Don’t Get Caught By Work At Home Scams

Work from home scams are on the rise. They come in all shapes and sizes, but they share one thing in common - an offer that sounds too good to be true.

Scammers might offer a free laptop or free computer if you just pay for shipping or an app you don’t need and never use for a fee of $2.99-$4.99 a month, with the promise that it will provide enough money to cover the cost of your purchase plus additional profits. Another trick is to offer a low-paying job that requires extensive work.

The scams that follow are ones that you should be aware of and steer clear of.

Too Good to Be True

In one work from home scam, the scammers post an ad for a secret shopper job where applicants supposedly write about their shopping experiences as a way to help companies improve customer service. In reality, the scammers are hoping you’ll pay them to do this work by buying gift cards advertised by the company. The scammers claim you will keep the money from the gift cards once you post secret shopper reviews, but this is never the case.

Fake Employment Ads

Another work from home scam involves fake employment ads. The scammers advertise jobs that sound legitimate, but they are actually posting job listings that don’t exist at all. They hope you will apply and pay them a fee to obtain a job opportunity that doesn’t exist. It’s always a good idea to call the company in a job listing (or go through its website) to confirm that it is real and address any concerns about your ability to do the job if you decide to apply for such a position.

Job Scams, Part 2

These second-class work from home scams are ones where you get involved in the company and do work that doesn’t align with the job posted. This can happen when you take a job only to discover that it involves things that are not related to the skills required for the position. These scams can make you lose your identity. They may try to get a hold of your personal information, for example, or provide you with a fake name and address so as to deceive other companies about your background. It is always important to make sure any job you apply for is legitimate before agreeing to work in it.

Getting Paid For What You Don’t Do

Many work from home scams involve getting money for certain tasks that you don’t do and never intended to do. In one scam, a call center worker is being paid to answer calls about a product, but the employer does not want her to discuss the product at all. The worker is given scripts about how to conduct the call and what should be said. The worker must pretend she has the information she needs even if she doesn’t. She is paid for every call she completes and must keep track of every time she speaks with a caller so that she knows how long it takes her to get through with the work.

Work from Home Scams that Involve Credit Card Debts and Billing Problems

Another popular work from home scam involves getting money from credit card companies in exchange for illegally obtaining a credit card. Often, the cards will be resold or used to make unauthorized purchases. The scammers have their own system in place where they bill the consumer’s debt to the company, in order to get paid without ever paying anything towards their debt. They may also do this with other types of fraudulent billing. This is a disadvantage because instead of paying back what you owe, you may simply lose your credit history and issuer and get stuck with a large amount of debt that can take years to pay off.

Another type of scam involves getting the consumer to pay for a product they bought with a credit card, then getting them to use a second card to make the purchase again, this time using the fake information. In most cases, the consumer writes off the original purchase as something they forgot about and never had in their possession at all. They are now responsible for paying off the debt not only for what they did buy but also for what was actually used on other purchases.

Work from Home Scams that Involve Illegal Payouts and Debts

There is another type of work from home scam where scammers take money from consumers or have access to their bank accounts, then send them money or charge their accounts indefinitely. Often, the scammers will claim a type of authority to get money out of the consumer’s account without ever actually paying them anything. In one instance, scammers advertised work from home jobs for a telemarketing company. They told consumers they could make money working from home, but the jobs were difficult to fill and they would end up billing an application fee on peoples credit cards if they didn’t work out.

The FBI has created a PSA video about work from home scams that you should watch to help protect yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TumlG-bw6c .

Protecting Yourself from Work from Home Scams

The best way to protect yourself against work from home scams is to be cautious. Always check out a company before you spend any money. If a business shows up on your doorstep offering you free goods, make sure they send out legitimate mailers as an advertisement that you can check before accepting the goods. Also, never agree to work while someone is watching over your shoulder. Never pay anyone for work that is not stated in writing clearly so there are no questions about what it entails. Watch out for job swaps and other types of scams where people pretend to be somebody else in order to get jobs or money.

A work from home scam can happen when you are offered a job that sounds good in theory, but the reality of the position that you will be taking will change once you agree to take it. That is why it’s important to do research before putting yourself into a position where you could become a victim of a work from home scam.

Conclusion

Work from home scams can happen to anyone, be it an individual or a business. It is important to know that you are protected from identity theft and other kinds of fraud when conducting business on your own, but you also have to be careful about the fact that there are different levels of work from home scams.

Here at Work at Home Away we suggest doing research before putting yourself into a position where a work from home scam could happen. Decide whether you want to become a victim of a work from home scam by reading reviews and feedback about various companies before you agree to do any type of work for them.