Envelope Stuffing Work From Home
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We’ve all gotten that letter offering the opportunity to earn good money stuffing envelopes. If you ever wonder if it’s real, it turns out it is just another way for scammers to get their hands on your money.
The Federal Trade Commission works hard to prosecute these large work-at-home scams, and thus far it has brought charges against 77 schemes in 17 states. Many of these operations used envelope-stuffing to scam money.
Generally, scammers offer a lot of money quick, and for little effort, all you have to do is send in a self-addressed envelope. Without explaining very much they will usually ask for something they call a “good faith” payment, which is a small processing fee that is supposed to ensure that you are serious about the work. Sometimes they will ask you to pay for a start up kit that will give details about the job. They generally are not very straight-forward, but will promise things like free stamps and envelopes for your new business and a full proof money-back guarantee if you are not happy with the work.
If you respond to the promotion and send in your fee you will probably be sent material to begin work. Don’t be surprised to find that this material is the same scamming information you yourself responded to. You will most likely end up sending out the same scam to other people like yourself.
The trouble with schemes like this is that they are circular; you only receive your commission from people who send in their money like you did, perpetuating a scheme that you have unfortunately bought into. The cycle completes itself when you become the scammer, sending promotional information to people for their money.
The promised free stamps and envelopes are given to you as you stuff the self-addressed envelopes someone else has sent you from the same promotion. To get people to send you their envelopes you have to advertise yourself, which is never free. You have to use your own funds to dupe people into the same scam you are caught in, a process which is never explained at the beginning.
If you do actually end up making some money it is after a long, hard period of wasting both your and other people’s time.
Although there is often a money-back guarantee, the fine print includes so many terms for the refund that you probably won’t qualify for it, such as filling a certain amount of orders. If you’ve started the scam, it’s usually cheaper to cut your losses and hope to learn from the experience instead of fighting to get your refund. Added to this, the scammers will probably move their address and you won’t be able to find them.
