Very often when someone wants to work from home, data entry comes immediately to mind. It's a pretty simple skill, and one that sounds plausible as a job.
Too bad most data entry work at home jobs are scams.
Not all of them, however. I know of one company based in Arizona that is legitimate, for example. But you have to pick your work up at their office, and so must be local to them. And there are a few other legitimate companies out there.
Compare that to the thousands that are willing to scam and/or deceive you.
The main deception I see right now with data entry comes from websites claiming that there are thousands of companies waiting to hire you, and you'll get high pay for filling out forms.
The sad part is that they are promoting something that would be legitimate if they phrased it honestly. They're talking about affiliate marketing using pay per click search engines such as Google's AdWords. But affiliate marketing is not a job and filling out AdWords ads is most certainly not data entry. It can also get very expensive and many people lose a lot of money on pay per click marketing trying to figure it out. It's not easy.
And who wants to trust the advice of someone who gains your interest through a lie? It's misleading and very poor business practice. If you want to do pay per click marketing there are better, more honest resources for that.
Other data entry scams merely sell you a package that tells you how to sell that same package for others. Folks, this one has long been illegal, just check out this link from the FTC: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/invest/inv14.shtm
The key to not falling for a work at home scam is to be aware of what makes an opportunity legitimate. No real employer makes you pay to "prove that you are interested". Just think how fast you would walk away from a job outside the home that asked you to pay just to apply.
If the pay seems outrageous for the effort, odds are high that it's a scam. Most people do not earn big bucks in just a few hours' work, and if they do it is because they spent years building their business to that point. It does not happen overnight.
Understand whether you are looking at a job or a business opportunity. The Internet has opened up an amazing frontier for home businesses. Some are great, some are scams. Some business opportunities pretend to be jobs to get your interest. Remember that jobs shouldn't cost you anything to get started (unless you're providing your own equipment, such as computer, internet connection and so forth), while businesses almost always have some sort of expense, upfront or otherwise.
And of course, don't forget to ask other people what they think of an opportunity you're considering. There's nothing wrong with asking around. That's one of the best defenses of all against scams. There are plenty of work at home forums with member ready and eager to help others avoid scams.
