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Job Scams (2 Part Series)
In the four-year period between 2015 and 2019, tens of thousands of Americans were scammed out of millions of dollars by falling victim to online job scams. While the internet can serve as a great tool for job searching, it is important to educate yourself on the types of scams out there and how people fall victim to these scams.
Types of Job Scams and Examples
Data entry scams
These scams often promise a lot of money for a simple data entry job that anyone can do. They may say that you don’t need any former experience or even know how to work on a computer. The scammer tries to instill a sense of urgency in the job seeker by saying that this job will be gone if you don’t send your information right away. They also promise an insane amount of money for a job requiring no skill. Work from home and make almost $4000 per month?! No. Too good to be true.
“Quick! Apply to this job before all positions are filled! We are a large accounting firm seeking individuals to perform simple data entry. No experience necessary. Receive up to $750 per week by working at home! Respond Today!”
Pyramid Schemes aka Multi-level Marketing
Pyramid schemes are another type of job scam. These jobs, like most of the scams on this list, promise a great deal of money for little to no work and promote that you can make your own hours for working. While some people do make money as part of these elaborate schemes, they are few and far between. The only people that make money in a pyramid scheme are those who recruit other people into the scheme. These companies often require a buy-in to acquire stock in the product that they sell, but participants are often caught with thousands of dollars in a product if they do not recruit others to sell it. In these scams, someone loses money every time someone makes money.
“Have you always wanted to be your own boss? Now you can! Becoming a Mary Kay consultant is the ultimate boss babe move. Help people feel better about themselves and get to try out free products in the process! Mary Kay also offers incentives for regional top-sellers including vacations and cars. Message me today to find out how you can become your own boss!”
Wire Transfers
Job scammer will also try to cheat you out of your money by getting you to wire money under the guise that it is necessary for an aspect for your job. For instance, a popular scam that has happened over the past decade is the post office job scam. In this scam, an individual is told that they will be employed by the US Post Office, as long as they complete a paid, required training program. Due to the fact that jobs at the post office are usually very secure and have great benefits, those individuals jump at the opportunity and agree to wire the money for training. However, after the money is wired, they realize that they have been scammed when they receive no training and no call back from USPS.
Wire scams are especially bad because, not only are you out of the money that you wired, they are virtually untraceable and the scammers now have access to your entire bank account.
“Good Morning James, my name is Karen and I work with the United States Post Office. I want to let you know that you were flagged for hire and we are ready for you to complete the next steps. In order for you to secure your job with USPS, you will need to complete an online training program. The program costs $74.99 and will need to be completed by next week. Please contact me through email to accept this conditional job offer and I will send you instructions on wiring the training fee. If I do not hear from you by Friday I will be forced to offer the position to someone else.”
Unsolicited Job Offers
Scammers also prey on individuals looking for work by sending out fake jobs offers. You may be asking yourself, “How do they know that I’m looking for a job in the first place?” One of the ways that they know and are able to obtain your contact information is from applying through job sites like Indeed. While Indeed does have legitimate job postings, many of the postings on Indeed are fake and are made specifically to phish for information. Let’s say that you applied for a job at a local restaurant through Indeed; the posting looked legitimate and you sent in your resume. You never hear back from the local restaurant but you receive an email stating that you’ve been offered a job working from home that you never applied for. These scam emails usually offer immediate employment or an interview and will ask that you fill out a form with all of your personal information as part of the hiring process. Many of these forms also ask that you add your bank account information to set up direct deposit.
“We are pleased to offer you the position for an immediate opening at Marcus Advertising! You can start as early as tomorrow if you would like, just click on the link at the bottom of this email and fill out the form with your information. Once you have filled out the form and completed the direct deposit form, we will call you with location details and your schedule for the next two weeks. We look forward to hearing from you and congratulations!”
Online Reshipping
You may have seen job postings online for work-from-home shipping coordinators and thought, “Hey! That looks like something that I could do!” Don’t apply, don’t even click on them. Online reshipping scams are one of the worst scams that exist because they leave the victim open to criminal prosecution. These scams are one of the sophisticated ways that criminals transport stolen goods. With this type of scam, you are paid by how many packages you receive for inspection. Once you receive the package and inspect the contents, you wait for an email with instructions on how to send the package to its final destination. After receiving the email, you take the package to the post office and mail it. Unbeknownst to you, you have received stolen goods and have just participated in transporting them across state lines through the U.S. Post Office. This is a federal offense and to make it worse, you never get paid for doing the job.
“Apply now for the opportunity of a lifetime! Smith Shipping is seeking shipping coordinators to work from home. Job duties are to inspect incoming packages for defects, repackage them, and mail them to the final destination. That’s it! Coordinators are paid per package and earn anywhere from $300-$1000 weekly! You decide how much you earn!”
Rebate Processor
Like the post office scam, rebate processor scams often require some kind of paid training in order to be considered for employment. In this scam, victims are offered high income positions to process product rebates, often for major big box stores. Once victims pay money to complete the training all communication ceases.
“Do you want a job where you can earn up to $150,000 a year from the comfort of your own home? We have an amazing opportunity for you! Walmart is seeking rebate processors to handle the large volume of rebates that they are required to process every year after Christmas. Christmas of 2019 brought an unusually high volume of rebates and they are desperate for individuals to process them. Get paid every week and earn up to $150,000 a year upon completion of a short training course. Training is valued at only 1% of the salary and costs $150.00. Don’t miss out on this opportunity!”
Types of Job Scams and Examples
Data entry scams
These scams often promise a lot of money for a simple data entry job that anyone can do. They may say that you don’t need any former experience or even know how to work on a computer. The scammer tries to instill a sense of urgency in the job seeker by saying that this job will be gone if you don’t send your information right away. They also promise an insane amount of money for a job requiring no skill. Work from home and make almost $4000 per month?! No. Too good to be true.
“Quick! Apply to this job before all positions are filled! We are a large accounting firm seeking individuals to perform simple data entry. No experience necessary. Receive up to $750 per week by working at home! Respond Today!”
Pyramid Schemes aka Multi-level Marketing
Pyramid schemes are another type of job scam. These jobs, like most of the scams on this list, promise a great deal of money for little to no work and promote that you can make your own hours for working. While some people do make money as part of these elaborate schemes, they are few and far between. The only people that make money in a pyramid scheme are those who recruit other people into the scheme. These companies often require a buy-in to acquire stock in the product that they sell, but participants are often caught with thousands of dollars in a product if they do not recruit others to sell it. In these scams, someone loses money every time someone makes money.
“Have you always wanted to be your own boss? Now you can! Becoming a Mary Kay consultant is the ultimate boss babe move. Help people feel better about themselves and get to try out free products in the process! Mary Kay also offers incentives for regional top-sellers including vacations and cars. Message me today to find out how you can become your own boss!”
Wire Transfers
Job scammer will also try to cheat you out of your money by getting you to wire money under the guise that it is necessary for an aspect for your job. For instance, a popular scam that has happened over the past decade is the post office job scam. In this scam, an individual is told that they will be employed by the US Post Office, as long as they complete a paid, required training program. Due to the fact that jobs at the post office are usually very secure and have great benefits, those individuals jump at the opportunity and agree to wire the money for training. However, after the money is wired, they realize that they have been scammed when they receive no training and no call back from USPS.
Wire scams are especially bad because, not only are you out of the money that you wired, they are virtually untraceable and the scammers now have access to your entire bank account.
“Good Morning James, my name is Karen and I work with the United States Post Office. I want to let you know that you were flagged for hire and we are ready for you to complete the next steps. In order for you to secure your job with USPS, you will need to complete an online training program. The program costs $74.99 and will need to be completed by next week. Please contact me through email to accept this conditional job offer and I will send you instructions on wiring the training fee. If I do not hear from you by Friday I will be forced to offer the position to someone else.”
Unsolicited Job Offers
Scammers also prey on individuals looking for work by sending out fake jobs offers. You may be asking yourself, “How do they know that I’m looking for a job in the first place?” One of the ways that they know and are able to obtain your contact information is from applying through job sites like Indeed. While Indeed does have legitimate job postings, many of the postings on Indeed are fake and are made specifically to phish for information. Let’s say that you applied for a job at a local restaurant through Indeed; the posting looked legitimate and you sent in your resume. You never hear back from the local restaurant but you receive an email stating that you’ve been offered a job working from home that you never applied for. These scam emails usually offer immediate employment or an interview and will ask that you fill out a form with all of your personal information as part of the hiring process. Many of these forms also ask that you add your bank account information to set up direct deposit.
“We are pleased to offer you the position for an immediate opening at Marcus Advertising! You can start as early as tomorrow if you would like, just click on the link at the bottom of this email and fill out the form with your information. Once you have filled out the form and completed the direct deposit form, we will call you with location details and your schedule for the next two weeks. We look forward to hearing from you and congratulations!”
Online Reshipping
You may have seen job postings online for work-from-home shipping coordinators and thought, “Hey! That looks like something that I could do!” Don’t apply, don’t even click on them. Online reshipping scams are one of the worst scams that exist because they leave the victim open to criminal prosecution. These scams are one of the sophisticated ways that criminals transport stolen goods. With this type of scam, you are paid by how many packages you receive for inspection. Once you receive the package and inspect the contents, you wait for an email with instructions on how to send the package to its final destination. After receiving the email, you take the package to the post office and mail it. Unbeknownst to you, you have received stolen goods and have just participated in transporting them across state lines through the U.S. Post Office. This is a federal offense and to make it worse, you never get paid for doing the job.
“Apply now for the opportunity of a lifetime! Smith Shipping is seeking shipping coordinators to work from home. Job duties are to inspect incoming packages for defects, repackage them, and mail them to the final destination. That’s it! Coordinators are paid per package and earn anywhere from $300-$1000 weekly! You decide how much you earn!”
Rebate Processor
Like the post office scam, rebate processor scams often require some kind of paid training in order to be considered for employment. In this scam, victims are offered high income positions to process product rebates, often for major big box stores. Once victims pay money to complete the training all communication ceases.
“Do you want a job where you can earn up to $150,000 a year from the comfort of your own home? We have an amazing opportunity for you! Walmart is seeking rebate processors to handle the large volume of rebates that they are required to process every year after Christmas. Christmas of 2019 brought an unusually high volume of rebates and they are desperate for individuals to process them. Get paid every week and earn up to $150,000 a year upon completion of a short training course. Training is valued at only 1% of the salary and costs $150.00. Don’t miss out on this opportunity!”
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