Reading Past the Hype

I've been scammed plenty of times. And I do mean plenty! By now I can smell a scam a mile away. Right? No, not always. It seems that the smarter I get the smarter the scammers seem to get. So, how the heck can I protect myself?

When I decided that I wanted (needed) to work from home, I did not want (or need) to pay tens or hundreds of dollars to get a job. Nor did I wish to recruit tens or hundreds of people in order to get paid for whatever job I did get. All I wanted was to write a better resume' than the next candidate, and to conduct a more convincing interview than my competition. You know, like I used to do in the "real" world.

Over time I learned that there is no 100%, sure-fire way to protect myself from being sucked in by a scam, but there are a few guidelines I learned to follow, which lower my risks. I'd like to share them with you.

1. Don't pay for employment. If I'm asked to pay anything (even one penny), I scratch out the job ad.
   
   
2. Pay attention to the ad's verbiage. If an advertisement contains any of the following words or phrases, I "X" it out:
   
   
• Downline, Upline, Powerline
  
  
• Quick, Easy, No-work (huh?)
  
  
• Cash machine
  
  
• Self-replicating
  
  
• No experience (eh?)
  
  
• Unlimited income potential
  
  
• Free details-That's probably all that'll be free!
  
  
• Residual income
  
  
• Turnkey
  
  
• Multi-level, Ground-level, Levels deep
  
  
• Tiers
  
  
• Big money fast
  
  
• Make money while you sleep (I've never been paid to sleep on the job!)
  
  
3. Don't apply to a company that hires "internationally." Chances are great that the "company" is really a person who happens to have an upline, a downline, or whatever.
   
   
4. Do not send a SASE (self-addressed-stamped-envelope) for information on a job position. If the company can't afford to buy stamps, it can't afford to pay you. At least, not for very long!
   
   
5. Don't call a 900 number for information about a job position. This is obviously the same as paying for information.
   
   
6. Don't pay the hiring company for materials you need to get the job done. Either you have it or you don't. If you don't, you probably aren't qualified for the job.
   
   
7. Read an entire ad carefully before writing or calling the hiring person. There might be fine print somewhere with the words Upline, Downline, or whatever!
   
   
8. Find out how long a company has been in business before agreeing to work for them. Your hard-earned pay might end up being their grocery money because they didn't budget their start-up money properly.
   
   
9. Check a company out with sources like the Better Business Bureau. Although companies listed there pay to be there, if complaints do come in they will be listed, too.
   
   
10. Join groups where everyone is in the same boat that you are. Members love to blast a scam if they know of one. That alone will save you a lot of time, and give you some support while you continue your search.
    
    

These guidelines are the same ones that I use over and over again as I research jobs and job sites for Mommy's Place.NET with the hope of helping another stay-at-home mom avoid the emotional and financial pain of being scammed and find real employment from home. They really are easy to follow.

But perhaps my absolute final guideline is do not ever feel so desperate to find home-employment that you ignore or overlook indications that something is a scam. Scammers prey on people's, particularly women's, desperation. Know that you are not alone. Don't make what you might think of as a desperate situation worse by being sucked in to a scam.

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Pamela La Gioia is the creator and webmaster of Mommy's Place.NET, where she offers hundreds of free job leads for other stay-at-home mothers. She has been researching work-from-home issues since 1993, when only a small handful of other webmasters recognized the up and coming trend of working at home. Ms. La Gioia may be reached via e-mail at: pam@mommysplace.net. All questions and comments are welcome.

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