If you’re looking to make money online, odds are you’ve probably comes across one (or many) work from home “opportunities” being advertised out there.
Unfortunately most of them are absolute scams and in addition to providing you with a list of them in this post, I’d also like to help you uncover how to spot them as well as which ones can really be trusted.
First, let me quickly explain a little bit about myself and what I do: I’ve been doing online marketing for many years and know what it takes to make it in this business (about me). A lot of people who look for WFH type programs generally fall into these categories:
- They want to make fast money.
- They want to make a lot of money.
- They just want a simple job that can earn them something extra while they’re at home.
Now I pointed out the above categories because A LOT of programs have been sprouting left n right lately that promise you these things: fast money & a lot of it and all you have to do is pay them an X amount of money to get in on the action. There are also those which promise you great paying wages for “simple tasks”.
This pitch gets more people than you can imagine and it’s very important for you to understand that if you’re going to avoid being scammed online, you need to know that there is NO such thing as a get rich quick scheme. Any company which promises you this is in my experience is a scam 99.9% of the time.
Now with that said, let me give you the list I promised. I actively review work from home programs and let you know if they can be trusted or not.
A list of work from home (WFH) scams you need to avoid:
- Online Profit Stream.
- Careers at Home University.
- Work From Home University.
- Work From Home EDU.
- Home Profit System.
- Work From Home Institute.
- Home Internet Careers.
- Home Internet Cash.
- Online Home Careers University.
- Online Income Solution.
- Extreme Home Profits.
- Profit Web System.
- EStore Builder.
- Replace Your Job.
- Online Profit System.
- WFH Report.
- Internet Income Commissions.
- Online Success Plan.
- Internet Home Careers.
- Direct Online Income (Earn at Home Club).
- Secure Online Work.
- Auto Home Profits.
- 37 Clicks.
- High ticket scams.
To be honest, I stopped updating this list a long time ago because it grows so much, so fast, that you’d end up scrolling down forever if I were to add every single scam I’ve spotted, so if you have one you’d like to add. You can actually see an updated list of scams here.
Just as well, you can let me know about them on my scam report page. Even though it’s really a big list, this is really nothing to compared to how often these places keep appearing. As long as people know what to look for within these sites, they’ll never get scammed by them.
Note: I’ve posted reviews on each of the above places so if you wish to learn more about them, you can type them into the search bar of this website and get more info. Also a lot of these same places disappear and reappear under different names. You’ll often find the websites look identical.
Most of the scams I’ve been able to identify have been from looking those above places, but when I did find them again, they were named different which to me means it’s been remade, but with a new name, most people won’t question if it’s the same scam as it was before (it still is!).
And these are just a small list of some of the many WFH scams out there. A couple of things I noticed about most of these scams is this:
1) They almost always advertise themselves through websites which look like this:
If you’re ever going to avoid being scammed by one of the above companies or others like it, remember the way this website looks (I call them the work at home special report scams).
I have noticed that a TON of the scams I listed above all advertise themselves through these types of sites. So if you notice a page which looks VERY similar to this one, be VERY careful. In addition:
2) These sites usually show of the “As seen on” and show popular networks to give you the impression that they are legit.
This is absolutely NOT true and they are using deceptive advertising to give you this wrong impression.
The truth is that what these scams do is put a video on their site showing people who make money from home, but not once do these videos actually say the WFH report is based on the actual program being advertised.
In other words if the current site we’re looking at is advertising “Home Profit System”, the video that shows people making money from home will never say it’s actually Home Profit System. Get it?
But it’s a VERY tricky way of advertising because most unsuspecting people make that wrong connection and trust the company as a result.
3) These programs are in many cases clones and/or copycats of each other.
If you notice in the list above, A LOT of the names sounds eerily similar and I believe this is because they are made by the same person/persons/organization and what they actively do is switch up their names to keep people guessing whether it’s the same or not.
HOWEVER, they are pretty lazy and that’s because most of the actual sales pages where these programs are advertised also look very similar like the image I posted above. Here is an example (Work at Home Edu):
Try to remember the layout of the above image, because most of the scams I showed you above (and probably many more like it) always look like this (in one way or another). The only thing that’s really different is the name of the program. Other than that, it’s all pretty much the same.
4) They say you can make easy money posting links for big name companies.
This is also an example of deceptive advertising. They never tell you the real story behind this claim (what posting links really means) and give you the impression that it’s simple to do. Either way, if you see any program say you can make easy money and/or post links to do it, stay far away from it.
5) Be careful of the “discounts” they offer.
In many of the examples above, if I tried to leave their page, they tried to get me to stay by offering some extravagant discount. This is just a hook to reel you in. BUT if you do join, odds are you’ll have to go through up-sells which you’re not told about.
I’ve heard horror stories of people losing $1,000’s through these types of WFH programs because they were offered some internet marketing coaches/training, but it’s never worth the price they set. 
More work at home scams you need to be aware of:
Another very popular WFH type scam going around these days is MLM companies. Not all of them are scams, but in my experience, most of them are pyramid schemes and should be avoided. Here is a list of places I recommend staying away from:
- Empower Network.
- Pure Leverage.
- Internet Lifestyle Network.
- Eric’s Success Plan.
- Profit with Michael.
- MOBE (My Online Business Empire)
- Big Idea Mastermind.
- Wake up Now.
- Instant Rewards Network.
- Profit Clicking.
- Computer Enterprise.
- Neucopia.
All of these are places I am STRONGLY opposed against because I feel they are not just scams or pyramid schemes, but also ponzi schemes in the making. These programs also allure you into joining them with the promises of fast money, but through the process of working with them, most people end up being in financial ruin.
Got scammed by one these places or another? Do this to get your money back from a scam.
Is there really any legitimate work from home opportunity out there?
I can tell you the overall answer is yes, and here is a post on 10 legitimate work at home opportunities you can check out. For me, I do online business through affiliate marketing for a living and strongly believe that if you wish to earn money from home, this is arguably the best way to do it.
It is not a get rich quick scheme by any means, but it offers you the opportunity to do what you love and the flexibility to work when/how you want. The only thing needed to succeed is this:
Proper guidance. A lot of places, including the ones I mentioned above love to preach about how they’ll help you start a profitable online business, but they don’t and only work to enrich themselves.
In all of my years experimenting/reviewing and trying different programs to help me make an online business, there was only 1 place that taught me truly legitimate methods to succeed. It is NOT an MLM or some type of shady company. It is called Wealthy Affiliate.
It teaches you to succeed online through 4 basic steps and you actually end up helping people. This is my personal view, but I believe that if you’re going to seek financial freedom online, then online business is the best way to do it. 
If you have ANY questions about the list I posted above or have other companies you feel are scams and should be added in, please let me know!
The signs on how to spot a scam seem so obvious, but I’ll admit I’ve been tricked by a few. Especially when they say as seen on tv, they make it sound like it was thoroughly covered in a news program, and I buy it because I don’t watch TV… but low and behold the program never appeared on TV (at least not for being legit). Happy to say I don’t fall for those tricks anymore.
Yeah I’ve fallen for that particular pitch as well Heather. Well at least we are both much more cautious now!
It is great the way you’ve outlined what to look for in terms of scams as well as listing some of the most popular scam websites.
I have become much better at recognizing scams. However, what is unfortunate is when some internet markerters who are quite popular actually use and endorse some of these.
Many unsuspecting people are being taken advantage of because of the trust they have in the person who is pushing a scammy product or service.
Yes! This is absolutely and unfortunately true Eartha, I have been a very strong critic of these so called “trusted” marketers who use their popularity and some may call it “celebrity status” to push products they don’t know are good or not and often, they don’t care, they’d rather make a chunk of the joint venture with whoever is offering it.
It’s one of the reasons a key factor in spotting the shady, popular online marketer is the one who email blasts or reviews and recommends their audience get nearly every single online marketing product they pitch. In my experience it is impossible for SO many products they pitch to be good, so I know when they recommend something I know to be garbage, and they do it again and again, I keep their name in mind to not recommend their products or recommendations in the future.
I have tried my hand at Pure Leverage, MOBE, and Empower and hadn’t seen a dime from any of those.
Thank you for amassing this impressive list of rip-offs to avoid. It is most appreciated. One thing that these sites thrive at are tugging at your emotional strings.
Then you give your credit card information and are sold. You then learn that their customer service stinks, their product only gives you a small percentage of everything you need to know to make money with it, and that you just got taken. Especially if you fall for the upsells. Their ought to be a law against their deceitful practices. A very helpful post to point people away from these crooks.
Thanks
Hi Jason, I am sorry to hear about your bad experiences with some of the programs I listed here, but unfortunately, it’s further proof they need to be exposed. I hope you were able to find a legitimate alternative and if not, I will strongly recommend Wealthy Affiliate, you will get great training, GREAT customer service and an overall transparent, effective program.
Hello Vitaliy,
Thanks for sharing this list of online scams to avoid, looking at the list today, I can only laugh because not so long ago, any of them could have taken my money.
Now, not all people losing money to online scams are greedy, I think these scam sites are so good at convincing unsuspecting people so that before you know it, you’ve signed up and given credit card number.
In my opinion, scammers are so good, much more convincing than honest programs. Why am I saying this? When I got started online, a guy called Eddy introduced me to a program that did not promise me anything but hard work and success later, at only$47 a month sounded like failures who could justify taking my money then give me an excuse of not succeeding “because I did not work hard enough” why else would it be so affordable for all they were offering?.(To respect your post, I’m not going to mention the program name).
The same night, I saw a program that offered me quick and long term cash with little to no work and no experience needed with more or less everything “done for you”.(Just what I wanted to hear as I had nil experience).
Before the night was over, I had invested $300+ on their upsells, before the week was over, I was out of over $800.Thinking of it today, I feel so stupid and ignorant.
This is not about my stupidity, this is to thank you for taking time to share this, will stop newbies from making the same mistake many of us do, trusting this shiny sites promising all the riches without work.
Hi Roamy, don’t feel bad about this stuff, we have all at one point fallen for this stuff, myself included! And I’ve also spent $1,000’s on these and who knows how long trying to get the money back (well at least I became good at getting refunds!) And about Eddy and the program he mentioned, I know exactly what you’re talking about and I stand by his recommendation of it as well.
That is Wealthy Affiliate, which also taught me how to succeed, and I mean how to REALLY succeed working from home, And Eddy is a good friend of mine, and we both share the same opinions on what things work.
And your experience on seeing the real opportunity but still being drawn to the get rich quick scheme is SO familiar to me. Just like you, even when I knew I was headed in the right direction with Wealthy Affiliate as you are, I still looked for shortcuts and they always ended up leading me to a a scam.
Thanks Vitaliy,
The one thing I never got from these scam sites were refunds, I always felt so stupid and was too ashamed to ask for refunds.
Totally Agree with you, Wealthy Affiliate is the best place. Apart from offering the best training around, the live chat is second to none, any time a member feels stuck, instead of sending a ticket and waiting for hours, you can go to the live chat and get answers right away from members.
Don’t feel bad about this stuff, it has happened to me on several occasions as well. More people get scammed than you can imagine, especially on the internet, in a way, that lesson is what CAN lead us into a better place, in this case, Wealthy Affiliate.
I’m glad you like it there! Among the other things you pointed out that they have, I think the biggest thing I personally take from it is that it gave me a business plan to follow that I’ve been VERY happy with and anyone can find their own version of that through there. I know a lot of people want to make money on their own terms and this place’s greatest gift is that it gives you the opportunity to do this.
I found another site that looks poorly done: homebasework.net. There are grammatical errors.I can think of another reason that I don’t think it’s legitimate, because they charge you a fee.
Hi Carol, yeah this site looks untrustworthy to me as well. There is VERY little information about what it is (in addition to many errors like you mentioned), plus they quickly try to get you to buy different plans to…find jobs.
Is Online Team Builders a fake.
Outside the site itself, there’s very little information on it Margaret, no complaints, no reviews, nothing, so it may be new. However, upon reading the site, here’s some things that stood out:
1) No about me page. Although the site’s home page explains what this program is, I’d like to see some more menu pages and examples of how this program has helped people. For now, there’s only the home page and a contact us page.
2) It seems like the site is a consolidation type service for helping online businesses manage things like email list building, calling their leads and basically managing most if not all the things a typical online business needs, which if they did alone, they’d have to do through several programs but in Online Team Builders, it’s all available in their program supposedly.
3) It’s free to join, but I am not happy that you have to provide your address and other information. For now, I don’t even see if there’s real people working there, just images that I think might be stock photos.
Overall, it sounds nice, but I’d be careful with them. Honestly, just go with Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll be happy there and I’m sure it’ll provide you with everything you’re looking for.
Hi, I too received a call from them (Online Team Builders) after looking into online work, and decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least for the “pre-interview”, as they called it. I logged in and sat through a 20 minute power point show as I was given very vague details about the work I might be doing (should I be lucky enough to be selected from the 1000’s of people they were interviewing!).
Since they were so adamant about me not having to pay for anything up front I hung on, went to the site as directed and skipped through the “getting started” videos, and lo and behold (as suspected), it’s a pyramid scheme!
They then asked for a $29.95/mo membership fee to get into the scheme, and at that point I was out. I don’t know if they are a legit pyramid scheme, but even if they are, the chances that you will actually make any money off of it without roping in dozens of other unsuspecting victims are very slim. Hope this helps!
Hi Marina, thanks for adding to this discussion. I will be doing a review on Online Team Builders very shortly. Ultimately, I want to see if what you said about this company also holds true to the experience I’ll have with them. Based on your testimonial, it does sound like a scam. I will be updating this comment and linking to the review once it’s up.
Great, I look forward to reading about your findings! They might be legitimate, but I’m not willing to blindly pay for a product that I haven’t even been able to test.
Marina hi, here is the review. Overall, I do not recommend Online Team Builders.
Hi,
Great review, except I am wondering why you didn’t agree that it is a pyramid scheme. In the introduction videos I saw they stressed several times that you would make more money by having people join through you, then still make some money off of the people who joined through them, and so on, branching down and out.
This sounds a lot like an MLM that relies on you recruiting new sellers, and they stressed recruitment as a source of income almost as much as selling the product itself. That’s just my take on it, but if that isn’t a pyramid format I don’t know what is.
Hi Marina, you have great points, but let me explain why I didn’t say it’s a pyramid scheme:
1) I don’t know enough about the MLM company Online Team Builders is involved with, so I don’t want to tarnish anything until I know for sure.
2) I did look over the MLM company and they offer products in addition to their recruitment. In my experience a pyramid scheme usually does not have products and only relies on the recruitment, thereby making the only opportunity the recruitment, and that is a pyramid scheme. Grey area companies usually do offer products, but I never recommend nor participate in recruiting people into MLM programs.
3) There are cases where the MLM company does offer products & a recruitment model, but can be a pyramid scheme and usually that’s when the price of the product is highly overvalued and rips people off. Add to that model, the recruitment, and yes, that would be a scam and pyramid scheme. I did not see evidence of that with Essante Organics (the program I believe Online Team Builders is connected to). And overall, here is an article where I distinguish these types of companies and how to tell apart pyramid schemes.
4) It is true that very often it’s VERY hard to tell if these companies are pyramid schemes or not, and it’s easy to place ever MLM there is out there and call it that, but we need to be careful as there are good MLM programs out there (though I am not a part of any of them proudly).
5) Overall, let’s stick to Online Team Builders and my opinion is, I don’t like how none transparent they are. Like I said, I advise against MLM programs in general and I certainly advise (even more) against companies that are trying to promote them and have you join under them.
is baseofnews.com real or not?
The site looks poorly done and there’s grammar and spelling errors Amelyn. I honestly don’t know why anyone would want to join this site when they can read the news from free sources. They say they pay you over a $100 per lead, but with the way the site looks now, I would not trust it…
Add Master Writers to your list! Fortunately it was only $35 – to be give you daily writing assignments – and allegedly guarantee your satisfaction or will fully refund your money. They did neither – no writing assignments and I have asked three times to have my money refunded but they are ignoring my request,
capitalofnews.com is it real or fake
Hi Patricia, I briefly looked over the site and it does not look real to me. They pay you to read news? That doesn’t make sense unless they include that affiliate program they talk about where they pay you to get people in. But that also baffles me, why would someone read the news on their program vs other sources? I personally think it sounds illegitimate.
Any work from home company that asks you to pay a fee of any kind. IS A SCAM!!!!
In MOST cases yes Kim. The ONLY ones I would ever trust would be those who let you in for free to REALLY see what’s there. The only good company I’ve ever reviewed that does this is Wealthy Affiliate, an awesome program 🙂
Is Home Office careers a legitimate company?
Debbie hi, I did review this company (here you go) and no, I do not believe it is.
I want to work at home but want honest work for honest pay, which programs do you recommend if any?
I’m not sure if you’re looking for a type of job where you work for someone Randy or do your own thing, but look at Wealthy Affiliate.
Dear Vitaliy,
Have you run into Online Survey Sites being scams also? Have you heard of 3 Week Millionaire before? Are binary trading programs usually bad?
~Angel
Hi Angel, I have maybe seen 1 paid survey site I would recommend, but the rest are scams. 3 week millionaire appears to be a binary trading site. I have never come across 1 binary options software program that I think works…
Is the earn at home club real of fake?
I just took a quick look at the page Fermin. Looks like a scam to me, but I’ll be doing a followup review. In the meantime, I recommend you try this.