Have you ever received an email and thought “well this is definitely a scam”? What about a phone call from the “IRS”? Scams are everywhere today, even when you’re looking for a job, unfortunately.
You can find job offer scams everywhere online. It can be hard to tell they’re even scams if you don’t pay close attention. That’s why we put together this list to help you find your dream job while staying away from the scammers.
How to Spot Job Offer Scams
There are several ways that you can spot a job scam. The majority of these scams will look as if they are too good to be true. They can be tempting to look into but can cost you a lot of money if you fall for them.
Many of these scams can even come from sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and especially Craigslist. Let’s start with one of the most common scams.
- Envelope Stuffing
This kind of scam has been around for a long time. You may have seen ads for this kind of scam on Facebook, or even LinkedIn.
They typically promise you high pay for mailing out flyers or info packets from home. To start they require you to pay a fee, and then send you documentation about how to get others to fall for the scam to get a small commission.
- Data Entry
While there are plenty of legitimate data entry jobs these typically promise very high pay for very little skill. They also commonly claim you can work from home.
These scams require you to pay a processing or training fee. Then they rarely pay as much as they promise if anything at all.
- Pyramid Schemes
These types of scams typically don’t involve any kind of product. Instead, it’s just an exchange of money. People are recruited into the scheme to recruit more people to “invest” into the pyramid.
These pyramid marketing schemes are highly illegal and have no place inside a real business.
- Online Re-Shipping
This could potentially land you in jail. These schemes commonly found on craigslist offer to pay you for repacking and forwarding goods to people outside of the united states. These goods are typically stolen.
The listing will typically claim they are a package processing company looking for work from home employees to help ship packages. They will require you to pay for the packing supplies and shipping fees out of pocket. Then they will never pay you what they promised.
- Assembling Products from Home
Just like with data entry, there are some legitimate assembly jobs out there but they won’t be working from home. These kinds of offers typically require you to pay an enrollment fee and purchase the tools and materials from them.
You are then required to buy a list of companies from them that might buy the finished product. Or if they have you send the product to them it will be rejected for one reason or another.
- Rebate Processor
These listings typically promise outrageous pay for processing rebates at home. As with most scams, before you can start you have to pay a nonrefundable training fee.
After going through all of this, you typically just post ads on the internet. When someone buys the product you get a small commission and the buyer gets some money back as a rebate.
- Wire Transfer Representatives
Many times these scams are listed by thieves. They use money wiring services to move money from one account to another quickly.
These offers will ask you to accept a wire transfer and to transfer it again for a small percentage of the transfer. These are another example of a scam that can turn you into an unwitting criminal.
- Mystery Shopping
These are a very enticing scam, they offer a job to go into a store and shop. You are supposed to test the employee’s customer service skills, or see how clean the store is, or how well-stocked, etc.
They will mail you a realistic check for a couple of hundred dollars. You then have to deposit that check into your account and do the mystery shop. They will then ask you to wire transfer the rest of the money to another country.
There are some legitimate mystery shopping jobs out there but they will only pay for the item you’re supposed to buy and up to ten dollars.
- Unsolicited Offers
These kinds of scams can look very promising and typically come from sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. They will find your profile and send you an email asking to interview you or promising immediate employment.
These are typically phishing scams looking to gain your personal information. While it is common to receive job offers from Indeed and LinkedIn the email will come through the site’s servers. If you’re getting an email from a personal email account saying they found you on Indeed its probably a scam.
- Online Assistant
This kind of scam offers a position as an online personal assistant. They typically require a training fee before you can start working. After you pay the fee you send out mass emails to “clients”.
Like many other scams they then only pay you small commissions for products sold through those emails. Or they never pay you at all.
More About Job Scams
While these types of scams can be easy to spot others might not be. They can lure you into a scam in numerous ways.
Like fake websites, you’ll think you’re on a big companies website but the name will be slightly off. Any information you put onto this website will likely be stolen by scammers.
Looking for a job can be especially stressful especially in these uncertain times. If you’re stuck looking for a job with no way to pay your bills don’t fall victim to these scams out of desperation. Try these payday loans for unemployed on benefits to help cover those bills for now.
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