On the surface, it sounds so easy. Make gobs of money by working at one of those home typist jobs you hear so much about. What’s not to like? You get to work in the comfort of your own home, set your own hours and make good coin without the stress of the typical office environment. But the truth is, most of these jobs are not all they’re cracked up to be, and in many cases, turn out to be outright scams carried out by unscrupulous individuals who do nothing more than steal your hard-earned money and disappear into cyberspace, never to be heard from again.

In many cases, home typist jobs are nothing more than spamming. You will be sending out tons of unsolicited emails, only to be paid a pittance in those rare instances where somebody actually "takes the bait" and opens the email. Usually, your email will simply disappear into a spam folder, never to be read. And you’ll no doubt end up annoying people who are tired of getting another one of those "get rich quick" emails, and you might end up getting yourself in a little hot water for violating ant-spam policies.

Often, what will happen when you respond to an ad for home typist jobs is that you will be required to pay an up-front fee, say, $50, and in a few weeks you will receive in the mail a list of names that you could have easily gotten out of a phone directory yourself. Then it’s up to you to make the contacts and offer your typing services. In most cases, these companies will have no need whatsoever for your services, and aren’t even aware of the existence of the company that supposedly contacted them about the need for typing services. Meanwhile, your $50 is gone in a puff of smoke.

And the ironic thing about many home typist jobs is that the tables are often turned on the typist. Once these scam companies get a hold of your email address, it is often sold to other scam artists for a handsome profit. Before you know it, your Inbox will be inundated with all kinds of other illegitimate work-at-home opportunities, so you will become turn from being a "spammer" to a "spammee."