Work-at-home scheme

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The work-at-home scheme is a quick-rich scam in which the victim is lured by an offer to be hired at home, very often performing some simple tasks in minimal time with a large amount of income that far exceeds the market rate for the type of job. The real purpose of such an offer is for the offender to extort money from the victim, either by charging to join the scheme, or requiring the victim to invest in a product whose selling value is misinterpreted.

The work-at-home scheme has been around for decades, with the classic "classic envelope" scam from the United States during the Depression of the 1920s and 1930s. In this scam, workers are offered entry into a scheme where they can earn $ 2 for each envelope they fill. After paying a small $ 2 fee to join the scheme, the victims sent out flyer templates for the same work-from-home scheme, and were ordered to post these advertisements around their local area - the victim was just a "stuffing envelope" with a flyer template perpetuate the scheme. Originally found as print ads in newspapers and magazines, this fraudulent variant has evolved into more modern media, such as television and radio ads, and forum posts on the Internet.

In some countries, law enforcement agencies work against work-at-home schemes. In 2006, the United States Federal Trade Commission established Project False Hopes, a state and federal law enforcement sweep that targets fake business opportunities and works on home fraud. This action involves more than 100 law enforcement actions by the FTC, the Department of Justice, the US Postal Inspection Service, and law enforcement agencies in eleven states.

Legitimate job-at-home opportunities do exist, and many people do their jobs comfortably in their own homes, but anyone looking for such job opportunities should be careful about accepting homework offers. A 2007 report in the United States states that about 97% of bids work at home is a fraud. Many legitimate work at home require some form of post-secondary education, such as a bachelor's degree or certificate, or a trade school, and some field experience in an office or other supervised setting. In addition, many legitimate home jobs are not as described in the scheme, as it is often done at least in corporate offices, requiring more self-discipline than traditional jobs, and having a higher risk of firing.

The types of public works found in work-at-home schemes include:

• Envelope entry. The victim sees the flyer advertising the stuffing stuff, with "up to 1,000 envelopes a week you can fill... with postage and address already stuck!", Offering $ 1-2 per envelope payment. To apply for a job, the victim is asked to send a stamped envelope with its own address for information and small processing fees. In return, victims are sent templates for leaflets they originally saw; the envelopes they contain are from others who answer the flyers, and the payment is the processing fee.
• Assembling similar goods, such as handicrafts, jewelry or medical equipment. Workers are required to pay in advance for construction materials and equipment, and when they try to sell finished products back to the scheme providers, they are told that the product "does not meet our specifications", leaves workers with homemade products and no buyers.
• Process medical claims. Workers pay several hundred dollars for medical billing software, but will later find out that most medical clinics process their own bills, divert their bills to established companies rather than individuals, or have stricter requirements than can be provided by the software purchased.
• Filter spam. Usually advertised as some variant of "email processing", workers are only given instructions in online spam forums, and say they can make money by selling these same instructions online.
• Sales of products or services that are difficult or impossible to sell. This is often done in the form of a pyramid scheme.
• Talk on the phone hotline.

Some ads offer legitimate forms of legitimate work, but exaggerate pay and minimize the effort that should be put into work, or exaggerate the amount of work that will be available. Many such ads do not even specify what type of work to do. Some similar schemes do not advertise the work to be done at home, but may instead offer occasional, sporadic jobs away from home for large payouts, paired with lots of free time. Some of the general offers that fit this description act as extras, mystery shopping (which in reality requires hard work, paid near minimum wages, and most importantly, no upfront costs to join) and work as caregivers.

Video Work-at-home scheme

Scam signs

Signs of work-at-home fraud versus legitimate employment may include:

• Payment of fees is required before starting work. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission states that under any circumstances should be forced to pay the cost of getting a job. In many countries, no legitimate company will charge a fee as a condition for starting a job (except perhaps a small amount for a criminal background check).
• The pay is too good to be true. While there may be legitimate jobs available where employees are paid to perform certain tasks in question, even from home, in reality, they will be paid fair wages for the type of work and education level, not $ 40 per hour or $ 3000 per week which is usually offered in a work-at-home scheme.
• The company seems to be hiring anyone, with no experience and no qualifications. Legitimate home-based entrepreneurs will only be attracted to those with appropriate experience, skills, certification, and other qualifying factors, and will at least provide some checks to applicants looking for work. But the actors of the work-at-home scheme are only interested in the payouts needed to join.
• Companies are not widely known, and do not seem to have a generating customer base from which they can pay employees.
• The company name is similar to, but not exactly the same as the famous official company.
• The company does not seem to have a permanent location. His address, phone number, and website seem to center on hiring employees, not customers.
• Companies try to show unfair benefits from working in a very short time.
• The company repeatedly tried to make contact until the victim replied.
• Fake news and websites.

Maps Work-at-home scheme

Consequences

The falling consequences for a work-at-home scheme may be as follows:

• Losing money: It may be just the initial cost of joining, which may be big or small. Some scammers will run after receiving this fee. Others will continue to ask for more promises of high payouts to be met. Some will act on two-way streets, actually issuing checks on payments, while receiving payments of greater value in return, which in some cases have exceeded tens of thousands of dollars. In other cases, the employer may obtain personal information of the victim for the purpose of identity theft.
• Loss of legitimate jobs: Those with real jobs may stop with better expectations, only to find that they can not get back to their original work after they find their dream job is just a trick.
• Broken reputation: Those who are involved in selling the wrong product or otherwise controversial may tarnish their own name as a seller of unworthy goods.
• Problem with the law: Some victims may actually receive money. But at the same time, they may unknowingly violate the law, on behalf of the perpetrators of the scheme, but will be fully legally accountable. Such violations may be criminal or civil. In other cases, they will not commit a crime, but they will end up in an investigation of a perpetrator's crime.
• Time wasted: The victim will often invest a lot of time without rewards in return. This is the time that can be spent to make money on legitimate work.
• The victim's contact information is sold to another scammer, who then contacts the victim with a new fraud.

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See also

• The Stockbroker Officer's Adventure

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References

Source of the article : Wikipedia