Work-from-home scams that purport to offer real, often lucrative opportunities to work from home are a popular cyber scam that fools thousands of victims every month. We take a look at 5 of the most popular work-from-home scams in 2013.
The assertion you can get paid for simply posting links is actually one of the older variants of work-from-home scams and has existed for well over 7 years. The scam works by luring a visitor into signing up for a work from home “kit” that teaches the user how to post links on the Internet and get paid.
Often these scams claim you are posting links on behalf of Google or Fortune 500 companies, and can often assert you can get paid up to $45 per link you post.
In reality these jobs do not – and will never – exist. The act of “posting links” actually derives loosely to the practice of affiliate marketing, in which a key strategy involves backlinking to your affiliate offers in order to gain visitors and potential customers. However affiliate marketing can be a particularly difficult and often complicated trade in which to make good money and simply posting links on the Internet isn’t going to make you any money.
These sites essentially grossly exaggerate and warp the truth about Internet marketing to make it sound like all you need to do is post links and get paid, when in reality that could not be further from the truth.
Needless to say, when you sign up you get sent near worthless marketing information and you are unlikely to recoup the registration costs.
Get-rich-quick scams work by asserting to offer some kind of software, system, method or trick/exploit that when in your possession allows you to make lots of money effortlessly and quickly.
These scams often assert that the victim needs to spend several minutes setting up their system and once done are able to “watch the money roll in”. Of course these systems do not exist.
Instead sites like this sell marketing information and follow that up by pressuring the victim into handing over more money for more Internet marketing information. Such information may vary in how well it has been set up but get-rich-quick scams work by initially duping the victim into thinking they can get rich for little effort when this is not true.
Always avoid sites that promise great riches for little effort. These sites prey on readers that are experiencing financial difficulties or are unhappy with their occupation. They often employ fake “news articles” or fake testimonial sites that appear to review the “opportunity” but in reality are trying recruit new members.
Online surveys do exist, but you’re not going to be able to quit the 9-5 with the money you’ll make. Genuine survey programs pay small amounts of money and the number of surveys in which you are eligible may fluctuate from week to week.
However plenty of survey taking scams ask you to register to take surveys by paying a fee. These scams assert that you can make a full time income (or better) by registering to take part in their survey program but these scams will simply take your money and direct you to…
1. Another survey taking site where you could just have easily registered for free
2. An outdated survey site list which, again, you could have found for free
3. Scammy affiliate rewards offers that collect as much personal information about you in order to spam you with more spammy affiliate offers, and rarely payout.
Work-from-home scams that try and bait victims into committed check fraud are also extremely popular. Such scams advertise for well-paid work-from-home jobs with flexible hours, most popularly the jobs will be called “regional processor” or words to that effect.
The scam works in two parts – first by tricking the victim into cashing a fake check and secondly by tricking the victim into withdrawing a portion of the check amount and sending it elsewhere before the fake check bounces – thus making the victim liable for the amount that they withdrew.
Such jobs use a wide variety of “templates” and backstories to tricking a victim into cashing a check and then withdrawing a portion of the amount.
For example the scammer may claim that the check is the victims payment but was accidentally made out for too much money and the victim needs to return the surplus payment.
Never accept jobs where you do not get to personally meet the people employing you and that require you to cash checks. No legitimate job operates in this way.
An emerging scam that falls under the work-from-home category is binary option scams that assert to show readers how to guarantee large profits using binary option websites.
These are just another variant of scams that claim to show readers the secrets to winning on the Forex stock market or on online gambling websites, when in reality all the scammer was trying to is trick readers into signing up for these sites by offering them relatively basic strategic guides that certainly do not guarantee any kind of profit.
The scammer gets paid every time they sign up a person to a binary option website. So they create a basic introduction and strategy guide to binary options trading and pass it off as a secret “system” of sorts, that guarantees riches. They then use this to lure people into signing up for the binary options site.
Remember, binary options trading is, like most forms of trading, extremely risky to the point it is essentially gambling. There are no certainties and there is no guarantee you will even make money at all, despite the claims made by such work-from-home opportunities.
Always be wary of opportunities about working from home as the vast majority of simply trying to scam you. If you’re interested in a career on the Internet you can take a look at this section of our site that deals with popular questions about who we recommend.
