Taco Bell. Subway. McDonald's. The biggest, baddest names in the industry. They seem like an easy way to making a fortune when they could be a very big risk.

Franchise opportunities centre on a basic premise where nasty corporation has all this intellectual property and for a fee they let you use it. In the lingo of the crooks involved, you are buying a "business system" which has been a proven success in other places.

Trouble is this fee is often very big and even though they are a massive corporation they make you take all the risk.

Pizza Hut franchisees for example must have millions of dollars private wealth and pony up many hundreds of thousands of dollars for the fit-out of a store and for every possible charge. They must then buy everything from the the corporation - even if they find a cheaper, better supply elsewhere. Part of the racket is owning the real estate so they can charge those that have taken the franchise opportunities they offer a fortune in rent.

Here's some ugly facts for you about Jack in the Box:

The total cost required can vary from half a million to $1,500,000.

It’s a scam designed to cheat you of your retirement security.

With the chain having an insane number of stores in the United States, it's not like you're the only one.

There’s more than money you’re risking too. There's so much learning to do which takes more than a year which is a huge chunk of anyone's life.

Once the business is under way, you then pay a slither of monthly sales, which would be probably at least half of the monthly profit in the business.

By contrast you could buy into an web based home-business where there’s no franchise fees to pay and you wholly own the intellectual property all for yourself rather than paying large sums of your hard earned to a big corporate.

There are dozens of these opportunities around. You’ll kick yourself if you make the most of this.