Everyone seems to want a piece of that “work from home” pie these days. And why not? We all want to work in our pajamas, at our own pace, in our own homes, with our grandkids close by. I’m going to tell you about work from home scams exposed, and how you can avoid getting caught up in work from home scams.
Why Is There So Much Scamming In Work From Home Jobs?
Today, 43% of the American workforce spends at least some time working remotely, according to Gallup.
The number of regular telecommuting employees (excluding the self-employed population) has grown by 115% since 2005.
“3.7 million employees working from home at least half the time.” according to Fundera.com.
Is it any wonder that scammers would prey on people who want to work from home? It’s a giant market full of vulnerable people. Many are looking into working from home for the first time, and don’t know what to look for Before you know it. they’ve been scammed. So, it’s best to educate yourself before it happens to you!
What Do The Scammers Want?
Scammers want to steal your identity or steal your money.
Scammer Jobs to Watch Out For
According to LearnHowToBecome.com, here is a list of job listings to avoid:
- Medical Billing from home.
- Envelope Stuffing
- Starting an At Home business where you are required to put up money right away
- MLM and Pyramid schemes
How To Spot an Online Work From Home Scam
“BBB has a scam tracker at https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/us. Since its launch in late 2015, more than 5,000 employment scams have been reported in the U.S. and Canada. These aren’t exclusively work-from-home job scams, but those kind of jobs areespecially susceptible, Hutt says. Why? “It preys on people when they’re at a vulnerable point in their life,” Hutt said.She mentioned those who are fresh out of work, in debt, in need of a second job to pay bills or are caring for a family.” from ThePennyHoarder.com
- Always do a face to face interview, whether it be on Skype or in person. Never rely on email or chat interviews.
- Legitimate jobs will have extensive job descriptions, usually with bullet pointed tasks, responsibilities and expected skills. If the job description has little or no content, it could be a scam.
- Research the company. “Look at reviews, check online business complaint sites, and try to reach out to people working for the company,” says Justin Lavelle, chief communications officeer at BeenVerified, an online background-check company located in New York City,” from Avoid Work From Home Job Scams by Jon Simmons, from Monster.com.
According to ThePennyHorder.com, there are four questions you need to ask when investigating a work from home job.
- Are you being asked to send money right away?
- Is the job listing generic or too good to be true?
- Did you check the job listing URL or the email address? Sometimes you will see a wacky address that doen’t make sense.
- Consider who you have spoken with. The more skeptical you are, the more likely you are to catch a scam.
Work From Home Jobs That Are Not Scams
You need to keep your guard up on any job offer, because there are so many scams out there. However, there a a few avenues in which to pursue a work from home job that is legitimate. Here are a few venues to research:
Upwork is a platform for freelancers. Employers must pay to post their jobs to Upwork. Upwork goes a long way to protect freelance workers. As a freelancer, you must communicate to your employers through Upwork’s email system. This rule is in place to protect everyone involved, as it is recorded and archived. Employers must put payment money in escrow, so that freelancers are guaranteed payment. Granted, there are a few scammers that still try to get in, but when you report any problems, Upwork facilitators deal swiftly with employers that don’t follow the rules.
FlexJobs at https://www.flexjobs.com is another great freelance platform, but they require a paid membership. However, your $14.95 buys some pretty good perks. FlexJobs researches every listing, doing the legwork for you. Also, FlexJobs Advance Search allows you to search keywords, work schedules, telecommute levels, career levels, and more. There is no need to weed through EVERY work from home job to find the one that fits you, because you can refine your search. This info is from TheWorkAtHomeWife.
My Recommendation
Try affiliate marketing. Of course not all affiliate marketing training courses and platforms are legitimate. But you will find that there are some really great communities that offer help in setting up your affiliate marketing website.
Perhaps the best affiliate marketing platform is Wealthy Affiliate. Wealthy Affiliate has a free membership and a premium membership. You can try out on the free membership to see if you like it. You can even stay in the free membership for as long as you like.
With your free membership, you get hosting for 2 websites, and enough free training to get them up and running. You get exposed to a community of like-minded people that are incentivized to help YOU. And you get access to the best tools in the business.
Wealthy Affiliate will be the first to tell you that they are not a get-rich-quick scheme. They tell you up front that, in order to make money, you will have to work very hard, and that money won’t come in for months in some cases.
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However, they do promise that if you do the work, and follow their formulas, you will make money eventually. This is by no means a scam or a get-rich-quick scheme.
Conclusion
Plenty of people have found legitimate work at home jobs. Otherwise it would not be so popular. But, with so many scammers out there, it pays to keep your guard up and question! question! question! all offers! Research and a very sensitive BS detecting brain are the key to keep you out of work from home scams. So, go home, get into your pajamas, and start looking for that work from home job you are craving, now that you have knowledge of Work From Home Scams Exposed
This is great for the older folks. I’m in my mid-forties myself, but even so, I wasn’t exposed to computers of any kind until I was a teenager. The Internet wasn’t even around then, so I had to figure that out on my own in later years. Only now do I feel as though I understand it enough, so I can only imagine how intimidating it can seem to someone twenty years older. It’s far too easy for unscrupulous opportunists to get their hands on your information without you even realizing what you’ve given them. These days, everyone wants to work from home and you can’t really blame them. Especially older folks who may have retired and realized that the money they now have coming in just isn’t going to be enough. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks Mark, for visiting my site and commenting. I’m with you, only I was much older by the time I got exposed to working with computers. If I didn’t have a technical career to start with, I’m not sure I would have been exposed that early. Thanks for pointing out that older people are more vulnerable, due to their limited exposure to computers. I hadn’t thought of that angle, and I might research that a little more. Thanks again for your comment! Rhonda