Watch out for work from home scams.

I was totally horrified today when we received an email from a Jobseeker who applied to a “Work from Home Data Entry” position. After doing some careful research we discovered that this is all a big “Get rich quick” scam!!!

This is how it goes:
“Job ads” (and I use this term very loosely here as you’ll see from the rest of my post that this is no “job”) wherever there is an opportunity to advertise for free whether online or in print, passing their little scam off as a real job opportunity to poor unsuspecting Job Seekers. The advertisers paint a colorful picture of the “perfect” work from home opportunity.

…Waking up late doing a bit of work and receiving a fat check at the end of the week having free time to live your life and spending time with your loved ones…

You immediately decide to apply to the ‘dream come true’ opportunity.

*Glass shatter*

Little do you know at this point that this is all just a scam and you have sadly been tricked!

After “applying to the job” you receive an email informing you that you have been successful (even though you have not been for a job interview or spoken to anyone about the job). You – and many others – are informed in a standard letter that you are perfect for this position, and blah-blah … Such rubbish! In the very same letter they ask you (oh so matter of factly) to deposit X amount into the banking details provided. This amount can range from R10-R300 (depending on how greedy these people are) this amount is for a “Training Manual”. “Training Manual” my… cat’s toes!!!

In this “Training Manual” they tell you the following: And I quote “This training manual will teach you how to have your own successful business via the internet. Read your manual thoroughly. It’s as easy as 1,2,3”

1. Create a new email address
2. Placing Ads
3. Response Letters

In this “Training Manual” they teach and “advise” you on how to cheat the next innocent Job Seeker out of X amount by doing exactly what they’ve just done to you: Luring innocent Job Seekers into believing that they are applying to a “real” job opportunity that does in fact not really exist!

With this warning I leave you: If you’ve applied for a “Work from home data entry” or similar position and you received and email that asks you to deposit money in a bank account for whatever reason, please do not do so unless you are sure that this is not a scam, some positions are legit but you never know if the next person is trying to cheat you out of your hard earned cash!!!

We here at Jobs.co.za will do our utmost best to prevent these people from advertising on our website.

If you are aware of any suspicious behaviour or are unsure about anything that appears unusual then please let us know at support@jobs.co.za

Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under General Jobs.co.za, Hot Job or Not, Top Tips for Job Seekers, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.