How to Avoid a Job Scam

Use Caution on the Internet When Searching for Employment

Jul 19, 2009 Susan Ayers

Job scams are on the rise. Take precautions to make sure jobs are legitimate before submitting personal information.

Unemployment rates continue to rise, but there are some jobs that mysteriously appear in email inboxes or are floating around cyberspace that sound too good to be true. Well, it could be that they are too good to be true. While some of these jobs may be legitimate, it’s always smart to check out any job before applying to make sure that it is credible. Here are some signs that could mean a job is a scam.

The Company Requests Upfront Money

Always check a company out with the Better Business Bureau or do an online check before randomly submitting money to a company that promises a job in return. Some scammers are clever about getting job seekers to part with their money. They may request a credit card number to book travel for a participant to attend an interview. That sounds legitimate but often is not. A reputable company should be able to handle travel expenses to bring someone to an interview.

Watch out for advertisements that ask for upfront payment before someone can “learn how to make money online”. Watch out for sales of lists, guides or ebooks that promise to get someone a job quickly and easily. Again, some of these could be legitimate; but research them first to make sure before sending them a payment. This includes companies that want to teach candidates how to apply for federal jobs or how to find the best work from home companies.

Watch Out for These Job Search Scams

Beware of companies that want to pay big money to candidates for doing very little work. Scams usually entail a company asking a person to process or cash a check and then keep a certain amount of the balance as payment. The money is deposited into the participant's account and then the candidate is required to submit the remaining balance to the company. Once the money is wired, the original check ends up being no good. Or worse, the job is illegal and the FBI ends up knocking at the door

Another red flag is if the company requests a personal bank account number. Pay particular attention to job ads that come via email saying that an overseas company needs a U.S. representative to collect and process their funds as these jobs are likely scams. They will want access to a person bank account to process these bogus transactions but then may end up cleaning out the bank account.

Here are a few more items to look out for when searching for a job:

  • The company doesn’t have a website or their website is particularly vague.
  • The email ad for the job has blatant grammatical or spelling errors.
  • Work from home jobs are out there but work from home job scams are too. Check out online forums to see if there are complaints about a particular work from home job before getting involved. Be especially carefully when applying for secret shopper jobs or “earn money taking online survey” jobs.

Use common sense and do research before accepting any type of position especially if it comes from an unrequested ad. Job scammers may look legitimate and offer great sounding positions. Be careful and check out any company before doing business with them.

The copyright of the article How to Avoid a Job Scam in Career Advice is owned by Susan Ayers. Permission to republish How to Avoid a Job Scam in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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