This little scam has been around for a while. It does not feature in the "Top Ten" work at home scams but it might find its way there in the near future because there has been a sudden surge of activity recently from people imitating this particular online scam.

The scam is quite simple and works as follows.

A self styled work at home scam "investigator" sets up a website with an anti-scam type of name: DontLetThemScamU.com or ScamNoMore.inf or something along those lines. Some even manage to work the word "authority" or "agency" into the site name to add credibility by implying they are part of a government department.

The website home page will have large headlines warning that the Internet is full of work at home scam programs and promises to reveal the truth about them. The page tells us how the author has been scammed repeatedly by work at home scam programs and has lost boatloads of money online. It goes on to describe how the scammers' prey turned into the hunter and is now able to unmask the frauds and unveil the legitimate work at home programs discovered during his crusade.

The details of the story vary a little and sometimes the "chief investigator" has a female sidekick helping with the undercover investigations. One current version of the investigator's story is that this serial scam victim set out on a one man mission to investigate Internet work at home programs and unmask the scammers for the benefit of humanity. After spending five years contacting every home business program owner he could find on the Internet, he is going to share (at no charge) the benefit of his vast experience with us - like a kind of virtual Robin Hood. Let's call our example investigator Robin from now on.

When you visit his website, Robin invites you to subscribe to his email series so that he can explain in detail what work at home scams are to be encountered on the Internet and how to avoid falling for them. Everyone wants to avoid scams, so it seems sensible to subscribe.

When the emails arrive, Robin explains at length how practically every money making online opportunity is a scam. He lumps together all sorts of different online businesses such as real estate investing, stock market investing, HYIP's, affiliate marketing, paid online surveys and data entry programs, declaring them all to be scams. For good measure, he also throws in all books and courses about building an Internet business and declares the authors of all of them to be frauds. In most instances the accusations remain vague and Robin never offers any evidence to substantiate his allegations.

Fortunately, so Robin tells us, he has managed to find treasure in the midst of all the trash and can recommend just three programs as being honest. These three programs get his seal of approval as being legitimate home business opportunities and offering a real chance to make honest money from a home based business. To help you further, Robin tells you to sign up to his selected programs quickly because they are filling up fast and you might miss the chance to join and start earning the money you've always dreamed of.

The truth is that the real scammer is our virtual Robin Hood, our hero is actually a bad guy in disguise. Robin has not really spent five years selflessly researching Internet work at home programs and losing money to scammers for the benefit of his fellow man. He just painted all those other programs black to make his whitewashed offerings look legitimate by comparison.

All sorts of things about Robin's claims raise questions such as: If he was getting scammed and losing money, what did he live on? Can it be true that out of all the thousands of work at home opportunities available, there are only three legitimate ones? Does this mean companies like Avon and Tupperware have turned into scams? Apart from the niggling questions, you should instinctively distrust anyone who attempts to make his choice of work at home program look better by making derogatory comments about all the other available programs. If a work at home program is legitimate, its members will promote it without needing to tarnish the reputation of its competitors.