How To Find A Real Online Job (And Avoid Scams)

Today, job applications are done online through sites such as Indeed, LinkedIn, and Monster. Now more than ever, however, people are seeking jobs they can do from their comfort from their own home. Wearing a shirt and tie, sitting in a cubicle, and the daily meetings in conference rooms are becoming unhealthy, boring, and tiresome to people, especially if the pay is low. So, many people are looking for work they can do at home for good pay. However, there are many opening “jobs” that turn out to be scams within these websites, where you may work for nothing. Here are a few ways to rake out any opportunity that may be fraudulent.

Research

When you see the name of the employer, you may have heard of it, but sometimes, you haven’t. So, Google it to see what the company is all about…if it does exist. If you don’t see it, if there’s no phone number or address or email, it’s probably a fake. Whoever contacts you for a job, have them verify their business. Maybe the company is small and doesn’t have a profile, but it should have a number or email to contact their location.

Look At The Job Application/Headline

The scam could be right there in front of you, on the screen, making it so obvious. You’d probably find a lot of this on Craigslist. For starters, if you apply and they want to know you financial information to “verify” you, that’s very much a scam. If the headline says you can be paid a lot for doing minimal work, that’s very unlikely to be true because what company will pay a lot for something simple to do? No one going for payout. This is something that I FOUND up EARLY: grammatical and spelling errors – in the headline. No professional will make a mistake like that when presenting the job opportunity. This is a case of amateur hour. The same goes if the email address is someone’s personal email address, not the professional address. All job applicants must submit references; if you’re not asked, be tentative that something is not right.

Look It Up On Highly Reliable Websites

There are websites besides the ones I have mentioned that you can find such job offers and know instantly they are legitimate because of who has verified it as such. I highly doubt that a major business news source like Forbes, The Economist, or The Wall Street Journal would print a recommendation that is not legitimate.

It’s a hard, long, tedious process of finding work at home, but have enough patience to find one. There are many opportunities out there – a freelance writer, data entry, virtual assistant, translator – and they are needed, even if for a temporary time. Go out there and be aware when you begin the hunt for the right work-at-home job.

Leave a Comment