It really is a battle. Your objective? Get to your work at home dream job without going bankrupt or becoming a war fatality. If you really want to work at home (and who doesn't?) surrendering is not an option.

If you've been taking on too much work at home mortar fire from your ever present enemy, the dreaded scam, join us in Operation: Work at Home Victory.

To triumph over the army of work at home scammers (and by its sheer numbers it really is an army, by the way), make sure your battle strategy includes a good work at home offensive.

Main Offensive: Identify your enemy... Call the directory assistance lady. Even if it costs you ninety-nine cents, call the directory assistance lady! The vast majority of work at home scammers are fly by night operations. These types of work at home operations usually don't properly register their companies to do business. They don't have an office. And most of the time, they don't have a business telephone number under the name of the company they claim they're doing business as.

Another reason that most work at home scams don't have business telephone numbers is because they change names and addresses frequently to avoid getting caught by consumer agencies and law enforcement.

Strategy #1: Let your fingers walk you right into winning the work at home war. Identify and eliminate almost all work at home scams by simply calling directory assistance! If a company is not registered in the city they claim they're located in under the exact name they are advertising under, don't do business with them if you don't want to get scammed.

Most reputable companies do have business telephone numbers that can be easily confirmed with directory assistance.

So if you're considering doing business with any work at home company, make sure you know the exact name of their company (not their website address because they're not always the same). Usually the name of the company is on the advertising you have, on the actual order form, or under "Contact Us" at most websites. If you can't find the name of the company, ask the company for it. Once you have the name, even if the company sounds like a huge, professional conglomerate, verify the existence of that company with directory assistance under the name in the city they claim to be located in.

You can protect yourself from almost all work at home scams this way.

One more EASY Way to Identify Possible Scams

Does YOUR BOSS Know AT&T's most productive workers work at home? Maybe if he knew he'd let YOU work at home.