Work-at-Home Schemes That May or May Not Be Scams
In this technological age, it’s much more convenient to just work from the comfort of your home. You can do just that with all the online jobs available today. Just like a normal job, you just have to apply, send in your resume, cover letter, and wait for a reply. If you’re lucky, you will get a reply from a legitimate potential employer. If you’re not as lucky, you might find that there are job scams online, too. Although it might not look sketchy, it’s very easy for someone to create a job offer for people to apply to. The scam is that they will get you to work for a low amount of pay. Overworking and underpaying can be really easily done when you are searching for jobs online. So make sure that you are doing your homework and getting a legitimate online job from a real company.
Data entry jobs
While there are many great online data entry jobs, there are also not many that pay decently enough for you to make an actual living. This is an industry that comes with many scams, so you really want to make sure that you are doing your homework before you apply to any company or agree to anything. The main issues with data entry jobs are more about how they pay their workers. There are some data entry jobs that are definitely a scam. They will not tell you upfront about the time and effort you will need to put in for the job and how you will be paid. Although there are many legitimate data entry jobs online, there are also scams and pyramid schemes which give fake classes and certifications or payment for free resources.
Mystery shopping
As for most of these jobs listed here, there are many legitimate jobs in this category. However, there are also scams where they make you pay for the goods before even wiring the cash to you. This is a huge red flag, and you should never cash a check or wire money to anyone especially if you don't know whether they are legitimate or not. You should never have to pay for application fees or anything of that sort. Be wary about any job that says you must pay an upfront fee. Fake check scams are common in this field of work so do some research before you agree to do a job.
Micro-jobs
This is the kind of job where you follow through with short tasks for some small extra cash. You will know if the job is a scam or not depending on who is offering it. It doesn’t mean that there is no such thing as legitimate micro jobs. You just really want to make sure that the provider and employer are coming from a legitimate source. In order to make sure that you are safe in your application to this job, you should only apply to jobs on sites that do background checks and make sure that these online gigs are legitimate. Some people might go to Craigslist for a gig, but this might not be the greatest way. You could try something more official and make sure to read reviews on the site that you’re looking at.
Affiliate marketing
This is known as a legit work-at-home business. However, anyone that tries to sell you an affiliate marketing business is most likely a scam. Affiliate marketing is basically selling products or services by hosting links or banners on a website or blog in order to receive a paid commission for each sale resulting from the clicks from those links. So basically, in order to make sales, you need to have significant traffic coming onto your website. If you see any business trying to sell you the dream of affiliate marketing, be wary since you might not fully understand what goes into becoming an affiliate marketer.
Direct sales
Multi-level marketing (MLM) at an extreme is essentially a pyramid scheme. Direct sales and MLM is basically direct selling, which is not a scam at all when the jobs are offered by legitimate companies. If you are applying to a less reputable company selling questionable products, you should be wary. They will focus too much on recruitment or demand a large investment. Do your research and make sure that you are safe before applying or giving any of your information. Do not start any jobs without knowing what you are getting into.
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I buy and review courses so you don’t have to. Sometimes, I even find courses that are legitimate and worthwhile; and that’s how I accidentally came across one that led me to building a 6-figure business in a little under 5 years. Now, I still review courses because it’s my favorite hobby. 🙂 Learn more about me here.
