As the Iowa woman in this linked story can attest, scams are the easiest “work-at-home” jobs to find! She answered an ad that sounded wonderful. Simply receiving, repackaging and reshipping goods to an international purchaser. I assume she was told some very plausible reasons for these shipments needing to be repackaged, etc. I know, because I nearly fell for the same ad myself! It was back when I was first wanting to work from home. At that time, I hadn’t found any of the resources that I have listed on this page. I was simply desperate to have an income that wouldn’t mess up my life as a stay-at-home mom. So I answered the ad and quickly received a response. A little voice told me to check it out first, so I did a search online and it was considered to be a scam on a huge number of different sites. So, disappointed, I gave up on that one.
If you are working for or considering work with a company that you aren’t quite sure of, here are some ways to know if its a scam or not.
1. Simple: type in the name of the company and the “&” and then the word “scam” into any search engine. You should come up with reports made by others who fell into their trap.
2. If you don’t come up with anything, dig a little deeper just to make sure.
3. You should also check out the Better Business Bureau’s site, although I have seen some scams listed on there with no complaints.
4. Visit some work-at-home forums to ask about the company. Chances are someone in there has checked them out!
If you find that the company you are already working for is a scam, your best bet is to stop shipments immediately and call the police. It looks like the lady in the story might not be in much trouble, but she is lucky. Many innocent people have taken the fall for these companies and were either sued for every penny they have and will ever have, or they are serving time in prison for it. Taking a pro-active step will help you to avoid some, if not all, penalties.
Here is a great article that details how the reshipping scam, and other scams, work.