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Scams
Chain Letters
Chain letter programs will not make you rich! All those claims about the sender pulling in £20,000 the first time around; £80,000 the second time; and £180,000 the third time; are just outright lies!
It's best not to get involved in ANY kind of chain letter scheme because they are ALL illegal, and sooner or later, the postal authorities will close you down. If they find that you are, or have been a willing participant, you could be fined, imprisoned, or face a penalty of both as punishment.
These things are illegal, immoral, and probably fattening.
Herbal Viagra
This is really a whole category of scams, relating to the sale of medical or "alternative" medical treatments online. Usually using spam to get to the "customer." If you're lucky, these products will do nothing at all. Some of them are seriously dangerous by themselves. They promise cures for life threatening illnesses, causing those who buy the promise to delay proper medical treatment, sometimes past the point where it would have helped. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before buying into any of these nostrums. It'll save you a lot of headaches and heartache later. Folks, consider this: If you wouldn't trust a spammer to handle your money, why would you take medical advice from them???
Clerical Work-At-Home Scams
Typing, Data Entry, Transcription, "Filling Out Forms" and other such stuff.
Wow. The guy who asked me what I know about a web site offering home-based data entry "jobs" (choke sputter) really opened the floodgates! I posted my feature-length reply on the message board, and after I stopped foaming at the mouth, I decided to turn my answer into an article.
It just isn't sensible to target these "opportunities" by name out here on the web, because they like to threaten you with Court action.... but in this one itsy bitsy case, I just couldn't help myself.
Before I pick this "opportunity" apart line by line, I want to be sure you understand.... it is NOT unique Not by a long shot. Sometimes it's data entry, and sometimes it's typing. Sometimes you find it on a web page, sometimes you find it in your email box, and sometimes it shows up in your snailmailbox or on your fax machine. One is as bad as the other, so don't just tear up the ad and take my word for it.... I want you to take the time, right here and now, to learn to read between the lines.
This is Your Big Chance To Be A Stay-Home Mom!! working for A.V.I. Data Processing Center (a Division of Nationwide Collection Services) (www.aviathome.com).
DISCLAIMER:
What follows is my own interpretation of this type of "opportunity." I do not claim it to be fact. Absolutely not! I could be 100% wrong, and I'll be the first to admit that. And furthermore, I am only using A.V.I. as an example.... an analogy.... a "what if?" if you will. I am not implying for one minute that they are doing anything shady.
It's just an unfortunate fact that SOME of the work-at-home offers that read a whole lot like theirs aren't exactly.... well, um.... real. (I'm trying to be gentle here.) Theirs could be 100% real. I have NEVER had any personal dealings with them and don't claim otherwise. I chose their offer to pick apart because it was just so darn convincing. It could be perfectly legit. (Anybody know how to write "just peachy" in Latin?)
"Because of increasing case loads we had to make a decision. Either expand our in-house data entry division and continue working as we have in the past, costing us millions, or find an alternative"
Golly whiz! This sounds suspiciously like every other rip-off "Work At Home" company. Nothing original here.
"Through our research the alternative was simple, follow the current trend of working with home based individuals, just like you, to perform the data entry work."
That is actually a fairly logical solution. Lots of companies are doing this, my own medical transcription service included. Yup.
"By incorporating people who are willing to work with their own equipment, the company saves on the enormous expense for increasing office space, work stations and all the other costs involving in-house employees."
Yup yup yup. Every word is true. Except you can do the same thing by incorporating people IN YOUR LOCAL AREA. That way, you even have the opportunity to "keep an eye on them." It's amazing the way it works. Lots of legitimate companies are doing exactly that, my own included.
"With this program, you are the boss, the only demands are accuracy, and that you complete the work within the agreed upon time."
But you don't complete the work for THEM within an agreed-upon time. They forgot to tell you that you complete the work for THE CLIENTS YOU FIND ON YOUR OWN within the agreed-upon time. Probably. Maybe. I think. (Remember, I never said none'a dis was faxx, boss!)
"HOW YOU QUALIFY. You must own or have access to a Personal Computer and quality printer. Be familiar with the basics of Word Processing and Data Base entry programs. (You will be provided with customized easy to use, load and go software). Complete the number of data entries and printouts you have agreed to enter and mail out weekly."
Translation:.... "Got 150 quid?"
"The deposit is for the supplies, software and materials"
Worth maybe 50p. (Just a wild guess.) (Disclaimer!Disclaimer!Disclaimer!)
"and to assure us of your legitimate interest and commitment in wanting this opportunity."
But if we put on our thinking caps, we would realize that if we hired local people, we could send the work home with them (just around the corner even!), and if they didn't get it done on time.... well then, we'd replace 'em. It wouldn't take long to figure out if they were really interested or committed. Businesses have been hiring employees and subcontractors this way since money was invented, after all. Leave it to us to reinvent the wheel!
"Your deposit money will be returned to you after you have worked 50 client assignments per our instructions within 60 days from receiving our software supplies and materials."
EWWWWWWWWW!!!
Here's the noose (oops, of course I meant loophole): When you find out that all they are sending you is a pile of instructions and some software, and that you have to spend money to advertise, and you have to find your own clients and your own "assignments," and they aren't going to pay you a penny now or ever, and they misled you (maybe) (well, I really don't know) (DISCLAIMER!).... you'll decide you don't want to do it after all. Oh, you will be HOPPING MAD!!! But when you ask for your refund, they'll tell you, "No." And since there's not a damn thing you can do about it, you'll file in on the shelf with all your other Broken Dreams and Dust Bunnies.
HERE'S HOW LEGITIMATE LONG-DISTANCE THINGS USUALLY WORK:
When you sign up to work for these big companies, you either take your computer to them and they put in all the programs you need and teach you how to work them (free), or you download what you need from the internet (free). Then you go to work. YOU DO NOT PAY THEM ANYTHING. You are working FOR THEM. Doing work for THEIR CLIENTS. THEY WOULD NOT MAKE ANY MONEY WITHOUT YOU.
The money flows ONE WAY and ONE WAY ONLY: Client to Company to Worker. Kinda like the food chain: Here in "the burbs," the cat eats the mouse. The dog eats the cat. It is VERY unlikely that the the mouse will eat the dog. (How that relates I haven't the slightest idea, but I like it so it stays.)
Remember.... NOBODY cares diddly squat about making you successful and letting you stay home with your kids. They care about their bottom line, and advertising for "national home workers" and charging them for a "job" just isn't the way real companies do it. If it were, Marks and Spencer staff would all be taking orders from home in their jammies instead of standing on their feet all day.
Material supplied by Scams 101
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