You found your first online job, the pay is high, low hours, and it seems that you got the job easily. However, your gut feeling says it may be a scam. There are many ways to check if a job offer is fake. With more and more people switching to working from home, the number of online scams has increased. By reading this article, you will learn to detect if a job is legit or fake quickly.

How to check if a job offer is fake:

Go by the rule that if it’s too good to be true, then it’s a scam. That means if someone is offering to pay you $3000 monthly just for Data Entry or Email Management it’s most likely a scam. One of the most popular job-related scams online is when someone offers to pay you a certain amount of money to purchase “Office Equipment” and then asks you to keep a certain amount for yourself. They will offer to send you a check. Once you deposit the check, you will get into trouble with your bank for depositing a fraudulent check.

Email

There are some very obvious red flags in the email that can help you determine if the job offer is fake. Firstly, check the email address of the sender. Is it a professional email or a general email? An email that is General ends with @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, etc. A professional email has the domain name at the end. An example of a professional email is info@hustlebustlefromhome.com. Secondly, check the grammar of the email. If the email has a couple of grammar errors, then that’s fine. However, if it has too many grammar errors that’s a huge red flag. Lastly, check the professionalism of the email. How does the tone of the email sound? Is it too desperate? Is the email too pushy? 

Research 

You can find out if a job is real or fake by researching online. Start by pasting parts of the email on google and write “Scam” at the end. For example, paste the introduction paragraph and write the word “scam” at the end. Search to see if you get any hits. Chances are other people might have received the same email and posted it on Reddit/other forums. Browse through the forums to see if someone has reported the email that you received as a scam. 

Website Research

Check the Website that they provided to see if it’s legit or fake. Start out by checking if the domain name matches their email address or if there is a slight difference. Scammers sometimes purchase similar domain names with slight spelling differences to trick others. Make sure to check the spelling of the website and their email to see if it’s a match or not. Check to see if the content on the website is real or if they just selected a theme to make people believe that they have a built website. If it’s a fake website, they use a theme and copy-paste the same text on every page to trick people.

Scammers also use other company’s name and websites in their emails. If you have done everything mentioned above but still seem unsure if it’s real or not, then contact the company directly. You can tell the company that you received a job offer and want to make sure that it’s legit since there is a lot of scam jobs online.

How to tell if a work-from-home job is not legit?

1. The salary is too good to be true
2. They offer you the job without conducting an interview
3. The email that you received does not belong to a domain. Instead, it is an @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @gmail.com email
4. They offer you an upfront payment to purchase office equipment or software
5. They ask you to pay for the software and will refund the amount in your first salary
6. The email has a lot of grammar errors
7. The content in the email sounds unprofessional
8. The job description is unclear
9. You never applied for the job
10. Trust your gut feeling

Below is an email that was sent by a scammer. This has been copy/pasted exactly as it was sent.

Scam Job Interview Email

Dear _____
Meredian Software Development company sincerely appreciates your interest in our company. We are currently recruiting for an assistant finance manager to join the Finance team.

Details:

– work remotely
– trial period 10 days
– you need a phone and internet to work
– full customer base (no need to search for customers)
– training with detailed instructions

Benefits include:

• Flexible Work Hours
• Comprehensive medical, dental benefits
• Retirement savings plans
• Life insurance
• Paid vacation and holidays
• Transportation reimbursement programs
• Brand smartphone for work with internet access after completing training(iPhone or Android device
• The monthly premium for high-quality work
• Daily commissions for successful assignments.
  Salary: 41 CAD per hour.
  Working hours: Full time 9 AM – 5 PM (Saturday, Sunday are not working days.). Part-Time, you need to work at least 4 hours a day;

it is advisable to start in the morning. Trial period: 10 days. During the trial period, you get a salary. (Full Time – 1640 CAD/week; Part-Time – 820 CAD/week). You get paid after 10 days of the trial period. Payment going into your bank account directly by Interac e-transfer or direct deposit. Position

Responsibilities and Requirements:

1. Works effectively under pressure. Always enters data efficiently and accurately.
2. Provides timely service with minimum supervision.
3. Well organized and able to multitask in a fast-paced environment.
4. Checks and corrects errors in online payable systems.
5. Assists with Electronic Fund Transfer, Bank Drafts for PO invoices.
6. Prepares and/or reviews PO invoices to ensure compliance with contract terms and adequacy of supporting material and works with Supply Management to resolve discrepancies.
7. Enters, edits, and manipulates data in relevant information systems, requiring data manipulation processes of a complex nature.
8. Respond to emails and phone calls in a timely manner.

Interview:

You can get an interview through a video-conference on Skype or you will get the interview at the office as soon as you pass a probation period. Our company will pay for your trip to the office. We will discuss with you a long-term contract after successfully completing the trial period.

We have seen your resume from indeed.

You can take more information about the company on the website. Website is www.meredian.net

You can start working any day except weekends. But first, you need to fill out a complete package of documents for work. I am enclosing a standard application form for you to fill out and return at your earliest convenience. You don’t need to print the online questionnaire.

You can ask me questions; I will answer with pleasure. Best regards, Your

HR-manager Wesley Frazier.

In this email, the scammer also sent an application that asked for basic details, contact info, availability, and signature at the bottom.

Red Flags in this email:

1. The email that the scammer used was @gmail.com
2. Grammar errors
3. The job says it is a remote job but then mentions compensation for travel
4. Usually, jobs will not reveal the EXACT hourly rate until an interview has been conducted
5. You can copy-paste some paragraphs of this email on google and you will see that few people have already reported this as a scam

Fake Job Offer Email #2 – Posting Rental Properties

Another famous scam is where the scammers hire you to post rental properties on Craigslist and other rental advertising websites. They will ask you to create an account on your own. Then they will send you pictures and descriptions of the rental property. These types of scammers usually do pay a small amount just for you to post ads for them.

What is the point of these Ads? 

They make you post rental properties claiming it’s their property and they are looking to rent it out. Once you receive inquiries, they will contact the people interested in renting the property directly. They will ask them to put a deposit on the property. They will keep the money and give you a small percentage out of it. You may ask, how is this a scam? They do not own any of the properties. They use someone else’s property pictures and scam others into paying them a deposit to rent it. Their main target is people who are coming on vacation from a different city/country. In some cases, they make you collect the money and send a percentage to them. They make you post these ads is so that everything is tracked back to you instead of them.

Fake Job Offer Email Example #3  

Too Busy, hard of hearing, and cell service

Few other scam emails that are going around are about people emailing professional job descriptions. In the Job description, they mention that they have seen your email and are impressed. Then they provide you with a job description. In the end, they will write that they are too busy to talk over the phone, are hard of hearing, or travel a lot and do not have good cell service. All three of these things should be a red flag. Yes, some people are hard of hearing and prefer emailing only. However, if there are other red flags, then chances are it is a fake job.

Always trust your gut and do your research before you accept any jobs online. There are a lot of legit jobs online as well, not just fake jobs. Don’t let the scammers demotivate you. When you first start your work from home journey, you will experience a lot of scammers at the start. After some time you will be able to detect which job is legit and which is fake.

We will try to keep this post updated as we see new types of scams. If you have experienced a different type of job-related scam, please share your experience to help others.

Make sure to check our Job Page daily.