If you don’t like your current job or are unemployed, you might consider working at home. Working at home allows you to set your own hours and control how much money you make. However, work at home businesses take time to set up–it may be a year or two before you see any profits. As you investigate these types of opportunities, you may run into scams. Scammers know that it takes more time to earn money working at home than you’d like and try to trick you into spending money in order to learn how to make large profits right away.

Don’t fall for any opportunity that claims to allow you to make thousands or millions of dollars with no effort. Although there are a few lucky people in the world who are born into extreme wealth, the only surefire way to get rich is to put a lot of effort into a business and hope for some luck along the way. So if someone is offering money in exchange for no work, most likely the only person getting rich is the scammer who is promoting the scheme.

For example, you may get an advertisement that states you can make 6 million dollars on Google within a week. If you get this type of advertisement, stop and think for a second. If it was really possible to make this kind of money simply by using Google searches, wouldn’t more people be doing it? Also, think about the amount of effort you put into a simple Google search. Do you really think that effort is worth large sums of money?

If you’re still not convinced that these types of offers are scams, search for the company or the type of work-at-home offer you are considering. If an offer is not legitimate, other people usually have already fallen for it. Many of these people try to warn others so that they won’t suffer the same fate. Some scams may even come up with the word “scam” next to them when you type the offer or company name into Google. This is a red flag. Read the scam reports that come up so that you can see for yourself whether an offer is worth pursuing. Occasionally, a legitimate offer is accused of being a scam, but most likely if people think an offer is a scam, it is.

You should be especially careful of any offers that require you to collect and cash Western Union checks. These offers are not only scams, but they involve illegal activity–and you could end up in jail if you fall for them. There are lots of variations of this scam, but they usually involve the scammer sending you a Western Union money order and telling you to cash it and keep part of it for yourself. The problem is that the money orders are fraudulent; there’s no money behind them. When your bank discovers that the check is fake, it will require you to pay back the cash. It may also press charges against you for fraud.

As you can see, it’s important to keep your eyes open so that you don’t fall for scams while trying to look for work at home opportunities. If you fall for a scam, you could be out a lot of money or worse–some scams can cost you your freedom and your reputation. Don’t let this happen to you; follow your instincts and don’t accept any offers that sound too good to be true.