Envelope Stuffing

General Questions
#1

I got a letter the other day from a company that wants to pay me $2 to stuff an envelope.
Apparently, they’d like to send me a box of 250 envelopes and their contents (paychecks, the letter states). I am to stuff these envelopes, mail the box back, and receive a check for $500 the next week. The letter claims that I can request up to four boxes a week, which if I did the math right would give me $2000 a week.

Now, as a broke college kid, this has piqued my interest. As a cynical bastard, however, I am inclined to think that this is a massive scam. Why pay someone $2 for five seconds of work? It just doesn’t make sense to me. They also require a $40 deposit on the first batch, though they claim that the $40 will be returned and put on my first check.

I’m sure some of you must have run into this at some point or another. If so, what’s the verdict: Legitimate opportunity or massive scam?

#2

Well, I have the feeling that that $40 just disappears. I’ve heard that after you send in the envelopes, they say that the weren’t done correctly or something and so you don’t get any money. If they’re a reputable company, why would they require you to make a deposit? You’re supposed to trust them even though they don’t trust them? And if the envelopes are worth $500 to them, why would they ask for only $40 of deposit?
What I really wonder about is that they operate so openly. If they’re legal, they must be hemorraging (sp?) money. If they’re operating illegally, it must be obvious. Why aren’t they arrested?
I’ve seen these ads all the place, and I’m curious about them, but so far not curious enough to investigate. But if no one investigates, perhaps I will (maybe). Something you can try is seeing if you can put the deposit on your credit card. If the company tries to cheat you, you can dispute the charges. I’m not that curious.

#3

Cecil on stuffing envelopes at home:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_358.html

#4

There are legitamite(sp?) schemes but they are not get rich quick schemes. For example at the last hotel I worked at when we were short staff we would out hire envelope stuffers for mass mailings. It was not per envelope it was $25.00 for 3000 envelopes stuffed. Well actually you had to put the labels on, fold the insert, then stuff it. We (the hotel) sealed them and ran them through our postage meter.

#5

Kinkos.com now does online letter writing & envelope stuffing & its cheap, I mean like 60 cents per letter includes everything.

Forget stuffing envelopes, the only person who makes money are the people who you give the money to.

#6

Let me add to that SteveCRC, you get envelopes, flyers, etc to mail for your money but guess what? Yes those flyers are about stuffing envelopes for money. Lol. Pyramid schemes @ their best.

#7

Any legit envelope stuffing job would pay on the order of the aforementioned $25/3000 env.

Many places with that many envelopes would employ the services of a firm with an auto-folder/stuffer/labeler. My wife’s printing firm has one, and all you need is one wage slave to load it with letters, envelopes, and labels, and to make sure it doesn’t jam. It can do about 1500 envelopes per hour. And if a bulk mailing postage machine is available, the whole process for 3000 envelopes could take as little as 2 hours. Price of wage slave: $16.