Unfortunately, the universal allure of work at home jobs makes it a great target for scammers. The idea of someone paying a good wage for working from your own home at a home-based business that requires no experience, no start-up costs, and no set time commitment sounds too good to be true. It usually is. Being aware is the best financial advice you can get.

How To Find Legitimate Work at Home Jobs

Real work at home jobs that are not scams do exist. However, they don’t come wrapped in rainbows delivered on a unicorn’s back. By taking another look at working from home from a different angle, you’ll find that it is easy to separate the work at home scams from the real work at home jobs.

The first thing to do is remember what jobs are like in “the real world.” That is, how do jobs work when they are not work at home jobs. How much do traditional jobs that require no experience, no time commitment, and no sales pay? How common are they? Just because the jobs are done at home and not at an employer’s office doesn’t mean that dynamic changes.

After all, how easy would it be to find people to fill work from home with unlimited income potential jobs that were easy and required no special skills or experience? Would you even have to advertise? Wouldn’t everyone you know be begging to sign up?

Finally, remember this tidbit. If the work can be done from the comfort of your own home with nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection, then that same work can be done from China or India with nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection. If you can pay someone overseas 30 cents an hour to do it, why would you pay a stay at home mom or dad $25 an hour (or more) to do the same thing?

So, how do you find real work at home jobs no investment required?

Secret For Finding Real Work From Home Jobs

The secret to finding real work at home jobs is to not look for work at home jobs. Work at home is a phrase that people use when they do not actually understand how working from home is done by real companies. It is the sucker’s bait that scammers use.

Remember, out in the corporate world, companies and businesses of all sizes are constantly trying to make things sound better by coming up with new phrases, or calling something by a different name. Nobody gets fired anymore; they don’t even get laid off. Workers are “let go” or “downsized” or even “right-sized” these days. Do you honestly thing any real company still uses the phrase, “work from home” in their job postings?

Real work at home jobs go by different names. One of the most common names for work from home jobs that are real is “telecommuting” or “telecommute” which means commuting by telecommunications systems, or working from home with a phone and Internet connection.

Other legitimate work from home jobs will be referred to as “contract” and “off-site” jobs. (In business, the world revolves around the company, so it doesn’t matter where you ARE working, all that matters is that you are NOT working at the office, thus, “off-site.”)

Finally, some work at home jobs are called “freelance” or “freelancing” jobs. As a freelancer, you can work wherever you want. In fact, one of the benefits of hiring a freelance worker is that you don’t have to go through the time and expense of getting them setup with a desk, phone, business cards, and so on like a traditional employee. Just keep in mind that no one needs inexperienced, unskilled freelancers. Rather, skilled workers like professional freelance writers is what business needs.

Use the secret lingo of work at home jobs and you can avoid scams, fraud, and tricksters. Go out searching for “work from home” jobs and applying to “work at home, no experience required” job postings, and you can sit back and wait to see how you will be scammed.

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Where to Find Legit Work at Home Jobs originally published at Finance Gourmet

However, the same publicity also made it easier for scammers and dishonest marketers to take advantage of people’s hopes by pretending to have something to do with the government programs when, in fact, they are either outright scams to steal your money or steal your identity, or they are mortgage brokers or mortgage companies that have nothing to do with the government mortgage aid programs trying to insinuate that they are part of those programs.  Unfortunately, many people are falling victim to these con artists and their tricks.

How To Protect Yourself From Scams, Thieves, and Con Artists Using Government Mortgage Aid Lies

First, understand the facts about how people take advantage of these government mortgage aid programs. There ARE NO EMAILS of any kind being sent to homeowners by any government agency or banking institution associated with the programs.  None, zero, zip, nadda.  Any email that you get of any kind, from anyone, no matter how official sounding or looking is a scam.  Delete it immediately.

Second, there are no checks being issued to homeowners.  Some mailings include checks that ask you to call a toll-free number for some official sounding reason.  When you do, they will ask you to deposit the check, but wire some money to another account for some reason.  This is a scam.  The check will bounce and your wire transfer money will disappear.  NO CHECKS ARE BEING SENT TO HOMEOWNERS by the government or banks.  Any and all help you might be eligible for will come in the form of a refinanced loan or a load modification.  Either way, there is no check involved.

Third, is junk mail designed to look like it has something to do with the government’s mortgage aid programs, but carefully worded to actually just mislead you into thinking this without actually saying it.  These come from banks and mortgage brokers and mortgage companies.  They are nothing more than junk mail hoping to get you to refinance with them, most likely at a higher interest rate and with higher closing costs than you could get elsewhere.  There is no proactive attempt of any kind going on to contact homeowners in this way.  Anything that is sent via 3rd class mail, or bulk mail of any kind is clearly not from the government or banks.  It is junk mail, throw it away (actually, shred it).  Even mail sent first class is most likely fake junk mail.

Use these guidelines to see if the offer you have received MIGHT be legitimate.  You will still have to follow up with your mortgage company, but if any of these apply, don’t even bother, what you have gotten is phony.

• Only Mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are eligible.  If yours isn’t, there is no aid program for you.
• The official title of the Government Refinancing program is “The Home Affordable Refinance” program.  Scammers will carefully avoid using those exact words to avoid fraud liability.The overall program name (both loan modification and refinance) is “Making Home Affordable”, again, scammer will avoid the exact wording.   If those exact words are not used, then you are holding onto a scam.
• There is no charge, no fee, and no up front payment of any kind.  Anything asking you to send money is a scam.
• There is no need for you to send your personal information to anyone.  The government and the banks already have your name, address, and social security number.  There is no need to “verify” this information for any reason.  Anyone calling on the phone, or any mailing asking you to reveal your social security number for any reason including verifying your identity is a scam.

The best way to avoid scams is to look-up your lender’s phone number independently (do not use the number provided which obviously rings where the scammers want it to ring) and call them to ask if you qualify.

Remember, there are no government mailings, government phone calls, or government emails of any kind.  Anyone saying differently is a con artist, fraud, and liar.  Hang up, shred, or delete immediately and save your money and your identity.

Here is the latest OCC Tips for Avoiding Mortgage Modification Scams and Foreclosure Rescue Scams

Copyright 2009 – Exclusively Published at FinanceGourmet.com – ArcticLlama, LLC

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Government Mortgage Help Programs Scams and Deceptive Marketing and Mailings originally published at Finance Gourmet

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