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While there are various ways of presenting the information, and the wording of choice may or may not be different, the same general idea is simply this: the company in question will pay you a certain amount to stuff a specified number of envelopes. Who wouldn’t go for that? I mean, it’s perfect. You get to stay at home, do practically nothing, and collect an insane amount of money in exchange for doing nothing all at the same time. And it can’t be a scam, because they guarantee that you will get paid, right? It is that guarantee that makes it a legit offer and the absolute opposite of scam. Remember the old expression, “Always go with your first mind”? Well, If your first thought prior to coming across one of those ads was that it was too good to be true, that was a perfect example of why you should almost always follow your first mind, because it is too good to be true. To put it simply, the envelope-stuffing-get-rich-quick ads are, sadly, as a tragic tale of love lost.

Some “companies” (many of whom are just regular old people sitting at home, just like you and me) advertise an up-front fee. This fee, as they say, either takes the form of some kind of insurance for the offer, or is the cost of the start-up package. Basically, you pay “x” amount of money to get access to the start-up kit.

Other “companies” are not as bold with it. They won’t advertise the fee, but will mention it later on. The fees I have seen range from $19.95 to $79.99. On top of that, you are charged for shipping and handling.To no suprise, huge profits are being made from people who unknowingly fork over their money for nothing.

You might be asking yourself, “How are these people really making a ton of money off of something like this?” Well, it is rather simple.

Let us use, for example’s sake, the minimal fee of $19.95.

It is hard to pinpoint the exact averaged daily value of people who surf the internet, what with wireless connection sharing, multiple users sharing a single computer, etc. However, for now, we will say that an average of 1 million (1,000,000) different users access the computer globally on a daily basis (although I have no doubt in my mind that this is nowhere near the true value).

Out of 1,000,000 of those users, 85% of them stumble across a particular envelope stuffing ad one day. That means 850,000 users see this ad in one day.

Of the 850,000 who see this ad, 75% of them decide that it is a good idea, and send in the one-time fee of $19.95. That means 637,500 users each pay $19.95.

After calculating those figures, you will find that the creators of the envelope stuffing ad have made a net profit of $12,718,125 in one given day!

Let’s take it a step further. Let us suppose these people run this ad for a total of 30 days, with the same number of people (637,500) paying the $19.95 each and every day of the entire 30-day period. At the end of the 30 days, the “company” will have accumulated a profit of $381,543,750 in just a matter of 30 days!

The sad truth is that this very thing is happening all over the web. If the profits are that high, with the start-up fee being $19,95, imagine what the profits are when the fees are as high as $79.99.

The good news is that the law is getting more and more involved with prosecuting parties involved in scamming people through these notoriously misleading envelope-stuffing ventures. The trick, however, is to report them as soon as you see one of them. Doing it that way means there is a better chance to catch them if you haven’t already given them your money.

So next time you see one of these ads, don’t get excited. It’s just another one of those pyramid schemes, and all they are after are your pockets. Take a tip and save your hard-earned cash for when you really need it.

In the meantime, you can do your part to spread awareness about these ads.

Tell people via the internet word of mouth. Every person you inform is one less person who will fall prey to the envelope schemes.

Do your part to warn people. Remember, knowledge is power.