Work
at Home Opportunistas
There was
no shortage of candidates for the Most Annoying Person Award that I was
mentally planning to bestow. At the top of the short list was Billy Mays,
the guy who screams at us in TV ads to buy wrenches, foot powder and cleaning
products.
But he had
stiff competition from Stephanie, a young woman who had shattered the
silence on the airport bus one recent Friday evening, by dialing up a
series of friends to plan her weekend. Oblivious to the weary travelers
around her, she babbled on and on. When the calls finally ended, it was
all I could do to keep from yelling, "Thank goodness Stephanie's
run out of friends!" She certainly had not made any new ones on the
bus, but she had become a strong contender for my award.
Both Billy
and Stephanie dropped lower on the list when I rushed to answer the telephone
only to be greeted by a disembodied voice which said, "Hello, we
are canvassing your neighborhood to find people who want to work at home."
I hung up before the recording finished, but a few hours later I knew
who the winner of my award would be, and it's not a single person at all.
I call them
the Work at Home Opportunistas and they are on the prowl. In fact, these
folks seem to be causing an inescapable epidemic.
When I go
to check my e-mail, a flashing banner screams, "Earn $10,000/month
working from home!" My junk e-mail box is full of money-making offers
every day. Driving around town, I see posters stapled to utility poles
with similar come-hither messages. My personal favorite Work at Home promoter
was the woman (I can only assume) who plastered the toilet stalls at the
Mall of America with Work at Home cards promising $1,500/month PT, $5,000/month
FT.
Suddenly,
we seem to have entered a new era of schemes and scams. Many of them are
nicely dressed and have photographs of appealing, supposedly successful
entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, these aggressive Work at Home ads are targeting
the unsuspecting. I can only imagine their appeal to someone who has just
spent over an hour navigating icy roads to get to a job they don't much
like. Calling that 800 number for more information might seem like a welcome
alternative.
After weeks
of avoiding this avalanche of opportunity, I happened to see travel guru
Peter Greenberg talking about going on a "free" cruise —
another popular offer. The cruise ended up costing $1,400 and was dreadful
from beginning to end. Maybe I should follow his lead and check out the
home business offers, I decided.
Posing as
an eager opportunity seeker, I began responding to every ad that crossed
my path. I did an Internet search using Work at Home as my keyword phrase
and was astonished to see page after page of offers. It would have taken
me days to check out every listing on Google, so I only went for the most
intriguing.
What I discovered
was a pattern or system to all these offers that was soon familiar. Maybe
there's a Scam School where they teach this stuff, I mused. Answer an
ad and here's what you'll find:
-
The emphasis
is on the big money you can earn. Very often the actual business is
just alluded to. Breathing seems to be the only required skill. The
focus is on opportunity with a capital O. Request the free information
offered and you probably will get a brochure offering to sell you the
real scoop.
-
Especially
popular right now are offers you can pass along over the Internet. From
the comfort of your own home, you can reach millions around the world
and rake it in.
-
Another
familiar offer is listings (either a booklet you can purchase or on
a web site you must pay to enter) of Work at Home opportunities. These
are particularly terrific for anyone interested in earning pennies for
tediously stuffing envelopes. In many instances, you are not told that
you have to acquire the names and addresses that will go on the envelopes.
-
The offer
that most amused me is the one that trains you to track down deadbeat
parents and collect unpaid child support. Now doesn't that sound like
something anyone could do?
-
And what's
this repeated promise of a monthly income? Nearly every offer promises
a certain income. Jobs have predictable incomes; businesses fluctuate.
Besides the
fact that few people ever profit from such plans, buying into a scheme
is certainly not my idea of being Joyfully Jobless. With all the possibilities
for creative self-employment, these plans do little more than give working
at home a shady reputation.
Sadly, as
long as people lack self-confidence, there will always be shysters eager
to take advantage of them. Hook up with one of these opportunistas and
you'll spend both cash and confidence — with nothing but a sad,
hard lesson in return.
There's
more where this came from.
Order Winning Ways now!
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