Over the last few months, I’ve received phone calls from people saying they’re calling on behalf of Amazon and asked if it was true that I wanted to make money from home. Like most telemarketers, it didn’t matter that I said ‘no’, they kept talking, getting ruder and ruder. (I don’t get how telemarketers think I’ll change my mind if they’re rude or mean to me!)
I can’t say for sure if these programs are scams in terms of ripping you off, but I can say they are deceptive. If a company has to use deception to make money, then you should stay away from it.
Scammers and schemers often use the names of well-known companies to make you feel comfortable, when in fact they have nothing to do with the companies they mention. This happened a couple of years ago when scammers were using Google’s name to promote a work-at-home product. We also see this a lot on scam sites that suggest they’ve been on major TV networks or on fake news sites.
Amazon is NOT hiring companies to call on its behalf to sell you a work-at-home program on making money through Amazon. Just to be sure, I called Amazon and asked. The nice lady in the Amazon Associates program told me that they don’t hire companies to promote the associates program or build associate websites, and that Amazon is investigating the problem.
Here’s what you need to know:
1) Is it possible to make money from Amazon? Yes. The Amazon Associate program is an affiliate program by which you can be paid a percentage of the sale of Amazon products you promote. The program is free to sign up. You can also sell your own products through Amazon or get hired to do small micro-tasks through Amazon Turk. These are all legitimate ways, directly through Amazon, to make money.
2) It doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars to make a website selling Amazon products. Even non-techies can get a domain name, webhosting, WordPress with an Amazon Associate plugin to make a storefront for less than $100.
Affiliate marketing is a viable way to make money from home. I make money from affiliate marketing. But you need to beware of deceptive schemes that are overpriced and often continue to charge you month after month for information and resources you can get a lower cost or even free.
My suggestion is that you ignore any phone call or email about working at home unless of you’ve specifically asked for the company to contact you.
BTW… I’ve gotten two calls similar to this saying they were calling on behalf of GoDaddy as well.
Some great resources on how to make money with affiliate marketing include:
- Work-At-Home Success University: Affiliate Marketing Success eCourse (you can promote this course through the WAHS affiliate program)
- SuperAffiliate Handbook
Thank you for this excellent post. I actually just wrote a post on my blog on this scam. These scam companies really prey on the vulnerable as well. I’ve read stories of pensioners, people on disability, the unemployed, etc. going into debt in the amount of 1000’s of dollars that they’ve been conned out of by these crooks.
I read a story of one gentleman who lost over $10,000 from one of these scam companies and other who lost even more than that. My post on this scam can be found at http://internetsecurity101.net/amazon-affiliate-program-website-scam/. Thanks again for the excellent article and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Christopher
There are no shortage of scams or victims, unfortunately. The more people can get the word out the better. And hopefully people will learn to research before sending in their money. Thanks for the comment!