Let’s face it; work from home is becoming so popular that many opted to try this and shift career. Economic instability and global crisis are root cause of companies shutting down leaving hundreds of thousands of individuals’ unemployed.
In this tough economy, we try to find ways and see all sides of the box and even going out of the box to find what is available that can bring food to our tables and pay bills. We find tons of enticing offers and advertisements about employment opportunities, including those works at home. However, do these internet ads, classified ads, TV and radio ads you see provide what they promise? Are these jobs really legitimate?
We have all seen the ads of work from home jobs posted on the internet promising you’ll make ridiculous amounts of money which sounds really too good to be true. Be informed that most reputable staffing and employment services, recruiters and job sites usually charge employers and NOT job hunters.
How will you know if the offer is legitimate? How can you protect yourself from these scammers and their modus operandi?
Some but common bogus offers:
- Accepts anyone and everyone with no skills and experience required
- Offers a job in exchange of an amount for application and processing fee
- Requires you to pay in advance for a starter kit or manual before you can start working
- Overstated wages, benefits and bonuses
- Ambiguous job openings and job descriptions
- Pyramiding type of opportunities
- Just sign up and nothing to do schemes
- Receiving and then re-shipping stolen properties
- Job offer sent to your email with email addresses like abc@hotmail.com, xyz@yahoo.com, etc. (even if they use a reputable company name)
- No phone number/s listed where the owner/s or contact persons can be contacted or can’t be identified
While there are legitimate prospects to make money while working at home from companies with offer that sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Legitimate offers:
- No upfront fees for jobseekers
- Client representatives or human resources personnel are available for queries.
- Employer or company will actually call you for an initial interview via Skype and other online tools
- Requests work samples to back-up the credibility of your skills and work experiences.
- The employer is a reputable and established company.
- The ad includes the company name, email address, link to the website and does not have applicants reply to a suspicious e-mail address.
- There is a detailed job description, expectations and bonuses (if there are like benefits, vacations, health insurance, etc.)
- Legitimate websites with contact numbers and all the information needed by a job seeker.
Sad as it may sound, but scammers are getting high-tech these days creating websites that looks so legitimate and even duplicating websites of reputable businesses. One will not doubt on the credibility of the company as you can actually call them for some verification. Don’t fall prey to these bad guys. Research about the company or call BBB to verify the authenticity of their business. At the end of the day, it is still you who will decide if you go for the job or not based on your investigation and or gut feeling. If you get scammed, don’t get discouraged. Pick up yourself, learn from the experience and move on.
Tags: online jobs, Virtual Assistant Jobs, Virtual Assistant Tips
