Earn £1.70 for each envelope you stick an address on...

kam05

Hi,

I'm after some advice and I'd like your input.

We recieved a leaflet through the post yesterday of a money making opportunity. Basically, this company, Soilhull Printers (they supply mail order companies) will pay us £1.70 for each envelope we stick an address label on and send back to them. For 300 returned envelopes, we can earn £510 per week!

I'm (me & the wife) are considering doing this, but we have to pay £35 up front (to cover setup costs etc), but we have been told that this will be refunded in full once we send back 25 completed envelopes.

My question is, is this how these things work? I don't want to send them a cheque for £35 only to get ripped off...

tallsam

hmmm.... I really can't see how that would work.

albertross_2

Don't waste your money

http://www.oft.gov.uk/oft_at_work/consumer_initiatives/scams/work

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=home+working+scam&btnG=Search&meta=

melancholly

it sounds too good to be true to me - 300 envelopes would be done in one day by a temp (i've done mail shots where they expected much more, with stuffing the envelopes too!). at minimum wage, even including a mark up for an agency, that would cost them around £100..... why would they give you £510?! if they are, it's great, but something about it isn't adding up!

bluestaff

my motto if it sounds to good to be true chances are its a con.

ymakesmile

You NEVER EVER pay out your own money. If someone needs work doing they pay YOU. Please don't fall into this trap..

Lynnie27

It IS too good to be true, please don't anyone fall for this. There are two ways these schemes work, the first one is that you send your £35 to join the company, they send you a card with a membership number on it and a promise to contact you when work in your area becomes available, which of course it NEVER does.

The other scam with this one is that you have to find the addresses that you put on the envelopes yourself, now that might sound easy, a day with a phone book would bring in hundreds right? wrong! What happens is that you actually have to advertise for people to send you stamped addressed envelopes so basically the person who has offered you this opportunity is in exactly the same situation as you would be, they have paid their £35 and are now waiting for people to take an interest in the opportunity too. You could advertise in post offices, local papers, the internet but trust me, you will spend far more in advertising than you will actually get back and there is probably a clause in there that says you don't get paid until you have sent 100 envelopes which is NEVER going to happen.

Sorry to rain on your parade, I'd be first in the queue if I thought there was a possibility that this could be genuine but if it was, would they really have to advertise for people to do it?

kam05

Thanks for your advice everyone, we won't bother with it.

geordie_joe

Lynnie27 wrote: »

It IS too good to be true, please don't anyone fall for this. There are two ways these schemes work, the first one is that you send your £35 to join the company, they send you a card with a membership number on it and a promise to contact you when work in your area becomes available, which of course it NEVER does.

The other scam with this one is that you have to find the addresses that you put on the envelopes yourself, now that might sound easy, a day with a phone book would bring in hundreds right? wrong! What happens is that you actually have to advertise for people to send you stamped addressed envelopes so basically the person who has offered you this opportunity is in exactly the same situation as you would be, they have paid their £35 and are now waiting for people to take an interest in the opportunity too. You could advertise in post offices, local papers, the internet but trust me, you will spend far more in advertising than you will actually get back and there is probably a clause in there that says you don't get paid until you have sent 100 envelopes which is NEVER going to happen.

Sorry to rain on your parade, I'd be first in the queue if I thought there was a possibility that this could be genuine but if it was, would they really have to advertise for people to do it?

A friend tried this a few years ago, it was hand writing envelopes, which she did and duly returned. All she got back was a letter saying her handwriting wasn't good enough. Plus some rubbish about their clients being upper class and like the envelopes they receive to be neatly written and the address in the correct place. She tried sending several batches back and got excuses like

"Your handwriting isn't up to standard"
"You started the address 197mm from the top when it should be 200mm"
"your writing is 3mm too large"

Keep well away from anything like this.

Lynnie27

There are similar scams too, I once applied for what I thought would be a dream job making earrings, you just had to stick the bits together - simple. Anyway, I paid my £10 to 'prove I was genuine' (I didn't know better in those days) and got my starter kit. I had to send in 10 pairs of earrings for their approval and then I could be started properly. So I carefully made them up and they looked great (well, as great as plastic earrings get!) and I was getting quite excited about my new work at home job, but just like Geordie Joe's friend, all I got back was a letter telling me they weren't up to standard. Now I do a lot of craft work, I know I made a good job of them. The same sort of scam is around for painting miniature cottages, they will never be up to their standards. Actually, I once say a documentary on this investigating these 'opportunities' and the TV company gave the cottages to a top artist to paint. Guess what, "they werent up to standard"! :-)

frivolous_fay

I fell for one of these when I was young and innocent. Sent off a few quid to the person who'd put a card in the newsagent window.

Once I received the details, I knew I'd been stupid and never even bothered to put cards anywhere.