Work from Home Job Scams

Header

Author: Jorij

March 22, 2020

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!

Report a Scam!

Have you fallen for a hoax, bought a fake product? Report the site and warn others!

Help & Info

Popular Stories

As the influence of the internet rises, so does the prevalence of online scams. There are fraudsters making all kinds of claims to trap victims online - from fake investment opportunities to online stores - and the internet allows them to operate from any part of the world with anonymity. The ability to spot online scams is an important skill to have as the virtual world is increasingly becoming a part of every facet of our lives. The below tips will help you identify the signs which can indicate that a website could be a scam. Common Sense: Too Good To Be True When looking for goods online, a great deal can be very enticing. A Gucci bag or a new iPhone for half the price? Who wouldn’t want to grab such a deal? Scammers know this too and try to take advantage of the fact. If an online deal looks too good to be true, think twice and double-check things. The easiest way to do this is to simply check out the same product at competing websites (that you trust). If the difference in prices is huge, it might be better to double-check the rest of the website. Check Out the Social Media Links Social media is a core part of ecommerce businesses these days and consumers often expect online shops to have a social media presence. Scammers know this and often insert logos of social media sites on their websites. Scratching beneath the surface often reveals this fu

So the worst has come to pass - you realise you parted with your money too fast, and the site you used was a scam - what now? Well first of all, don’t despair!! If you think you have been scammed, the first port of call when having an issue is to simply ask for a refund. This is the first and easiest step to determine whether you are dealing with a genuine company or scammers. Sadly, getting your money back from a scammer is not as simple as just asking.  If you are indeed dealing with scammers, the procedure (and chance) of getting your money back varies depending on the payment method you used. PayPal Debit card/Credit card Bank transfer Wire transfer Google Pay Bitcoin PayPal If you used PayPal, you have a strong chance of getting your money back if you were scammed. On their website, you can file a dispute within 180 calendar days of your purchase. Conditions to file a dispute: The simplest situation is that you ordered from an online store and it has not arrived. In this case this is what PayPal states: "If your order never shows up and the seller can't provide proof of shipment or delivery, you'll get a full refund. It's that simple." The scammer has sent you a completely different item. For example, you ordered a PlayStation 4, but instead received only a Playstation controller.  The condition of the item was misrepresented on the product page. This could be the