Finding a legitimate home based business that will allow you to work the hours you want and pay a decent wage is a goal a lot of people have. Unfortunately, the scammers know this too so they are going to do everything they can to take your money. Don’t get me wrong there are companies that provide legitimate work for home but there are many that don’t. You first step when researching a job offer should be to check out the Better Business Bureau and see if the company is listed there. If not I would stay away and keep looking. Below are some common scams that are pulled.

No legitimate home based business opportunity is going to come in an email message that you haven’t requested. If you get an email telling you about some fantastic opportunity then send it on to the scam center. These are often times based on the Nigerian scam. Some one will send a message saying you can get several millions dollars just by giving them your bank account number. Once you provide the number they clean out our account and are gone. Do not respond to any unsolicited messages about making money.

There are some assembly work jobs that are legit but a lot of them are not. What they do is charge you a fee up front for the material to make the item. You then spend your time creating the crafts or whatever and then when you send them back to the company for payment they deny them saying they aren’t of quality. You are out the money for the materials and the time you wasted on the project and they are off to scam the next victim. For a real work at home job you shouldn’t have to pay up front in order to do the work.

Another scam is based on high tech so it seems more like it is based in legitimated home based business opportunities. This one involves recovery shipping charges from UPS and Federal Express. The add says you can make boat loads of money by tracking packages for companies and then recovery shipping charges if they are late. Not only is no business interested in this but it is against the shipping agreement of UPS. You spend hundreds of dollars up front for the software and then have no where to use it.

Envelope stuffing and data entry are two more classic work at home scams that have been updated for the new century. With envelope stuffing the ad says you can make hundreds stuffing envelopes. You buy the information booklet and find that you are supposed to place ads for envelope stuffers and collect the money when they buy the booklet you just bought. There really are not envelope stuffing opportunities any more because of automation. With data entry you often times are forced to buy a training package and then once you have completed the training they tell you to go out and find some people to transcribe for like doctors and lawyers. What? They don’t really have any jobs they just make money by selling the training to unsuspecting people.

Medical transcription goes along with data entry above. This is a great skill to have if you know someone to work for but there are a lot of scams out there that sell you training and software that supposedly is going to help you get a job. Once you have spent all that money they tell you to call doctor’s offices and see if they need transcription done. The vast majority won’t even talk to you.

It is very hard to find a Legitimate Home Business that involves working at jobs that don’t require business skills. If you are looking for a way to make extra money then you would be better off trying to find something in your community like child care, making craft items to sell locally, or putting together gift baskets to sell locally or by specification. If you want to start a business online then that is a different matter that takes a different skill set than just sitting in your bathrobe drinking coffee and waiting for the money to arrive.