These days just about everybody wants to work from home, and there are all kinds of opportunities to do so. You’ve probably seen all kinds of ads in the classified section of your newspaper and even more if you’ve looked at online job boards, many offering the opportunity to earn thousands of dollars just by stuffing envelopes.

These jobs invariably work the same way: you pay a small setup fee and then you get paid for every envelope you fill. The faster you stuff envelopes, the faster you get paid, and they claim you can earn as much money as you want simply by stuffing more envelopes.

Work From Home Stuffing Envelopes

Is working from home stuffing envelopes a legit work from home business?

Can you make money stuffing envelopes? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out that way in real life

Most of these ads aren’t offering envelope stuffing jobs at all. In fact, when you send them a letter for your starter kit they instruct you to spread the ad and refer family or friends. The only time you’re stuffing envelopes is when you’ve conned some poor soul into giving you $10(or whatever dollar amount is listed) for their “starter kit”.

Are there ANY legitimate work from home envelope stuffing jobs?

Let’s be real: nobody in their right mind is going to pay a lot of money for someone to stuff envelopes. If you were to miraculously land a real envelope stuffing job that did pay per envelope you stuff it would probably pay $0.02-0.05 per envelope, making it all but impossible to actually earn a lot of money.

Beware of the “starter kit”

While most legitimate business opportunities require some kind of financial investment, you should always be wary of a job opportunity that requires you to purchase a “starter kit”. You shouldn’t need a starter kit to learn how to stuff envelopes. Most online opportunities that require you to purchase a “starter kit” are either outright scams or Multi-Level Marketing companies, which are incredibly difficult to make a living from.

Watch out for extra fees

Once they’ve got your attention these scam artists love to add all kinds of extra fees. These include processing fees, “membership” fees and even disclosure fees. Disclosure fees are the most ridiculous because it means you’re paying them to tell you anything about their business model, and this is especially ridiculous when they’re “envelope stuffing” businesses.

Fake Testimonials

Many of these companies like to cover their website in testimonials and even send out special reports showing off people who have apparently taken advantage of these opportunities and earned thousands of dollars.

Don’t believe everything you read

It’s remarkably easy to make up great quotes about a product or business opportunity and post them online. The person being quoted might not even exist, and if they do, they’re probably the scam artist’s girlfriend or mother trying to help them pull a fast one.

Other things to watch out for:

• No phone number, email address or website
• Nobody around to answer the phone during business hours if there is a phone number
• Unprofessional answering machine if there is a phone
• The address is a PO box
• They ask for money before telling you anything
• They say you can make thousands of dollars quickly

What to do if you’ve been scammed

If you believe you’ve been scammed, head over to ScamWatch.gov.au and report it or find out if it’s something that has already been reported.