Red Flags to Look For When Choosing A Work At Home Job Amy Smith, February 15, 2019April 5, 2024 Working from home has many amazing benefits: flexible schedules, saving money on commuting, clothing and food costs, as well as avoiding office politics are just a few of these benefits. However, according to the Scam Tracker from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), there have been 10,385 employment scams found in the United States and Canada (as of this writing). Out of those 10,385 employment scams, 3,136 of them involve work from home scams. So, if you want to work at home, how do you detect a scam and which ones are the most common? Here are some red flags you should look out for! Red Flags That May Indicate A Scam The job seems too good to be true- Remember how your mom always told you that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is? Well, your mom was right. I mean think about it, if it was easy to earn $1,000 a week for working only 5 or 6 hours, the whole world would be doing it, right? You are being asked for money to get started- When you work, employers are supposed to pay you, not the other way around. You should never have to pay any money upfront to work at home. While you may need basic equipment, such as a computer or a phone line, steer clear of job listings that ask for money to get started. The company is asking for personal data- Legitimate companies won’t ask for any personal information, such as bank information, driver’s license number or social security number, right off the bat. Never provide this information until you have fully researched the company and have secured the job. The job listing URL seems off- Many scammers will disguise themselves as legitimate companies, sometimes even going as far as stealing a company’s brand and logo. If the company’s website is listed as xyz.jobs.com instead of xyz.com, this should raise a red flag. Instead, type the name of the company into Google’s search engine, go to their website, and search for the job listing that way. The company doesn’t have any contact information- Scammers are out for one thing and one thing only- to scam people. The last thing they want is to be discovered. Essentially, a work at home job listing should have a combination of the following: active social media profiles, company bio and/or company history, email address, photos, and physical address. The job listing is found in Google sponsored ads- Work at home job listings that are promoted through Google sponsored ads are hardly ever legitimate. These ads are automated, so this means that no one reviews the ads before they are posted. Legitimate companies won’t pay for a job posting and that is just seen by anyone who does an online search. You have to call a 900# for more information- If the work at home job listing features a 1-900 number for you to call in order to get more information on the opportunity, this should immediately raise a red flag for you. When you call that number, you’ll listen to a brief speech before being put on hold. As you sit there and wait on hold, the charges begin to rack up and in the end, you’ll end up with no information at all and a hefty phone bill. Helpful Work at Home Resources Budget Kitty – 127 Legitimate Work From Home Jobs That Really PayClub Thrifty – 9 Legitimate Work-From-Home Jobs for 2019Crowd Work News – 40 Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs & Side Gigs (updated for 2019)Dollar Sprout – 11 Best Work from Home Jobs for 2019Flex Jobs – 100 Top Companies with Remote Jobs in 2019The Balance Careers – 12 Legitimate Work-From-Home CareersWell Kept Wallet – 15 Best Sites to Find Work-From-Home JobsWoman’s Day – 18 Work From Home Jobs That Bring in the CashYahoo Finance – 40 Legitimate Companies That Will Pay You To Work From Home Sometimes, choosing to create your own business is the best way to work from home. No worries on whether or not there are any scams when you are the creator and owner! If you choose to create your own business from home, you will need to consult with your accountant first and foremost, gather all your ideas, come up with a consulting logo, and start digging into making your new endeavor happen! Image Source: FreePik Share on FacebookTweetFollow usSave Finance homered flagsscammersscamsWAHMwork from home
When I was younger, I was scammed once from one of the work from home ads. Had to pay them to sign up to sew baby bibs. You had to purchase all the materials from them which you could have purchased in a fabric store for so much less. Then even if you did a perfect job they usually sent the baby bibs back and said they didn’t meet their standards. I ended up just giving those adorable baby bibs away to people at baby showers and such. It didn’t take me but a short time to figure out they were just a scam and they were just in it to sell you the materials and they never had any intention of purchasing the baby bibs from you so you could make your money back plus a profit for your work time.