INTERNET SCAMS

There is a lot of very important scam avoiding information on this page. It is well worth the read and could save you a lot of headaches, money, and time. Also, be sure to check out the bottom of the page for some very good resources to help you succeed with your home business.

Scam artists promoting work-at-home schemes make billions of dollars a year. These scams are a great way for them to exploit people. They use very appealing but unrealistic ads to lure unsuspecting people into giving their hard earned money with the hope of great financial success.
Work-at-home schemes come in many forms. Some of the more common ones include:

Medical Billing Centers- You send money for a kit to run a bill collection service from your home. The scam artists promise that the market is wide open and they have lined up clients for you. In reality, you stand to lose your entire investment. The kit is only a bunch of forms and letters that anyone could design. The names of companies they send you are merely names and addresses they got from the phone book.

Envelope Stuffing- This is the most common home employment scam, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You send money and the so called “business” will send you information about earning money by simply stuffing envelopes at home. After you pay your money you will probably get a letter telling you to place the exact same envelope-stuffing ad somewhere else, or to send the ad to anyone you know. The only way you'll earn money is if people respond to your work-at-home ad and you take their money in the same illegal way that you got yours taken.

Assembly or Craft Work- You send money for supplies to assemble into products. These programs often require you to invest hundreds of dollars in equipment or supplies. Or they require you to spend many hours producing goods for a company that has promised to buy them. You’re told that there is a ready market for the products or that the company will buy the products from you. The catch is that your items are never up to “quality standards” so you must sell the items yourself in order to make any money.

Fake Business Opportunities- You send money for information about starting a business from your home. There aren’t many details but the promises of money are big and often include claims that they will provide all the training you need. The catch is that the fraudulent salesperson will constantly try to sell you more information about special “training and support systems.” Anyone who really had business ideas this good would never offer this information to thousands of others. They would simply use it themselves.

Nigerian Scam-This is an email scam that has been widely distributed in many forms for years. Chances are that you have probably received it yourself. They claim a wealthy foreigner needs your help moving millions of dollars from his homeland to yours and will reward you with a huge percentage of the fortune if you agree to assist him. Emails from Nigeria, or almost any other foreign nation, are sent to addresses taken from large mailing lists. The letters promise rich rewards for helping officials of that government, family, or other agency out of an embarrassment or a legal problem. Typically, the pitch includes the mentioning of huge multi-million dollar sums, with the open promise that you will be permitted to keep a large percentage of the funds you're going to aid in filtering in for these people.

Identity Theft- Beware any company that asks for your social security and/or driver's license number. There are an increasing number of people using job advertisements as a way to obtain this information for other reasons. You may have to give this information to a legitimate company eventually but make sure you are in safe hands before giving it out.

Be wary of offers to send you an advance on your pay- Some scam artists use this ploy to build trust and get money from you. They send you a check for part of your first month’s pay. You deposit it, and the bank tells you the check has cleared because the normal time has passed to be notified that checks have bounced. Then the scammer contacts you to say that you were mistakenly paid the wrong amount or that you need to return a portion of the payment for some other reason. After you send the money back, the check that you deposited finally bounces because it turned out to be a fake. Now they have your money, and you’re left owing your bank the amount that you withdrew.

Some tips for avoiding Scams:

- Know who you are dealing with before getting involved. The company may not be offering to employ you directly, only to sell you materials that will make you money.

- Don't believe that you can make a huge income easily. Operating a home-based business is just like any other business – it requires hard work, skill, good products or services, and time to make a profit. You will not get rich overnight.

- Be cautious about emails offering work-at-home opportunities. Many unsolicited (spam) emails are fraudulent. Even if you do find a seemingly legitimate one be very cautious because most legit companies will not allow their affiliates or workers to use unethical business practices (spam, etc) to recruit.

- Get all the details before you pay. A legitimate company will be happy to give you information about exactly what you will be doing before you invest any money.

- Find out if there is really a market for your services. If the company says it has customers waiting, ask who they are and contact them to confirm. You can also ask other people if they actually employ people to do that work from home and if they would buy or use your service if it was offered.

- Get references from other people who are doing the work. Ask other people that are currently working with them, or have in the past, if the company kept its promises.

- Be aware of legal issues. To do some types of work you may need a license or certificate. Check with your state and local offices. Ask your local zoning board if there are any restrictions on operating a business from your home. Some types of work cannot be done at home under federal law. Look for the nearest U.S. Department of Labor in the government listings of your phone bookor other relevant Authority for your Country.

- Know the companies refund policy. If you have to buy equipment or supplies, ask whether or not you can return them for a refund and under what circumstances you can do so.

- Do your own research on all opportunities. There are many resources available to provide good advice and lists of scams as well as legitimate opportunities. I have listed a few of these organizations below.
Here are some organizations to check with before getting involved in a program:

The Better Business Bureau - This is probably the most well-known of all the organizations that help to protect you. They offer valuable resources and information on all types of businesses.

The Federal Trade Commission - Do a search for here and you can get a ton of information. Among the wealth of info you can find out which companies are being or have been investigated and/or taken to court by the FTC.

National Fraud Information Center - Provides lots of valuable resources about all sorts of scams including: telephone, mail, and online scams.

Scambusters - Offers information and how to protect yourself from scams, fraud, hoaxes, and more.

Cyber Crooks Go "Phishing"

"Phishing," the latest craze among online evil-doers, has nothing to do with sitting at the end of a dock on a sunny afternoon dangling a worm to entice hungry catfish. But, if you take their bait, this new breed of online con artist will hook you, reel you in, and take you for every dollar you have... or worse. "Phishing" describes a combination of techniques used by cyber crooks to bait people into giving up sensitive personal data such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth and more.

Their techniques work so well that, according to FraudWatchInternational.com, "phishing" rates as the fastest growing scam on the Internet.

Here's the basic pattern for a "phishing" scam...

You receive a very official email that appears to originate from a legitimate source, such as a bank, eBay, PayPal, a major retailer, or some other well known entity.

In the email it tells you that something bad is about to happen unless you act quickly.

Typically it tells you that your account is about to get closed, that someone appears to have stolen your identity, or even that someone opened a fraudulent account using your name. In order to help straighten everything out, you need to click a link in the email and provide some basic account information so they can verify your identity and then give you additional details so you can help get everything cleared up.

Once you give up your information... it's all over but the crying!

After getting your information, these cyber-bandits can empty your bank accounts, deplete your PayPal accounts, run up your credit card balances, open new credit accounts, assume your identity and much worse. An especially disturbing new variation of this scam specifically targets online business owners and affiliate marketers. In this con, the scammer's email informs you that they've just sent $1,219.43 (or a similar big but believable amount) in affiliate commissions to you via PayPal. They need you to log into your PayPal account to verify receipt of the money and then email them back to confirm you got it. Since you're so excited at the possibility of an unexpected pay day, you click the link to go to PayPal, log in, and BANG! They have your PayPal login information and can empty your account.

This new "phishing" style scam works extremely well for 2 basic reasons.

First, by exploiting your sense of urgency created by fear or greed, crooks get you to click the link and give them your information without thinking.

Second, the scammers use a variety of cloaking and spoofing techniques to make their emails and websites appear totally legitimate, making it extremely hard to spot a fake website, especially when they've first whipped you into an emotional frenzy.

The good news, however, is that you can protect yourself relatively easily against this type of cyber-crime with basic software and common sense. Most of these scams get delivered to you via Spam (unsolicited email), so a good spam blocker will cut down on many of them even making it to your inbox. If you receive an email that looks legitimate and you want to respond, Stop - Wait - Think!

Verify all phone numbers with a physical phone book or online phone directory like www.Verizon.com or www.ATT.com/directory/ before calling.

Look for spelling and grammatical errors that make it look like someone who doesn't speak English or your native language very well wrote it.

NEVER click the link provided in the email, but go directly to the website by typing in the main address of the site yourself (example: www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com).

Forward the email to the main email address of the website (example: support@paypal.com) or call the customer service number on the main website you typed in yourself and ask if it is in fact legitimate.

Above all remember this:

Your bank, credit card company, PayPal, eBay and anyone else you deal with online already knows your account number, username, password or any other account specific information.

They don't need to email you for ANY reason to ask you to confirm your information -- so NEVER respond to email requests for your account or personal details.

If you see the following advert for jobs then please ignore it as it is a major scam which could get you involved in prosecution..................

HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL

Honeywell International Inc.
101 Columbia Road
Morristown, NJ 07962

Pleasant day,

  If you have access to a computer, and have up to three hours spare  time  per-week. you can get paid, would you like to work part or full time  online from home and get paid  weekly? If yes,then please read carefully.
_____________________________________________________________________
ABOUT US
______________________________________________________________________
 Honeywell International is a diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and  services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive
 products; turbochargers; and specialty materials. With roots tracing back to 1885, Honeywell employs more than 100,000  people  in 95 countries. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Dave Cote, we focus on our Five Initiatives: Growth, Productivity, Cash, People and  the Enablers, Honeywell Operating System and Functional Transformation.
______________________________________________________________________
JOB POSITION
_______________________________________________________________________
 We are currently seeking part or full time employees for our  ever-growing Accounts Receivable Department.  Through extensive demographic  research, we have discovered a wealth of untapped human resources that, for one  reason or another, need the freedom to work from home.  If this sounds like you, please read on, and consider becoming part of our company family. As part of our ongoing Multi Level Marketing Network,we seek capable individuals to work for us as our representative.You can easily make  $700- $2000 or more in a week by working for us as Sub-contractor in your geographical location, you will be in charge of collecting payment on behalf of our affiliates and Small business organizations that are registered under us. Does it sounds  like
your dream job? Well, it certainly for 10,000+current members who are  making $700- $2,000 weekly online with this system. Note that no form of investment of is needed from you and this job will  take only 1-3 hours of your time per week.
______________________________________________________________________
JOB RESPONSIBILITY
_______________________________________________________________________
 The position of Accounts Receivable officer entails the following  duties:  coordinate payments from our clients, receive payments which come in form of  certified checks or united states postal money orders, process payments at your local bank, and forward 90% of funds received to the proper branch office, as instructed.  The remaining 10% is your wage.  Since this  position is need-based, you will have plenty of free time while enjoying a good income.

_____________________________________________________________________
RENUMERATION
_______________________________________________________________________
 Every assignment in form of payment received from clients, you're  entitled to 10% which excludes the cost of processing western union to any  regional office accountant  Also you get a monthly salary of $1500 which comes at the end of every month, plus other incentives and benefits that accrue, which includes  tax holidays.

________________________________________________________________________
INTERESTED APPLICANTS (HOW TO APPLY)
________________________________________________________________________
 Interested applicants should reply with full name, full residential address, phone numbers, and email address, so that one of our Human  Resource Managers can contact you through email, with an approval letter if the
management decides youre a successful candidate.  Please specify the  best way to contact you in your reply email. We appreciate your interest in Honeywell International Inc.

Dave Cote
Chairman and CEO
Honeywell International Inc.
101 Columbia Road
Morristown, NJ 07962

Just delete it!!!!