So you can see, that joining an envelope stuffing program is a bad idea. Save money you'd send in for registration fee, and put it towards a legitimate home-based business, and you'll be happier and more successful. But, before joining any work at home based business, you should thoroughly check them out before spending money. Here is link to check out any company that you would think about joining.

Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/

If you are one of ones that have fallen for this scam, there are steps you can take to put these scam artist out of business for good: Here is first thing you should do, I think you should ask them to refund your money and if they refuse let them know that you will report them as SCAM at FTC. To file a complaint visit https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov http://www.ftc.gov http://www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261

Here are some resources for getting help, or to stop scammers:

United States Postal Inspection Service This site has information about envelope stuffing scams , as well as other home-based business scams. http://www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm

Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/ This site you can research a company before joining, or to file a complaint.

This new "phishing" style scam works extremely well for 2 basic reasons.

First, by exploiting your sense of urgency created by fear or greed, crooks get you to click link and give them your information without thinking.

Second, scammers use a variety of cloaking and spoofing techniques to make their emails and websites appear totally legitimate, making it extremely hard to spot a fake website, especially when they've first whipped you into an emotional frenzy.

The good news, however, is that you can protect yourself relatively easily against this type of cyber-crime with basic software and common sense.

Most of these scams get delivered to you via Spam (unsolicited email), so a good spam blocker will cut down on many of them even making it to your inbox.

If you receive an email that looks legitimate and you want to respond, Stop - Wait - Think!

Verify all phone numbers with a physical phone book or online phone directory like www.Verizon.com or www.ATT.com/directory/ before calling.

Look for spelling and grammatical errors that make it look like someone who doesn't speak English or your native language very well wrote it.

Never click link provided in email, but go directly to website by typing in main address of site yourself (example: www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com).

Forward email to main email address of website (example: support@paypal.com) or call customer service number on main website you typed in yourself and ask if it is in fact legitimate.

Above all remember this:

Your bank, credit card company, PayPal, eBay and anyone else you deal with online already knows your account number, username, password or any other account specific information.

They don't need to email you for ANY reason to ask you to confirm your information -- so NEVER respond to email requests for your account or personal details.