With so many scams out there, promising to earn you  £943,198,847 per second, I understand that people are wary when it comes to earning from home. It is why I set up this blog – to tell people about genuine earning opportunities and to warn them from scams.

Yesterday my lovely online friend Lucy tweeted this screenshot, and it pretty much sums up the amount of shit out there. Knowing how to spot a scam when it comes to earning money online is important. Here are my tips for staying safe and still earning some extra cash.

Talk to others/take advice

I hate to break it is you, but you are unlikely to be the first person to discover some Amazing Earning Opportunity. Genuine opportunities have already been found by others, but that isn’t to say that you can’t make money doing the same thing. Did you know that there is a fantastic, UK based forum called The Money Shed, all about helping people to make money from home? Last month the challengers earned over £12,000 between them – and that’s just those who entered August’s challenge. Everything is discussed on there and I strongly advise that you join up and read about some earning from home opportunities. Plus the savvy members can spot a scam a mile off, so you can always ask for their opinion.

Search for scams & payment proof

This one is really easy – all you need to do is do an internet search for “online money making scheme’s name + scam”. Then have a read through of the top few search results. This isn’t 100% accurate, there are many websites that I use that are classed as a scam from disgruntled customers. You can also search for the phrase “online money making scheme’s name + payment proof” to hopefully see screenshots of payment proof. Of course these could be Photoshopped, so still be cautious.

If it sounds too good to be true…

…then it probably is. Although many people have said that to me about matched betting and I have proved it wrong. Anything that promises to make you a passive income without any effort or selling is wrong. If you look closely you will see that you most likely need to pay for this fantastic money making scheme, which leads me onto the next point.

It requires upfront payment

No. Just no.

If anything promises you the secrets of making millions for this one time offer of £££ then it isn’t legit. How are they making the money? From selling their “secrets” to suckers. And do you know what those secrets usually are? Getting your friends to buy these “secrets” from you. Do you really want to take advantage of your friends and family in that way?

No genuine working from home or earning opportunity should ask you to pay for “secrets”. If they are legit, for example, matched betting with Profit Accumulator then there should be a free trial and plenty of positive reviews on the internet.

There are some cases where you might need to pay for something such as a DBS (previously known as a CRB) check, but these are rare.

If it promises passive income

There are plenty of ways to earn a passive income, some ideas include blogging, affiliate marketing and writing a book. These aren’t truly passive though, because you need to put in a lot of work to build up your audience and customers, as well as keeping up to date with regular marketing.

No effort involved

If you want to earn money from home then you need to put some effort in. I made over £2,000 in July, but to do that I had to work hard and sacrifice a lot of my free time. Although matched betting is by far my easiest way to earn extra money as it involves very little effort, it still involves effort. I have to log in every day (or as much as I want), read the offers and place my bets.

Don’t put all your earning eggs in one basket

This is extremely important when you are earning money from home – do not place all your earning trust in one website/company/smartphone app. Anything could happen such as a bad performance review, a company going under, problems with payment or something else. I would much rather have a network of 200 earning opportunities earning me £10 a month than one earning me £2,000 a month. It is extremely risky and if you are relying on that income then you could face financial hardship.

What are some of the online earning scams that you’ve seen around?