Seldom can you find a Classified section of a local newspaper without seeing an advertisement such as one of these:








If you see ad advertisement with a heading such as "Help Wanted," "Money-Making Opportunities," "Business Opportunities" and "Business Personals" headings that offers to let you work out of your own home for big bucks, beware..

Most of these services merely want to talk you into buying their information. If they offer to sell you a "kit" for $69.95, you will likely get an envelope full of junk mail for your investment. And there won't be any information in that packet that you could not get yourself, on the Internet or at a Public Library, for free.

If the marketing material was accurate, it would add sentences such as "Expect Hidden Costs" or "Most People Don't Make a Single Cent From Our Advice."

So you think that you can Stuff Envelopes from Home?

Answer this ad and you'll be asked to pay for a How To book, which in turn advises you how to spend money to make money. Yeah, right. The real money to be made, however, is if you want to start advertising yourself, in your own local papers, to find other victims. It's akin to a pyramid fraud scheme.

Companies rarely use people to stuff and address envelopes in this day and age. For the most part it has become a highly automated function, one that specialty services handle in bulk. You, in your own living room, can't compete. Believe us on this one and save yourself a lot of grief, disappointment and MONEY.

So You Think That You Can Do Assembly Work From Home?

Think again. These folks will want to sell you the instructions and the assembly kits. Sometimes they even try to sell you special machinery so that you can make a whole lot of money. Mmhmmm. Sure. If they offer to buy your completed work, they'll probably go out of business long before that ever happens. (Hint: Opportunities that "live" in Post Offices Boxes are usually only opportunities for the person who rents the box!).

Read or Write From Home?

We don't THINK SO. They'll promise you everything, but the check will NOT be in the mail. What WILL be in the mail is the book that they want you to buy; the one that tells you how to make a massive amount of income from the comfort of your living room. If Barnes & Noble sold the book, it would be in the "Fantasy" aisle. And if the company offers a money-back guarantee, just TRY to cut through the red tape and actually get a refund. Hah.

Or you can learn how to set up a home mail order business.

The folks who want to share the secrets of their success ... ought to be so successful that they don't have the time to teach YOU how to do it. The very fact that they are spending their time trying to encourage competition ought to be your first clue that you are about to be parted from your money. Once again, you can obtain all the REAL information that you need from the Internet or the Public Library. For free. Most of these charlatans are really in the business of selling you cheap catalogs to promote you new business.

During any single year, the BBB gets tens of thousands of complaints on home businesses. Most of them are about non delivery of instructions, materials (or whatever was paid for) or failure to issue promised refunds. Few companies respond to the complaints, and plenty of them simply go out of business and do not leave a forwarding address. In some cases they simply set up shop in another location and under another name. Same players, same scams, same sad stories from those who fall victim

Here's a list of Red Flags:







If you're already a victim, either file a report with the US Postal Authorities (if the mail was used), the Federal Trade Commission or us. You should also let the newspaper or publication (where you first saw the ad) know what has happened -- if you notice that the advertisement is still running. 

That's one way that you can help Fight Fraud America!

Work at Home Scams