🚀 go-pugleaf

    Someone pointed out to me that the secret of making money is

timing. "Timing is everything."  From my experience,  this tactic

is used more often falsely than legitimately.  Timing is hardly

"everything" in a  stable work-at-home business.  Maybe in the

stock-market,  but not here.  If timing is indeed involved,  then

it falls into the "Get Rich Quick" concept,  and we all know that

these things are usually scams.



16. There will be a sense of popularity in the "job offer".  As I

already stated in item #8 (above),  if you think that others are

doing the work, too,  then you'll be inclined to believe that it

is not a scam. So you might see the following written in the job

offer: "If you don't hear from us immediately,  don't worry!

We've been having so much trouble keeping up with the demand

lately.  But we will get to you!" It misleads you into thinking

that tons of other people are doing this, so it must be

legitimate.  WRONG!  Just assume that nobody but yourself

    has responded so far.



17. There will be a sense that they want you,  because YOU are

special to them.  For example,  the scam might say: "We know

you're smart,  because you're one of the elite few who has

figured out how to get onto the  internet to read this message.

That's why we're able to offer YOU this  great deal!"  They want

you to be thinking to yourself that you are special,  and that

the reason why everyone else in the world isn't doing this

wonderful job and making tons of money is because they

aren't as smart as you.  Hogwash!  It's just another trick

they're trying to pull on you to bypass your logical reasoning

brain and  get right to your emotional/irrational brain.  Stay

firmly grounded in reality.  You are NOT special to any of these

people. You are just a dollar sign to them.



18. There's just a general vagueness about exactly *what* it is

you'd be doing.  Here's a typical example of something you might

see:

   "Have you ever dreamed about making $1000,  $2000,  or even

        $3000 PER WEEK?!  Well,  stop dreaming about it and DO

something about it!  If you're in a dead-end job or you're

unemployed, now is the perfect time to say YES to your future.

Don't pass up this wonderful opportunity to better yourself.

Send SASE for more information..."

    You can see that this ad says absolutely nothing to you about

what it is you'd be doing.  It's so vague that nobody can flame

it for any reason.  So you will NOT see people responding to the

article with a  thousand letters like, "This is scam!  Don't fall

for it!"  These scammers are clever that way.  This is exactly

why you can assume it's nothing more than a scam.  If the people

who posted the ad thought  it was something people might like to

hear,  then they wouldn't try to disguise it;  they'd just come

right out and tell you what it was they were selling.  Instead,

they are afraid that someone's going to be able to identify it as

a scam.  This way,  they can send their scam offer directly to

the suckers out there,  and the suckers won't see anything

negative about it.



19. Beware of "Money Back Guarantees."  This is another thing

scammers use to mislead you into thinking that what they're doing

is legitimate.  If you get taken for $25,  do you really think

you'll get your money back even if the guy gave you a money back

guarantee?  And what are you going to do when he doesn't give you

the money back?  Are you going to spend $100 just to file a law

suit for $25,  not to mention off-time  from your day job and

lawyer fees?  The scammers all know that you're not going to file

a suit against them for a measly $25.  Therefore, just pretend

that you did not see the money back guarantee statement  written

on the ad.



20. "Information Packages."  Here,  the idea is that if you come

up with  a good money-making idea,  you will share your idea with

others for a price.  Again,  the price is usually $25.  The

package is usually  advertised as being a "complete system."  It

sometimes misleads people into believing that if they purchase

the package,  they will be able to  start a business immediately,

painlessly,  and without any other help, when in fact,  they are

the ones who will have to do most of the work in setting up their

own businesses.  And sometimes it might mislead people into

thinking that the package is just a startup kit used to

facilitate their "employment" in some other company,  when in

fact,  they're just being sold information.  They make false

claims that hundreds of people have used their packages to make

money,  when in fact,  nobody has.



When you get the package, you will find that you cannot utilize

the information at all.  In the end,  you will have wasted your

$25 for a package of perhaps 20 pages long which is absolutely

useless.



 21. "No experience necessary.  No resumes needed.  No interviews

neeeded. No references needed.  No education requirements

necessary. Etc."  These are things you should beware of if

someone is offering you a work-at-home job.  I don't know of too

many normal jobs that are given to just anyone without an

interview,  without a resume,  without education,  without

    references, etc.  A big warning light should be going off in

your mind whenever you encounter one of these "job offers".

These job offers will often be accompanied by tart-up/membership

fees."   Now,  if you were a legitimate company offering a job,

which would you rather do:

 1) Ask your applicants for money to prove he/she is the right

person for the job?  or 2) Ask your applicants for their

references,  an interview,  etc.?  After all,  these job offers

will almost always suggest that one could be making tons of

money,  and if that is so,  I doubt an employer would want to

give that money to some uneducated slob that he/she  doesn't even

know.  If it were true that any uneducated slob could do the job,

then why doesn't the employer merely hire a bunch of people

at, say, $6.00 an hour to do the job,  and then the employer

could pocket  the "tons of money" for him/herself??  It just

doesn't make sense.  What will normally happen is that you will

pay your start-up fee,  they will take it,  and then give you an

impossible task which will yield no income for you whatsoever.





Infinity...



In the future,  I'll be adding to this list,  but for now,  that

should suffice.  You can start to see the patterns for yourself

on your own.



SOME SPECIFIC SCAMS REVEALED:

=============================



Here is a very short list of scams that I've seen repeatedly

popping up on the net,  and I thought I'd expose them:



A. "Make Money Fast":  In this scam,  you will see a message from

someone, probably some guy named Dave Rhodes,  who describes how

he has never  failed to make $50,000 per month doing this.  Then

he lists instructions for you to follow... You will see a list of

10 names and addresses listed on the bottom of the message.  Your

job is to first mail the first 5  people on the list, (#1, #2,

#3, #4, and #5),  a one-dollar-bill each. Then,  you are supposed

to bump up the list one slot.  So #1 gets tossed

   out,  #2 becomes #1,  #3 becomes #2, and so on.  Then you

insert your own name and address as the new #10.  Once you do

that, you send the revised document to as many other people as

you can.  The instructions tell you to post it in as many

newsgroups as you can and title it "Make Money Fast".  Supposedly

soon afterwards,  you should be seeing thousands and thousands of

dollars from people!  YEAH, RIGHT!!



   First of all,  this scam is illegal,  even though it will

specifically say it is not.  I'm not quite sure about the

specifics of it,  but I think it's refered to as a "Ponzi Scheme"

(a pyramid scheme where Ponzi was the name of the guy who first

got caught doing this,  I believe). It's under a chain mail /

mail fraud statute somewhere,  and if you get caught,  then

you're going to jail.  [Maybe someone can fill me in on the exact

specifics here.]  It doesn't matter if you do it through

   the postal service or through email;  it's still mail fraud.



   Besides the fact that it's illegal,  do you honestly think it

would work?  Shaa!  If you're like me,  what's stopping you from

just keeping your $5,  not sending out ANY money, and just

putting your name down as #5 on the list before sending it

(instead of #10)??  Seriously,  you'd have to be a complete moron

to send any money to anyone on the list. There are many

variations of this scam.  Sometimes people call it a "mailing

list" collection service,  whereby you're just paying  the first

5 names on the list $1 for their names,  and others will pay

you $1 a piece for your name.  They go on to say that this is

*why* it is legal.  But make no mistake, it is illegal.





B. "Work-At-Home with Your PC" (data entry / report

generation)...  These scams will tell you to send for FREE

instructions on how you can be  making TONS of money with just

your home PC,  printing reports,doing data entry,  managing

mailing lists, etc.  You name it.  It doesn't matter what service

you'd be doing.  It's just the fact that you're "using your PC at

home"... In these scams,  you send away for the FREE information,

usually giving them a SASE,  and they send you back a little,  2

to 3 page letter giving you some snow-job about the wonderful

amounts of money you could be making,  but you just have to send

them  $25 to get started!  What you are promised for your $25 is

usually a computer disk with all the software you need to get

started in business, making money immediately.  Well,  you think

it's a wonderful thing, and the $25 startup fee is really small,

so you do it!  After a few weeks,  you get your disk back with

little or no further instructions.

   So you look at what's on the disk,  and low and behold,  what

you find there are a few text files.  You read the text files,

and as it turns out,  the text files are just the same ad you

responded to and the same "report" that you got back asking for

your $25!  In other words, you've been had!  If it was advertised

as "report generation",  then you would be generating reports

each time some other sucker sent you their SASE's for your

"report" on how they can be making tons of money.  In other

   words,  you have to become another scammer to make your money!





   Most people just realize that they've been scammed and stop

right there, but if you're contemplating becoming a scammer,

stop.  You could go to jail.  Chances are,  the person which sold

you the scam in the first place has been doing this far longer

than you have.  He knows how to  avoid getting caught.  Do you?

If you thought it was hard getting a  job before,  try it after

you have a fellony on your permanent record! Not to mention that

you might be going to jail for several years.



C. "HUD Refund Tracer" scam.  Well, this isn't really a scam,

perse.  It goes like this:  The U.S. government has setup a

program whereby you can make a commission on "refunds" owed to

home-owners that took a loan out from the goverment a while back

and paid it off.  The deal was that if the home-owner paid the

loan back on time,  he/she could get a 10%(?) refund back from

the government.  The problem is that there's a lot of people

   who forgot to collect their refunds,  so it's up to you,  as a

HUD refund tracer,  to track these people down,  tell them that

they have $1000 to $3000 coming to them,  and that you want

10-30% of that money for your  services.



   The scammers put together a "package" telling you how to run

this  service.  They say, "You can start this business without

our help, but it's unlikely that you'll know how!  For just $25,

we will send you all of the info needed to be making money in

this business right away!" What you'll probably get is a bunch of

instructions,  basically telling you what you would've been able

to deduce after a short time talking with the government about

it.  The package might save you some time figuring out how to run

the business,  but that's where the benefits stop.  After

receiving your initial information package,  you'll read

somewhere that you need to pay them something like $50 for a list

of names and addresses of people who are owed money in your

state.  So you pay it.  Next,  there is the problem of finding

out their present phone numbers.  You could spend money calling

Information for those phone numbers,  or for just $40 more,  you

can get their CD-ROM filled with names, addresses, and phone

numbers of everyone living in your state.  Now you've invested

over $100 in their stuff.  But that's a drop in the bucket

according to them, compared to what you'll be making... Right?



   You have to ask yourself,  if you were one of those home

owners being owed $3000 back from the government,  what would

your reaction be to someone you don't even know telling you on

the phone that he wants 30% of your money?  If you're like me,

you'd hang up on the guy and go to the government to collect your

money directly.  You MIGHT be able to ask for 1% to 3% of their

money,  but certainly NOT 30%.  1% of $3000 equates to $30.  For

ALL of your work,  you get a measly $30 check.  Oh boy!

   That's certainly not the $500 check that is advertised by the

people  selling this information package.  And the amount of work

involved in tracking these people down,  doing the paper work,

and the long  distance telephone bills are not worth it for just

$30.

   Besides that, why aren't the scammers all doing it if they

could be making untold riches?  Why are they fiddling around with

this little "send us $25 for info" scheme?  The answer is that

they aren't making any money of the HUD Refund tracer program.

Instead, they make their money by selling you their reports and

software.  So you think,  "Well, what's wrong with that?"

Answer:  Imagine if you really had a business idea that could

make you $1000 per week for as little as 10-15 hours of work

   (like they claim)?  If you paid full-time employees $6.00 per

hour to  call these people up for you,  then for paying them

$60-$90 or so,  you will be making $1000.  That's a 1000% to

1600% return for your investment. Now,  I don't know too much

about business,  but for that kind of return, wouldn't you have

to be a complete idiot not to get into it?  I have never heard of

any business making that kind of a return.  So why aren't these

   guys doing this program that they are offering?  The answer,

of course, is that the program does NOT generate anywhere near

those kind of returns.  I'd be surprised if anyone was able to

make a living out of doing this, or even be able to make any

profit whatsoever off of it.



   Generalizing:

   -------------

There are a lot of scams which offer you "information packages"

for the low-low price of just $25 (or whatever they're asking).

You're just paying for information,  that's all.  It's up to you

to utilize that information,  and often,  you will find that it's

not worth it. Your $25 will be wasted.  And again,  you have to

ask yourself why the authors of those information packages aren't

doing what they're writing about.  If what they've written is

true, (that you can make so much money in your spare time),  then

why aren't they doing it?



D. "Earn $1800 weekly" (mailing circulars,  stuffing envelopes,

etc.) In this scam,  you are promised to be making as much as you

want for doing something suitably simple (so simple a child could

do it).  For example,  going on right now is a scam offering

"$1800/wk mailing circulars" (Sergei S*kolov,  I think,  is the

name of the guy running the scam).  Well,  you really have to ask

yourself why ANYONE would pay YOU $1800/week doing something so

simple as mailing circulars. That's nearly $100,000 per year,

about as much money as doctors and lawyers make.  So why would

just any poor, old, uneducated slob be able to make that kind of

money doing something so easy a child could do it? Exactly.

Something smells fishy here.  Same thing goes for  "stuffing

envelopes":  Often you'll hear something like, "Make $5.00 per

   envelope stuffing envelopes!"  Or you'll hear, "Make money

PROCESSING MAIL at home."  Come on!  $5.00 PER ENVELOPE THAT YOU

STUFF?  You think to yourself,  "Oh m' gawd!  I can stuff 50

envelopes per hour,  so I could be making $250 per hour!

Amazing!"  Yeah,  right!  This is all the SAME scam,  and it's

linked to my second scam I explained (the report generation

scam).



   Now,  if you were a company,  and you had circulars or bulk

mailings to send out,  why on earth would you pay someone you

don't even know as much as $5.00 an envelope to simply stuff it

and send it out?  I've seen it as low as $1.00 per envelope and

as much as $15.00 per envelope! If you're a smart company,  you

will do your own in-house bulk mailings, paying your

secretaries/office-workers $5-$6 per HOUR to stuff envelopes.

   That would save you about $240 per hour per employee!  But if

the scammer makes up some story about how he just has so much

mail to stuff,  and that he doesn't have enough personnel to

stuff the envelopes,  ask him why he doesn't just bring his

business to a direct mailing service.  Direct mailing services

SPECIALIZE in bulk mailings.  They can generate over

   5000 stuffed envelopes per hour!!  They have machines that can

do it real fast without the need for humans.  And you can even

rent a machine like their's for as little as $400 per day,  or

buy one for $15,000! That's a lot better than paying presumeably

hundreds,  maybe thousands, of people you don't even know a

salary of $100,000 per year (a total of $100Million in

advertising costs to you!).  Now,  think about it! If a company

can afford to spend $100,000,000 to all of the people that

   are just stuffing envelopes or mailing circulars PER YEAR,

then that company must be gigantic!  But if it is a large

company,  then it could afford the bulk-mailing equipment,  and

it could afford hiring more personnel on a full-time basis to

cover it,  which would mean that it would have no need for

home-workers stuffing their envelopes.  Bzzzzt. Does not compute!

It must be a scam. Here's how it works:  You are told to send a

SASE to the guy for FREE details.  You get a little contract

back,  telling you to send them $25 to get you started or because

they want to "weed out" those people that aren't serious.  So you

send in the $25.  You get back a few "circulars" or "reports"

which are just the same documents you saw when you replied to the

scammer's offer through the mail.  The idea is that, yes,  you

will be "stuffing envelopes",  "processing mail"  or "mailing our

circulars",  but those envelopes that you stuff are the SASE's

that people send you asking for information on how to make

money after YOU advertise that they can be making tons of money

stuffing envelopes!! And "mailing our circulars" refers to the

same thing:  you will be stuffing envelopes with that same scam

you got back from the scammer.  Same thing with "processing mail"

at home.  It's all just the same scam.  It's basically the same

as the "report generation" scam I revealed above.  If you read

something like, "Make $5.00 per envelope THAT YOU SECURE,"  then

you know what it means now. Read item "B" (above) for information

on the consequences of becoming a scammer.





E. "Assemble products at home" scam.  This is becoming more

popular.  You are told that you can have a modest income by

assembling toys or other  consumer goods at home.  This seems

like such a "real" job that it  couldn't be a scam.  Guess again.

Here's how the scam works:  You send away for the FREE

information,  and you get a little contract back stating that you

must send them $40 or so to get started.  In turn, they are

supposed to send you your first toy to assemble.  So you send

   your $40 to them,  and you soon get a small kit in the mail.

The kit does indeed contain parts of a toy that you can assemble.

After you  assemble it, you're left wondering what to do next.

You think that you're supposed to send it back to the original

company and collect a paycheck or something, but in reality,

what you're supposed to do is sell the toy YOURSELF!  YOU must

locate a buyer for the toy.  And the toy probably doesn't look to

be worth more than a few dollars!  So you've been had.  To recap,

you purchased a $3 toy for $40,  and to rub salt in the wound,

YOU had to assemble it yourself.



   Another thing that they try to pull on you is that they will

screw up  the parts in some way,  either by leaving parts out or

by giving you parts that don't fit together.  When you are unable

to assemble the   product,  you are told that it's your fault,

you will not get any refund, and you won't be able to submit the

toy back to them for your commission.



   And I've heard of big-time scammers that used to do the

following with this:  They ask for $40 for your start-up kit.

For that $40,  you get your toy to assemble.  Then they tell you

to send the toy back,  and they will send you a check for

something like $50.  So you've made $10.  Next, you are told you

can now purchase two toys to assemble for just $50,  now that

they know you're serious.  So you send them $50,  they send you

two toys,  you send the assembled toys back,  and you collect

$70.  So now you're up $30.  Then they make the big pitch to you,

"Just think.  If you purchase 100 toys from us for just $2000,

you can make $1000!" So you send out your check for $2000,  and

what do you get back?  You might get some toys back,  but either

they'll screw it up and blame it on you,  or they might just take

off with your money.  If you try to track them down and make them

pay you back,  you might find that they have disappeared without

a trace.  Beware.  Know who you're dealing business with and

where they are.





F. "MLM's - Multi-Level Management companies" (AMWAY, for

example).  These are usually not thought of as scams.  AMWAY, for

example,  is a very old and legitimate MLM.  Here's how an MLM

works:  Soeone approaches you with an amazing way to make money

part-time.  It's usually your boss, a co-worker, a family member,

or a friend that approaches you with it,  so you're instantly

lulled into a state of trust and acceptance. This person will

explain to you that this is "multi-level" management, which means

that there can usually be an infinite number of levels of

management.  So you might have someone managing you in the

program, but you also might be managing one or more people,  and

those people   under you (your "down-lines") can each manage

their own people,  etc.  Each person in the "pyramid" is expected

to sell products that the MLM  offers.  The products could be

things like fruit baskets,  VCR's,  cuttlery,  shoes, etc.,  but

it can also be long distance telephone service or insurance,  for

example.  When one of your down-lines makes a sale,  your

down-line will make something like a 10% commission on the sale,

but YOU will make something like a 2% commission on the sale

   as well,  even though you did nothing.  This way, the profits

trickle upwards in the pyramid.  It may trickle as much as 5

levels upwards. You can imagine that if you have dozens of people

under you,  and they each have dozens of people under them,  each

making sales,  then you're going to be a very wealthy person

eventually, without getting up from your chair!  This is usually

why people join MLM's:  the dream of untold riches by just

sitting back and doing nothing.  Now for the real story:  Let's

say you do join an MLM.  You're making no money at first, you

have to pay the MLM yearly "dues",  and on top of  this,  you

have a monthly quota to make in terms of sales that YOU

   have to make.  I've seen the monthly quota as low as $25.00

and as high as $500 in certain MLM's.  When you sign the

contract,  you are told that if you do not make that quota,

you're out of the program,  all of  your down-lines become your

manager's down-lines, and your yearly membership fee will not be

refunded.  What usually happens is that you're hyped up so much

initially that you're able to make the first month's quotas by

selling products to your friends,  family,  and co-workers.

   You have to harass these people in your life to be able to

sell your stuff,  and if you keep using them,  you'll eventually

alienate yourself from them.  They aren't going to want to see

you after a while, because they know you're gonna try to convince

them all to become your down-lines or to buy your products.

Eventually, you will run out of people to sell stuff to,  and you

probably have a few down-lines under you. Your manager says he

understands your dilemma, but convinces you to stay with it,

because you'll eventually see it start to pay off.  Well,  to

   make your monthly quota,  you have to buy some products

YOURSELF.  And, when you're totally in denial,  you fool yourself

into believing that  you actually needed the products that you

bought,  or that the products are better than any of the usual