For those who haven’t heard, a person by the name of Mary contacted a company and said she worked for Busy Mom.  She sent a list and asked for free product.  The company sent it to “Mary”.  However, this is where the story gets interesting.  The company then contacted Emily asking where their review was.  Of course, Emily had no idea since she’s not the one who contacted the company!!!!

Scary, isn’t it?  What can you do to protect yourself?

If you are a blogger:

1.  Make sure you have a contact form on your blog that only you can access.

2.  Make it clear on your contact form page or your about page that you are the only writer.  If there is more than you, make sure you list your writers.

3.  Check all of your email from PR companies.  If somebody is emailing you about a product they sent you and you have no idea what they are talking about, make sure you contact them.  You could have this happen to you too!

If you are a PR person:

1.  Have a relationship with the bloggers you work with.  You’ll know who writes for each blog you deal with.

2.  Read a bloggers about page.  This should tell you who writes for the blog.

3.  Check the blog to make sure that said person actually writes for the blog.

Simple steps can keep this from happening again!

Ever heard the phrase, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is?” That is how the work from home scams work. As more and more people are attracted to the idea of working from home, more and more scam artists are surfacing to take advantage. In fact, work from home scams are on the National Consumers League’s Top 10 Frauds list.

So how do you protect yourself? Learn to recognize work from home scams. Here’s how:

Ask yourself, “what do they really want?” If a position requires you to purchase products from them in order to perform the job, beware. Craft assembly scams, for example, work by having you pay for the equipment up front, you assemble the crafts and are then told you don’t meet their needs. The truth is you could never meet their needs; they’re making money by selling you the craft supplies.

Common work from home scams that utilize this method include:

* Craft assembly scams
* Envelope stuffing scams
* Medical billing scams

In short, if you have pay them large sums of money to start the business, it should be a huge red flag. There are some opportunities that have legitimate start up fees, such as Tupperware or Avon where you’re purchasing product samples. Again, use your best judgment and if you’re not sure, ask.

Ask yourself, is it legal? Many scams intentionally involve you in perpetrating a fraud. For example, the old “turn your computer into a money-making machine,”. Well, this one’s at least half-true. To be completely true, it should read: “Turn your computer into a money-making machine… for spammers!”

Also to be weary of are the scams that ask you to receive large sums of money and deposit it into your bank account and send them back a money order. These are growing rapidly and while most have been outed on the news as being scams there are still people that get sucked into the stories the scam artists are using.

Along the same lines there have been scams that ask you to receive packages at your address and send them on to another address. These can be dangerous to be involved in, the package may contain drugs, weapons, and other illegal substances. Be aware of anything that sounds suspicious, because it probably is.

Is it a multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme? Multi Level Marketing or MLM has received a reputation for being a scam. While there are legitimate MLM organizations, it pays to be extremely careful when it comes to getting involved with them. Many organizations focus on getting more people involved in the pyramid rather than actually representing a quality product or service.

Do your research. Find out if they’re legitimate. The internet provides you with a myriad of tools to research companies. You can Google them to find out if there are any complaints against them, you can check with the better business bureau and you can investigate legitimate work from home opportunities online or at your local library.

Where did you learn about the work from home opportunity? If you received an unsolicited email, it’s almost guaranteed to be a scam.

Legitimate work from home opportunities do exist. Call centers are one example of a generally legitimate work from home opportunity, and you can always start your own web-based business from home. Take your time, do your research and trust your instincts.

P.S. I encourage you to ask us about any opportunity you are considering and are unsure of. We’ll dig in, do some research and find out as much as we can about the opportunity and let you know what we think. If we find a scam, we’ll tell everyone about it here on the blog.