My fiancee and I are currently looking to add a little income and I was curious if any of you had attempted any of these "Work-At-Home Jobs" advertised everywhere. I have heard about getting paid to stuff envelopes, medical billing, and getting paid to fill out surveys or participate in forum discussions. Please let me in on your experiences with this line of work. Are they all scams? If not, which are productive.
I saw a special on work at home jobs and they're usually a scam. Here's how they work: You send them $35, they send you a big box of toy parts for you to assemble into toys. You're supposed to assemble the toys and send them back. Then, they're supposed to refund your $35 deposit and pay you for your work. However, what usually happens is that after you send them back the box of toys, they send you a letter saying that the work "wasn't up to their standards" and refuse to pay you. They do, however, refund the original $35 deposit. So, you end up getting nothing and they end up with a box of assembled toys via your free labour. Pretty sweet deal for them.
When I worked at the Better Business Bureau, we got complaints about these places all the time. Basically, they're all scams. In fact, I'd seriously question just about any "business opportunity" advertised in the classifieds. A better bet is for you and your fiancee to take a look at your current hobbies and interests -- you may already have abilities that you could turn into second jobs. Here's some of the things Mr. JB and I have done (either together or seperately) to earn extra $$: DJ at parties and weddings, work for a pet sitting company, make jewelry and sell it on ebay, sell vintage jewelry at weekend antique shows, write resumes for people, etc... It all depends on what your talents are. Here's an interesting one I just heard last night: my sister is getting married and she decided to hire a calligrapher to address her envelopes. The woman she hired is a young school teacher who does this to make extra money. She makes $1 per line she writes. So she averages $3-5 per envelope. That's a pretty nice little side income! I've seen calligraphy courses offered through Leisure Learning, too. I may have to get in on this...
Here's how the envelope stuffing thing works. You send in $35 (or more), and they send you a "starter" packet of photocopied information, to distribute to others. What's the information? How to get rich quick stuffing envelopes! You then mail this information out to people, or place your own ad and wait for people to mail you their self-addressed-stamped envelopes with their deposit, so you can pass the secret on to them. BTW, if you can't find an address list, they will sell you a list of addresses from people who have been "responsive" to such offers in the past (in other words, people who have already fallen for one of the scams). The company lets other people do the dirty work, and builds it's mailing list, which it will also sell to other direct marketers. You only get money if you are willing to rip off others with the same scam.
Scalp tickets...that's how I got through college...although after Sept 11 the market has never been the same. We don't make much money these days. Although I do have 4 tickets to game 7 of the world series in anaheim. Go Giants! Go Angels! Take it to the wire!
I read about this scam in the paper once and it sounds almost too good to be true, yet so simple in nature: First, get yourself a 1-900 number from the phone company. Then, take out an ad in the paper saying GET RICH QUICK WITH THIS SIMPLE METHOD ONLY $1.99 A MINUTE! CALL 1-900 xxx_xxxx or something similar in nature. Then, on your 1-900 phone line, you have an automatic voice recorder telling people to "get a 1-900 number from the phone company, take out an ad in the paper...."...basically tell them to do exactly what you did. As you get more money, expand the number of phone lines and the number of papers you advertise in. Simple, and since there are so many suckers out there who would call it, it might work!
Do people still do the classic "Get rich from only $6.00" scam on message boards? I haven't seen it in a while...
Beware! Nowadays some spammers use "work at home" to get cheap cycles, and (electronically) distance themselves from the UCE. That's true...you can always sell sperm
I do sell health and whole food products online. If you can navigate the pitfalls of online marketing it is possible to make money. I did get scammed about 4 years ago. It cost me $250. The guy got away with $14 Million, but then he got caught and now he is in the pen for 11 and 1/2 years.
