In our current economic climate, the idea of working from home has spawned a whole new wave of ordinary people looking for business ideas and opportunities on the Internet. Some of those that were popular years ago are starting to pop up again. Most of these are not legitimate working opportunities, and those that do actually pay you to do the work, will not provide anywhere near the income that they promise.

The only way to make money operating ATM machines is to purchase the machines yourself (which takes thousands of dollars in start up capital), find businesses and locations that will allow you to place the machines, fill them with cash and monitor them yourself. Anyone offering you a “route” or opportunity for machines that are already in place is trying to con you. Individuals may very well put their collections or “routes” of ATM machines on the market, but they will be selling this as a business and the cost will be substantial. Make sure you investigate these sales wisely.

Stuffing envelopes was a popular stay at home work opportunity a decade ago. It soon faded into the background as folks realized that this was not a good way to make money. It has now started to gain popularity again as people are desperate to find a way to make some extra cash. First of all, you should never have to pay any up front fees or costs to a company that is going to “hire” you to stuff envelopes for them. Second of all, most of these schemes, involve you having to find the addresses yourself to send them to, as well as pay for advertising, envelopes and the postage. What is left is pennies for your time. This is not worth it.

Assembling products at home falls much into the same category as stuffing envelopes. In the end, even those that do actually provide you with things to assemble (and don’t run off with your “processing fees”) will have such high operating expenses for you, that you will essentially be working in a sweatshop you created.

“Work from home as a medical billing specialist”. This is a legitimate opportunity if you are also a good sales person and can close deals, negotiate with businesses and provide customer service. Medical billing is only half of the job. The other half involves finding doctors offices and medical professionals who will hire you to do their billing for them, and then also negotiating that deal, closing the contract and maintaining the relationship.

The best way to avoid getting scammed is to do your homework up front. Don’t rely on “testimonials” that are provided on a supplier’s website. Of course they’re going to pad the truth or lie. You can research a company online by typing in the company’s name into a search engine and adding the word “scam” next to their name. See what comes up.

Anyone who wants you to pay money up front is not trustworthy. There should never be any fees to process your application or set up your account. The only time you should pay for anything, should be to purchase equipment or merchandise.

There are no home based businesses that are going to make you a millionaire overnight. If there were, wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Take the time to do your research, think clearly and logically, and make sure that what you are thinking of doing is something that you will be content doing for a long period of time.