Google “work at home opportunities”, or any variation of that, and you will find pages and pages of sites claiming that their “proven” systems are the best work at home opportunities that will help you generate Thousands of dollars a week. And it’s FREE* and EASY! 

First, if any one tells you that working at home and starting a work at home business is easy, it is a scam or they are lying to you. Starting a business is never easy and takes persistence and a lot of hard work.

Nothing in life comes free or easy. Many of these work at home opportunities advertised on the net or heard on radio spots are not always exactly what they promise. Many times they involve you paying a fee to get their “system” that turns out to be a scheme where you turn around and sell this “system” to others.  Or have you ever heard of the vitamin or diet pill sales work at home opportunities? They offer big promises but rarely deliver.

 Many people that are hungry for a new life outside of the 9-5 grind can fall prey to schemes like these. They want something free and easy. Another sad reality is that some new Virtual Assistants that are hungry for business and new clients can also fall prey to scams.  Here are some things to look out for in work to make sure you don’t get taken advantage of.

1.  If they are selling a “proven” work at home system, but are way too ambiguous about what this “system” actually does or what it sells, that should send up warning flags.  Stray away from those and keep looking.
2. If anyone requires you pay a fee up front to get work or jobs from them, be wary of.  Many people can easily get taken advantage of by paying outlandish fees to gain access to lists of work at home jobs that never pan out, or could be fake. Get all the details BEFORE you pay.
3. Beware of places that require you to pay a fee just to get more information. Basically the “more information” consists of materials that tell you to turn around to sell the “more information” to other suckers like yourself. Again, get all the details BEFORE you pay.
4. Be wary of “check cashing” schemes.  Many VAs have fallen victim to this. If at any time someone offers you a ridiculous sum of money to receive cashiers checks, cash them and wire the money overseas, it is a scam and you should run very far away.  If you happen to cash these checks, you will later find out they were phony and you will be out the large sum of money you wired. If you get an email from Todd Mayer, hit DELETE.
5. Do not accept work that requires you to accept parcels at your address and then asks to send these packages overseas. This is another illegal scheme where items are bought with stolen credit cards sent to the victim who then ships off to an ambiguous address overseas. And in most cases the victims never actually get paid and can be on the hook for criminal charges because they are the only name they can find connected to the stolen credit card purchases.

A few sites great sites on the subject:

• The Virtual Assistant Forum Scam Library
• http://www.scambusters.org/work-at-home.html 
• http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/workathome.htm

Through my various networking sites, the question gets asked quite often: What are some work at home opportunities that are not scams?” Business like freelance work or Virtual Assistant Businesses are not scams but are real opportunities. But opportunities that take a lot of hard work and personal time and investment.  Don’t get taken for a ride.