How to Avoid Scams, Spams and Schemes Online

With the economy dwindling, mass layoffs and corporate collapse on the rise, work-at-home opportunities and internet start-ups are becoming more and more attractive to the average Joe as he searches for new ways to make money to feed his family and keep a roof over their heads.

Unfortunately, for every opportunity online there are hundreds of scams and as spammers get more sophisticated it can be very difficult for even web-savvy users to tell the difference. Here are some tips to follow before joining any online business program.

Make a Phone Call
Spam has become more sophisticated over the years, and it is amazing what scam artists are able to achieve with this media. Even if you get an email from a friend with a personal message from them (example: "Hey Dave, check this out! It's easy and I made $500!"), the e-mail may be spam. Call your friend and ask them if they sent you the e-mail before you click any links or open the attachments. Spam has evolved to such a level that now messages may imbed into an e-mail, and once activated can pull the contact information for anyone saved in a user's contact list. The spam automatically mails itself to everyone on the list, and the marketing scheme continues.

Look for Reviews Somewhere Else
Even mainstream companies will only post their most positive user feedback on their webpage or blog, so look elsewhere to see what people really think about the product or program being sold. One easy way to do this is to simply Google the name of the company and see what pops up. Look for reviews on other sites and see what people who have already taken the plunge have to say about the program. Be sure that you are looking at reviews on sites with ongoing threads discussing all types of products and companies though - if the site you are perusing only has reviews on company XYZ, it may be a fake site set up to create a false sense of security for people just like you.

Try Signing Up - For Pretend
If the site isn't forthcoming with a lot of information until after you sign up, then create a free "dummy" e-mail account with a host like yahoo or hotmail and sign up. Do not ever enter your real name, phone number or any credit card information while you are doing your research. If at any point you are required to give up your mailing address, credit card or checking account information to learn more - you are looking at a scam. While some valid work at home businesses will require you to sign up before giving detailed information, an e-mail address should be the only information you are required to give up. If the program turns out to be a farce, you can always delete the dummy e-mail account and move on to something else.
*Don't use your real e-mail account, as you will be added to the company's mailing list and your e-mail address may also be sold to other companies.

Find Out Where The Company Is Based
Try to do some research on the background of the company. If a business's country of origin is overseas - beware. Many online businesses that are based in underdeveloped countries are easy to enroll in but turn out to be nothing more than scams. If you aren't able to find a phone number or address to contact the company for more information then do not proceed with signing on with the program. You may be swindled out of more than a few dollars without getting anything in return.

Ask For the Fees
In a world where nothing is free, getting paid often costs more than it is worth with work at home companies. Before you sign up, contact the company and ask for a list of all of the fees they charge for the program. While most will have an enrollment fee, ask if there is a monthly, quarterly or annual membership fee to keep the program going. Ask if there is a fee for them to process checks or wired payments. Find out if they deduct a fee from any money paid to you for any reason.

Look At It Again
If the links are valid, and you get the feeling that the opportunity to make money through a work at home program is a good one, wait a week or two before you sign up. Go back to the web-page of the program that you are interested in, and do a second round of research. Are the user comments the same, but the dates have been changed to make them appear to be more recent? Have parts of the webpage been deleted? Are their glaring grammatical errors, or punctuation that has been grossly misplaced? Has the price to enroll changed slightly from the last time you looked at it? These are all signs that the site is a scam.

In the end, there are no guarantees when it comes to work at home programs (no matter what their website says). Make sure that your investment into the program is minimal, and be prepared to walk away from it (and your cash) if it doesn't pan out. When you do find a program that is worth the risk, you will be wiser and better able identify scams in the future.