How do you know if a work at home business opportunity is legitimate or not? The simple answer is that if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Advertisements that make wild promises like the ones below are usually scams:

"Make $3000 a month working only two hours a day!"
"Make money filling out surveys!"
"Be your own boss!"
"Only $50 to get started!"

Typically these scams involve envelope stuffing, mystery shopping, clipping coupons, email processing, selling miracle products and other classic schemes. Beware of these scams: they are run by clever people who are very good at deceiving innocent people. In the end, you are more likely to lose money than make money with these types of offers.

Why is this? Well, sometimes the scam involves you having to pay upfront for a "training package" or "start-up supplies" that never shows up or turns out to be garbage. Or the scam involves a pyramid or multi-level marketing scheme which could actually get you into legal trouble.

Just as troubling are the scams that involve fraud or identify theft: under the pretext of "setting up your personnel file" or "arranging for direct deposit" scammers obtain your personal information including banking details.

Want to learn more about how to detect and avoid work from home scams? HomeBusinessWiz reader Andrea Coutu of ConsultantJournal.com has a good article on how to avoid work from home scams, along with a list of resources for more information.