Work at Home Scams?

[Holly]

First, I'd like to say that we finally made it to Missouri! (We just moved here a month ago from Wisconsin.) I know that most of you were just holding your breath waiting for that news!

By the way- NEVER move the week of Christmas in this country if you don't absolutely have to! Looking back now I would have tried to change the closing date on our house.

Anyway, I really did have a question to ask- You've all seen and heard of the companies that you can make hundreds, sometimes even thousands per week assembling craft or wood or you name it products at home. Has anyone ever done these? Are there really ANY ligitimate ones out there? I'm not looking to make thousands or even hundreds per week. Just an extra hundred a month would be helpful, but of course I'd be willing to take more if they were really offering it!

I called one that I say in the local paper and they are suppose to be sending me an info pack. But of course you have to buy there book of businesses to be able to start with any of them -for $39.95.

I am kind of leaning to get the book. I feel like nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[cheryl-tx]

Just from my personal experience, the book is simply addresses of companies that may or may not be hiring home workers. The ads you see in the paper are simply other folks who bought the book, and the book basically says, put ads in your paper and folks will send you money for the info. A MLM of sorts, no actual jobs.
Assembly, you PAY for products to assemble, sewing, crafts, electronics, and even if you are an expert, anything you send back for payment will be returned with a letter stating your 'work' does not meet their standards.
could check out volition.com, they have lots of interesting info about self employment like demo work, merchadising and there is some work at home stuff.
Basically, most of the work at home opportunities you see in spam or newspapers are just scams, and if they sound too good to be true, they almost always are. Like the 1.00 a stuffed envelope, geesh, no company could pay that. I actually did this in high school for a REAL company, stuffing envelopes, paid under the table and lots of paper cuts, LOL, and had to do it at their office.

I do wish you luck and hope you can find honest home work, just do be careful of the vultures out there who want to take your money and run
Cheryl

[Siryet]

Welcome to the country, you did move to the country didn't you?

Most of the work at home stuff is a scam but their are many ways to make Money from your home.

I have a book titled " BACKYARD CASH CROPS" by Craig walling.

ISBN 0-933239-32-7

Maybe if you want to you could join your local library and ask them if they have this book and if not Amazon .com has one starting at $5.00

Other will have more ideas for you but this is a good book

Have a wonderful day.

Dennis

[Holly]

Dennis,
Well, right now were are renting a house in the "country". I have a hard time callling it the country when there are other houses so close, even though it's not in town.

I grew up on approx. 40 acres with hardly any neighbors at all. We had a really long driveway and for the most part couldn't be seen from the road. I miss it so terribly bad! Living in the country and more than anything- the privacy!!!

Right now we are in the process (we drop off the papers at the bank tomorrow) of buying a piece of land and plan on building on it. Yea! It's only 7.75 Acres, but it's pretty secluded...for now! And we couldn't afford much more right now.
But it's a beautiful piece of property and were excited!

[Hoop]

You'll find you've been scammed on the book you purchased. Hopefully, you purchased the book with your credit card and you can return the completely useless thing. Otherwise, kiss your money good bye.

The typical "work at home" scam goes something like this:
Purchase a "KIT" which will contain items to get you started in work at home enterprises. Some scams even include an item to ASSEMBLE and you will be paid $3.00 per item to assemble it. Of course, it will cost you $2.00 to ship the item back to the company.....and when you request materials to assemble, say, 50 of the items, someone at the company will tell you that people have stolen the materials and never returned them......so you can only receive materials for 1 item at a time. Of course, its not economically feasible for the work at home sucker to even come close to recouping their initial investment.

There are some "work at home" occupations that exist. Selling items on Ebay. Medical transciption. Computer programming. Other than selling on Ebay, you're going to need specialized schooling. Lots of it.

There is no free lunch.

[Beeman]

The advice you get here for free is the best make money at home advice you can get. Everything else is someone else making money off of your hopes.
Evaluate what you can do now and what you already have to make money with. Don't get involved in something completely new to you that requires an investment to make $100 per mo. Use what tools and euipment you already have. Everyday things like baking, cooking, cleaning, sewing and ironing are in demand by working people that don't have time but appreciate the job getting done and will pay well for your services.

[ak homesteader]

Congratulations on your move, and buying your land! I know how exciting that is, even if it's not perfect. It's still yours, and it's a wonderful start.

I think the advise you've received here about work at home income is good. If you enjoy computer work, there's lots you can do. Design brochures and labels for folks. I used to make antler jewelry. Before we got a computer, I was paying quite a bit for poor work on my brochures, etc. Someone came around a show who did that sort of thing from home. She did good work, and worked with the individuals/small businesses. She also wrote resumes for folks. I know other people who work from home as a medical transcriptionist. You have to be a fast typist, and pay attention to detail, and it does help to have at least a little medical background. One friend did it with none when she started out, though. She could just type fast. Another friend loved to bake, and her husband's co-workers began asking to buy his snacks. She started baking, and he'd take things to work to sell. I know another woman who makes great egg rolls that freeze well. Every now and then, she'll make up hundreds of them. Sells all she can make. I know another woman who makes pies for a local small restaurant. Another who grows lots of herbs. Has no problem selling them to stores and restaurants year-round. All of these are just extra for their families. Hope it helps get you thinking about something you can do with your talents and interests.

Mrs. AK Homesteader
www.alaskahomesteading.com

[inc]

"specialized schooling. Lots of it."
how much is this schooling going to run?$$?

[kelly1960]

Holly,

I work from home using my computer. If you are interested, go to www.workathomeagent.com and read over their website. It costs nothing to apply or to work for them (you do have to be able to be on the phone and computer at the same time tho and you may have to purchase a headset for your phone). You basically take inbound calls for infomercials, or you may end up training to take inbound orders for HSN or ShopNBC or Pizza Hut.

It's a great company to work for. You can tailor your work hours to your need around your family. You can easily make $100 a month. I usually make $200-$300 working 3 hours a day or so. They pay every other week and you can get either a paper check, direct deposit, or a pay card (loaded debit card type thing). A website dedicated to this job is located at www.workplacelikehome.com where a lot of the agents who do this work congregate to encourage and learn from each other.

Another really great website for moms (and dads) who want to work from home is www.wahm.com. They have a great forum and I know there is one for people who do the jewelry making from kits (Disciple Crosses is a big one right now), etc. One of the best forums to gather GOOD information about work from home jobs is "telecommuting moms". Those (mostly) women there can smell a scam coming from miles away and always inform if they come across one.

One of the main tennets of these "pros" is .... Don't ever pay someone else for work!

Hope it's okay to put these links on here. There may be others who are in the same boat and would like to learn more.

Kelly

PS...if you haven't ordered that book already, DON'T!!! I promise you'll just be throwing away good money. I know, because I fell for it a long time ago.

[Ken Scharabok]

Ask yourself why a company would want to have you assemble their items when they can have it done in Asia for a small fraction of the cost? My observation is 99.9% (and maybe more) of the work-at-home opportunities are scams.

[moosemaniac]

So Ken, why not send her a copy of your book?

Ruth

[Ken Scharabok]

The 'book' Ruth refers to is: "How to Earn Extra Money in the Country". It is a free e-book. Basically is an idea generator rather than including specific details about one particular potential opportunity. It must be requested directly from me at scharabo@aol.com. I do not respond to PM requests as I have to send the book as a very large attachment.

To make it as clear as possible - PM request = no book.

Ken Scharabok

[jack_c-ville]

Apparantly, the best way to make money from home is to make a list of companies that may or may not hire out piecework and then send 500,000 emails to total strangers telling them that they can buy your list for just $39.95 if they act now.

-Jack

[southerngurl]

Apparantly, the best way to make money from home is to make a list of companies that may or may not hire out piecework and then send 500,000 emails to total strangers telling them that they can buy your list for just $39.95 if they act now.

:haha: :haha: :haha:

[Holly]

Hey Thanks for all the advice! I've decided not to get the book.

Kelly, websites sound interresting I'm going to look into it.

Ken, sent request for your book. Thanks!

Jack, I think that you've hit the nail on the head with that one! :haha:

[Scott SW Ohio]

I feel like kind of a fraud posting to this thread since I have a job in the big city (Cincinnati) and we live in an outlying county seat town (Georgetown OH) so figuring out how to make money off the land has not been a big focus for us. But here's the story...

My wife Lee Ann works part-time in the summer helping a woman with her gardens. This is on kind of a country get-away place where the lady has a couple of acres planted in garden beds, much of which is these exotic grasses that are popular now. Last fall she thinned the grasses and ended up with mounds of the stuff, grass clumps with rootballs. I would have composted them, but Lee Ann brought them to our house in town and stuck them in a wheelbarrow in the front yard with a for sale sign. It was amazing. In the course of a week she sold $400 worth of these grass clumps at $5 each and people wanted more. I'm thinking this has to be a business opportunity for somebody.

[Kenneth in NC]

I think if a person has a "Work At Home" job they should share their experience, costs involved and twist they added to make it a viable "Work At Home" job. Then add a Post Script with a URL so everyone else can go if they choose to read the Company's version of the Work At Home Opportunity.

Ken's book gives a lot to think about but 90% would take a little tweaking to make it work in today's economy. But that's the whole idea Ken has been pushing It's to make you think.

As to the book I have so many of those worthless WAH books. Out of 8 books only one had 2 real offers. And after reading the fine print neither one would pay much above $1.87 an hour.

There's a forum over at Barbarsher.com that has a thread called "$100 a day" you might check it out.

Kenneth in NC

[BCR]

I work at home and have for 11 years. I am a massage therapist and herbalist. It costs under $7 K to get trained and equipped as an LMT, it cost me less than $2 K all those years ago. I spent another $1400 for some specific herbalist training. My partner provides consultation and seminars for all kinds of businesses, schools, companies. Can't say what it cost to get started as it was really 10 years of professional teaching, more experience and a master's degree, writing a curriculum and now this.

A great place to get started working for yourself is reading the book "Making A Living Without A Job". She has a website these days that I think you might see as helpful for generating ideas. Especially stress-reducing is her suggestion to find things that can earn you $100 a day and then start doing them. http://www.barbarawinter.com/making_a_living_book.htm

[3girls]

ANother way to think of this is to develop several income streams that add up to enough $ for you. For me this would be various farm things. eg, Eggs, Herbs, Plant propagation, cut flowers, etc. One wouldn't make a living in any one of them, but together, they would add up to satisfaction. Just depends on your energy and space available.