We don’t post all the comments we receive because many of them, the majority in fact, are spam. However, in the interest of education, we thought we’d share this one. It came from Tony, at FatPocket.com, in response to our Work-At-Home & Home Business Scam series:
It’s true that there are many “work from home” scams on internet, but at the same time there are many real legit paying work from home jobs you can do using your computer from the comfort of your home. This website http://www.thefatpocket.com has so much useful information on work from home. I use it on a regular basis. It’s all free and nothing to buy. http://www.thefatpocket.com.” (Tony, FatPocket.com)
Thank you Tony. What a great example of how things aren’t always what they appear to be.
FatPocket is teeming with work-at-home parasites—exactly the kind we’ve been warning you about. Here are the key tip-offs of the rip-offs:
1) The phrase “legitimate jobs” doesn’t belong on the same page as mystery shopping and online surveys—we’ve found zero evidence that the average person can make a living at either.
2) Ignore that dead giveaway for the moment and click on the “Data Entry Jobs.” What you’ll get is a list of links to other sites.
Click on the first one, Axion Data Services, and you’ll find they specifically say they are not hiring— “DO NOT CALL, DO NOT Send an email.”
The second one, Connect Plus, is a consolidator site that links to other scams including one with this intro: “All the programs we list here have been thoroughly investigated and researched for legitimacy and satisfaction among those actively participating and currently working each program. We have sectioned off our “TOP 10″ Work At Home Opportunities and Careers into two categories for you convenience.”
What a bunch of malarkey. How do these people face themselves in the morning?
Finally, since Tony is actually from FatPocket, saying “I use it (FatPocket) on a regular basis” is a bit like saying “Read my blog. I read it all the time and enjoy it immensely.”
Thanks for helping educate our readers Tony.
UPDATE
Tony replied to our post, and pointed out that we unjustly accused him of malfeasance, and we do apologize. He never claimed you can make a living doing surveys, and he clearly isn’t teaming with parasites as he understood us to say. We said his site was teeming with parasites, and while that seems to be the case, it’s no direct fault of his. The problem Tony’s discovered is that the web is swarming with scum, and he’s smack up against the problem we all have: how to find the needle in the hay stack.
UPDATE 2
We think we probably assessed Tony’s website properly. He hasn’t made the changes he promised, and continues to point unsuspecting visitors to sites that pay him but point the visitor to useless (or worse) sites.
9 Responses to Work At Home—Scam, um, Advice