Scam in job listings increase

by Gina - Girl in the boys club | January 20, 2009 at 04:02 am

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Upon becoming another statistic of the credit crunch unemployment rate, my job hunting credentials have become my best skill. Amid the hundreds of adverts read everyday, the one-line promises of working at home and making all my dreams come true are becoming more apparent. As the economic downturn takes hold of the UK, Scam artists are rife in our job listings ready to steal our money and waste time. Many of us are wise to these people and know to avoid these adverts. But what happens when you reply?

Browsing my local job listings I stumble across a vacancy for a 'Data Entry Assistant'. The pitch seemed legitimate. In summary, enter data, work from home and make money. Intrigued, I reply with a couple of lines expressing my interest and receive a speedy email from 'Laura'. She seems nice. She's enthusiastic and quick to tell me how good the job is

You can begin working FT or PT; the choice is up to you. You will be contacted through your email; this allows you to work whichever hours are most convenient for you (days, night, or weekends).

As well as how much money she has been earning

You are paid directly via an online payment portal and you will receive £20 - £25 for each order you process (with orders taking 20-30 minutes to complete)
E.g. if you process 20 orders a week, you will make £400 - £500 weekly.
The amount of money you can make is virtually endless. It only depends on the time and effort you put forth. This work from home opportunity is legitimate, has excellent products and is very lucrative.

Her email was friendly and was willing to get me started straight away! The £2000 a month salary sounded great until that age-old phrase "If it sounds too good to be true, it is!" came tumbling forward in my head. Laura (if that was even her real name!) I suspect is lying to me. However, I reply to her with a few questions about her gold paved business opportunity. What companies will I work for? How will my pay be transferred to me? And other genuine employment criteria I required.

In light of the amount of people looking for work and how desperate you may feel things are getting at times, these scams are in no way worth it. Some similar scams to look out for include

Assembly Jobs - No, you can't make lots of money assembling craft kits or any other type of kits. You can waste money on a package to get you started though.

Data Entry Jobs - You'll see lots of listings for data entry jobs. They are usually either positions posting ads or a sales pitch for a kit that will get you started.

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) - which involves recruiting new people, and more new people, to sell the product. If all you are doing is trying to find more people to do what you're doing, keep in mind that there are probably thousands of other people attempting to do the same thing. Most of them aren't getting rich. Also note, that MLM isn't a job with a paycheck - it's starting a business, with no guarantees.

Online Businesses - Do you want to start your own online business and get rich? Be very wary of these type of ads too. What you will do is end up paying for a guide to working at home which duplicates information you can find free.

Posting Ads - There are lots of ads saying workers are needed to post ads on online bulletin boards and forums. You don't get paid to post, rather you may get paid if other people sign-up.

To avoid Laura and her friends of the underworld, Scambusters has some great advice over at http://www.scambusters.org/work-at-home-jobs.html highlighting what you should look out for if you suspect something doesn't sounds genuine.

Needing a job is one if you are also in the unemployment boat but don't let scams like these fill you with hope. Since the current financial downturn, local job listings have been snowed under with similar ideas. Always take two seconds to Google anything you think is suspicious before giving your details over to anyone.
I am still awaiting my reply from Laura. She must be busy entering data.