The Kansas City Star has compiled a list of work-at-home scams that seem to have grown exponentially in the Great Recession. Beware of any of the following: Job offers that ask you to purchase a start-up kit. Multilevel marketing pitches that require you to sell questionably priced or unneeded products. In Clark's experience, the worst situations are where the commissions come strictly from recruiting others into the organization -- rather than from actual sales. Appeals to earn money by filling out surveys, clicking on websites, doing data entry or setting up your own e-commerce business. The latter "business opportunity" typically comes with heavy fees and on-going maintenance charges for your website. Promises of easy access to government grants. Grants.gov is the only official government grant site. Access to a "hidden" job market for a fee. Clark recently read a disturbing story about recent college graduates who are paying thousands of dollars to get hooked up with an unpaid internship! That's the level of desperation out there among the young and unemployed. "Market research" that asks you to enter personal information; they might be identity thieves or they might be selling your contact information to other organizations. Remember the most important rule that runs like a common thread through all these rip-offs: Legitimate jobs won't ask you for serious money upfront. Be wary and be careful out there. Someone recently came up to Clark and told him about a Craigslist job offer that wanted your Social Security number, mother's maiden and date of birth -- basically everything a crook would need for full-blown identity theft! comment(21) 7 11 3 353 Comments If you would like to post a comment please Sign in or Register 21 Comment(s) Comment(s) 1-20 of 21 next > Cat4's avatar Posted by Cat4 at 12:41 p.m. Dec. 5, 2010 Report Abuse My son recieved some information from "Secret Shopper" They also, sent him a $2,698.00 check to deposit it in his account so than from that he is to Write them a check for a sertin amount and he keeps $300.00 for himself. I told him no it don't feel right. That way they would be able to get his bank info. Is it lagit or a SCAM? I think it's a SCAM, but he don't think I know what I'm talking about. I told him to shred the check & throw it away. Cat4 Lewisfamilyof7's avatar Posted by Lewisfamilyof7 at 5:38 p.m. Dec. 29, 2010 Report Abuse I work for a bank and this is a MAJOR scam. Never wire money from a check someone has given you. The check will chargeback to his bank account & the crooks will go free with his money. Your son will end up owing his bank. Mama1234's avatar Posted by Mama1234 at 3:43 p.m. Feb. 24, 2011 Report Abuse My daughter applied for a "work at home" job doing "payroll and data entry", with allegedly Apple Computer. The "interview" was conducted with Yahoo Messenger. With very little info given by her, they told her she had the job. She just needed to purchase their "software" for $189.00, with her credit card, and they needed her checking account number to auto deposit her paycheck when payday arrives. ($23.00 an hour). When she asked for more info on where they were based out of, phone numbers, ect., they would not comply. Their "spelling" was poor, they would forget who they were talking to,eg. "what is your name again"? Needless to say,she told them "no thanks". Beware!! Blessedchica's avatar Posted by Blessedchica at 2:22 a.m. Mar. 22, 2011 Report Abuse Recently rec'vd an email from an old friend saying he had found the greatest job, he makes lots of money and hardly works at all--telling me it's a work at home opportunity--ending with, hey it doesn't hurt just to check this out. Because of listening to Clark on the radio for the past 5 years or so, I sensed something was wrong with this "pitch" he gave me. So, just for such instances as this, when I want to inquire anonymously about something, I entered an alias email account on the opening page of the website he sent me to. And WOW! it didn't take long before I smelled a rat: Lots of testimonials from people supposedly making outrageous salaries ($175,000) w/ little training & no education requirements. They touted that the BBB gave them an A+ rating. Lots of typos. Had to buy a $299.99 startup kit that gave me all the info I would need. As you proceeded farther & farther into the pitch, the price for the kit kept going lower & lower in price. Every few sentences they inserted a "button" that takes you to the application. Ooooh and I loved this: Not many positions left, you MUST inquire NOW before all the slots are filled. As I proceeded, they finally revealed that all you had to do was enter links into websites--for big companies that would rather not have the overhead of a building of employees, and would prefer everyone work from home. You get $15 per link you typed in. You get paid DAILY. And oh yeah, by the way, they'll need your checking account number (!) in order to direct deposit all the money you'll be making everyday. When I finally clicked to close the site, a pop-up arrived that said oh we didn't tell you we can offer you a discount today: you pay only $49.99! THANKS CLARK for saving me from what surely would have been a horrible nightmare, and an empty bank acc

Clark Howard Site Article on Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities

Lots of Internet Sites and TV commercials advertise WORK FROM HOME opportunities.  Many of them have been identified as SCAMS.

Clark Howard, the radio and TV personality, has an article dealing with this on his web site.  We thought you might want to see that he has identified some LEGITIMATE companies where you might be able to actually work from home.

The following information was located on the site for the Clark Howard Show.  You can find the original by clicking on the link.

Would you like to work from home? Clark gets tons of calls from people who would like to do database or customer service work out of their homes. The problem is that there are many ripoff work-from-home outfits that claim they will find you work for an upfront fee. They are just trying to make a quick buck off you. Below are some sites Clark has checked out and determined to be legitimate. Of course, you should check them out thoroughly yourself before getting involved. Good luck!
• AlpineAccess.com – Virtual call center provider using home-based customer service agents. They charge $45 for a required background check.
• Arise.com – Answer calls, e-mail and chat requests for global companies at home. Some users have reported a $13 background check fee, a $99 assessment test fee and other charges.
• ConvergysWorkatHome.com – Be a home agent providing customer care, human resources and billing services
• eLance.com – Links freelancers with employers in IT, graphic design, writing, engineering, translation, marketing, accounting and administrative and legal services
• IntelliCare.com – Call center company that provides clinical and non-clinical telephone services to health plans, healthcare providers, and care managers nationwide. Anyone who is not a qualified nurse needs to work at one of their their bricks-and-mortar call centers, not from home.
• LiveOps.com – Virtual call center using remote and home-based agents. All applicants are required to undergo a mandatory background check that costs $50. For an optional fee of $175, a more extensive background check allows you to work with specific Fortune 200 companies that have partnered with LiveOps.com. You also have to install a second, dedicated, telephone landline for this work — only to be used for LiveOps work.
• MSVAS.com – This company has developed virtual assistant training programs for U.S. military spouses and U.S. Department of State Foreign Service spouses
• TeamDoubleClick.com – Be a virtual assistant
• WAHM.com – An online magazine for work-at-home moms
• West.com – Be an “at-home-agent,” with duties including obtaining, entering and verifying customer information, answering questions, resolving issues, explaining sales features or offering additional products or services
• WorkingSolutions.com – Be a home-based customer service agent
• WorkplaceLikeHome.com – An active discussion forum where you’ll discover lots of job leads

One bit of advice before you take the leap into a work-at-home opportunity: Take an inventory of your talent, add a dash of creativity to your thinking and come up with a plan that suits you. • If you sew well, do alterations for others.
• If you have a good grasp of a particular subject, tutors are always needed.
• Good with a computer? Consider teaching others how to use one. You might also want to do computer work for college and graduate students. Try putting up flyers around your area as well as the local colleges and universities.
• Create personal websites for friends and neighbors. Parents might want to purchase one from you as a gift for a child. It can used for photos and ‘firsts’ as the child is growing. This makes a great gift to the parents of a newborn!
• Are you handy with crafts? Costume jewelery making and selling can be aimed at school-aged girls or adults, and all well-priced gift items sell well especially before the holiday season.
The list can go on as long as you align your talents with services or products others need. Be imaginative and create a job! If you choose to go the standard work-at-home route, heed these warnings from the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.
Special thanks to our listener Carrie for her input into this list.