Don't fall for work-at-home scams

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

All Bernard K., a state worker from Atlanta, wanted was a work-at-home gig to supplement his pay check because rising gas prices were taking a big bite out of his wallet.

But his innocent plan — that started when he got an unsolicited email last month offering him a job mailing packages — landed him in jail.

Bonnie Brown from Lancaster, Ohio, also thought the work-at-home job she heard about through a newspaper ad her friend gave her was a godsend.

Being disabled, she was no longer able to work at an office job, and jumped at the chance to do medical billing from her home.

She paid a $195 upfront fee to get the job, and she bought a printer and fax to boot. What did she get for her money? No job, just aggravation.

Oh, the desire to find that lucrative work-at-home job. I get e-mails from readers on a weekly basis looking for the perfect home-work opportunity.

I’m here to tell you folks, the majority of the Internet offers you get in your e-mail box and ones you see in ads in periodicals and jobs boards offering you fast cash opportunities right from the comfort of your living room are bogus, bunk, bamboozles.

"Work-at-home scams are the number one thing consumers write in to ask about," says Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Reports WebWatch, who estimates ten out of ten e-mails he gets about such offers are not legitimate.

And the scammers prey on people who are desperate for money but can’t leave home for work, he notes, like those who are disabled, or stay-at-home moms or dads who’d like to help their spouses make ends meet.

Complaints to the Better Business Bureau regarding work-at-home opportunities rose to 4,100 in 2007 from about 3,800 the previous year. And work-at-home offers and business opportunities ranked 13^th last year among fraud complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission.

Work-at-home scams are only expected to become more prevalent as economic conditions worsen and people find themselves out of work or in need of extra cash to deal with escalating prices for basic goods, experts in law enforcement and consumer advocacy say.

"As the demand for at home employment increases so to will the schemes," predicts Joan Coughlin, a spokeswoman for the BBB in central Ohio.

Coughlin says the Internet, which gives criminals “new ways to connect with people”, has also buoyed the rise in such scams.

One of the big, recent scams the Pennsylvania’s Attorney General is monitoring is the so-called mystery shopper scheme, says Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the office.

“You get an e-mail saying you were randomly selected to become a mystery shopper and you can earn $500 to $800 a week,” he explains.

But, what they end up asking you to do is deposit a check and then wire a portion of it back to them. You deposit what is a bogus check, keep some of it, and then wire the rest back to the company.

The check eventually bounces and you’re out the money you sent them.

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