Several online sites focus specifically on offering tips and job ads to those who are or wish to be work at home moms. There are many legitimate work at home jobs for moms - but there are many that aren't legitimate as well. Moms who want to work at home must be aware of what can happen and take caution when researching these job or business opportunities. Here's one horror story.



One stay at home mom thought she had finally found work she could do at home when she answered a classified ad posted on the Web by an overseas firm. She instead was arrested publicly weeks later and charged with a felony. She now faces possible jail time.

When she was hired to work at home, this mom was told she would collect U.S. client payments and wire the money to London. The job ad was a con - as was the firm.

Another part of the scam involved an internationally-known auction site, where her con artists employers placed a motorcycle for sale. A Florida resident bought the bike for $900 and sent the money to the work at home mom in Texas. There had never been a motorcycle, however, and when the new employee went to her local bank to wire the sale money to London she was arrested.

Major job boards such as Monster, Careerbuilder and Hot Jobs, among others, spent a ton of time and energy looking for and eliminating fraudulent ads. Careerbuilder has a team that does nothing but that. They also post warnings on every site page and in every job-related email they send out. But con artists still get past them. Postal inspectors advise that these fake job for forwarding merchandise and money overseas have existed for many years.

In fact, the ad that the arrested work at home mom answered is still on the Web.

Another Texan lost his bank job after he responded to the same ad. Four other victims, hoping to be work at home moms, instead ended up with money being stolen from their bank accounts after these con artist "employers" got them to give up their account numbers as part of the job.

Dixon says a man in Dallas, Texas, lost his job at a bank after responding to the same job posting. Four other victims had money stolen out of their personal bank accounts when the con artists simply stole their identities after convincing them to divulge their account numbers.?

The ad is appearing under three different business names at least, in more than 100 publications and sites.

To their credit, the job site through which the arrested work at home mom responded is doing everything it can to help the woman clear her name but it's an uphill battle - and she's still unemployed.

No, those who wish to be work at home moms shouldn't give up - there are plenty of legitimate and fruitful jobs out there working from home. They should exercise great caution, however, and never divulge personal information such as social security number and bank accounts until hired. Even then, it would be wise to set up a separate bank account to handle only the transactions for the hiring firm, leaving personal accounting and money unreachable. The safest course is to simply not accept a job that requires transmitting funds or anything else outside the United States.