Work at Home Scams Rising in the Face of Economic Woes
Sunday April 27, 2008
This article by Eve Tahmincioglu on MSNBC.com takes a look at how the number of work at home scams is likely to increase as the economy tightens. Because work at home scammers prey on people who are desperate for money but who don't want to or can't leave the house to earn the additional income, it's likely that a growing number of people will get scammed into believing that work at home jobs they see online or receive unsolicited email about are legitimate.
Tahmincioglu goes on to point out that complaints to the Better Business Bureau pertaining to work-at-home opportunities rose to 4,100 in 2007 from about 3,800 in 2006. Additionally, she tells us that work-at-home offers and business opportunities ranked 13th last year among fraud complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
While it's one thing to get conned into paying for the privilege to work at home with these scammers and perhaps have your bank account drained in the process, those who get scammed also need to be aware that they could end up getting arrested for activities they thought were legitimate but were, in reality, rip off attempts by crooks who convince the workers to repackage goods and send them on only to find out the unsuspecting home worker was actively involved in fencing merchandise purchased with stolen credit cards.
Some of the specific scams mentioned in the article include:
Occasionally I save the scam email offers I get. Over the past year, I've saved 93 messages. And that was just those I decided to save that weren't blocked as spam. Many say they saw my resume on CareerBuilder or Monster. In nearly all cases the messages are poorly written and reflect the grammar of non-native English. Why have I saved them? Well, I'm getting so fed up, one day I may just start naming names. Here are the most common type of offers I see:
Tahmincioglu goes on to point out that complaints to the Better Business Bureau pertaining to work-at-home opportunities rose to 4,100 in 2007 from about 3,800 in 2006. Additionally, she tells us that work-at-home offers and business opportunities ranked 13th last year among fraud complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
While it's one thing to get conned into paying for the privilege to work at home with these scammers and perhaps have your bank account drained in the process, those who get scammed also need to be aware that they could end up getting arrested for activities they thought were legitimate but were, in reality, rip off attempts by crooks who convince the workers to repackage goods and send them on only to find out the unsuspecting home worker was actively involved in fencing merchandise purchased with stolen credit cards.
Some of the specific scams mentioned in the article include:
- An email saying you were randomly selected to become a mystery shopper and you can earn $500 to $800 a week.
- An unsolicited email, or a job post about a work-at-home job involving freight.
- Offers of training and pay for filling out medical bills. Typically the scam requires you to make an upfront payment for the "opportunity" and you never get paid for your work.
Occasionally I save the scam email offers I get. Over the past year, I've saved 93 messages. And that was just those I decided to save that weren't blocked as spam. Many say they saw my resume on CareerBuilder or Monster. In nearly all cases the messages are poorly written and reflect the grammar of non-native English. Why have I saved them? Well, I'm getting so fed up, one day I may just start naming names. Here are the most common type of offers I see:
- An email saying my resume was found on a job site and the company would like to offer me a job as a Transfer Manager processing on-line money transfers.
- An offer to become a PayPal Account Manager to process payments from the company's clients through PayPal. I would get a percentage of each transfer (5% - 15%).
Comments
Not all work at home jobs are scams! Now I’m not saying that they are not out there because they are but thier is still legit ways to make money online. One thing to rememeber is if your not selling a product in most cases it is a scam. So if you are looking for a liget way to make income online here is one liget way to do just that.. [URL removed by moderator]