More work-from-home opportunities are available today than ever before. Some are legitimate ways to make a living. In fact, entire companies are run from home offices around the world. However, scams are abundant. Those who perpetrate them prey on people's desire to find flexible employment. They often lure recruits with promises of big money and freedom. It's challenging to discern between a legitimate work-from-home opportunity and a misleading one. Even the most street-smart individuals get taken by scam artists sometimes. Apply the following rules to a work-from-home opportunity and you'll reduce your chances of falling victim to a scam.

1. Never pay money to get a job. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. No one would hand over a check to a real-life employer in exchange for a job. This is, in fact, fraudulent and akin to bribery. Yet, thousands fall for variations of this scam every year. The most common work-from-home scam comes in the guise of a catalog. A company offers to sell names of other companies that offer work-from-home opportunities. These