THE Work At Home Blog

Since every day I receive at least one email from someone asking me whether or not a company is legitimate I thought it would be useful to post some information on how I research a company.

The first place I go is always The Better Business Bureau. It can be a bit tricky to find a company report. I use the advanced search form and try plugging in the company name, url and/or any other information I have. Sometimes you have to play with the name a bit, for example you may not find a report on Acme Widgets, but there’s one for Acme Widgets, Inc.

A great way to get more contact information for a website is to do a Whois lookup. I like BetterWhois.com. You just plug in the domain name and it will give you the contact information for the person who registered the domain. Now, most of the time this is the owner of the website, but sometimes it’s a web hosting company. Common sense can usually help you to determine which is the case. Doing a whois lookup can give you a phone number, an alternate company name, an address or all of the above.

Another thing I like to do is a google search for the company name. What I look for here are forum discussions. Sometimes I have better luck adding the word “scam” to the company name. That can turn up negative discussions if there are any. Of course, this type of information has to be taken with a grain of salt as posts on bulletin boards are not verified in any way. It could be that someone didn’t follow through with the business and then turns around claiming that the company scammed them. Again, use common sense. If you find one bad post, that may not be good enough evidence. If you find many negative posts then a red flag should definitely go up. This is just one small part of my evaluation of a company. I put much more weight on a BBB report than someone’s rant on a website.

Of course a good look at the company’s website should give you some clues. Is there contact information? Is it clear what the business is? If the website is badly designed or unprofessional then you might want to take a closer look. On the other hand, there are some scams out there that are promoted with some very slick, professional looking websites, so that is not always a guarantee.

If you are able to contact someone who is already involved in the business, that can be helpful. Ask specific questions like, “how long have you been in this business?”, “what is a typical work day like for you?”, “how much money have you invested and how much have you earned?”.

The important thing is to research as thoroughly as possible and follow your instincts. I’ve found that if I had even a vague feeling that something just wasn’t right, it just about always turned out to be a scam. Do you homework and you’re less likely to get burned.

• Read More »

Remember those chain letters you would get via email (or even by snail mail…but I’m dating myself there so, yeah)? There would be wild claims of how you had an opportunity to have $5 bills, or $10 bills or whatever pouring into your mailbox. There would be a list of names and you were supposed to send the $5 to each person and then re-print the list replacing the last person on the list with your name and address.

Well, I’ve personally never met anyone who has become rich by doing this. In fact, it’s one of the few, ahem….opportunities out there that most everyone knows is a complete waste of time. I mean I get 8 or 10 emails every day from people who are still looking for the ever-elusive “typing job”, but I do not hear from people who want to know if those chain letters are legitimate. They know they’re not.

So, it’s absolutely amazing to me that the latest thing out there is basically a chain letter on steroids (and online). I’m not going to post the website address here, but they have a video of a guy opening up his fedex package to show that someone sent him a “gift” of $3,500 and telling me that I too can have these packages delivered to me every day!

There’s also a video explaining how the whole system works. You just have to convince one sucker, I mean person, to join up. When that guys signs up, he then has to find another person who wants to get rich by doing nothing. When I say signs up, what I mean is the person agrees to give you, a total stranger, a gift of $3,500. That first $3,500 goes to whoever is above you. But when the guy you signed up gets someone else to send $3,500 to a total stranger, that money goes to you. You get the idea.

Now, I have to be honest. Once, when I was young, I responded to one of those chain letters. I know, I know. It was foolish. Anyway, as you may have guessed I never received a single dime. I was pissed too, because I was working a minimum wage job and $5 bought a lot of macaroni and cheese back then.

So, if we can’t even get people to part with $5 to have their mailbox explode with 5 dollar bills, what on earth makes anyone think that folks are going to be willing to fork out $3,500 (in cash by the way), sign a paper saying that it’s a gift with no strings and pay to have it sent to some random person by overnight courier?

Beyond the fact that this is perhaps legal but certainly unethical, would you ever be able to tell people with any measure of pride how you make a living?

John: “What do you do Sharon?”

Sharon: “I try to convince total strangers to send me money as a gift.”

John: “Wow. Your parents must be so proud. How’s that working out for you?”

Sharon: “Well, so far not good. But I’m confident that there are enough stupid lazy people out there and that eventually I’ll find one of them.”

There is no product being produced or sold. There is no service being performed to benefit anyone. I mean, how is this any different from the people who stand on street corners begging? It isn’t.

• Read More »

When I need information about identity theft, I can always count on the FTC website. They have a whole section for people who are researching or writing about identity theft. Today I found a nifty tool from OnGuard Online: The ID Theft Faceoff. It’s a quiz that tests your knowledge of ID theft. The quiz itself is not a comprehensive training tool, but it’s fun to see if you get all the questions right– and get your face back…you’ll see what I mean

The main identity theft area for consumers is here and this is the page I’m talking about for you information hounds.

Phishing is one of the most common ways that people can try to steal your identity. Watch this video to learn more about it.

This is good stuff, don’t wait until you’ve been burned. Educate yourself now.

–Sharon

• Read More »