Freelance writing jobs

The number of home business opportunities (aka scams) that were bombarded with today is astoundingespecially given the state of our economy. Unfortunately, I became a victim to one myself since I lost my job several months ago and was feeling the pressure of not having a regular paycheck. Ive since decided to investigate the legitimacy of these jobs as theyre listed on so many job listings.

Many of the work-at-home jobs include data entry or accepting diet orders. The biggest draw of all (and what makes them seem legitimate) is a guarantee. If it doesnt work, your money will be refunded. The testimonies appear promising so what could go wrong? Thats what I thought!

I spent days researching several ones. I focused one those that did not sell just the software to show you how to make money at home. But actually stated that I was working for them and all I had to do was go to their website and pull data to enter into forms. Sounded easy enough.

Again, there was the guarantee. If I wasnt happy, Id get all of my money back and besides, I was also getting a special deal since I was one of the first 100 people to respond. What I got versus what was promised was completely different. I had no longer entered my personal information, including my credit card data, when I realized Id become a statistic: Id been scammed.

My job was to promote credit cards on a website that I was to enter into hundreds of search engines and through other online media. I hadnt been told that before, nor had I been told I had to apply for several credit cards and that only after I was approved for them would I get paid $20 for each of them. Even that turned out to be elusive since I had to earn $500 first.

There was also another excuse for why I couldnt yet get paid. I couldnt reach anyone at the company in person. I could only go through email where I usually got a preprogrammed response. It was impossible to get any real answers.

I repeatedly requested a refund to no avail and finally tried to call the number that was on my credit card bill. It was based in Australia and the voicemail requested to leave a message and someone would get back to me. This never happened as well. I ended up filing a fraud complaint with my credit card company and currently await a credit to my account.

I hate to admit I was scammed so easily, after all Im a college graduate. Its not nice was being in a state of desperation will do to ones reasoning. I was willing to work hard for it also. I just wasnt given the legitimate chance to do that. Bottom line: remember (as I did not) that if it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.

Filed under: Home Business