Millions of people are turning to the Internet in order to earn extra money or replace their income while staying in the comfort of their home. With the coming of the Internet, business oppotunities and home based jobs have increased greatly. Now, there are many, many honest legtimate companies online who have real jobs for people working at home, however, you still have to be aware of scammers.

Working from the comfort of your home is very attractive, and because of this, false job offers litter the net. Stuffing envelopes is a common work at home scam that is quite noticeable to the average person working at home.

There are many forms of work at home scams. Companies don't give any guarantee to home based workers of regular salaried employment. They never really give you any idea of how many hours you'll work without getting paid for their effort. Some will want you to pay for training instructions before they will give you the job. Required paid training is mantatory with some companies. Work at home scams cost honest home workers valuable time and countless thousands of dollars to those victimized.

To avoid becoming a victim of work at home scammers, scrutinize any company offering work, before you take a job with them. Legitimate companies will provide this information to you in writing and up front if you ask for it. Below are a few tips to help you, the worker, avoid work at home scams.

1. Identity theft is a real issue these days, if your asked to give personal information, avoid it is the person or company is unknown to you. If you've confirmed the company to be legitimate, you can provide the personal information.

2. Go online and do a search with the Better Business Bureau of the company name you're inquiring about. If any compaints have been filed about that company, scratch them off your list and avoid further contact.

3. You're aware I hope, that there is no road to instant wealth. Any business opportunity or work at home job, is going to take some effort to produce income. If any one, or any company, try to convince you of easy riches or get rich overnight, walk away, because there is no instant riches.

A work at home scam that is becoming quite common is reshipping fraud. Thr home worker is this type of job, will be recieving merchandise, repacking it and the remailing the merchandise to another address, often a foreign one. The homes based worker is promised substancial pay for this work, but unknown to the home worker, they are handling goods purchased with stolen credit cards.

Therefore the home worker, even though unaware of it, is recieving and handling stolen goods, and could be charged with a crime. Sometimes the worker even has to pay, with their own money, to handle all this repackaging and is told that they will be compensated on their payday. That is just the start of the nigtmare, it becomes worst.

The worker will the recieve their pay in the form of a cashier's check, but, guess what, its made out for more then the home based worker is actually owed. They are then instructed to deposit this into their bank account and send the difference to an offshore bank account owned by the employer. The cashier's check eventually bounces and now the honest unsuspecting home worker owes the bank for the whole amount of the check.

If you're looking to work from your home, you need to research and pick a legitimate work at home job , don't choose or accept ant job offer that is going to pay big money for only a small part time effort. There are companies who will promise you get rich quick gimmicks. In order to make a reasonable wage at home, you're going to have to put in some work, sometimes hard work and be dedicated to completing assigned tasks in a timely manner.

If a company is asking you to put money in up front for any type of start up package, don't send them anything, just walk away and look for something else. Companies that are legitimate and above board are not going to ask for money before your hired. If you can't acertain if the company is legit, walk away or ask for references.

Work from home scams are out there, so id any company you're thinking of working for will not and/or cannot provide you with several good references, then beware!