I have been doing a little research in order to help you avoid being the next victim of a scam. According to the FBI, some schemes are up 173% from last year and 30.2 million adults (13.5% of the adult population in the U.S.) are victims of a scam each year.

How to Avoid Becoming the Victim of a "Work From Home" Scam:

1. I promise you – no one overseas is trying to send you money.

   This type of scam usually starts with an email telling you that someone in Nigeria has a lot of money that they want you to hold for them until they get to the states.

   For doing so they promise to give you something like 10%. What they want to happen is that you send them something – your checking account information.  And when you do you will be left with nothing.  Be sure you understand phishing before spending a lot of time online. (Phishing is where crooks impersonate other well-known companies in order to obtain private information from you).

2. Don’t give out your personal banking information.

   As a general rule you should only accept online payments through a system like PayPal or other third party escrow and merchant services.  This way there is a third party involved that contains your personal information.  DO NOT give your information away through email unless you are 100% sure you know who the person is. If it is a phone call hang up and call the company directly so you know you are actually talking to a company representative.

3. Avoid paying money up front.

   Many scams require you to pay for or purchase items before you can “start earning thousands an hour”.  If this is the case, you probably want to turn and run.  The only exception is that if you already know someone else (a friend) who is involved in the same business and is actually seeing success.  Even then, proceed with caution.

4. Be wary of free trials.

   Free trials are usually just ways to get your credit card information so that they can start charging a huge monthly fee later on. Remember, you are trying to make money – not lose money.  There are a lot of good jobs that don’t require any capital at all.

5. Does the organization have a physical address?

   Most scams do not have a physical address to trace back to them. If you come to a website that does not have actual contact information on it, then you may want to avoid it all together.  To verify you could call the chamber of commerce in that area, a local church, or even the Better Business Bureau.  You might even check the information using an internet map system like Google Maps.

6. Too good to be true? It probably is.

   Think about it: if it were true, then everyone would be doing it. Since most normal jobs offer $10 to $30 per hour, a significantly larger offer is a good hint that it's a scam. Do a little research and ask yourself, "Does this feel right?" If there is anything inside of you that feel uncomfortable, just turn and walk away.

7. Keep all personal information personal.

   If a company wants your email address so they can email you important information, it is probably just a scam to get your email address so it can be sold to spammers.  If a company has a great product and a great money making opportunity they won’t hide it and make it available to only email subscribers - they will sell it on their public webpages.

8. Don’t just Google and go.

   Google is by far the best search engine out there, but they cannot filter out all of the junk. When you are searching for "make money from home" you will be swamped with junk. Weed through it carefully.

9. Ask an uninvolved third party for advice.

   This is probably the most important and yet the hardest thing to implement. When you find a way to make extra money, your emotions are running high and you are excited about the new opportunity. The last thing you want to hear is a friend telling you that it's not a good idea. But this is the best way to avoid a scam. Third parties who are not involved will have the best insight. Listen to them.

Ok, now that you know how to avoid a scam, don't make me say "I told you so."