Envelope Stuffing: What You Need To Know

Envelope Stuffing: What You Need To Know

By: Christine Jones

(c) 1999-2008 Christine Jones, http://www.MomJobs.com

We’ve all seen them at one time or another. A typical envelope stuffing ad might read as this: “Help Wanted: Mail order company seeking people to stuff envelopes from home. $1000 weekly.”

Ahhh. The pleasures of working at home, sitting in front of the television with your kids, while stuffing envelopes for a company who can’t do it on their own. Five dollars per envelope you stuff … just think, if you stuff just 30 envelopes during your soap operas, that’s an easy $150, right?

Now before I excite you enough to make you go out and actually find one of these ads on the Internet or in a local newspaper, let me first explain a thing or two about this ‘wonderful opportunity’ that we’ve found. Turns out it’s not so wonderful as you may have thought.

First of all, the description of ’stuffing ads’ is misleading. When you read an ad for a typist, you mentally picture someone hunched over a computer (or, if you can remember this far back, a typewriter!). What they are typing is provided to them. For instance, if they are typing a book, the book’s pages are already there for them to use. That just makes sense, right? Well, not so in the ’stuffing envelopes’ deal.

Right away, I imagine a relaxed atmosphere in my living room, with a large box full of envelopes sent from the company, and my toddler playing by my side. I also imagine a small box filled with the information needing to be ’stuffed’ inside the envelope itself. Maybe they are ‘thank you’ letters to the company’s clients, or maybe they are even invoices that need to be sent right away. I mean, when a company is in need of hiring someone to stuff envelopes for them, this is the kind of material that they need to get out in a hurry, right?

You agree, right? Don’t worry, this is what I originally thought too. Anticipating the arrival of my first child, I was desperately searching for work to do from home. I had seen similar ‘work at home ads’ every place I went. On the grocery store noticeboards, stapled on the pole across the street. I never paid much attention until the need for me to work from home was so important.

I admit it, I fell for it. The ad was too appealing to turn down. An ad in the classifieds section of my local paper promised me a guaranteed income by helping them stuff their envelopes. Hey, I had time to spare! Why not give it a shot? They asked for a deposit of $40.00 to ‘be sure’ that I was serious about working for them. They even said that they’d refund it if I changed my mind.

I sent in my money. I waited. And waited. Just as I was about to give up on the whole deal, a small package arrived in the mail. This is it!, I thought. The company finally is ready for me to start working!

No sooner did I have the package open that my eagerness turned to disappointment. I could almost hear my poor little heart sink when I found out that this ‘company’ didn’t, in fact, need me to stuff envelopes as they promised, but instead, wanted me to advertise the same exact ad that I had responded to in the first place!

Confused? Let me explain. A fine manipulation of words, these people use. Technically, you DO stuff envelopes for them. But not how you may think. In my package I received three things. The first were a set of instructions. The second article in the package was a sheet of paper that advertised a book that the company was selling. The third was a poster that read “Work At Home! Stuff Envelopes! For More Information, Send A Self- Addressed Stamped Envelope To ____”. They let you fill in the blank (how thoughtful!).

So what did all this mean? In order to make any money ’stuffing envelopes’, I had to advertise for them. Yep, you got it. I would be the one responsible for posting those ads we see on grocery store noticeboards, the posters on the light poles, and the ads in the newspapers. An unsuspecting victim would send their self-addressed stamped envelope [SASE] to me, I would stuff their envelope with the flyer for a Work At Home Book, and then I would send this company the original envelope that was sent to me. If all went smoothly, they would pay me for each person that sent me a SASE.

Did it work? I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t do it. But many, in fact, have gone ahead and done this, with less-than-desirable results. It’s amazing to me when someone actually receives enough envelopes to get their money back from companies like these.

According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, “In practically all businesses, envelope stuffing has become a highly mechanized operation using sophisticated mass mailing techniques and equipment which eliminates any profit potential for an individual doing this type of work-at-home. The Inspection Service knows of no work-at-home promotion that ever produces income as alleged.”

I have saved the materials that I received that day, simply as a reminder of what the Internet can allow us to fall for, whether by word manipulation and exaggeration or straight-out bogus work-at-home schemes.

Christine Jones is a work-at-home Mom who spends her time researching work at home scams, and compiling home-employment resources within her network of sites, located at www.digitalmoms.com 

Christine can be reached by emailing bizmoms@gmail.com

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