by: Kevin Erickson

Maybe the reason you're interested in setting up a home business is
because you've seen an ad that perked your interest or you were
approached by a friend or colleague about a great home business
money-making opportunity and those entrepreneurial juices started to
flow. Your imagination starts to flow and dreams of quitting your
job fill your every thought.

Hello, hey, ok... time to stop dreaming. I hate to burst your bubble
or stop your fantasy ride but before you give your boss a piece of
your mind there's a few things you need to consider.

First, you need to realize that probably 99% of all home business /
work from home offers out there are flat out scams. After all, if it
was that easy to pay a few dollars and make thousands, wouldn't
everyone be doing it by now and why tell you about it?

Below I've listed and briefly discussed how to recognize and avoid a
few of the biggest scams out there.

Location… Location… Location
Check out every offer and assume it's a scam until you have
iron-clad proof that it's not. A few things to consider are: Where
did you see that work from home offer? If you got it by traditional
mail or by email or saw it on a poster taped around a telephone
pole, then I can guarantee you right now that it's not a legitimate
offer. On the other hand, if you saw the ad in a newspaper, in a
jobs magazine or on a jobs website, then it's a little more likely
to be legit - but not necessarily.

Envelope Stuffing
Will this scam ever end? Well, not until people stop falling for it.
This is the most established work-from-home scam of all time and
it's been going on for what seems like forever now. How it works is
that once you pay your money and sign up to work from home, you are
sent a set of envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to.
The whole idea is to simply get names of people who are interested
in home business ops and get a quick buck. You could make a little
money if you mail to the right mailing list but don't count it. Work
from home offers like this are simply illegal pyramid schemes. You
will not make money putting letters into envelopes - so get over it
and move on!

Shoddy Supplies
The practice of charging for supplies is hard to pin down to any one
scam - it's a common most work-at-home scams work (including the
envelope stuffing scam mentioned above). You'll be asked to make a
minimal "investment" for whatever materials will be needed to do the
work and then you'll receive a collection of very shoddy materials
that are worth a fraction of what you paid for them and last but not
least you'll soon realize that there was never a market for work
anyway.

Don't walk - run… if anyone asks for money upfront. Any company
worth it's salt would be willing to deduct any "fees" from your
first paycheck. Any company not willing to do that, is in all
likely-hood simply out to scam you into giving them some upfront
money and then as the saying goes… "leaving dodge" as quickly as
possible.

Working for Free
This variation on the scam is common with crafts. You might be asked
to work from home making clothes, ornaments or toys. Everything
appears to be legitimate - you received materials without paying any
money and you're doing the work. Unfortunately for you, when you
send the work back, the company will tell you that it didn't meet
their "quality standards" and will refuse to pay you. They will then
sell what you've provided and move on to the next sucker.

Never do craft type work from home unless you're selling the items
yourself. Remember, you don't need to restrict your sales to
consumers only… you could also be selling to wholesalers. The bottom
line is this, you need to be the one deciding what you make and then
collect the money yourself.

Medical Billing, Typing From Home and More
Many work-from-home scams involve persuading you that some industry
has more work to do than it can handle and so it has to outsource to
people like you, working from home. For example, you might be told
that you'll be typing legal documents or entering medical bills into
an electronic database. These scams have one thing in common - they
all say that all you need is a computer and they go on to explain
that all you need to do to make big bucks is to buy some "special
software".

The software is package so it appears to be from a completely
unrelated company, but don't be fooled - the whole purpose behind
this so-called opportunity is to simply sell you the over-priced and
worthless software. And of course, once you open and load the
software on your computer you will never get your money back because
that's how all software guarantees work. Once you break the seal you
own it.

Starting your own home based business is a dream that millions of
people have and it's a legitimate and worthy endeavor.
Unfortunately, the crooks out there know this and they play on these
desires and so you need to be very cautious. And remember, starting
a home business that involves "working" for another company isn't
the best idea even if they offer a completely legitimate
opportunity. The reason is because even if they do pay you for your
work, you still won't earn anywhere near the income could if you
were to start a home-based business where you created your own
product or service. So why even bother with these outside companies
at all?

About the author:
Kevin Erickson is a contributing writer for: Home Business and Bad
Credit Mortgage and Forex Trading Systems. This article may be
reproduced only in its entirety.