substantial income as well as substantial assistance from an expert staff, and used false and misleading statements to encourage consumers to buy the business opportunity.
HBG Publications—Consumers were told that for their $40 “registration fee” they would get everything they needed from HBG to earn $7 for every envelope they stuffed, and that their $40 would be refunded after the first 100 envelopes. Instead, consumers received instructions on how to buy their own ads, and how to collect $7 from each person who responded (these types of work at home scams function like chain letters). HBG misrepresented that consumers were likely to earn a substantial amount of money, and that they would pay consumers $7 for every envelope they stuffed.
EDI Health Claims Network—EDI made material misrepresentations when it sold consumers its work-at-home electronic medical billing business opportunity. Consumers reported that EDI promised they would provide them their first medical billing client or a list of potential clients. In addition, EDI told them they could earn $1,200 per month with just one client. Once the consumers paid them almost $6,000, EDI said they had to find their first client on their own, and to start by looking in the yellow pages. The vast majority of purchasers never found a single client, never processed a single claim, and never made a dime. EDI failed to provide interested consumers with information required by the Franchise Rule.
Wholesale Marketing Group—The operation promised to pay consumers a substantial income, for stuffing envelopes or mailing brochures, without having to sell anything. After consumers invested $60 to $180, they learned they would be paid only if their mailings resulted in sales (and, even then, consumers never received any income).
QTX—The company offered a work-at-home craft assembly business opportunity building bead houses.
World Traders Association – They offered a surplus-goods business opportunity. Consumers paid for access to overstocked or discontinued merchandise, training, and lists of clients who would want to purchase the goods. But they never made good on their promises.
Beware of work at home scams – you never know when they’re going to crop up.
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April 5th, 2009 at 7:55 am
[...] Scams [...]
May 24th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Hi Tom and Kate:
I wanted to give you a heads up from one of my readers at homebusiness.about.com, who responded to a part-time work at home job posting I listed on the site for Part-Time Data Entry/ Payroll – Work from Home (I will not put the link here).
The reader responded to the post and had some IM sessions with a supposed hiring manager. At the conclusion of the interview, the reader was told that she would be given a check that she was supposed to cash and then purchase software for use in his job. She could only purchase the software from the specific vendors the employer named. When asked why the reader was given a lame excuse, which sent up a red flag to the reader. I’ve since advised the reader not to cash the check and stop all further communication with the company.
These kinds of scams are all too common. Instead of getting mad, I’m getting even. Here’s the information if you choose to reveal it:
—————————————–
…And the most reason why you will be recieving a check is bcos you are to purchase the softwares your self for record purpose,we do have many workers that we do make start-up funds,if we do make the payment direct to the company,we will not know which and which new workers has recieved equipments and softwares,the all in one IBM laptop are special made,we have our time tracker installed in it,to enable us know how many hours workers worked daily,
You are not paying for any training,you will be attached to your supervisor,He/she will be training you on how to use all the softwares,If you are a fast learning it will not take you three day to learn how to use them,if not,it will be a MAX of 5days,During this days of training,you will be getting paid,cos you are already working for the company that way..I will give you the rest of the updates online tomorrow..Hope to meet you online tomorrow by 8am..Bye
kind Regards
Mr Jerry Mccray
Personnel Manager
GenTech INC
————————————————-
June 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
[...] Scams [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I just get scam by Gentech Inc. I give the information, name ,address, phone. will sent me a HP laptop computer, plus $250.00 . I need to sent $150.00 for the software called MYOB business essentials software 2009 cost $150.00. I infor the ms mayers that I needed to get a loan for the money. I said it would take 2 days to get the money. then ms. mayers said that if i can get the money in 1 day because more people are in line for the job, so i said ok.
I am in REAL need for MONEY at this time,so then i keyed the word gentech inc. for scam. I am so SICK of people scam me. I just need a job from home. this ms mayers is waiting for me to sent the money to a agent but the address that she give me was with the agent name Dawn Lindbert, in Quincy, MI 49082, i also scam his name no good on that person.
All this for a Data Entry job working from home.
I will NOT pay the $150.00 or will I answer the IM from ms. mayers.
I think all this is a scam JUST to get MONEY. NO JOB and no COMPUTER.
Barbara in TEXAS
July 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Do you know of a REAL job working from home doing Data Entry. And will not cost me.
Barbara in TEXAS
July 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
There are several websites that offer freelance work, including data entry. Visit odesk.com, elance.com, or guru.com for example. But beware, you may find scams there to. Any offer of thousands a dollars for data entry work is going to be a scam, so look carefully. But the good news is that those sites will ensure you get paid, if you’re hired. Employers are, for example, required to escrow the money for the job before they hire you on some sites.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:18 pm
The get paid $400 a week by working for google are scams as well. Google has no knowledge of paying people to do the things the ads lists and they don’t endorse them. I wondered about it so I called Google and they informed me that they did no such things.
December 6th, 2009 at 7:14 am
A lot of people in my family has joined a group called FHTM. My Aunt’s & cousins & even my Dad has joined, So far only my Dad has been really honest with me over the amount of $money lost. My Aunt’s & cousins still think that the big payoff is coming soon, But it is only by recruiting more people into the company. And then these people that they recruit will lose money. I told them that I thought it was a scam. Now Is this a scam company???Please let me know, So I can get my family out before they lose everything.
http://www.fhtm.net/
December 6th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Do a Google search for “FHTM scam” you’ll find a bunch of hits proclaiming it isn’t–mostly posted by people who drank the Kool Aid.
You’ll also find an lots of hits from people who either understand or discovered the hard way that multi-level marketing means recruiting (and selling down line) is more important than selling to “real” customers.
Check out http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/Top10thingsIlearned.htm and http://www.pinktruth.com/. The latter is about Mary Kay, but it’s the same multi-level marketing MLM concept.
December 20th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Beware of a site called sa4u.
I did deposit my money into the bank account as they asked me too, for training material to do data entry and typing, I did not received any training material, and they
are not replying on my e-mails.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:42 am
This is classical in terms of google. Nada looks to bother on it compared to that!
February 6th, 2010 at 6:55 am
Rather superb entry, really educational stuff. Never imagined I’d discover the facts I would like right here. I’ve been looking throughout the internet for some time now and had been starting to get disappointed. Thankfully, I happened onto your website and got precisely what I had been searching for.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
so are they any work at home sites that are legit??
February 11th, 2010 at 6:08 am
See the sign, top left corner of the front page of this site? The one that says “Click here for our favorite Work A Home Job Source”?
Click on it, you’ll discover a very legit work at home site.
April 9th, 2010 at 4:55 am
Hi, did a bing search and found this. thanks for the good info
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August 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
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