One of the things that really irritates me and will invoke gales of righteous anger on my part is the job scam. This is the ad that offers lots and lots of money working at home doing something very easy, all you have to do is… something that involves spending money. You’ve seen the ads; they’re all over the web and if you do anything that hints of looking for work (like posting a resume or applying for a job online) you’ll see them pile up in your email in-box. For heaven’s sake, life is hard enough when you’re scrambling for something, anything that can help pay the bills.
One example I’ve encountered recently was a scam where you sign up for a teaching job, and then get bombarded with calls from some call center trying to get you to sign up for classes. This one doesn’t even make sense, since you weren’t looking to take classes but to teach them.
Another that happened to me recently was a phone call from a local “career management” agency (they apparently don’t like to be called a “job placement” firm) asking me to come in for an interview but no job specified. I did a little checking on the net and found many, many negative comments from people who had less than kind things to say about this group. Apparently they will look for a job for you if you if you give them an up-front, non-refundable fee. And they may or may not find a job. Armed with this knowledge I went in just to see what it was like. It was an odd interview with perhaps the most clinical, careful interviewer I’ve ever encountered. He didn’t quite know what to make of my rather eccentric resume and they never called back. I’m not sure how to feel when even the scammers aren’t calling me back, but there is is.
Work-at-home is a common theme among many job scams, but not all work-at-home arrangements are fraudulent. Jet Blue has used people working from home to take reservations, and many other companies let people at home handle customer service calls.
Spotting scams requires that you ask yourself some questions about the opportunity. Ask yourself if it makes financial sense for a company to have you do something that would be cheaper and easier to do elsewhere, i.e., offshore, or by a company that has the machinery to do this.  For instance, hand-stuffing envelopes (a classic scam) makes no sense since machinery exists to do this very quickly for pennies. Another example is a scam that was popular a few years ago where con artists sell people software that is supposed to help them track down lost and late UPS or FedEx packages and help customers get refunds.
The bottom line is that if a job offer wants money up front, walk away. Real employers pay you, not the other way around. Ask specifically how and when you will be paid, and on what basis (salary or commission?). Find out when you ought to receive your first paycheck, and ask about fees charged by the employer against your paycheck.
If your Spidey Sense is tingling but you aren’t certain, here are some resources you can use to get more information:
The Better Business Bureau keeps track of complaints about scams and businesses that don’t act ethically. Check your local office or go online.
Fraud.org posts complaints about businesses that prey on people looking for work.
The Federal Trade Commission has a good site here that goes into a lot of detail about job scams and related kinds of fraud.
Another good site is lookstoogoodtobetrue.com. Lots of solid, commonsense advice. The name of the site says it all.
Finally, both Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com have special pages that detail job scams that they hear about. These will help you avoid falling victim to those who prey on people who just want to find a job.
