Scams involving homeworking schemes are varied.
Those falling under the 'Directories' banner involve advertisements inviting respondents to send a fee - usually around £15 - in return for a list of companies offering work to homeworkers. What is actually received may only be a list of contacts for other homework directories or contacts for some of the other schemes on offer.
These include 'Addressing Envelope Recruitment' schemes which ask respondents to send an SAE for further information.
They are then asked to send a registration fee, in return for which they are instructed to place a small ad, similar to the one to which they originally responded. This means the only way they can recover their original fee (around £10 or more) and earn the advertised income, is to encourage others to register.
'Assembly Kit Work' schemes can be equally misleading. Initially, respondents have to buy a kit - this can be anything from £50 upwards - and although the materials supplied might be adequate, instructions and quality standard requirements are often missing. This means that the homeworker has no proof that their work has achieved the required standard and so is often not paid for the assembled kit. |