The FTC recently announced a crackdown on scammers trying to take advantage of consumers through schemes such as fraudulent business opportunities, get rich quick schemes, fake debt-reduction plans, and fictitious government grants.
As part of their effort to educate consumers about fraudulent business opportunities, the FTC has produced this video warning.
Signs of a Scammer
We all want to work at home in our fuzzy bunny slippers. After all, that’s why we’re here, right? But we need to be rigorous in our investigation of potential business opportunities. Here are a couple of warning signs you should watch for.
Big Promises
Scammers tend to make big promises. You’ll make big profits in a short amount of time, working only 37 minutes per day from your new beach house. We’ve all seen the infomercials with the talking fox, haven’t we? The old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” is worth remembering here. If you hear these big promises from people who are trying to sell you something, ask yourself if it’s just too good to be true.
Legitimate businesses can back up their claims with proof, and the greater the risk, the more substantial that proof needs to be. A $10 investment requires a lot less proof than a $1,000 investment.
Hard Sell Threats
Scammers trying to sell you on a new business opportunity can’t afford to have you looking too hard at the proof of their claims. In order to distract you from the flimsy “evidence” they provide, they hit you with high pressure sales tactics. If you’re being pressured to buy right now because “space is limited” or because “territories are going fast,” you should take a step back and do some more investigating.
Beware of the scammer who won’t allow you time to sleep on it. They want you to make a decision right now, often telling you that they’re only authorized to offer this “low price” if you sign a contract today. A legitimate business opportunity will still be around tomorrow, so take your time and make sure you’re not being duped.
Real Work At Home Opportunities
Don’t let the scammers scare you away from your goal of working at home, though. There are plenty of legitimate work at home opportunities out there. Take a look at the Sparkplugging authors for example. We have ecommerce professionals and ebay sellers, and crafty types, just to name a few.
A good place to start looking for home business opportunities is Wendy’s post Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear and the follow-up post 10 More Work at Home Internet Business Ideas You Can Do in Your Fuzzy Bunny Slippers.
While it’s great that the Federal Government is cracking down on these types of scams, remember that you can’t count on them to catch every charlatan out there. Do you research, practice due diligence, and don’t be afraid to walk away from a deal that just seems too good to be true.
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:
- How to Avoid Home Business Scams and Fraudulent Internet Business Opportunities
- Work from Home Ideas
- 10 More Work at Home Internet Business Ideas You Can Do in Your Fuzzy Bunny Slippers
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Jim Pearson has spent more than 25 years helping small and mid-size businesses find solutions to their business problems. He specializes in sales, marketing and rapid revenue growth and has helped hundreds of companies make more money.
Gene Culver has more than 15 years of diverse business experience across the music industry, telecom network marketing and business coaching. His specialty is helping individuals with marketing, their internet presence and lead generation.
It is great to see the feds try and educate people on the scams out there. There are a couple of things the video left out. First is the rules & regs are different if the opportunity costs less than $500 to start.
I really want to see a video from the government explaining that those cash gifting programs are illegal pyramid schemes ending the debate once and for all.
I think the best way to figure out which opportunities are for real, is to to see how much buzz they generate. Legitimate opportunities, that pay generously, get people talking. If no one is talking about the good results they had with company x, that’s NOT a good sign.