Working from Home > Reviews > Don't fall into the trap

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	None experienced yet
Disadvantages:	Only conmen win on this one

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I recently gave up work to be a full-time mum after having my second child - a decision that I don't regret one little bit. The only downside of being a stay-at-home mum is that you don't get paid for it, so like many other people who are looking for extra cash, I set about looking for opportunities to work from home.

There are so many get rich quick scams on the go at the moment that it's so easy to fall into the trap. This unfortunately happened to me when I wrote off to a company advertising earning £1.30 per envelope. I thought this sounded good, so I sent off for more information. A week or so afterwards I received a letter from the company with a whole page of testimonials stating how much money they had earned in so little time. It all sounded too good to be true, and in actual fact it was. The company requested that £14.99 be sent to them to safeguard themselves against other scams on the go, and they said that this would be refunded after sending back 40 envelopes. Still too good to be true. I blame it on my post-natal hormones, but I genuinely believed that I could earn money this way sent the cheque off to the company. Again the following week I received a book with details on how to earn my £1.30 per envelope. Basically, I had to place postcards in shops, like the one I answered to, and wait for the envelopes to roll in. Sounds easy if you live in a large city, but I live in a small rural village so what are the chances of a lot of people being as gullible as me?

Another scam that is around are the ones advertising on the internet for you to earn money taking part in surveys. One such company, and there are many others the same, ask for a fee of $32.95 and in return you get a list of all companies that pay surveys. Great if you live in the USA, as most of them only want american citizens. A friend of mine warned me against those scams as she had been caught out.

Why should these companies ask for payment for doing work from home? No companies that you go to work for ask for payment, so my advice is to avoid all these companies that ask for money. You will never see this money again, and will probably not even hear from the company again.

There are probably alot of legitimate companies out there that do offer honest home working opportunities. I am yet to find one and I think it best to save my money as I can't see myself getting rich any day yet. The only money I have made so far is from Ciao, so it's not all bad. But steer clear from the get rich quick scams. They don't work.