by Katherine Pallone

Created on: March 12, 2009

Recently on 20/20, there was a story on work from home scams. View their story at http://abcnews.go.com/2020/. As the industry of telecommuting grows, so does the potential of being scammed into losing money. Some people have lost ten to fifty dollars, and some have lost up to thousands of dollars. There are things you can do to protect yourself from being scammed and losing money. Read on to learn how to protect yourself and your money.

Working from home is ideal for so many people, especially parents. Setting your own hours, no commute, saving on day care costs, clothing costs, gas costs, and having more time for your family are just some of the benefits of working from home. Unless you have a job that you have worked at and they decide to allow some of their employees to telecommute, or work from home, it is very difficult to find a good opportunity.

Scams are rampant in the world of telecommuting. Promises of making thousands of dollars a month, benefits, and all of the freedoms working from home affords you, they are hard to resist.

But there are ways to avoid getting scammed. The main rule of thumb when looking for a work from home job is NEVER pay for a job! Just as if you were searching for any other job, it is not something that you pay for. You may be required to have certain equipment, but as long as the potential employer is not requiring that you purchase it from them, their sponsors, or partners and you can get it at stores or online like Tigerdirect.com and other reputable sources, then the request is acceptable.

Paying for a list of jobs is also not something that you should do. Most of the "jobs" that you are paying to get access to you can find on your own. They can not guarantee a job, and if they do, they are not being honest with you about their product.

If what they are telling you sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I have worked from home for years, and I know others that do as well, and I have yet to make thousands a day, week, or even month. Most of the jobs are actually contracts and you have a 1099 for taxes and will have to keep records. If the advertisement you see is telling you that you can make hundreds of dollars a day by allowing others to do your work, let me say now, there is NO JOB in the telecommuting field that holds true to that statement. IF you decide to have a home business, this may be true if you have dedicated hours and hours to make sales and recruit others to sell under you. There are many successful

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