For many people, the possibility of working from home is an attractive one. Moms, students, and worn out businesspeople fantasize about setting their own schedule, working from the comfort of their own home, or bringing in just a little extra income. Honestly, how many people in the world can truly say, "No, I don't need more money."

Are there really legitimate work-at-home opportunities available? Yes, but they are not easy to come by and anything worthwhile will take lots of time and energy, just like running a brick and mortar business.

I recently ran across an advertisement that read:

Respond to e-mails from your home - immediate need. Return e-mails to individuals who are requesting information. Training, benefits, daily pay. Must have computer and Internet access and be able to work independently. No telephone usage required. Bilingual a plus. Please do NOT send your resume.

I inquired and received a further explanation of the "position" that was being offered.

You will be processing responses from advertisements; this will be explained to you in the training materials. Everything is sent to you via your email account. There is no contract to sign; the amount you choose to process is entirely up to you. As with any job, you must be able to respond to advertisements in a timely manner.

So what's the catch? Easy: you have to pay $10-20 for this so-called "Training Manual." Is it a scam? Yes and no. Read on.

A quick search of Google brought up some interesting results. A fellow named Johnny Ringo posted the "Training Manual" he received after shelling out $20 to get it.

The bottom line is that you're paying hard, cold cash for someone to send you a file explaining how to post ads just like the one you responded to so that you can con some other gullible soul into parting with his hard-earned cash to receive the same file. "100% Online Training", huh? What a rip!

The amazing thing is that it's not technically a scam. You will get what you paid for: the quality may not be quite what you were expecting and you might have some ethical issues with following the instructions, but it's "legitimate" nonetheless. Unethical! But legitimate. Maybe not a scam, but definitely a devious scheme.

A good rule of thumb is to do your research before paying for goods or services on the internet. If someone's been scammed before or has been dissatisfied with a product, you’ll be sure to read about it on the ‘Net.

To read about how you can identify scams, visit: Identifying Scams Online