Home Business?? Home FRAUDS!!

How many of you are literally being bombarded by "opportunities" to go into businesses that you can run from home? If you are like me, your spam filter is working overtime just to keep all these "opportunities" from drowning you in outrageous schemes. Now I am sure that some of these business plans must be legitimate, but from where I sit, (with a cat satisfactorily resting in my arms) a lot of these "opportunities" are basically offering you the great chance to send all your money off to somebody else.

Lately I have been approached repeated online with the concept of "free information." Just put your email address and your name in the appropriate boxes and free information will immediately be mailed or emailed to you. This sounds legitimate. After all, who would not want to actually check out a supposed opportunities before "investing" in them with your time and money -- especially your money. So I put in my name and my email address and then what happens?

Up pops a little dialog page asking for my credit card numbers. Why? Who needs your credit card information to send you FREE stuff? Because you have to pay for the "free" information. Suddenly it is explained that you are only paying initially for the small shipping charge required to send you the free information.

Whatever you do, DO NOT put your credit card information in the boxes. At least not until you read ALL the fine print that they are hoping you will overlook. Most of the time, if you take enough time to read everything, you will find that by filling in the boxes you do get the "free information" AND if you do not cancel, you are also agreeing to a significant monthly charge on your credit card forever. Or until you get tired of paying and paying for that little bit of free information.

Look folks, this is the same scam that sends you a check by snail mail. But if you read the back of the check you discover that if you sign and deposit the check, by affixing your signature to the check, suddenly you have agreed to change your telephone long distance provider, or just signed yourself up for a new life insurance policy which costs only $45 a month, or any number of other things you would not want nor agree to.

My advice to you is DO NOT sign nor deposit the check. This little check (and believe me, compared to the future significant hit to your bank account it is a little check) may be one of the most expensive things you have ever signed.

When the Lottery first came to California and you could buy and scratch off lottery tickets, some bright person in the place where I worked decided that it would be a brilliant idea if everybody pooled their money together and bought a hundred tickets. They were convinced that at least some of the 100 tickets would be winners, and all the people who pooled their money together would share in the winnings. They looked at me as if I was a fool for not reaching deep into my pocket and pulling out lots of green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them.

What happened? They bought one hundred tickets for one dollar each. Out of one hundred scratch off lottery tickets they WON.... about $55. But rather than take the "winnings" they felt inspired to "reinvest" their money and buy 55 more tickets. When they scratched them all, they WON again.... about $26. Well, that did not seem like very much so they bought 26 more tickets and began scratching in earnest again. Again they won... about $14 which they again reinvested in more tickets. I am not sure of all the exact details, but after buying more tickets, scratching them off and winning less, etc., eventually they had two or three tickets and finally they did not win anything. So they had successfully parleyed the initial investment of $100 into a grand winning total of zero dollars.

And yet they were elated. They all told me that they were winners, and I was a fool for not getting involved with this opportunity. When I saw where they were going I said, "well, if you give me $100, I will give you back $75 dollars. And I will continue to give you back 75% of whatever you want to give me. Then you can win at a higher rate!!"

To this they responded, "But you are not giving us the opportunity to win BIG. The scratch off lottery tickets can win up to $3000." Okay, I had to concede their point. But -- did THEY win $3000? NO!! They ended up with zero dollars. And I have found that this is what happens with most home businesses.

Not only do they initially cost money to "join the company" but you have to continue to "invest" your money every month to buy products, to pay for paperwork, to have access to your incredible $5000 web pages (which are exactly like everyone else's web pages except for one or two tiny details such as YOUR web page has YOUR name or associate number associated with it.) or to be a member with access to all the "training" provided. In the end, you spin your wheels, you invest all your time, effort and money, and what do you end up with?

Zero net dollars return. Well, just like my friends at work, you might get a diminishing return on your investment. And just like my friends, you can pretend that even though in the end you are broke you are a winner because you are in business for yourself, and just look at all the "profit" you made. You have got web pages! And own a business, and... are more broke than ever.

So, why do people keep falling for this fraud? Because deep down inside we would all like for it to be true that we can get something for nothing with practically no effort on our part. Yes, it would be nice to earn a gazillion dollars on the web. And there are those who have -- or at least they tell us they have and if we will just sign up, they will send us the free information that will teach us how we too can do it. Just put your credit card information right here in these little boxes. Most of the people offering to show you how to earn a lot of money are earning most of their money by hoaxing you into sending them yours.

I can't stop you. Go ahead... send them your money. I just wish you would send it to me instead. Hey, I will give you $75 return for every $100 you send me. And I will guarantee that. Maybe I will even buy you a lottery ticket from time to time, as a bonus. So... what IS your credit card number any way. Go ahead. Send it to me. You will be enrolled in a special class all by yourself called "the hidden reality about home businesses" And the best part is that you can enroll in this class just as long as you want, and every month you will learn even more. What are you waiting for? Enroll today.

Sincerely,

David A. Youngs