There are various different scams targeting job seekers, especially those looking for part-time work. In this article, we focus on scams that victimize people who wish to earn by working from home.
If you are interested specifically in Pay to Click (PTC) Job Scams or want to know about Employment Scams in general, we recommend reading the related blog posts.
Jobs that allow you to work from home were already becoming increasingly popular. In the post-pandemic world, most people have been forced to work from home. Working from home is easy, saves time and gives you the flexibility you need. Scammers are aware of the increase in popularity and are approaching potential victims with "great opportunities" to "earn easy money".
There are several kinds of "Work from Home” Scams:
- The offer is too good to be true: If the payment offered is great for simple work, it may be wise to be at least a little suspicious. In most cases, it quickly proves very difficult to get paid once you complete the work. They want you to keep the money in the account "to invest" or are stating you first have to reach a certain threshold to get paid, which is increased every time you reach it.
- The work offered is illegal: While Pay to Click scams are the most common, there are even more risky work from home jobs like money laundering. You may end up as an unsuspecting “money mule” when you are asked to transfer money or send packages you receive to a different address (often drugs and other illegal goods). Do not accept this kind of job as you may end up in jail. They are not risk-free. The opposite is true; they are offering you this “job” as the risk of getting caught is high.
- They ask you to pay money: There are many excuses scammers use to convince you to pay, from getting training, installing needed software, application fees, checking your identity or credit rating and more. There simply is no real valid reason for them to ask you for money. Any job that requires you to pay out of pocket is likely to be a scam.
If any of the cases stated above apply, stop communication with the company. Chances are high that the work from home job is a scam.
How to Check a Work from Home Site?
Apart from checking the Scamadviser Trust Score of the website, there are several other ways in which you can check if a Work from Home Job site is legit or not. A few tips:
- Do the Scam Check. We listed a lot of regular ways in which to check in our blog post "How to Recognize a Scam".
- The work is vague. Scammers like to keep things non-concrete. It makes it more difficult for you to check the work. Ask normal questions like "what do I have to do", "how many hours", "what is the fee per hour", "what is the company I will be working for", "when do I get paid". If the answers given are not clear, it may be an attempt to scam you.
- How did you make contact? If they approached you via email or social media, this is a good moment to get suspicious. Why are they approaching you? It is very time intensive and costly for them.
- They reply very fast. This is another sign that it may be a scam. It is not easy to get a good job working from home. How come they have time to reply so quickly while logically they should be swarmed by people looking for work.
- Check external references. Do not trust the payment proof and reviews provided on the site. These are easy to fake. Try to find people who are already employed by the company. Check, for example, review sites like Trustpilot and Sitejabber and contact these reviewers. If none of the reviewers reply, this might indicate that their reviews are fake. Another good source is LinkedIn. Contact a few employees and see what response you get.
Please also check the tips you can find on related blog posts “Pay to Click Job Scams" and "Job & Employment Scams".
Reliable and Safe Work from Home Sites
We recommend freelance websites as a great way to start finding work you can do from your home. While these websites take a commission you can be sure you get paid as they collect the money and intermediate in the case of conflicts. A few boards we have positive experience with are:
If you know of any other reliable Work from Home job board, let us know!
