4 Ways To Spot a Work From Home Scam.

CLICK HERE MAKE $500 A DAY! How many times have you clicked a link that said this and been disappointed? Too many, right? I have a work from home job as a secretary for a nonprofit organization. An opportunity that fell in my lap courtesy of a recommendation. But like everyone else I'm always willing to take on a side hustle to generate more income. Like right now my side hustle is this website. Hopefully, someday I can do this full time but for right now, I do not have a steady enough revenue from this website to quit my secretary job. So please share this article and help me live my dream.

When I first had my daughter I looked all over the internet for a way to make money online. I never found anything legitimate that did not involve a sizable investment. I had no one to help me watch my daughter during the day and I needed to support myself so the first place I looked was on the internet. I never found anything. I struggled on welfare and worked as a cocktail waitress at a pool hall at night. When my daughter was about 4 years old I found an entry-level position that paid well enough for me to afford daycare. I was very lucky and this is not a common story for most single mothers. I was very much an exception to the norm.

Even though I have had a steady job for the past 6 years, I have carried on this search for the best way to make money online and have found the same results. Just about everything you are pitched on the internet to build an empire and make thousands of dollars a month is shit. Just about any "job" that asks you for money up front is not a "job" it's a multi-level marketing scheme also known as a pyramid scheme. Although starting your own business will require some startup capital, you need to do your research and know the difference between starting a franchise and being a layer in a pyramid scheme. Avon and Party Lite are examples of MLM (multi-level marketing) jobs. The person above you will always make more money than you and to make more money you need to get people underneath you. It's not necessarily a scam but when starting your own business it takes a lot of work be able to support yourself off of the income from this job alone.

It's very frustrating when you are willing to put in the work and find no outlet. I have watched countless videos and been to millions of websites that promise a result but end up being crap. I can't say I know from experience that they are a scam because of 1 very important thing that I do. I do my research. Go to their website, read yelp reviews, looking up a business on the BBB website. If you cannot do all of these things, this is probably a scam to get all of your personal information. Like the info you need to give on a job application. Copy of your drivers license, social security number etc. No matter what anyone tells you be sure to do your research.

Here are some of the biggest red flags to knowing if a business is legitimate or not but always take it upon your self to do as much research as you can.

1. They ask for money to get started.

HUGE RED FLAG! I'm starting with this one because if this is a prerequisite for you to get a job, it's most likely a pyramid scheme. I'm sure you've started a job and they give you a uniform and tell you it costs this much. They might tell you you need to buy new shoes but other than that have you ever had a job ask you to pay for anything up front? No, they take it out of your first check. A legitimate job will not ask you to write a check for materials before you start work. If it's a work from home position they may tell you that you need materials to do the job but that purchase of materials doesn't benefit them.

Once back in 2001 I was a phone sex operator for about 5 minutes. To do this job they told me I needed to buy a hand's free headset. So I went to Radio Shack (back in the day it was like a teeny tiny Best Buy) and bought the cheapest headset I could buy. I bought it, and that night went in and called into my new "job". So you wait there while wait music plays and some random just pops up on the line. In 2001 I was 19 and could not be sexy on queue, I was still a kid. I was studdering and giggling, had no idea what a pervert would want to hear and after about 40 seconds (because these guys who call in have to pay by the minute) the guy hung up on me. I hung up, realized I cannot do this job, took the headset back to Radio Shack to get my money back (got store credit) and about 2 weeks later received a check for $1.40 for my 5 minutes on hold and 40 seconds of awkward Bevis like sexy talk.

The moral of this story is: that this was legitimate although shady job. They took my application over the phone, gave me no training, told me I needed a headset to start working and asked for nothing. They paid me like they said they would and the only risk I took was the cost of the headset. If you had money to "invest" in making money you would talk to a stockbroker. And if you know anything about the stock market you know it's basically a worldwide casino, it's all a gamble. If you're looking for a real way to make money online, run away from any business that says, send us money and we will take care of the rest.

2. It seems too good to be true.

Not that long ago I was contacted by a "company" that said they found my resume Linked in. They wanted to pay me $3,500 a month for an insurance something or other position. It was a work from home position all I needed to do was fill out the application attached to the email and they would start sending me work. The attached document had no header, didn't ask for references or previous work history. It just asked for my name, my address, and my social security number. So I got a little suspicious. If something looks too good to be true, it usually because it is.

So I Googled this "company". The only website that I found was laughable. It claimed to be an insurance company but had no login option. As I'm sure you know you need an online account to process an insurance claim online. They also had no place to enter info to get a quote and no search bar. After looking at this site for a few minutes I finally found a phone number to contact these people. I called the number, and it rang about 8 times then disconnected and starting beeping a busy signal at me. How infuriated would you be if you called your insurance company to make a claim and that's what you got? They didn't even have an email address listed on their site. I tried to respond to the initial email I received and got a spam response.

Do your research. Just because they found my info on a legitimate site doesn't mean that they are a legitimate company. Even if you found them if it seems to good to be true do your research. Google it, look for unfiltered comments. Don't just take the word of a hired actor in their internet infomercials word as bible. Educate yourself and you cannot be taken advantage of.

3. You're making less than minimum wage.

I'm sure you've seen those ads that tell you that you can make $500 an hour taking surveys online. I have been chasing that dragon for 10 years and have never made a dime taking surveys. Although I'm sure you can make a little here and there it would take you something like 90 hours a week to equate what you would make if you were paid minimum wage at a 40 hour a week job. They tell you this survey takes 3 minutes and will pay you $50! Then you click it asks: Are you over the age of 87? Are you an albino? Do you have rickets? Have you ever seen 2 termites fuck? Sorry, you do not qualify for this survey.... but you do qualify for "this" survey that pays .75!

Most of the make money online advertisements you see on the internet can probably put a little bit of money in your pocket but for the most part, you cannot support yourself taking surveys. They always have some backward ass pay scale that ends you with you making less than minimum wage and some don't pay out at all. They won't send you a check until you make $20 and at .75 a survey, it will take you almost 30 hours to make that $20. Do the math and make sure it's worth your time.

4. Their Website is not user-friendly

As mentioned in a previous paragraph the appearance of a website can be very telling. In today's' world, you would be doing yourself a disservice as a business owner if you did not invest in a website. Regardless of what you are selling, or the service you are trying to provide most people want to take care of everything online if they can. With services like Wix, you don't need to pay thousands of dollars to have an easy to use attractive looking website.

If you do find yourself looking for an opportunity and stumble upon one of these sub-par looking websites, it's probably best to just move on. Any legitimate business will have a phone number, address and email available and prominently displayed on their website. They want you to communicate with them, it's the first step to getting your business. If you find that it's hard to find contact info, or you find it and they are very slow on responding (more than 24 hours) it's probably a scam of some sort.

This is part of doing your research and if it seems to good to be true. You will find offers that sound like a dream come true but more often than not they are just a dream. The honest to god truth is there is no "job" online that will produce wealth. There are jobs online but they are real jobs that pay what you would make with any other 9-5. If you lower your expectations of the kind of job you can do from home, you can find one. Most sites like Indeed, Monster and Hireable have a work from home section. A lot of the jobs are part-time but if you're a stay at home mom or dad, a couple extra hundred dollars a week makes a huge difference.