So I experienced my first internet scam.

Before I signed up with this "work from home" program, I sent an email asking if jobs were available now and should I sign up would I be able to start working immediately. I got a resounding "yes, jobs are available" response, "just sign up and start working" and get seven days free trial.

Let me inject a thought here. If these online "work at home" job providers are so ligitimate, and so sure that their program will work, why is it that no one is able to take advantage of their free trial offer before paying for the program, why do you have to pay before you can try? If you have a good, honest product (that you are sure works) you want to offer to people, and you decide to offer a free trial period, the natural thing to do is to offer the product with no strings attached. If the product is so good, it will sell itself and the people who tried it will want to continue using it, in which case, they will not hesitate to pay for it when the trial period is up. Right?

Anyway, I signed up, hoping I would start working within 48 hours, but it did not happen. About four days later, I received the go ahead to access the site. I did that. Can you imagine the enthusiasm, the euphoria?

Alas, it was short-lived, however, because I was directed to search for a job and place a "bid" on whatever I thought suitable for me, and in doing so, there was no guarantee that I would get the job, as other people were bidding on the same job, and it would naturally go to the person the employer thought most suitable, regardless of when the bid was placed. And it did not stop there either, most of the jobs available in my category were 2-4 months in the future.

O my God. I could hardly believe it. Every negative emotion came souring into my spirit, I felt betrayed, stupid, angry, and violated. And that's not all, another fee (of the sign-up amount) would become due one the same date next month - whether I had started working or not - in order to be able to continue accessing the site and looking for work. Was I a pig-head or what?

In the meantime, other "work from home" job sites were being recommended through this program, where I would have to go through the process all over again, and by doing so I would have to pay two monthly fees instead of one, with no guarantee that I would get a job.

Ofcourse, I could not take this sitting down, so I sent a reply after a few days (up to that time I was still hoping that very soon I would find something current and I could start working), it was then that I got another shock. I got an immediate response, a reprimanding tone sprang from the words on the page, I was advised to visit the site, join the queue, post my concerns and in time I would receive a response, and I should not send an email to that address again.

Talk about the nerve, the outright rudeness, the gall, the ...... I just patiently waited until another payment was almost due, and then I severed all ties with them.