Make money typing data into my computer? Huh?

I can't unequivocably state that every single one of these deals is a scam, but I can say that the vast majority of them are a con of some sort or the other.

For example, I got the following email a few days ago from one of these companies (this email is spam, of course, and if it were a legitimate business wouldn't they stick to legitimate forms of marketing? That's another story, I suppose):

"Typers Wanted, Make $12,000 - $30,000/Month"

Let's think about this for a minute or two. If we worked full time and earned this much, that means we'd be earning 12,000/160 hours = $75 hour up to 30,000/160 hours = $187.50 hour. That's quite a range, and quite a job. I know people who have spent years studying and gaining professional credentials and are happy to earn $40-$50/hour as an average wage. Heck, that's a pretty nice income, $50/hour: if you do the math that adds up to a gross annual revenue of $104,000. Not too shabby at all.

But these deals are not only offering an earning potential that's higher than $100k/year, they're offering it for far, far less than 40 hours/week. In fact, one site I checked explained that you could earn this in "30-45 minutes of work each day" which makes your effective salary higher than President Obama.

Yeah, I'm a bit skeptical.

(as a side note, I'm also baffled by these deals too: if I could really earn around $1000/hour doing something, why would I share it with anyone else? Instead, I'd work like a madman for six months, bank the millions I'd earn and retire. It's the same loophole you see with all the late night TV ads: if these people can really earn so much flipping houses, teaching seminars, whatever, why would they want to share it with you?)

This same program explained that they aren't selling access to a potential client list and they'd rather just give it all away, but they weren't getting "motivated clients" so they now charge $49.95 for "the special software you need to run the system". Okay, so my guess is that you pay that $49.95 (or $199 in your daughter's case) just to find that there's either nothing behind it, or a list of 10,000 companies that hire low-priced data entry people and, well, those wild numbers about huge revenue you can earn? Those are "not typical cases" after all.

Let me quote a helpful third-party, the Federal Trade Commission, which states in a document titled Net Based Business Opportunities: Are Some Flop-portunities:

"Consider the promotion carefully. If it claims buyers can earn a certain income, then it also must give the number and percentage of previous purchasers who achieved the earnings. If an earnings claim is there - but the additional information isn't - the business opportunity seller is probably violating the law.

NBC's Dateline program did an entire show on these sort of online scams too, which you might want to watch since they've conveniently put the entire video online. More importantly, your daughter should watch it and think about it before she signs up for any sort of "too good to be true" deal.

And good luck to both of you. Keep your eyes open and be careful out there!

PS: Google AdSense is probably going to match ads that are for this or similar make money at home / make money fast scams and you'll see them associated with this article. There is some irony to this, of course, but as you see those ads also take a minute and really think about the offer and what is and isn't said. For example, an ad to "make $3500 working at home" might require a $100 investment and take 200 hours of work to achieve, a task that 0.001% of the people who apply actually complete. Remember the wise words of the FTC: ask for proof, in writing.