Know scam sites:10 TIPS ON AVOIDING WORK AT HOME SCAMS
Happy Work From Home
Today I want to share with you some things to watch out for when exploring the web for legit work from home or online jobs. Yes there are quiet a lot of scams sites and companies out there. Not just online but also offline companies are involved with scamming innocent victims. I advise you not to hop on every opportunity that promises to make you rich in a short period of time. Do not allow yourself to become so desperate for a quick solution to your financial circumstance that you fall into money traps. I will share somethings to look out for in order to help you avoid scams.
10 Ways To Avoid Work At Home Scams
1. Contact Information
When you come across a company always analyse and study their website. Search for their "About"
section and there "Contact" section. Look for addresses that are not P. O. Boxes but physical addresses are best. Check to be sure the address exist for the particular business, you can put the entire address in google and view it on google map. You can also search for a telephone number or business email. Some companies may use free email accounts such as gmail or yahoo for their business. But it is preferred that they have a business email account. For example, instead of workfromhome@gmail.com it is best they have Johndoe@workfromhome.com.
There are legit businesses and companies that will use free email accounts, this is usually a sign that they are fairly new or up coming. You would need to take in consideration other factors as well, such as length of time they have been in business. But make sure they can be reached to be verified.
2. Complaints Online
You can enter a company or business in a search engine and see what information populates about the company. You can put in search for example: "Company ABC reviews" to see what comes up for that company. Look for complaints that are specifically reviewing the companies standard procedures, complaints about not getting paid and other serious issues. Look for star ratings if any is available. If you get a 6 or 7 out of 10 people giving a serious complaint about the company, you may want to stay away. If made possible to contact someone for their personal experience go ahead. You can sometimes find work at home forums that may mention a company and you can submit questions to get feed backs and answers.
3. Asking For Money/Investments
If you come across any company that require you to make any monetary investments,you may want to stay away. Although, there are exceptions, those exceptions in the case of wanting to start your own business or if the payment/investment is to cover training courses and/or to conduct criminal back ground checks. Again, you would have to take other things in consideration before shelling out any money, ask questions about their fees, such as what the fees cover etc. If it makes sense, then you decide to move forward. If it does not, then avoid and keep looking. The key is to research as much as possible.
4. Too Many Misspelled Words And Grammatical Errors
Now I am not a professional writer or an editor myself and I may have some misspelled words on a few articles, so a company may get a few minor misspelled word pass me. But if a company is serious about hiring people to work for them, they would put a lot more time and effort in making their website as professional as possible. They would make sure everything is clearly stated to potential candidates. Sometimes if a business has been around for a short time, you may see some misspelling or grammatical errors on their website but it should not be so blatant and obvious to a novice such as myself. But if it looks as though they slapped a website together just last night, avoid.
5. No Up Front Salary Details
Some companies will have a section on their website that will quote their salary information such as how much you will make or be paid. This is usually found in the job description or if they have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section, it can found there. If this information is not available or listed on their site,be wary. You can also do a web search to find out salary information from other reviewers who have worked for the company. Many companies choose not to disclose their pay amount until you start the application process. It wont hurt to go forth in the process if you really want to know how much they pay their agents/employees.
6. Too Good To Be True
There is an old saying "if it is too good to be true, more than likely it is!" it implies that you should go with your initial impression. If the company is promising that you could make large sum of money for doing something that requires little to no labor, it is not a realistic deal. There will always be a catch or money you have to cough up. So go with your gut!
7. Check Scam Alert Sites
You can enter some companies in the BBB ( Better Business Bureau) to check and see if there have been any negative score or report against the company. Not all companies are registered with BBB. If you do not see a company registered with BBB you can also check with the Federal Trade Commission.
8. Check Company References
You can ask the company to submit information about their current employees. Either their name or email to contact them and enquirer about their experience. If a company cannot issue this information, reconsider. There may be a concern of employee privacy, but they should be able to give you names of all managers, supervisors, leaders, etc that also work for them, with their information you can cross reference their credentials and work history etc.
9. Check For A Company Social Site
In an age of social networking, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are very popular trendy sites.
Companies are utilizing these social sites to collect information about candidates. You can also do the same in regards to a company. Many companies will have at lease a facebook page that you can follow. Look for posts on their pages of active employees/agents and observe online communication. You can also try to communicate with individuals about the company on their facebook page.
10. Asking For Personal Information
Unless a company can fully verify their legitimacy or you have found they are the real deal through your investigations, keep your personal information private. Do not fill out any forms online that request social security numbers or submit any sensitive material about yourself. This will avoid any identity theft or fraud.
Avoid These Types Of Work At Home Jobs
Multi level Marketing (MLM)
This requires recruiting new individuals to sell a product.If majority of your work is about finding people to reduplicate what you do in order for you to earn money, you will end up disappointed. This type of business has no guarantee that you will make any money. Although there are people being successful doing MLM it is primarily those who jumped in at the beginning and is making most of the money selling you guides to riches and making their riches off your hard work.
Posting Ads Online
I have seen many of these opportunities and found that it is very misleading. You do not get paid for simply posting ads. You spend hours on end posting on various job boards, forums or sending emails and you only get paid if you get sign ups. Basically you get paid on how many sign ups you can rally, not by simply posting ads. Posting ads for a normal person who do not have a popular website or social following will not bring you money fast. First establish your online presence and post ads from reputable companies on your website. Also if you are into marketing methods such as email marketing it is best to research how to get into such field before you try to post ads. There is a correct way to do this and it requires you to be well informed about online marketing. So if someone tells you will make a certain amount per ad you post that is not true. It depends on variety of factors.
Stuffing Envelops
I once fell for this scam in college when I was desperate for money. You will pay deposit fee to receive envelops along with post cards or flyers to mail out to addresses of random people. The claim is that you get paid per stuffed envelope mailed out, which is not the case. You are not guaranteed any pay from doing this and you could be participating in fraudulent activity without your knowledge.
Pyramid Schemes
These do require some monetary investment with the promise of doubling or tripling your initial investment by recruiting as many people,but most of the time you end up losing money or being the victim of a scam where a check bounces. Avoid as much as possible!
Report A Scam
If you are a victim of a scam or you believe a scam is being done you can file a report to the following:
1. Contact Information
When you come across a company always analyse and study their website. Search for their "About"
section and there "Contact" section. Look for addresses that are not P. O. Boxes but physical addresses are best. Check to be sure the address exist for the particular business, you can put the entire address in google and view it on google map. You can also search for a telephone number or business email. Some companies may use free email accounts such as gmail or yahoo for their business. But it is preferred that they have a business email account. For example, instead of workfromhome@gmail.com it is best they have Johndoe@workfromhome.com.
There are legit businesses and companies that will use free email accounts, this is usually a sign that they are fairly new or up coming. You would need to take in consideration other factors as well, such as length of time they have been in business. But make sure they can be reached to be verified.
2. Complaints Online
You can enter a company or business in a search engine and see what information populates about the company. You can put in search for example: "Company ABC reviews" to see what comes up for that company. Look for complaints that are specifically reviewing the companies standard procedures, complaints about not getting paid and other serious issues. Look for star ratings if any is available. If you get a 6 or 7 out of 10 people giving a serious complaint about the company, you may want to stay away. If made possible to contact someone for their personal experience go ahead. You can sometimes find work at home forums that may mention a company and you can submit questions to get feed backs and answers.
3. Asking For Money/Investments
If you come across any company that require you to make any monetary investments,you may want to stay away. Although, there are exceptions, those exceptions in the case of wanting to start your own business or if the payment/investment is to cover training courses and/or to conduct criminal back ground checks. Again, you would have to take other things in consideration before shelling out any money, ask questions about their fees, such as what the fees cover etc. If it makes sense, then you decide to move forward. If it does not, then avoid and keep looking. The key is to research as much as possible.
4. Too Many Misspelled Words And Grammatical Errors
Now I am not a professional writer or an editor myself and I may have some misspelled words on a few articles, so a company may get a few minor misspelled word pass me. But if a company is serious about hiring people to work for them, they would put a lot more time and effort in making their website as professional as possible. They would make sure everything is clearly stated to potential candidates. Sometimes if a business has been around for a short time, you may see some misspelling or grammatical errors on their website but it should not be so blatant and obvious to a novice such as myself. But if it looks as though they slapped a website together just last night, avoid.
5. No Up Front Salary Details
Some companies will have a section on their website that will quote their salary information such as how much you will make or be paid. This is usually found in the job description or if they have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section, it can found there. If this information is not available or listed on their site,be wary. You can also do a web search to find out salary information from other reviewers who have worked for the company. Many companies choose not to disclose their pay amount until you start the application process. It wont hurt to go forth in the process if you really want to know how much they pay their agents/employees.
6. Too Good To Be True
There is an old saying "if it is too good to be true, more than likely it is!" it implies that you should go with your initial impression. If the company is promising that you could make large sum of money for doing something that requires little to no labor, it is not a realistic deal. There will always be a catch or money you have to cough up. So go with your gut!
7. Check Scam Alert Sites
You can enter some companies in the BBB ( Better Business Bureau) to check and see if there have been any negative score or report against the company. Not all companies are registered with BBB. If you do not see a company registered with BBB you can also check with the Federal Trade Commission.
8. Check Company References
You can ask the company to submit information about their current employees. Either their name or email to contact them and enquirer about their experience. If a company cannot issue this information, reconsider. There may be a concern of employee privacy, but they should be able to give you names of all managers, supervisors, leaders, etc that also work for them, with their information you can cross reference their credentials and work history etc.
9. Check For A Company Social Site
In an age of social networking, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are very popular trendy sites.
Companies are utilizing these social sites to collect information about candidates. You can also do the same in regards to a company. Many companies will have at lease a facebook page that you can follow. Look for posts on their pages of active employees/agents and observe online communication. You can also try to communicate with individuals about the company on their facebook page.
10. Asking For Personal Information
Unless a company can fully verify their legitimacy or you have found they are the real deal through your investigations, keep your personal information private. Do not fill out any forms online that request social security numbers or submit any sensitive material about yourself. This will avoid any identity theft or fraud.
Avoid These Types Of Work At Home Jobs
Multi level Marketing (MLM)
This requires recruiting new individuals to sell a product.If majority of your work is about finding people to reduplicate what you do in order for you to earn money, you will end up disappointed. This type of business has no guarantee that you will make any money. Although there are people being successful doing MLM it is primarily those who jumped in at the beginning and is making most of the money selling you guides to riches and making their riches off your hard work.
Posting Ads Online
I have seen many of these opportunities and found that it is very misleading. You do not get paid for simply posting ads. You spend hours on end posting on various job boards, forums or sending emails and you only get paid if you get sign ups. Basically you get paid on how many sign ups you can rally, not by simply posting ads. Posting ads for a normal person who do not have a popular website or social following will not bring you money fast. First establish your online presence and post ads from reputable companies on your website. Also if you are into marketing methods such as email marketing it is best to research how to get into such field before you try to post ads. There is a correct way to do this and it requires you to be well informed about online marketing. So if someone tells you will make a certain amount per ad you post that is not true. It depends on variety of factors.
Stuffing Envelops
I once fell for this scam in college when I was desperate for money. You will pay deposit fee to receive envelops along with post cards or flyers to mail out to addresses of random people. The claim is that you get paid per stuffed envelope mailed out, which is not the case. You are not guaranteed any pay from doing this and you could be participating in fraudulent activity without your knowledge.
Pyramid Schemes
These do require some monetary investment with the promise of doubling or tripling your initial investment by recruiting as many people,but most of the time you end up losing money or being the victim of a scam where a check bounces. Avoid as much as possible!
Report A Scam
If you are a victim of a scam or you believe a scam is being done you can file a report to the following:
Internet Crime Compliant Center (IC3)
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
File Complaint With Better Business Beureau
Report Fraudulent Website To Google
In conclusion
It is important for you to do a thorough investigation on any opportunity or company you come across. Always use common sense and good judgement when considering any company online.
I hope this article has helped to provide the guidance needed to explore the world of online work at home jobs safely!
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