If you’ve seen one Report Scam you’ve probably seen them all. Right? Well not necessarily. As the schemes get more clever, the concept is all the same; money. If you are seeking a job, not a business, you should never pay a fee. Legit employers are not going to require money for work. That is what they pay you for. On a different note, should you decide to pay for work home job leads, know that it is not necessary.

You can always get these free. Though it does require a little leg work and your best choice for deciding the method depends on your circumstances. If you are someone who has a limited amount of time, it may be best to look into purchasing leads for a low cost as some online job applications are lengthy (do not always expect to send off a cover and resume). That being said, if you are home during the day and have more time on your hands, searching is the best way.

Though despite what method you choose for information, there are some common scams that you need to be aware of, if you are not already. Make Thousands Filling Out Surveys (same goes for Mystery Shopping)

This type of scam may not be so obvious because there are actually legitimate survey companies that pay for you to complete surveys (the ones that are legit only pay pocket change). If you don’t mind submitting personal information for a few bucks, go for it. Hot Shot companies pay these survey companies to ask you questions on a range of topics to better target their products. For example, if I owned a company that helped mothers lose weight, I would want to target moms.

And I would be interested in knowing everything about them. When they watched TV? How many out of the amount surveyed stayed home, worked etc.. This is one way commercials are targeted. However, if you encounter websites that offer you money or free merchandise for filling out forms, you may be required to sign up with a few of their sponsors, not without a fee or trial service (these are not legit). If you are into surveys check out Annika’s Site and Volition. These sites are your best sources for information on this topic and more.

This is a scam. Once you contact the person who posted this job, they will email you a generic email asking money for training materials. There really is no training materials. The data entry part comes into play because you have to post jobs, doing exactly what the person before you did to earn money. There are legit data entry companies but they will not charge you a fee.

A pyramid scheme is when money changes hands, but there is no product being sold. This is sort of like those emails or job postings you see that is really really long and has something to the effect of inputting your name on the list of 5 and sending each one of them $5.00 by paypal. This is illegal and is most definitely a scam.

If you receive a Congratulations email for something you did not sign up for, it may be a scam. Some of these scammers use real charities and tell you that your email address was randomly chosen. There is no way to track email addresses so this is false. Do not get sucked in to this lie and do not offer any additional information.