Don’t Believe the Hype

Anything that sounds to good to be true probably is. If there’s a job promising to help you make thousands of dollars with little to no effort, it’s most likely a scam. Legitimate work at home jobs require just as much work as jobs outside the home.

Being the victim of a work at home scam could cost you thousands of dollars, on top of the time and energy you waste pursuing a nonexistent job.

Common Work at Home Scams

Some of the most common work at home scams include:

Check Processing

A play on the old Nigerian scam, some work at home scams require you to cash checks and wire part of the money back to the “employer.” A legitimate boss would be able to cash his own checks and you’d keep all the money for yourself.

Reshipping

In this scam, you’re “paid” to receive packages and reship them to another address, sometimes overseas. Usually, you’re repacking stolen goods or goods bought with a stolen credit card. The thief doesn’t want to be attached to the theft, so he uses you as the bait.

Envelope Stuffing, Craft Making, and other Pay Upfront Scams

There are a slew of work at home scams that request you to send money upfront for some kind of kit to get started. A real company wouldn’t make you send money to get started.

How to Avoid a Work at Home Scam

When you’re in a desperate situation, you can be easily fooled by promises to help you make money. But, remember that riches don’t come easily.

Do your due diligence on a company before deciding to work for them. Use Google or another search engine to find websites on the company. Add “scam” to the search to see if the company has been involved with other work at home scams. Check with the Better Business Bureau for reports against the company.

Watch out for jobs that claim you can make full-time money by only working part-time. This is one of those “too good to be true” offers that really isn’t true.

A real company won’t ask you to pay money upfront. If a job requires you to send money for some type of startup costs, don’t. Realize that you face the risk of never seeing your money again.

Don’t cash anyone else’s checks. If you think you have a legitimate check ask a bank teller to verify that the account and bank actually exists. Even though the funds from the check might be available within a few days, wait until the check has cleared before you spend any of it. Visit FakeChecks.org for information about check cashing scams and recognizing fake checks.

Where to Complain About Work at Home Scams

If you’ve been the victim of fraud, the FTC’s website LooksTooGoodToBeTrue.comrecommends you request to get your money back from the company. Keep a record of the emails you send and phone calls you make. Then, report the fraud to your local law enforcement agency.

You should also report work at home scams to the National Fraud Information Center and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

1. Your Budget

If you don’t have a budget, now’s a good time to create one. A budget lets you easily compare your expenses to your income. At the end of your budget is your net income which tells you how much money you have left over after expenses or how much you’re overspending. A negative net income means you need to cut your expenses or increase your income. A positive net income means you can improve your financial standing by paying off debt or increasing your savings.

2. Your Credit Reports

Your credit reports contain information about many of your financial relationships. Creditors and lenders report your account details to credit bureaus who then put that information together in your credit report. While credit reports are mainly intended for businesses who want to approve your applications, you can check your credit report also, to get a feel for your level of debt.

3. Your Credit Score

Your credit score is a numeric value that summarizes the information in your credit report. If you have a low credit score, that means you have negative information in your credit report. A high credit score indicates positive information in your credit report. (Higher credit scores are better). Your credit score can help you determine where your credit stands - whether you’re doing things right or if you need to change your spending (and paying habits).

Using all three pieces of information, you can put together a pretty good picture of your financial standing. You can use all this informaiton to put together a plan for your money.

You can save money on your electric bill this holiday season by paying close attention to your energy consumption.

• Purchase LED lights which require less energy than regular Christmas lights.
• Don’t run your Christmas lights all night. In fact, you might wait until the week of Christmas to even turn your lights on.
• Only leave your lights on for a few nights each week. You can use a timer to have your lights automatically turn out.
• Turn off the lights in the room with your Christmas tree. Let the lights from the tree light the room.
• Buy Christmas gifts that can use batteries instead of electricity.

You can control your energy-consumption by paying attention to the amount of electricity you use. There’s a tendency to use extra electricity during the holidays, so following these tips will help keep your electric bill lower.

One of the ways to decrease your car insurance premium is to increase your deductible.

Your car insurance deductible is the part you pay when you make a claim. For example, if you have a $500 deductible and your claim costs $1,000. The insurance company will pay $500 and you’ll be responsible for the other $500.

Deductibles are usually something like $100, $250, $500, or $1,000. The lower your deductible, the higher your premium and vise versa.

If you’re a safe driver and rarely make claims, you could raise your deductible to the highest possible and save money on your car insurance premium. No matter what level your deductible, it’s a good idea to have it stashed away in a savings account or emergency fund so you have access to it when you need it. Otherwise, you could be forced to borrow the deductible at a high interest rate, which could negate any savings.

Now, if you’re someone who frequently makes claims, it’s better to keep a lower deductible. If you don’t, you’ll pay a hefty price each time you make a claim. You should still keep the deductible in an easily accessible savings account.

Spending creep happens when you slowly start spending money outside your budget. You might spend a little extra when you learn you get a raise. Or when you get a tax refund. Or maybe there’s some special occasion this month and you’re only going to do it this once. Spending outside your budget one time will lead you to justify it another and another. Before you know it, you’re not sticking to your budget at all. Most people end up blaming the budget rather than their spending habits.

You can avoid spending creep all together by not starting it at all. Only spend what’s included in your budget. If you get a windfall or your income increases, adjust your budget for that month. You’re less likely let spending creep become a habit that way.

If you’re already caught in a trap of spending creep, pull your budget back out. Make sure it accurately reflects your income and spend only based on your budget.

Sales are marketing tools that businesses use to get people to spend money. Everyone likes to think they have power over the money they spend and what better way to exercise that power than by getting something for cheap. Only, you end up spending more money than you originally planned, so the store is the real winner.

Think about this, if you weren’t planning on buying the sale item anyway, have you really saved any money? I’ll answer that for you. No. It doesn’t matter how much the item was marked down, you actually spent more money than you saved.

Everytime you see a sale, remember this: a sale only saves money when you would have bought the item anyway.

When you use your debit card, it’s hard to keep an idea of your account balance. You can swipe to your heart’s content and won’t know whether you’ve overspent until you take the time to check your account balance.

Cash physically disappears when you spend it, so it’s impossible to overspend. With a debit card, you can continue spending until you drain your account and the bank won’t stop you.

Instead of using your debit card to make purchases, withdraw cash from an ATM. That way you’ll always know how much money you’re able to spend. Seeing how much cash you have - or don’t have - will help you resist impulse buys.

I have the same view about budgets. Budgeting doesn’t mean you can’t spend any money leisurely. If you try to budget that way, you’ll end up feeling deprived and splurging on impulse. Then, you’ll think budgets don’t work and you’ll give up trying all together.

When you make your budget, allocate some money, even if it’s just $5-$10 to spend recreationally. Don’t go overboard though. Make sure all your obligations are met, then budget your “fun” money.

Money Scam #1 - The Arabian Prince Who Can’t Move His Cash

This scam comes in a few different forms, usually email or instant messenger, but it has been known to be posted on message boards and private messages on forums. A prince or some other foreign elite is interested in coming to the United States, but for some reason or another can’t move his money. So, he wants to send you a check, have you cash it, then wire it to him, keeping some of it.

After you’ve wired the money, the check bounces, and the bank (and sometimes the police) comes after you for cashing a fake check.

Don’t cash checks from people you don’t know.

Money Scam #2 - You Won a Prize, Just Send Money For it

These email scams claim that you’ve won a prize, but you need to send money for some kind of taxes or handling fees. Happy to have won something, you send the money, but never receive a prize. You guessed it, you’ve been scammed.

If you’re not the type to enter contests, then it should be a no-brainer that you haven’t won any prizes. Not only that, any taxes you have to pay will go to the IRS.

Money Scam #3 - Make Money At Home, But Send Money First

There are quite a few variations of the “make money at home scam” but they all cater to people who are interested in working from home. The scam convinces you of a program where you can make money from home, but first you have to send money from a starter kit or an informational booklet. You send the money, but never get anything back.

Other work at home scams ask for your personal information - name, address, social security number - then use it to get loans and credit cards in your name.

Another version of the work at home scam requires you to receive, repackage, and reship packages, sometimes involving illegal goods. You have to use your own money to reship the packages and if the authorities figure out what’s going on, you’ll be in trouble. Both the original shipper and the recipient will disappear.

Use Your Common Sense

Remember what I said earlier, there’s no easy way to get money. If something seems to good to be true, it probably is. When you’re wondering whether something is a scam or not, use the internet to do some research. Trust your intuition and skip out on money making mechanisms that just don’t seem right.