What’s up with these work from home things? I called one that said you mailed stuff from your home and could make 529 dollars a week. I figured I could use the extra cash, and I figured I could actually do the envelope stuffing/ addresing while I was at work, therebye getting paid for doing 2 jobs, but only working the hours of one. Pretty sweet deal. Anyway, when I got the information packet in the mail they wanted me to send them money for a book that had a whole bunch of work from home companies listed and they garaunteed that you would get employment at one or else they gave you your money back. Whats going on here? Is it a scam? It sure seems like it, but I would hate to pass up the opportunity to make 529 extra dollars a week!! Does anyone have any experiences or warnings to share??
Thanks.
Horhay
First of all welcome to the doper realm.
Second of all YUP you got scammed. Well I guess technically you haven’t been scammed until you have given someone some money.
These scams are poping up all over the United States and Canada. As a matter of fact I would venture a guess that 85% of major news papers have scam articles in them. Some people are more bold and draw up big signs for their scams.
Here’s a neat little story that you might find quite interesting. A year or so ago a student at the school I teach at [not one of my students] decided to try and debunk scams, so he procured all kinds of money to try out 10 different scams. and the results were astonishing. Now keep in mind that for him this was a project and he was not allowed to act upon any money making scam and actually ‘make the money’. He introduced different variables into the scams and he recorded their efficacy in getting him the prospect of real money.
The real-estate scams where you would have ‘no money down’ and five properties in less than a month. Sure if you have platinum credit and a desire to sign your life away on a 500 year mortage. Just kidding about the 500 yr mortage. anyway you get the point.
Then there were the little article scams all around the country in different news papers. This one had actually quite a potential if you chose the right one. But the amount of hours a week needed to actually get money from this would not be worth all the groveling and ass kissing one would have to do to get a ‘product to sell’. Essentially that is what those are for, they try to get you to sell something.
Now the one that had the MOST POTENTIAL was one where this person put out a 39.99$ book, and it had in it money that could be had from the Gov’t, grants, free loans, etc…etc… But the only stipulation was you had to actually search the places this book listed for the monies, and with a little detective work and some telephone time. This student was about to sign for a 10k grant from his state gov’t with out having to pay it back.
Well I am tired of typing… Essentially, you did fall for a little scam, but if you did not have that big of an out of pocket dish-out I would say you are a little wiser for the next time.
Save your money. I’d be willing to bet the booklet you get says to set up a “business” selling the same booklet to others…
The scams usually fall into one of two categories: pyramid schemes, and assembly schemes.
In the former, you pay what amounts to “dues” to the member who recruited you. The organization probably disguised as a direct sales operation or something similar. Your job isn’t to sell widgets, but to recruit more “salesmen” who pay dues to you (part of which you pass along to the person who recruited you). You may get some merchandise for the money you pay, but it’s generally vastly overvalued, and the entire margin on that goes to the kingpins in the scheme. They don’t care what you do with it, as long as you keep buying it.
These used to all be illegal, but someone lobbied Congress and now we have laws that allow such organizations if they meet some sort of commerce standards.
You can make money with these schemes, but you have to be at the top of the pyramid, and you have to be a good salesman (i.e., con man). And if you replied to newpaper ads or signs at ATMs to get in on a pyramid scheme, you are NOWHERE near the top. You’re a victim.
The assembly schemes are a bit simpler. You are told you’ll get paid per item for doing things like stuffing envelopes or assembling tongue depressor dollhouses, or something menial. But the way it really works is that you have to buy the components from your employer at an inflated price, and then sell the assembled items back to him. The per item cost you are quoted minus the costs of the components will represent an insignificant margin - a pittance. And sooner or later, the “employer” will disappear, leaving you with no one to sell the assembled items back to. Thus, you’re out the costs of the raw materials, which are likely much much greater than any “profit” you had accumulated.
- There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Nobody is going to pay you for being lazy. There may be a few, rare, work from home schemes that will allow you to pay the rent (e.g., telemarketing, phone sex) but not much else.
First of all, as regards the OP: SCAM SCAMMITY SCAM.
And in response to the mention of pyramid schemes, there’s one doing the rounds here: I first heard of it when lots of the girls working at our nursing home starting talking about it, but it’s been on the news since. It’s a women-only pyramid style thing that basically involves giving all your wages in. A lot of folk are said to be seen to make money, but obviously the very, VERY best you can hope for is to be a long way away when the bubble bursts. What concerned me about the scam was that it sweeps mainly poor areas, as I suppose any get-rich-quick scheme would. So these are people who can’t afford to gamble, and who may not even realise they’re gambling (at best - throwing their money away, more likely).
I was however tickled by a woman insisting that the scheme wasn’t a pyramid scheme - because the diagram was an UPSIDE DOWN pyramid. There’s a Simpsons quote just like that - “This is not one of those shady pyramid schemes you may have heard of - our model is the trapezoid!”
Let us be sure to differentiate between work-at-home schemes such as those discussed in previous posts, and those of us who work at home in legitimate jobs (freelancers, telecommuters, and so on). (I am sure that lumping the two together was not bughunter’s intent – I just wanted to clarify.)
As for the OP, well, there’s scam, scam, eggs and scam, scam, sausage and scam, bacon, eggs, and scam . . . 
Vikings: Scam, scam, scam scam, scam, scam, scam…
Waitress: Shut up!
Woman: What 'ave you got that doesn’t have a scam in it?
Yes, it’s a scam. 99% of these involve no product other than the method of sales itself.
IE, you pay $19.99 to receive a booklet (typically a photocopied-and-stapled sort of thing) that tells you to photocopy that very same booklet, and to place ads in order to sell them.
Some have inventive ways to slightly disguise the system, but that’s essentially what it all boils down to.