Because of the instability of the past few years many Americans just aren’t as confident in their financial prospects as they once were. That’s why many people have been looking for a second source of income that can augment their primary source of income. This has led to an explosion of work at home opportunities, and work-at-home scams. So what are the signs of a legitimate work at home opportunity versus a scam?
A rule of thumb when evaluating work at home opportunities is that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. For example, medical transcriptionist is an at home work opportunity that comes up a lot on various job boards. Now transcribing medical records is a perfectly legitimate job and there are plenty of people in the world who transcribe medical notes for a living.
But despite what you might read on the Internet, this is not a job that just anyone can do. Professional medical transcriptionists have usually gone through a certification course where they learn medical terminology and how to operate a Dictaphone. Again, it’s a legitimate career, but jobs like this are something just anyone can do.
If you do have good typing skills, and a lot of discipline, there are plenty of data entry jobs that can be done from home. Most of these jobs don’t pay very much, but can be done at your own pace and schedule. After you’ve worked for an extended period doing data entry at home, you may develop your own client base and be able to charge more than a beginner. But for starters, you should definitely keep your pay expectations low.
No matter what type of home work jobs you’re looking at, there is one major red flag you’ll want to keep an eye out for. Any time you are asked to pay a fee up front before you can get paid, you are dealing with a con artist. Legitimate employers do not ask for fees of any kind during the application and hiring processes. You may be asked to pay for something like medical transcription or medical billing training, but you should never have to pay an application fee.
As you search for work at home jobs, you’ll quickly develop a sense of what’s legitimate and what’s a scam. And once you get started, you’ll be surprised at how many good opportunities there are to make some extra money.
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