MiamiHerald.com:
For a parent, it sounds like the best of both worlds: working from home so you can make money and spend more time with your kids.
The lure of work-at-home companies is especially enticing at a time when many moms can’t afford to be without employment anymore and even those who have an outside job may need a second source of income.
But how do you know what’s legitimate and what’s a scam?
“Work-at-home opportunities are attractive to scammers because scammers have easy access to the Internet, job postings, even the classifieds in newspapers,” said John Breyault, vice president of public policy for the National Consumers League. “There are a lot of pyramid schemes out there masquerading as multilevel marketing.”
The big difference between the two, he said, is while multilevel marketing companies such as Amway and Mary Kay offer legitimate products for sale, pyramid schemes offer nothing but promised compensation for recruiting others.
Neil Offen, president of the Direct Selling Association, a national trade association based in Washington, D.C., said there are two questions you should ask before venturing into business with a direct-sales company:
Do you risk financial loss? By being involved with the company, could you lose money? “If you have to buy anything, ask, `Will you buy this back, and at what price?’ ”
How do you earn money? Is the money you’re making coming from the sale of a product or from recruiting people? “If it’s from recruiting people, it’s a scam,” Offen said.
The Direct Selling Association, www.dsa.org, boasts high-profile members such as Avon, Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, Amway and Herbalife. It has a strict code of ethics that member companies must follow, Offen said. One of its key edicts is its buyback program. If an individual quits, the company must buy back any inventory purchased in the prior 12 months for 90 percent of its value.
Logo from Direct Selling Association