| If your New Year’s resolutions include finding a new job, you may be looking for ways to make money working from home. However, not all work-from-home opportunities are what they seem. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 95,000 consumer complaints about consumer sham job and business opportunities in 2022, making them one of the Top 10 frauds reported. |
| How It Works• You see an online or print ad that offers a work-from-home opportunity doing something like processing paperwork, stuffing envelopes or data entry work.•The ad may promise high pay and require little or no special skills or experience.•You may be asked to pay up front for training and other materials or you may receive a check to “cover” these expenses. What You Should Know• Criminals advertise jobs the same way honest employers do—on trusted websites and newspapers—and often pretend to be both well-known and smaller companies.•The listings can include fake testimonials and bogus personal stories of people making thousands or more through this opportunity.•They promise you a job, but what they want is your money and your personal information.•Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job. What You Should Do• Do an online search using the company’s name plus the words “scam,” “review” or “complaint” to see what other people are saying.•Check out the company with your state consumer protection agency, the Better Business Bureau in your community and the area where the company is located.•Don’t provide any personal details until you’re certain a job offer is legitimate.•Ask lots of questions before accepting any work-from-home job offer—including how and when you’ll be paid, whether it’s a salary or commission-based payment and if there are up-front costs.•If you have experienced financial loss or identity fraud through a work-at-home job scam, report it to law enforcement. You can also share the information with the FTC online or by calling 877-382-4357. |
| Reprinted from AARP Fraud Watch Network. |