How it works - some common examples

Home working directories
This scam promises you a variety of different home work opportunities however once you pay the fee of £10 to £25, you only receive a directory of other companies who have their own registration fees and a list of shopping catalogues


Addressing or stuffing envelopes
This scam involves you paying a registration fee to join in return for simple advice on how to place similar advertisements to attract other people into the scam

Home assembly kits
This scam involves you paying a fee to receive a kit for making things from baby boots and aprons to toys. However, the kit is usually inadequate for making the goods required. Then the scammer either promises to pay you for the goods but then rejects them because your work is sub-standard or the scammer suddenly tells you that you have to sell the goods yourself and when you come to do so you find that there is no market for the goods.

How do I know it is a scam?

(1) They will ask for money up front
(2) They promise large sums of money for performing simple tasks
(3) They use a post office box address or a mobile phone number so you never meet them and cannot find them once you realise it is a scam
the advertisements will not state clearly what is involved.

Please feel free to post scams that you know about or have experience of.

Three times I received an e-mail telling me that I have won in a lottery I did not remember participating. It told me of the big amount of money that I won and can be released when I cantact the person mentioned in the mail. I checked it out on the internet and it turned out be a scam.

Those are some great tips, Paul. I get so much of that kind of junk. I never even look at anything if it shows up in my email. I figure I have a much better chance of fidning legitimate opportunities on my own.

I keep getting a similar e-mail also, it is driving me crazy because I dont know how they got my e-mail and my e-mail has not been in use for that long.

Also the e-mail it keeps getting sent to is what I use for small a business for support etc.

Also Paul there are some great tips there, one of the scams I have heard of before but the others I haven't so a cheers for the heads up!

yes thanks for tip, great post

Hi,
Thank you all for paticipating in this discussion.Every day 2 or 3 emails come in my inbox saying that cheque is ready.Need your address confimation or a gift like razor phone is waiting for you.I never tried any of them.I think,they are all scams.Is not it?

Two scams that I fell for were DataEntryBank and DataENtryPro. Both mirror images of each other. No support systems, and once they get your money all they do is give you access to a URL which teaches you various ways of making money. Most of them involve spending more money and then hopefully making some !1

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Milly
www.goonj.info

These are some great tips on identifying and avoiding the common scams out there. I think a common theme in most of these scams involves putting out some money up front, like you mention in your first point.
I think the old adage applies here...If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Thanks for the helpful information on identifying scams. There are constantly new scammers crawling out of the woodwork each day. If it's unsolicited and ends up in my box wanting me to spend money, to the trash it goes. This is just the way some people are and a thing we have to take secure precautions to prevent us from falling into these scams.

Hypnotique

The internet has made it even easier for these scammers as they never have to see or talk to their vicitms and they can reach out to so many more people at once. It seems that I get all kinds of emails about these things daily. I always say, "I will not pay you to be your employee?" If all you are doing is getting a job from someone why would you pay them? I also always see a red flag when someone tells me I do nearly nothing at home, but I make 1000s a week!