Watching Out For
Work From Home Scams
By: Stacy Perez

One of the biggest challenges when looking to work from home is coming across opportunities that are possibly a scam.

If you use caution and research opportunities before committing to them, then it will help avoid being scammed.

Whenever someone asks me if a company is a scam or not, what I think about an opportunity, this is exactly what I do to check for legitimacy of the company.

1. Get their company name, mailing address, and phone number. If the company does not provide this information, then I would just forget about pursuing with them.

2. Go to www.infospace.com, and search the yellow pages. You are searching first their name, city, and state to see if they are listed. Then click to do a reverse look up on their phone number. The idea of this is to confirm that their number is registered under the business name. Also, you can call information to find out too. Calling information is dialing 411 or (their area code)555-1212. You will ask for a phone number by saying the company name, city, and state. Real companies would register their company name to their phone number. I am sure there are companies out there that are legitimate and have the phone number in their name. Most companies will have their phone number registered in their company name.

3. Call the company's phone number and see how they answer the phone. Do they answer the phone the phone and say the company name? Are they professional? When they answer does it remind you of when you call for one of your utility or credit card bills?

4. Search the company with the Better Business Bureau www.bbb.org. You are searching by the company's name, mailing address, phone number or website address. Not all companies are registered with the BBB. It does cost a lot of money to be a member of the BBB. It looks better if they are a member of the BBB but it is not necessarily. Regardless, the BBB will report bad feedback whether you are a member or not. You are checking for bad feedback that is unresolved. If there is minimal negative feedback that has been resolved then I would assume the company cares about their company and wants to resolved disputes.

5. Subscribe to some groups on yahoogroups.com geared towards working from home, and ask people if they had experience with a particular company. Feedback from others really does help.

6. Ask work from home website owners what they think about a particular company.

7. Visit work from home message boards and ask for feedback there.

Rule of thumb - NEVER pay for a work from home job. Work from home jobs would be like data entry, typing, medical transcription, medical billing, researching, recruiting, etc.

Keep working from home scam free!

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Copyright 2000-2008, Stacy Perez, successful work from home mother who has inspired and helped many parents work from home. Visit: www.DotComMommies.com

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