In this post, I am going to talk about the darker part of working from home, which is online scams. Hand in hand with all the benefits comes the opportunity for dishonest individuals and groups of people to take advantage of and mislead job seekers.
In order to stay safe and be aware of their practices you will need to have a type of knowledge that can protect you and make you doubt whenever it is necessary to do so. Scams in the best possible case would waste your time, and in the worst - you are going to lose a lot of money.
Here is a story...
As a person who ended up in both these cases, I have learned these lessons the hard way. When I first started looking for a job online, the first thing I tried was a simple Google search. That was back in 2008. And this ended up in many companies offering data entry jobs, completing forms, etc.
The catch here was that you needed to pay a certain amount so that you can get access to a platform for job offers and then you can start right away and earn a quite nice amount. Do you see the scheme here?
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
If you are new to freelancing and working from home, it is very easy to get misled. Even when something is obviously suspicious, the time you spend just looking for a job could make you emotionally drained and vulnerable to "good offers". Who doesn't want to solve all the issues with just a few clicks?
Unfortunately in the real world, good things take time and effort. Magic happens not in an instant but as a result of hard work, dedication, the right timing, and the right mindset.
What to be careful about?
Too good to be true
As the old saying goes - if something is too good to be true, then it probably is. Nobody will give you the easiest possible job with the highest possible payment, just like that, because you are cute. And how would anybody know if you are cute or not, if you are just a random visitor on an online website offering jobs?
The way to find out if something is too good is by trying to eliminate your emotions from the equations and assess the situation with a cold heart and straight thinking. If you didn't want so badly an amazing offer to be true, how would it look from the perspective of an observer with no attachments? If it sounds suspicious, then it deserves further investigation before even trying it.
Check Website Reliability
In the modern world it's becoming more difficult to cheat as the moment you do it, your victim would complain about it publicly on the Internet. Job seekers can use this fact to find out if a company is legit or not. Here is how to do it:
☑ An online search for reviews of the website - opinions of people who claim they have been cheated is a huge red flag. This is the type of company you should immediately stop involving with as you may end up losing money as well. Keep in mind, that scammers are in many cases very experienced in what they do, and even if you are quite familiar with the tricks, you never know how they can turn things around in their favor.
☑ Get a trust score on Scamadviser - everything that is not in Green should be avoided, or at least should get a deeper check. Pay attention to the reasons why it is not safe. If there is a valid reason to believe there is some dangerous activity going on, it is wiser to stay away. As this scam checker website uses automated algorithms, it may not be the most accurate source of information, but if you put your thought into analyzing the results, you will get your answer.
☑ Social media accounts of the company - Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or any other network could give you additional information about what is going on with this business. If their social media accounts are active and people are commenting (positively) on their pages, this is a good sign. Beware of how many people complain about them, and what is the reason for their frustration. If it is something small, know it, but don't give up on a company just because some other people didn't like a minor issue they had with them.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Contact the potential scammer directly
If you have passed through the first two methods, and you still need additional information, the go-to here is sending them an email or calling them. In the case that contact information is provided on the website, you should give it a try and see what happens. An example email can contain greetings, you introducing yourself, then followed by any questions/concerns you might have.
Be straight and to the point, and wait for their reply if any. If the company replies by asking you to invest money in order to get hired, please don't respond and disengage from communicating with this business.
Remember: No legit company would ask you for money before you even earned it.
It just doesn't make sense. It is not logical to ask for money for a person who is looking for money. Most such companies try to get you to pay them, and when it comes to their turn, they will never come up to what they promised. They would either disappear or send you some documents that are just informational and don't solve your problem of finding a job in any way.
Finding a job requires investment. There is no doubt about it. You will need to invest in your knowledge, your qualifications, your communication skills, your productivity and work efficiency, and many more. But being asked for money straight away is not the right approach to landing a job.
Earning is unjustified and huge
I have come across websites that offer payment for completing mini-tasks. This is a normal way of providing jobs for freelancers. The difference between a scammer and a legit website might be the payment remuneration. An example of this scheme:
Most reliable and trustworthy websites provide $0.25 - $0.50 per simple task consisting of a few clicks or checking some information, etc. If a company claims they pay $1 - $2 for a similar job and this gets accumulated in your account, this raises a lot of questions. A math calculation reveals this is four times more. But why?
Another red flag for this same situation: check the minimum withdrawal amount. If it is too high - this can mean only one thing. They want you to stay engaged with them for as long as possible before you realize they are not going to pay at all. Surely, it is tempting to watch your money grow with very little effort, but if you find out nobody got paid by this website, make the conclusions yourself.
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