By Wendy Betterini

I'm sure we've all seen the ads: "Earn $1000's weekly stuffing envelopes from home!" Have you ever been tempted to send in your money for that one? I have. Luckily I didn't do it, but I know many people have. It sounds so great, doesn't it? Sit at home watching television while stuffing hundreds of envelopes, and get a nice check every week. If only such a job existed! Don't fool yourself, it doesn't. Why? Companies can easily purchase a machine that will not only stuff the envelopes for them, it will also fold, collate and apply postage in many cases. These machines usually cost a few thousand dollars. Why on earth would they pay you thousands of dollars a month to stuff their envelopes, when they could purchase a machine for a one time charge that would continue to stuff their envelopes for years to come? It makes no sense.

Scammers want you to believe. They know you're desperate to work at home. They know that Moms would do almost anything to be able to stay home with their children and earn a decent income at the same time. They know that college students need extra money, and retirees are living on a fixed income. And they want your money. They know you're willing to dish out ten or twenty bucks if it will allow you to earn some good extra cash.

Scammers are very practiced in saying exactly the right words to get you to believe they are for real. They've been doing it for years, and probably won't stop any time soon. Too many people fall for their lies, and the scammers are earning a very nice income themselves - by suckering you out of your hard-earned money!

However, there is something you should think about for a moment. Scammers are not the only ones doing the fooling much of the time. We also fool ourselves. We see an ad like the one above, and we begin to dream about how great that would be, to sit home and stuff envelopes all day. We visualize ourselves going to the bank with a hefty check, being able to pay all of our bills on time, and have money left over. We see our children helping us to stuff envelopes so the family can earn even more money. We see ourselves driving a new car, buying a nice home, all from our envelope-stuffing proceeds.

At the same time, a little voice deep inside us starts to speak up, "Wait a minute, something about this seems to good to be true ..." -- But we squelch down that little voice. We don't want to hear that. We tell the voice, "You're ruining my fantasy, shut up. It has to be true; I need this so badly. It would be the answer to my prayers." So we send our money, get ripped off and then kick ourselves for being so stupid. The scammer merely planted the idea in our heads, we picked it up and ran with it.

Don't let them do that to you, and don't do that to yourself! Be realistic about your search for work at home. Understand that working at home means working at home. You can't expect to get a mindless job and earn great money from it. Most often, you will earn less working at home than you do at a regular job. (Unless you start your own business.)

As a side note, many home business opportunities are guilty of the same tactics when trying to recruit new representatives. They tell you that you will earn great money while having fun. That may be true, but they conveniently forget to mention that you will actually have to WORK. You will have to be consistent in your efforts, and work on improving your skills, both professional and personal. You will need to sell something, either a product or a service. Which means you will need to talk to people, either online, over the phone, or in person. You don't just sign up and start cashing big paychecks. Keep that in mind when exploring business opportunities.

Ultimately, we are responsible for our own actions. Yes, the scammers are using dirty tricks. But we have the option whether to believe them or not. Fortunately, we can be smarter than they are. We all have this neat little built-in warning system called intuition. Use it. If something seems too good to be true, or you have any doubts at all, listen to that.

Rather than being desperate to work at home, be determined to find a REAL opportunity. Use common sense and learn as much as you can about scams and the genuine opportunities available. There are so many great companies out there that really do want to hire good people to work at home. And as time goes on, more and more great companies will be joining the ranks. This is very good news for us because the more legitimate companies there are, the less opportunity scammers will have. They will slowly but surely be pushed out. What a grand day that will be!

Wendy Betterini is a freelance writer and web designer who has been successfully working from home since 2003. In 2005 she launched http://www.CreativeWorkAtHome.com, a community and resource center for home-based professionals, and those who aspire to be. Visit today for tools, tips and information on how you can create your own home-based career, or further improve the one you already have!

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