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Starting a work-at-home business can give you the flexibility to set your own hours and be your own boss. But when you search online or get ads by email, you’ll often find scammers instead of a real opportunity.

Take, for example, Effen Ads. The FTC says this company tricked more than 50,000 people into paying for fake work-at-home opportunities. According to the FTC’s complaint, the company ran ads with made-up news stories and fake celebrity endorsements. Those ads promised people they could make easy money by posting advertising links on websites. The catch? First, people had to pay $97 in upfront fees. Then, Effen gave people basic online training materials — but no money-making links, the FTC says.

Even worse, some people lost tens of thousands of dollars after Effen Ads allegedly sold their information to telemarketing companies. Which then convinced people to buy bogus business coaching and other services, according to the FTC’s complaint.

The FTC settled its case against Effen Ads and certain individuals involved in the scheme. The settlements impose strong restrictions on their future activity and require the defendants to pay nearly $1.5 million, which will go back to people who lost money.

If you want to start a business from home, first research the company’s name online with the words “complaint,” “scam,” or “review.” Here are tips for spotting and stopping potential investment scams:

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.