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Making the decision to become a work at home mom may be an easy one. Finding a work at home job is the hard part, especially finding a legitimate one. Many people would love to work from home and there are not enough jobs to meet the demand. Unfortunately some people are using the situation to their advantage and running scams on unaware people.

If you are looking for a work at home job or opportunity then you should be aware of the scammers and their techniques. Rather than you get paid, scammers are looking to make money off of you. Here are the top 12 signs that a WAHM opportunity might be a scam:

1)A real employer will never ask you to pay to work for them. A common scam is to ask people to pay a fee for a list of employers that hire telecommuters. Another scam is to charge a fee for training. Never pay to work for someone, they are just out to get money from you.

2)Stuffing envelopes. This is a common job listing that has been around for a long time. It is also a scam. There are machines that can stuff envelopes and no employer is going to ask someone to stuff envelopes from home. It is not cost effective. Most likely you will be stuffing envelopes to send off to other unwitting people asking for money to have the opportunity to stuff envelopes. And if they don’t pay then you do not get paid. Stay far away from this scam.

3)The job ad has a phone number listed. The first thing a legitimate employer wants to see is a resume, not field a bunch of phone calls from unscreened applicants. If there is no address or fax number listed to send your resume to then move on. This ad is probably for a scam.

4)No experience necessary. A legitimate employer is looking for someone with experience and a proven track record. Letting an employee work from home can be a gamble and they will want to know that you will get the job done.

5)Make $XXXX a day/week/month. It is very rare that a job ad will have a salary listed. If an ad claims you can make $500 doing 10 hours of work, do the math. That is $25 an hour. Earning that much an hour in any job is rare, let alone a work at home job.

6)The ad highlights Work at Home. The focus of most legitimate job ads is for the type of job i.e. personal assistant, physicist, and computer programmer. Work at home or telecommute should be listed farther down in the ad and definitely not first.

7)Vague job ad. If there is no information on what type of job or what the job entails, this is probably a scam. A legitimate job listing will tell you what the job requires and the skill set needed to perform it. An employer only wants qualified applicants to apply and an ad without requirements listed is going to receive a large number of unqualified applicants. Many human resource departments do not have time to weed through all that. So they will make an ad very specific.

8)A 1-900 Number. Most legitimate companies have toll-free phone numbers, not ones that charge you for calling. This is a big red flag that an ad is for a scam.

9)Working a few hours a week. Most employers are looking for someone that can commit to working 15 hours or more a week. If an ad claims you can make a large sum of money in as little as 5 hours a week, then it is probably a scam. The large majority of work at home positions pay around $8-10 an hour.

10)Ad Typing. Another common scam ad will read something like “make money typing ads from home.” You generally have to pay a fee to work this “job.” Then you will be placing ads all over the internet for the same job, on message boards, blogs, and the like trying to get others to pay the same fee in order for you to get paid. This type of position turns you into a scammer and I am certain you don’t want to do that.

11)Craft Assembly. Again this is generally a scam. You will have to pay for a kit of items to be assembled. If you do actually receive a kit, you will put them together and then you will send them back in. Most likely the company will reject the items as not meeting quality standards. You are now out the money for the kit and the items that you made.

12)The job ad is emailed to you unsolicited. Legitimate employers do not send out random emails looking for employees. Scammers like to cast a wide net. They know that some people will respond to their email and fall for the scam. If you get a job offer in your email inbox and you have never heard of the company, hit the delete button.

What are some of your tips for spotting a scam? Have you been scammed? I hope these tips help you in your work at home job search.

Warmly,
Mia