We’re in a time when many people are looking for subsidiary income online. Many people try to find work from home jobs online just to be scammed. It is very unfortunate but it has become very difficult to find a legitimate work from home job that is not a scam.
I will be giving you a few ideas about ways to determine if a business is legitimate. Remember however that there are always exceptions to every rule and the ideas I suggest here are not going to apply to every business.
Listen to yourself
The best way to avoid scams is to pay attention to your instincts. Many people who’ve been scammed will tell you they thought something was fishy about the business but didn’t stop to investigate. Sometimes it is not something you saw but simply some feeling. Our subconscious mind has a way of identifying danger sometimes before our conscious mind is even close to that conclusion. If for any reason you feel uncomfortable about a business double check to make sure it’s legitimate and if you still feel funny about it, avoid dealing with that site.
Google it
It is very important to check what other people are saying about a business before you take the step to enroll into it. I almost felt victim to a shady work from home business until I decided to look it up on google. You should be able to Google the business name and the word scam to see what others are saying about it. Remember how ever that if this is a new business, there might not be any complaints about it yet.
Another thing you can Google is the website + reviews. Here you will find information about how well the business is taking care of it’s customers. A business might be legitimate but have very bad reviews and customer service. It is usually safe to stir clear of such a business and safe yourself from heartache.
Check Contact information
A legitimate business should have a way for customers to contact them. It could be a physical address, Email address, phone number. Unfortunately even this is not surefire because people can easily create fake email accounts and phone numbers and it’s not every business that has a physical location. Online businesses do not need to have a physical address because the internet is their office.
Check privacy policy and about page
It is a good idea to read the about page and the privacy policy of a site to see what it is all about. From the privacy policy, you can get a good idea of the legitimacy of the company. The about page will explain to you in the owners own words what the site is about. Watch out for exaggerations and statements that can’t be checked. It is great when a company has a face and name for the founders but not a necessity for legitimacy.
Check content
“Content is king”, every legitimate website takes content seriously because that is the medium through which they reach their clients. Most illegitimate businesses have poor content because they do not put enough energy into research as does legitimate sites. A website with frequent grammatical errors should bring up red flags. Content that contradicts other content within a site is also something to be worried about.
Check for free trials and money back guarantee
Many legitimate online businesses that offer work from home opportunities, offer free trials and/or about 60 days money back guarantee. Some of these business have no time limit for the free trials and on top of this, they teach you how to gain financial independence online.
For example, a site I highly recommend called Wealthy affiliate offers free membership for people looking to start an online business. To become a member, you are asked for your email address, first and last name. They never ask for your credit card information until you are ready to update to premium.
This is the kind of site you should trust. Any site that requires your credit card information upfront before you can become a member is probably not legitimate. You should be given plenty of time to get a feel of the site before making your decision and you should not be rushed.
If you start getting emails that say you might loss your position if you don’t enroll now, run away don’t walk.
I hope this will help you identify the legit businesses out of the whole. You are welcome to leave a comment.
Cheers Denise!
Ever since the internet first came into existence in the early 1980’s, its use wasn’t offered to everyone. It first started with military personnel, then certain businesses and then eventually offered to the general public throughout the world.
Of course, the more people that made use of connecting through the internet, the more online businesses would crop up, and in turn, more and more scammers over time.
Scammers and online fraud started growing like a deadly disease! Eventually, stealing online became more elaborate. Credit cards, consumers banking information and stealing secret password codes were targeted.
Years ago, I myself was a victim of a scam and lost a lot of money. (…as a matter of fact, it happened twice.) I didn’t think about looking up these places on Google. It probably would’ve saved me a lot of time and money. But i guess we all live and learn.
Thank you for putting together a site such as this that brings added attention and more awareness to this daily growing problem regarding online scams and rip-offs!
Hi Ronald,
Very true, online scam is like a deadly disease. I’m sorry they got you. They almost got me last year but because of Google I was saved. I googled the site and found out it was a scam and at the same time I learned about wealthy affiliate.
Today I’m trying to stop others from becoming prey to this online “disease”.
In the day and age that we live in, this article is so beneficial. There are s many scams of people just trying to take money from others and it’s ridiculous. It hurts the ones that have a legitimate business and are offering a product or service that can truly help others. I hope people read this and take it into consideration and take action.
Hi Bryatt,
It is realy a shame how low some people will go to take advantage of others. When someone is desperate, like many are now, they fall prey to scammers really easy. It is in our human nature to wish for success to happen suddenly but that is not the case except in the rare occassion of people who win fabulous amout of money from lotteries. But even these lottery winners are not successful most of the time because a bulk of them become bankrupt (living large) and another handful fall prey to scammers by wanting even more.
Success requires hard work and patience. Once people get this simple truth, they will hardly fall for any scam because many scams promise easy money.
It is sad that the work of these scammers hinder or slow down the work of legitimate entrepreneurs. I hope many people read this post too, so they can avoid scammers and know how to determine the legitimate natue of a business.