CHAPTER 3Avoiding Work-from-Home Scams
Danger alert: I decided to kick off my workshop with some cautionary advice about the too-good-to-be-true lures for work-from-home jobs.
A jarring wake-up call for people yearning to work from home landed in late 2019. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ordered operators of a work-from-home scheme—Effen Ads—to pay nearly $1.5 million to settle the allegations that they used misleading, unsolicited emails to lure more than 50,000 consumers into buying work-from-home services. Here's how the Effen Ads scheme played out, according to the FTC.
If It Sounds Too Good to Be True…
From June 2015 through August 2017, the company and its owners, Jason Brailow and Brandon Harshbarger, e-marketed and sold a supposed work-at-home program. Consumers were told that if they paid an up-front fee (typically $97), they could make significant income with little effort working from home. All the customers needed to do was post advertising links onto websites. They were given online training videos, but, the FTC says, no advertising links to post or any other work to perform.
What's more, prospects were sent links to false online stories designed to con them into thinking the work-from-home program had received favorable reviews from news organizations like CNN and Fox News and was recommended by the likes of legendary investor Warren Buffett and personal-finance guru Suze Orman.
The director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, Andrew Smith, said ...
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