Telecommuting Scams: How to Spot Them

The internet is a great opportunity for anyone looking for jobs or starting a business. Unfortunately, scammers have found a way to make a killing off preying on people like us.

Telecommuting jobs are one of their favorite ways to con people into giving them their money or getting personal account numbers and other identifying information to use for other cons. A lot of people looking for telecommuting positions are ones that are anxious to find one right away.

The anxious ones are prime targets, because scammers can focus their pitches to what prospective telecommuters are wanting- to find a job to perform from home. Usually, its mothers who need to save money on daycare or need to bring in extra income for the family.

That shouldn’t stop you from continuing to look for a position that’s right for you. While scammers will probably always be on the prowl, we can at least be educated enough so that we know how to spot some of these scammers before they run away with our personal information or our money.

Here are some things that you should be looking for:

Never pay to get a job

No legit employer will ever ask for money for you to work for them. There are instances where you will be asked to pay for background checks, but other than that, there is no other reason to be handing your money over to a company just to work for them.

Research the company

If you’re not familiar with a company that you’re applying to, be sure to research that company to see if they are legit. Use your search engines to look up any articles, blog posts, etc. on the company. You might find someone else who has worked for them and are sharing their experience.

Check Pay rate

Not all job ads will tell you what the pay rate is, but if they do, research and find out what an average pay rate is for that particular position. Scammers love to post ads that say you can perform data entry from home and make thousands per week. Most legit jobs will only pay you around $7-$10 an hour or so for data entry. Not thousands.

No skills necessary

Another popular way to lure unsuspecting victims is by offering jobs where you don’t need any skills to be employed in their position. There are some legit jobs that will say this, but there is usually some kind of skill needed to get hired with them.

Popular scammer words

There are several words that scammers like to use in their ads that tend to grab the attention of anyone anxious to find a telecommuting position. Some of those are:

• Work from Home!
• 20 (or other stated high number) People Needed!
• Perfect for stay at home Moms
• No more Commuting!
• Say Goodbye to Your 9-5 job!
• You’ll have more time to be with your children

It’s important to note that you might find some of these in legit job ads, but most of the time it’s a scam. If you see phrases like these, then you know to research the company to be sure it’s legit before moving on to apply.

It’s not likely we’ll ever be able to be stomp out scams, but we can at least keep a watchful eye out and spot them before they get to us. The less people they scam, the less money they make and hopefully they’ll give up in the future.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Nell Taliercio has been working at home full time since 2004. She’s worked as a telecommuter, virtual assistant and affiliate marketer. In 5 years she’s discovered many secrets to finding legitimate work at home jobs and securing them. You can find work at home job information and tips at: www.justonlinejobs.com

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