When you are hunting for work from home jobs or a side hustle, you naturally entertain a lot of offers. While there are many quality opportunities out there, there are unfortunately a lot of ads for a fake job where they try to take advantage of an honest business dialog.
You need to engage these offers if you are entertaining new business, but you also need to have your guard up. Here are some flags you should probably be aware of in your search.
Work From Home Jobs – Real from Fake
They Want To Use Western Union, Gift Cards, Or Other Money Exchange Methods
The Western Union seems to be the money exchange method of choice for scammers, so if they request this consider running. But there are other methods commonly abused as well.
Sometimes scammers will ask for money exchange in the form of gift cards or other forms of payment.
Not only should you run because it is a fake job, but chances are it could be illegal as well. Stay away.
Overpromise Of Rewards
Let’s face it, if it sounds too good to be true, there is a good chance that it is. Any offer that claims you’ll get rich overnight is more than likely a scam – that is just not a sustainable business model in the first place.
Work from home jobs or running your own business is going to take determination, work, and probably more work. Do your due diligence, but be prepared to walk away if it doesn’t check out.
Sometimes it will seem like a legitimate offer, but the compensation is excessive.
For example, if the opportunity claims $45 an hour for a receptionist or other low-level task, chances are it is a scam and they are trying to goad you into action. Avoid these.
No Business Contact Information
A real business thrives on interaction with the world. If it’s a real business, particularly on that operates online, you should expect a readily accessible business website.
Along with that site, you should see a real email address. If they contact you through a Yahoo, Hotmail, or GMail address, you should be extra careful.
Request For Money Up Front
Some legitimate business opportunities do require money up front. For example, most Multi-Level Marketing does involve a business investment to take part in their business structure.
Unfortunately, there are others that are in business only to take your money. If it is an hourly or project-based offer, you should not be paying them for the opportunity to work with them. If it does require an investment, you should have time to research before acting.
Random Email Offers
If you get an unsolicited offer email that seems too timely, it could be the result of distributed online information. This can happen when you try for legitimate job offers and they are making money on the background selling collected data.
This proposition is the equivalence of spam phone calls making promises that they will never deliver and should be treated as such – a fake job.
If you tend to get a lot of these, you might want to consider adjusting your email junk filter to help weed them out.
Pressure To Act Immediately
If they try to force you to act immediately with promises of money and other rewards before you lose out, you should probably consider it a scam.
Real work from home jobs are going to be there later. Otherwise, you would be wise to steer clear in the first place.
The best tool you have to avoid a work offer scam is your head…
You should take the time to research any work from home jobs you find, and collect plenty of information. In fact, you should do a little research before you even give out any personal information.
Sometimes a fake job will use a collection site just for this purpose, and you don’t want to be a contributor. The best thing you can do, after you have done the research, collected the data, and done the due diligence, is to trust your gut. Be careful out there.