Cyber Security Tip #30: How to Avoid Work From Home Scams
The ad says you can make lots of money working from the comfort of your home. But if this were true, wouldn’t we all be working at home? According to a report done by CBS, for every one legitimate work-at-home job posted online, there are about 70 scams. If you’ve spent any time trawling online jobs boards and classifieds looking for remote work from home opportunities then this statistic might not come as a surprise.
To help you avoid being one of the many people that falls prey to their tricks, here are my top 8 tips for avoiding work from home scams:
• Don’t pay money upfront – Any work from home opportunity that asks for money upfront could well be a scam, whether the money is for registration, training, supplies or processing fees. No ethical employer would expect you to pay them before they pay you.
• Speak with someone – A legit employer of remote workers will happily discuss the work from home opportunity with you over the phone. Scammers won’t.
• Conduct background checks – Google the company’s name with the word ‘scam’ next to it to see whether anybody that’s been tricked into a non-legit work from home job has an axe to grind.
• Check references – If your search on Google doesn’t reveal anything but you’re still suspicious, ask to speak to another internet employee of the company.
• Find out exactly what you’ll be paid – Beware of high hourly rates with minimal skills or experience required. There’s no shortage of work from home opportunities promising you’ll earn $100s for a few hours of work. Rather than trust these vague figures, ask them to explain exactly how much you will be paid and how your pay is calculated.
• Jobs to avoid – Work from home jobs to avoid or be suspicious of are assembly jobs, data entry (when you have to pay for a starter kit), processing claims or emails and, of course, stuffing envelopes (businesses have postage machines these days!).
#NCSAM