Earn $300 an hour and work from home! No selling, no cold calls!

You've seen the ads, not only on the internet but in newspapers, on signposts, on flyers and on television. 'It's so easy! You just...' place a few simple ads. Stuff some envelopes. Take surveys. Sell our product that sells itself. They promise easy money for a 'small investment' and almost no work. If you're struggling to pay the bills, it's tempting to respond to all the excited testimonials from people who opened their own work from home business six months ago using this PROVEN system and just got back from their world cruise - while their business took care of itself.

The sad truth is that the only people making big money in most of these businesses are the ones running the scam. There are several variations of work from home scams, but they all have a few things in common. They focus on how easy it is to make money. They require you to send money before they tell you about the opportunity. They promise you that there's no risk - they'll even back up their claims with a money-back guarantee if you don't make at least X number of dollars within X number of weeks. Here's a look at several of the most popular work from home schemes, and how to spot them.

** Make $300 an hour with newspaper ads.

If you respond to this ad, you'll get a letter asking you to send a check for $39.95 - for some reason, that's the most popular amount - for a proven system that will teach you how to make hundreds of dollars from the comfort of your own home. It will promise to tell you all the secrets that unlocked the door to comfortable living and all the good things in life.

The Truth: Pay the money, and what you'll get is a brochure or booklet and a description of how to place the ad that you answered in newspapers all over the country. In order to make any money with this 'work from home business', you'll have to invest hundreds of dollars in newspaper ads and printing costs - and become a scammer yourself.

** Make $300 an hour answering surveys online!

This work from home scam has been growing in popularity since the early days of the internet. Get paid to answer surveys, the ads tell you. All you have to do is sign up with the survey service - and you can even join for free. There's no risk, and in no time at all, you can be earning hundreds of dollars a week just by giving your opinion on popular products that you'd use anyway.

The Truth: When you click on the link to the simple 'registration' page, you'll be led through a series of 'offers' of which you must accept several in order to be accepted as a surveyor. These may include free newsletters (which will lead to spam advertisements in your email), magazine subscriptions, long distance and cellular phone services and various products. The person who placed the ad gets a fee for every person who accepts an offer, or makes a purchase. It can end up costing you several hundred dollars just to sign up - and when you do, you'll be told that survey companies will send you invitations when you match their criteria. While you may get a few invitations eventually, this isn't a work from home business opportunity - it's a trick to get you to sign up for offers for which the 'survey company' gets paid.

** There are hundreds of legitimate employers who will hire you to work from home.

The latest variation of the work from home scam avoids most of the overexcited hype, and manages to sound legitimate. For a one-time registration fee and a monthly subscription, it promises you access to an 'exclusive' list of companies that hire people to telecommute or work from home. They usually refer to a wide range of businesses, and may drop names like IBM, AT&T or other well-known large corporations.

The Truth: While the company may, in fact, maintain a large database of corporations who sometimes outsource their data entry, billing or assembly work, most of those companies work through established outsourcing firms. What you'll find are the names, addresses and possibly the name of the human resource officers at those companies. There ARE legitimate job listings boards that cater to those who work from home, but those will generally allow you to join with a free membership that lets you view jobs being posted while restricting the ones to which you can apply till you join as a paying member.

Here Are Some Tips to Help You Recognize a Scam

1. They emphasize how easy it is to make a lot of money. 2. The ad is peppered with exclamation points, but doesn't tell you much about the business. 3. They ask you for money to tell you about the business.

1steliteworkfromhome.com is a resource for anyone looking to find work from home job information and discover ways to work at home.

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