Beware the latest form of employment scams: Twitter-style. Con artists are now using the popular micro-blogging site Twitter to lure people desperate for work into work-at-home schemes. Many of these schemes used to focus on making money by sending emails or by placing Google ads. The latest variation is a promise to make money working at home on Twitter. Companies like Easytweetprofits.com and make-money-on-twitter.com (associated with TwitterProfitHouse.com) promise from $250 a day to $5000 a month for posting links to Twitter. If you're interested, you supposedly only have to pay a few dollars for a 7-day trial instructional CD. However, buried in the terms and conditions of the contract is a clause stating that if you don't cancel the contract, you will be charged a monthly amount on an ongoing basis (such as $47 or $99). And your trial period starts from the day you ORDER the CD (not when you receive it). 

Avoid getting burned by steering clear of any 'work at home' offers that:

• Sound too good to be true (as in, there is no actual work involved, just a scheme to make money).
  
• Promise lots of money for little effort and no experience
• Request money up-front to get more information about the job or to be considered for it
• In the case of Twitter, you find exactly the same 'tweet' being posted by a number of different people (the links in these can lead to scam sites or install malware on your computer).
  

Written by eldering at News

Tagged with: scams twitter work_at_home

For those who are recently laid off or retired, working at home might seem like the answer to your financial problems. However, the Federal Trade Commission reported in 2007 that about 2.5 million Americans fall for work-at-home scams every year. Here are some of the most common types of scams:

• Mentoring programs - You're offered the chance to purchase a start up kit for running your own business which will give you access to the guidance of a mentor; however, the kit you receive for a few dollars will tell you that you have to spend a lot more money to receive personal mentoring over the phone. These programs usually offer you a dozen or so types of business to choose from, and are often targeted to seniors.
  
• Rebate processing - You answer an ad for a job processing rebate forms for recognized companies; instead, you are offered a job placing advertisements and selling products on the internet. You have to pay an up-front fee to do this, and the promise that you'll get your money back if not satisfied is never fulfilled.
  
• Bait and switch - You're invited to pay up-front for supplies, client leads or instructions and either don't receive what's promised OR only receive a portion of it and have to keep making payments to get the rest. The money you pay always exceeds the value of what you receive. Leads are often just names pulled from the phone book. Classic examples: stuffing envelopes, assembling crafts, entering data into the computer.
•  Check forwarding - You receive a check for something you promise to do...with a request to wire back a portion of it to the sender. The check is counterfeit, and you're left holding the bag (and possibly facing fraud charges). Classic examples: online job sites listing opportunities with US agents for phony overseas companies, requests to reship merchandise (usually purchased with stolen credit cards) overseas.

Written by eldering at News

Tagged with: scam_alert scams working_at_home