The approval of work from home bill, also known as Telecommuting Act gives more interest to Filipinos on how to start working from home. There is an average of 1k to 10k google searches for “work from home”, “work from home jobs”, 1k to 10k, and “online jobs”, 10k to 100k. Work from home opportunities pops up! You get excited and ended shelling out money to invest. Sometimes you work for a month and ended up not paid. These are common experience a newbie like you may get into. As such, learn how to avoid work from home scams!
Common Signs of Work from Home Scams
Here are some of the red flags that you have to take note of:
- They asked you for a fee. You should never pay money.
- Using your personal account to execute a transaction in behalf of the client. The most popular of it is renting your Facebook account in exchange of cash or free laptops. Here’s an article from Buzzfeednews.com, check it HERE.
- They make these big promises for an easy task and you get a big amount of money.
- Chat or video interview scams. During the interview, you are asked to provide sensitive information like bank accounts. Once you will give the information, the scammer will misuse this info for some fraudulent activities.
Basic investigation to find out if it is a scam or not:
Analyze the situation. Did they approach you? What are they promising? Too good to be true?
Search the company in Google. Go through the pages if there are links that show if it is a scam or legit.
Check the company name using some tools like www.bbb.org or www.glassdoor.com. These sites provide information company reviews and latest scam information.
Check the company website.
Find out who is behind the website. How long has the website been active? Check whois.com; it displays activation date and registrants name.
Do they have contact info on the website? Do they have links to social media? Are there social media activities updated? If there is none, that should give you a hint whether it worth trusting or not.
Getting excited and eager to get your first online job is great but don’t let emotions fall you into it. Be aware of risky opportunities. Use your common sense. Do your research and trust your gut.
