A Marketplace Tip from Your BBB Denver/Boulder
The ads are everywhere--in newspapers, on television, on the radio, and on the web. It’s the American dream!—to get rich quick while staying at home. Offers of great wealth in record time, often by doing very little or requiring no experience, abound.
Some of the offers include stuffing envelopes, assembling products, reading books, reviewing movies, medical billing, or selling advertising on the web.
The Better Business Bureau suggests using extreme caution when responding to any such offer. While ads claim high earnings and short hours with little or no experience, Bureau files nationwide indicate no evidence of anyone making the promised money. Rarely, if ever, are these ads an offer of legitimate employment. Generally, these "jobs" require up-front fees for information or supplies, and only the person who ran the ad makes any money.
You should be aware that the United States Postal Inspectors regularly investigate these fraudulent schemes, and that you risk investigation and possible prosecution by postal or other law enforcement agencies if you become involved in one of these schemes.
Work-at-home schemes prey on individuals who need money but often can’t find jobs in the mainstream marketplace, or have life situations that make “normal” work environments difficult or impossible. The scam artists prey on students, seniors, seasonal workers, people who lack a basic education, and mothers who want to stay at home with their children. People with low income, few job skills, or who just want to get rich quick are also ripe for the tantalizing promises of money working on projects that are supposedly “in high demand.”
The following are some of the most common schemes to look out for, according to the BBB and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service:
- Assemble our products at home. Earn $500 per week. Products might include making baby booties, Christmas wreaths or toys, or fabricating other specialty products – of course, you have to sell them yourself.
- $450 weekly guaranteed for stuffing envelopes! Typically, all you receive for your money are instructions on how to place an ad like the one you just answered.
- Internet trading! Make $1,000s overnight on your home computer!
- Multi-level marketing gone wild with these amazing vitamins / weight loss pills!
- Business opportunity! Refurbished vending machines, great routes…
- Make copies of this letter and send them to people whose names we will provide.
- All you do is send us $10…
- “Raise animals and earn cash…” Unless this entity is affiliated with a licensed, registered organization that is both widely recognized and is easily researched, you will find yourself stuck with bills associated with caring for an animal and have no “buyer” waiting to take the animal as promised.
Always take time to check out the company making these offers. Call the BBB for a reliability report, check the Secretary of State’s web site to see if the company is registered to do business, and look for the following warning signs:
- Overstated claims of product effectiveness.
- Testimonials from “people just like you.”
- Exaggerated claims of potential earnings, profits, or part-time earnings.
- Claims of “inside” information.
- Requirements of money for instructions or products before telling you how the plan works.
- Claims of “No Experience Necessary.”
Work at home schemes are a top inquiry and complaint industry across the country for BBBs, and there is very little we can do to assist victims—so we put critical emphasis on prevention. Meanwhile, there are new and creative “delivery systems” every day!
Still not convinced? So you still think that work-at-home sign looks appealing?
- Do the math. If the income potential was really that good, wouldn’t we all be doing it?
- Consider the odds. There is not a single record in BBB files of a work-at-home opportunity that delivered what it promised.
- Ask for local references that you can contact yourself (not someone in a video or a taped audio recording).
- Find out where the company is located (physical location). Check with the Better Business Bureau that serves that area. Use www.bbb.org.
- Don’t reach for your wallet. Is the company asking for you to provide or invest money . . . up front?
- Are you being asked to “warehouse” or “stock” merchandise –for which you pay up front—and then selling the items and getting a return on your investment is your problem?
- Insist on speaking with a live person (i.e., rather than a telephone recording) about the opportunity. If you experience hesitation, why? Did you get actual information, or just a sales pitch?
- Is there emphasis on YOU doing additional recruiting for the company? If so, back off quickly. Not only is this a strong sign of an illegal pyramid scheme, but, if you participate, you are participating in a felony and could face prosecution yourself.
The people in our community who successfully make a part-time or full-time income out of their homes are likely not doing so because they (1) answered an ad; or (2) called an 800 number posted on a sign. They are working at home because their employer allows them to “telecommute” or because they are actual entrepreneurs themselves who started their own companies.
Do not let anyone confuse you about the critical difference between what we call “work-at-home schemes” . . . . and the thousands of people who operate legitimate businesses from their home offices. The only thing these two very different situations have in common are the words “work” and “home.”
What the BBB has learned over decades of work-at-home investigations?
- Many are a scam, hoping to sell you a book, tape, or “start-up packet”
- Once you send money, that is likely all you will ever hear from
- this entity
- This is not a job opportunity for you
- Envelopes are “stuffed” using automated equipment now
- “Medical record transcription” is another popular scam theme
- Very, very few are legitimate; victims are legion
What exactly are these offers on the telephone poles, and who is posting them? They are appealing scams posted by scam artists. If this sounds like an awfully simple answer—it is. And we must stop fueling this scourge.
Can’t organizations like the BBB and District Attorney shut them down? The BBB has a very strongly worded warning that we read to consumers every day (and offer on the web). Consumer education is our strongest tool. The schemes themselves open up and close down overnight, operating with mail drops and phone numbers where no one ever answers. It’s very tough for law enforcement to track them down, too. We do alert law enforcement, including the U.S. Postal inspectors, whenever we see evidence of a new scheme originating from this area.
If you are a victim of any work-at-home scheme, immediately notify your local postmaster or the nearest postal inspector. Contact the Better Business Bureau by calling 303-758-2100 or www.bbb.org.
