growing business practice in which an employee or entrepreneur works at home instead of in a company office. The development of personal computers (see microcomputer) has broadened the scope of work-at-home applications to include white-collar workers who can communicate electronically with a central office, sending and receiving memoranda, reports, and research material.
Several common mail fraud practices include work-at-home schemes in which an advertisement promises the victim an opportunity to make impossible amounts of money at home and asks the individual to send the advertiser an employment application or referral fee. For example, the advertisement might promise that a person can earn $100 per day stuffing envelopes. In return for a fee, the individual receives a list of companies that have used at-home workers in the past but that may or may not be hiring now.
