Earn money stuffing envelopes: scam or not?

[abct]

I signed up for this program and basically it pays you $4 to stuff each envelop that they send you. I don't know how legit this is, but it sounds really good. Anyone have any info on this?

[damion]

Most envelope stuffing "opportunities" require you to get sales to make money. If it is a viable company with a good record and it is something that you would buy without thinking twce about then it may be a good deal, however, I would be careful.

Damion

[MaxPower]

It is a fraud... I am guessing that you had to pay an initial start-up fee? They then send you junk that you are suppossed to sell on commission... but nobody will buy it.

It is a well known scam. I forget what the address is, but it is ran by the USPS postal inspectors. There you can report any scam you have been caught up in as long as the USPS was used... to transport your initial start up fee or whatever... they have a whole section based on filing complaints about the envelope stuffing scam.

I hope I have helped.:cool:

[abct]

Hmm, thats no good. Well the site I signed up with did have a start up fee and they say that no selling is required, and they said the fee is reimbursed after sending them back 50 envelopes. From the website it says

Can I get back the cost of my deposit?

YES! As soon as you've submitted the first 50 envelopes you have secured, your reimbursable deposit will be returned to you.

And it doesn't say anything about only being paid through commissions...think theres any hope to this? They also have a 30 day money back guarantee, but if it doesnt work out I'll try that USPS thing you mentioned.

[hurley9192]

It's a way of spamming before the internet got going. I'd stay away.

It's a pyramid scheme, where you send money to someone and then mail out envelopes to get others to mail out stuff. They are very popular on college campuses because they know students want easy money.

[concerned]

What really happens is that THEY don't pay you for stuffing those envelopes. It is a chain letter scheme. Haven't you seen these opportunities in the paper? It isn't that you make $4 for EVERY envelope you can stuff in a day. It is a little different. I bet you paid $4 to get in. Then they send you a bunch of crap in an envelope. They tell you how to advertise in the paper, and on the internet. You have to advertise the exact way that you saw the ad. They way you make your $4 per envelope is every time someone contacts you about "HOW TO MAKE $4 EACH TO STUFF ENVELOPES" is that they send you $4, and you send the envelope. That's all.

So, don't think you are going to get rich because you think you can stuff 1,000 envelopes per day. You have to sell them.

[abct]

Well...the site that I signed up with didn't seem that ambiguous about it, they have a FAQ and explain that no selling is involved and none of it is commission based. What really made it more credible was that they have a physical address and a phone number to call. They even offer a 30 day money back guarantee (Yes there is a start up fee that you must pay) I guess I won't really know until the stuff actually arrives, so until then I will just have to wait and see.

Anyways, if you want to scan the site over and give your opinion, I can pm the link to anyone who asks.

[damion]

It turns out that the site abct is asking about is actually ran out of Diamondhead, MS which is about 30 minutes from me.

I am thinking about heading out that way just to see what they are all about.

Damion

[abct]

Could you please? I'm pretty anxious about all this. That's pretty amazing that it would be located so close to you...

[damion]

I was not able to get out there today, however, I did find some information that I find interesting.
The corporation was incorporated in Florida. There are 2 known addresses for the company, one in Florida and one in Mississippi.
The owner, Ilsa Morales has two addresses, one in Florida and one in Mississippi.

She is either very wealthy and has two addresses, moved her business recently from Florida to Mississippi, or is running an operation that can break back and forth between Florida and Mississippi just in case the AG comes down.

I will try and get more information.

Damion

[spydrman]

abct,
What site are you talking about? Let us know how your experience is with them and if you get anything by stuffing those envelopes! ;) It sounds interesting, but I really don't understand how they can afford to pay you anything. I don't quite understand the concept yet.

[GODHCTAW]

I do not have time to go into the details of these, but it has problems.
Please send the URL to me or some one that can get it to me and I will take care of it. PM it.
The US postal service Postal inspector is the one to file the complaint with.

There is a form on their site to report it.
If some one gets the URl and some info to me I will contact the Postal Inspector and get a complaint filed (Address of the business would be nice to have)

I will post some info on this latter, as I recall they just made some arrests on some of these operations just recently.

[damion]

I have not had time to research this company. Before submitting a complaint with the postal inspector you should probably research the company a little.

http://www.rainbowexpressions.com is the main site.

Rainbow Expressions Inc. (incorporated in FL)
445 D Yacht Club Dr
Diamondhead, MS (forgot to write down zip)
(228) 586-1040
(228) 586-5886

Ran by Ilsa Morales who has addresses in FL and MS. I will not post her home information on a public forum but if it is vital to your research you can PM me for it.

Damion

[MatrixWatch]

Check this link out. Just scroll down the main window until you see the flashing banner about "stuffing envelopes" programs.

http://worldwidescam.com/

[abct]

An update:

I got the package, basically they ask you to promote flyers to people who are interested and ask them to send you a self addressed stamped envelope. For every person that sends you a SASE, you send that back to the company and they will pay you $4 for that.

So, in essence they were correct in that nothing needs to be sold. Should I continue with this program?

[concerned]

Originally posted by abct
So, in essence they were correct in that nothing needs to be sold. Should I continue with this program?

Did you NOT read my first post about this? Go to the first page. I told you exactly what it was, and you didn't have to spend your $4. Now you want to ask if you should continue? Do you enjoy scamming people out of $4?

[Kira]

Okay, the make money stuffing envelopes is very much a scam. I should know because when I was in High School in the mid-80's, I made $300-500/month doing it. It's a lot of work too. It goes like this.

Bob sends in his $5 to get the information, and then I send Bob 12 pieces of paper with information on how to copy those 12 sheets and do to exactly what I just did.

It's that simple. The papers included how to get a business license, a PO box, how to advertise in national newspapers/magazines, etc etc. i would place cheap ads in lots of small town newspapers.

Supposedly it wasn't a chain letter scam because you "could" hire someone to do the stuffing for you... and maybe there was even an application, I don't remember. I too offered a 30-day money back thing.. but you had to write back for it and no one ever did.

Anyway, I guess I was lucky I was never caught, it's not something I would do now. But.. for a high school kid, I made okay money for college.

Maybe the scam was new back then but I can't imagine that people still fall for it.

My first post here and now everyone's going to know that I was a High School Scammer!

~K

[mikv]

I also took part in a similar program, only there were two ways to make money from it. The first was like it is stated in the above posts, you place flyers and ads around town and word of mouth when you can, and the people who respond send in the money and a SASE.

That was one way, the other way was to become a distributor of the program itself. You still had to promote the same ways, but you were actually selling the program, not the promotional materials. So instead of the $5.00 for the "informational package", they would pay anywhere between $35.00 & $75.00 depending on how much I wanted to charge, and they would become a distributor as well.

As stated above, there is alot of work and money that has to be put into a business like this and it's a toss up on whether you get your money or not from the parent company. Unfortunately and fortunately I didn't make any money from it as the parent company disappeared shortly after I submitted my paperwork to receive my first payment.

It would have been more profitable just outright selling the program, but that's only if the parent company was legit. Most of the time you'll notice that you send in the paperwork to get paid to an address that doesn't even exist. I had to send the SASE's to one address and my payment would come from another address. That address was somewhere in Florida, but it was tracked to somewhere in Puerto Rico or the Phillipines, I can't remember exactly cause this was a year and a half ago.