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March 14th, 2022
We’ve all had those thoughts on what it would be like if we worked from home instead of going to our typical 9-5 jobs, but yet most think that a job like that would be too good to be true. The truth is, there are legit jobs where you could work from home and be successful, but there are also those who try to trick you into thinking that they are a legit work-from-home company.
Scammers have found a way to convince their victims that they could make loads of money at home working from them. They make you think that all you need to do are these simple tasks that they assign you, and you’re on the right path to making all this money. In reality, they actually want to steal loads of money from you instead. Here are some ways that you can prevent work-from-home scams.
How Do Scammers Fake Work From Home Jobs?
- They call you pretending to be Amazon saying that you can earn $20 an hour to $6,000 a month with this work-from-home job opportunity. They then send you a phishing email that contains a link to a fake website to go to apply for the said opportunity, which looks nothing like the Amazon website. After clicking on a few links, it’ll request your information such as your social security card, and once you provide that they will try to sell you a service to start your own business from home. In reality, they are trying to steal your information and drain your bank account.
- They contact you through Upwork and ask for you to continue communication outside of the app. This is highly against Upwork’s rules, and if you do this they can not help you report the scammer. If someone wants to pay you or talk to you outside of UpWork about your personal information, do not do it and stay on the app. Also, don’t download anything that someone gives you on Upwork without researching it and making sure it doesn’t have viruses.
- They make pop-up ads on random websites for you to click, saying that you can make a lot of money working from home. A popular scam-site that has done this is called Work From Home University, which takes your information then tries to sell you something similar to the Amazon scam. They try to trick you by adding news sites that have apparently given “credibility” to this business and got the picture of their publisher through a stock image site. They also have a video of a girl talking about the product supposedly… if you count editing the video heavily to make it seem that way.
- They tell you that you need to pay them to get interviewed or to work for them. If someone tells you that they need money from you in any way shape or form before working for them, chances are they are only after your money and have no intention of offering you a job.
- They give you an offer that is too good to be true. If they are offering more money than they should in order to reel you into their company, chances are they aren’t actually going to pay you what they said. They are most likely luring you in to either sell you something ridiculously priced to take your money, or they just want to flat out scam you out of money.
- There were no critiques and they over-complimented you during training. If someone thinks you’re perfect as soon as your start and has nothing you can improve on, they probably want you to stay with them for ulterior reasons.
How to Avoid Work From Home Scams?
- Research the remote company you want to work at. If there is little to no information on it or everyone complains that it’s a scam, then I would listen to those people. There could be no information on the company because they are just now creating the scam, so be cautious and don’t agree to anything that isn’t known about.
- Don’t give anyone at the company money. If you have to pay to work at a company, then it isn’t a true work-from-home job. You’re supposed to make money working from home, so why give the company money or gift card codes when the sole purpose is to make money?
- Avoid “too good to be true” opportunities. If they are promising you too much money with few working hours, that is usually a sign that something isn’t right.
- Don’t give out your credit card information. This is going to be used to purchase something, not give you money. If they want to give you money, they will either want to direct deposit it to you or pay you through PayPal.
- Don’t accept paper checks for payment. Paper checks are the most common way these fake companies love to scam you since the bad check will most likely balance and you will owe your bank that money. If given the option, PayPal is the most recommended way you should allow for your employer to pay you since scammers can still steal your money with your bank account information.
- Report the scam if you lost your money or gave them your information. You can do so by going to the FTC and following the online prompts.
If you want to read more about work from home scams, make sure to check out our article about Upwork scams.
