By Carl Laron on March 25, 2010 in
Despite the name, most envelope-stuffing schemes don't really involve stuffing envelopes for companies. After all, as noted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, technology has pretty much eliminated any need for work-from-home mailing services. What exactly, then, are you in for if you sign up for an envelope-stuffing work-at-home job? We took a closer look, and here's what we found:- The Promise: Make hundreds of dollars per week guaranteed, for just a few hours' work.
- The Reality: You'll pay money -- maybe a lot of it -- to learn the "secret" details, and probably never make anything at all stuffing envelopes at home.
- The Scoop: While we can't say that all work-at-home stuffing-envelopes jobs are complete scams, we can say with some assurance that most are. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regularly brings charges against envelope-stuffing operations, levying fines and sometimes sending their owners to jail. But because envelope-stuffing schemes are so lucrative for their promoters, that hasn't stopped them from popping up time and time again.
Our research found that most envelope-stuffing schemes have more in common with pyramid schemes and chain letters than legitimate work-from-home opportunities -- and you need to lure in others to make any money yourself. As the Better Business Bureau (BBB) notes, instead of getting envelopes to stuff, you are far more likely to only get instructions on how to place ads in local papers or elsewhere promoting work-at-home schemes -- like stuffing envelopes.
We found lots of sites promoting envelope-stuffing schemes, including HomeWorkMadeEZ.. There you will see glowing "testimonials" and lots of splashy promises of riches for doing nothing more than mailing out circulars. Among other things, those using the system would be paid $5 for each envelope sent out, and would earn additional profits from any sales made.
Sounds good, but the devil is in the details. While we weren't in a hurry to spring for the $77 upfront fee (reduced from $177 for a "limited time," no less) to sign up for HomeWorkMadeEZ, those details aren't hard to find in posts at ThriftyFun.com and elsewhere from those that say they were scammed.
True to the BBB's word, the HomeWorkMadeEZ system requires home workers to place ads in local papers or elsewhere promoting information about work-at-home opportunities -- such as envelope stuffing -- in exchange for a self-addressed, stamped envelope and $5. The envelopes you stuff and your payments come from those ads, and the information you send out comes to you in digital form, so you have to go and print it yourself.
Complaints are loud and varied, and few have anything positive to say about HomeWorkMadeEZ. Promised refunds to those that are dissatisfied rarely if ever materialize. Some say they never received the paid-for information at all, or that the digital files they received were unusable.
- Our Advice: Stay far, far away from HomeWorkMadeEZ and similar envelope-stuffing schemes.
- What to do if you get burned: While there's not much you can do in terms of recouping your financial commitment, there are steps you can take to help others avoid the same fate. One is to register a complaint with the FTC's "Complaint Assistant;" you can read more about that here. You can also share your story with others at sites such as Scam.com and or My3Cents.com.