Business & Finance

The number of home business opportunities (aka scams) that were bombarded with today is astoundingespecially given the state of our economy. Unfortunately, I became a victim to one myself since I lost my job several months ago and was feeling the pressure of not having a regular paycheck. Ive since decided to investigate the legitimacy of these jobs as theyre listed on so many job listings.

The common Home business opportunity scams are those of data entry jobs or taking diet orders. They look so promising on their website about the large amounts of money you can make. Many offer money back guarantees. This was what sucked me in. I though what could it hurt to give it a try. I can always get a refund.

I looked at several listings. I wanted to find one where I was actually an employee and had real tasks to perform. I didnt want the type where I was sold software or instructions on how to make money at home. I thought it would be simple.

The one I chose had the aforementioned guarantee plus I was one of the first several callers so I received a special discount (or so I thought). What I really got was not at all what Id been promised. I knew Id been scammed as soon as I give my information (including my credit card account information). I shouldve known better.

My job was to promote credit cards. I was to get their name on hundreds of search engines and others sites like \”FaceBook\”. I had not been told that a condition of being paid included my having to apply for several credit cards. On top of that, I also had to be applied by them to get my $20 pay from my employer. Then, I was told that another requirement was that I had to make $500 first or I couldnt get the $20 per credit card.

I was not eligible to receive any money until I generated leads for them. It always seemed to be some reasoning for them not to pay. There is no help forum or any way to contact them except through email which rarely received replies. When there were replies they were automatically generated and rarely ansered the question asked.

I repeatedly requested a refund to no avail and finally tried to call the number that was on my credit card bill. It was based in Australia and the voicemail requested to leave a message and someone would get back to me. This never happened as well. I ended up filing a fraud complaint with my credit card company and currently await a credit to my account.

I am utterly humiliated to have fallen for such a con. I am college educated with several degrees. Desperation will cloud one’s mind and lower defenses. I have no problem working hard for my money and did not count on it being \”easy\” money. I just assumed you only would make as much as hard as you worked whether it was three hours a day to 10 hours. I write this to remind others as well as myself the sound advice that if it looks to good to be true it most likely is.