For many SF State students, the proposition of making thousands of dollars a week in their spare time – not to mention in the comfort of their own homes – is an offer that’s hard to pass up.

But while flyers strewn throughout campus promising big rewards for little work may seem like the quickest fix for financial woes, students can only be sure of one thing -- money never comes easy.

“I don’t believe it,” said Junior Glen Lin, a civil engineering major. “If I could earn that much money per week, I wouldn’t go to school here. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”

Pat Wallace, president of the Oakland Better Business Bureau (BBB) agrees with Lin’s sentiments. “Most of the work-at-home offers that ask you for an up front fee are, I can tell you, 100 percent scams.” Wallace said the Oakland BBB often fields complaints about these types of companies in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and other Northern California counties.

According to Wallace, the BBB had more people inquiring about the legitimacy of work-at-home companies than any other issue.

The Federal Trade Commision warns interested parties from participating in schemes which require people to stuff envelopes or assemble crafts. While companies claim they will buy back the completed project, the work is never up to their quality standards and they refuse to pay for the product.

The FTC filed at least five claims with Bay Area companies in the last 11 years for defrauding people who answered work-at-home ads.

The Emeryville-based Rappaport Corporation, which advertises as Holiday Magic, settled a $40,000 claim in 1994 after it received complaints that people would pay for materials and assemble them, but the company bought back the finished product in only one percent of the cases.

Holiday Magic is still in operation and causing problems, according to Wallace.

In another case, studentworksite.com encourages students to “take the first step towards achieving financial freedom,” but the student must first provide $32.95 to have access to a link that will instruct students how to get rich stuffing envelopes at home, listening to the radio, maintaining a Web page, shopping or reading email.

The site doesn’t provide the student with the name of the business or any information on what it sells, but the domain was registered to a Belmont, California group named American Services.

The administrative contact, Ed Anderson, did not return phone calls from the [X]press, and American Services is neither registered with the San Mateo County BBB nor does it have a business license in Belmont.

Several businesses recruiting work-at-home students at SF State are based throughout the country and ask that anyone interested to send their information and money to post office boxes in states like Arizona or Missouri.

While the prospect of getting a refund from a company based in California is possible and sometimes easy, according to Wallace, once commerce crosses borders, it becomes a federal issue and the prospect of getting any money back becomes more difficult.

But not all of the businesses that solicit on campus are selling scams.

For senior Niño Barredo, working for a commission-based company provided a chance to enter the competitive business world. In order to recruit new employees for his company, Excel Telecommunications, his advertisement appeared on bulletin boards throughout the SF State campus.

“I get one (SF State student) a day calling me. A lot of people that I talk to already have jobs, and I tell them right off that this is not a pyramid scheme. I meet up with them, give them a presentation and they decide from there,” said Barredo, a psychology major.

According to Barredo, there’s no way to “get rich quick.” The only way to be successful in a work-at-home atmosphere is by putting in the time and effort.

“There are some parties out there that take all these businesses as scams, but what we do is legitimate,” said Barredo.

Barredo stressed that what he does is not a regular job. Selling telecommunication packages is an entrepreneurial opportunity which requires an initial investment of $399, and many other commission-based businesses require their salespeople to front their own cash before they get started.