Home business opportunity scams abound in this slow economy. Having recently become a victim of such a scam due to desperation of being out of work for eight months, I took a leap of faith and researched many of the \”business opportunities\” listed on several job sites.

The common Home business opportunity scams are those of data entry jobs or taking diet orders. They look so promising on their website about the large amounts of money you can make. Many offer money back guarantees. This was what sucked me in. I though what could it hurt to give it a try. I can always get a refund.

I examined several opportunities quite thoroughly, trying to avoid the ads that simply sold software that taught me how to make money and focused on those that made me an employee and had specific instructions on pulling information from a website and enter into the forms provided. It seemed foolproof.

I picked one that guaranteed 100% money back, and, of course the \”special offer\” of a discount to the first one hundred people applying. The website promotion and what actually was delievered were night and day. As soon as I hit apply and entered my credit card information, I discovered I was duped. I had become a victim of a home business opportunity scam.

My job was to promote credit cards. I was to get their name on hundreds of search engines and others sites like \”FaceBook\”. I had not been told that a condition of being paid included my having to apply for several credit cards. On top of that, I also had to be applied by them to get my $20 pay from my employer. Then, I was told that another requirement was that I had to make $500 first or I couldnt get the $20 per credit card.

I couldnt get paid until Id provided leads. There was always another reason why I couldnt yet get paid and no way to really get answers since they didnt provide a telephone number or online helpjust an email address that was usually ignored (or it replied with generic, automated messages that werent applicable).

I asked for the money-back guarantee multiple times. The only way I even reached them was through a phone number listed on my credit card bill (in Australia) and of course those calls werent returned either. I ended up filing a complaint through my credit card issuer and Im still waiting for it to be resolved.

Im a college graduate. Im embarrassed to have fallen for this scam. I know being desperate for a paycheck is stressful though and I was in a place where I was susceptible to the lure of easy money. I am ready and willing to work hard, I just couldnt do that through opportunities like this that are based on deception. I really want others to realize that a job probably isnt legitimate if the promises are too good to be true; research carefully before you take a chance on a work-at-home business.