Don't fall for work-at-home scams

In the case of Bernard from Atlanta, who didn’t want his full name used, he was caught up in the so-called repackaging scam, which has gotten worse in the past year, says Tripp Brinkley, a postal inspector for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The rise in such cases prompted the agency to recently release an advisory.

This is how it works: You get an unsolicited email, or find a job post on a major job board, about a work-at-home job involving freight. Typically they offer to pay anywhere from $20 to $40 for every package you receive at your home and then reship with a pre-paid shipping label the scammers provide.

The criminals are often based in former Soviet Bloc nations, and the unsuspecting victims are paid through a money wiring service such as Western Union.

What’s actually happening is the scammers are purchasing goods online with stolen credit card numbers and they’re using the victim’s home address to ship the goods.

Sometimes they even ask victims for their bank account numbers, Brinkley says, promising to directly deposit their paychecks in the account but they end up cleaning them out.

For Bernard, the company seemed real because it has an impressive Web site called ecargodeals.com.

Recognizing work-at-home scams Christine Durst, founder of RatRaceRebellion.com, offers tips for spotting scams: 1. "Work at Home" appears in the ad header: "Work from home" is not a job title. If it appears in the ad header there's a good chance it's a come on - scammers can rarely resist including it in the header – it’s the bait of their “hook” as they fish for desperate people to reel in. 2. Claims that no experience is necessary and no resume is requested: In the “real world” all jobs require you do something so it stands to reason that a legitimate ad will tell you what it is you need to be able to do. In the world of scams, a person’s gullibility is far more important than their experience or skills. 3. Unbelievable pay! - make $5,000 a week working part time! Exaggerated claims of income are a sure sign of a scam. 4. The ad arrives as spam in your email. As if by a miracle, an ad for home-based work just landed in your email inbox. How could this man from Romania have known you were looking for home-based work? Miracles do happen, but not via SPAM. If you receive unsolicited job offers in your email it’s probably the result of a scammer having “harvested” your email address from another location frequented by people who are seeking work. Move it to your trash file without using the “remove me from this list” link you’re likely to find at the bottom of the page. These links are often used to confirm that your email address is active and using them can result in even more SPAM. 5. No Job Description: What exactly is the ad for? Most scams will give little or no description of the type of work you are supposed to be performing – not even an allusion to such. Real job listings will always tell you what they expect you to do for them. 6. Palm Trees, Mansions, Beaches & Bikinis:  If the ad you’re looking at features palm trees, a mansion, and a Ferrari, it’s probably a scam. Successful scammers often bag their prey by dangling enticing things in front of them – much like kidnappers do. “If you get into my car I’ll give you this candy bar.” 7. "Limited number of openings" in the subject line: "We are seeking 11 people to work from home!" Scammers use this tactic to build a sense of urgency in their prospective victims -- "If I don't act now, the opportunity may disappear."

At one point, he got a little suspicious and refused a few packages. He e-mailed his contact at the company asking if they had a business license, to make sure they were legitimate. After he received a copy of what looked like a real license, he continued to accept the packages.

That is, until he showed up at a Federal Express office to pick up the packages he had refused. He saw police officers enter the building while he was waiting and go in the back of the office, and then come back into the lobby.

"They asked me my name and then took me outside and handcuffed me," he says. "I said, ‘oh my God. This is the end of everything.’"

Bernard, who says he was never in trouble with the law before, was taken to the police station, read his rights and told he was accused of receiving stolen property.

After a few hours, Bernard was let go because the police realized he was just an innocent middleman. But a postal inspector came to his house a few days later, told him about the scam, and made him sign a statement saying he would never forward packages again.

As for Bonnie Brown from Ohio, she says she was scammed by Unlimited Healthcare Services, Inc., that promised to train her and pay her for filling out medical bills.

She never got a dime and ended up calling the BBB about the issue, and eventually got her $195 back.

“We were supposed to get paid a dollar for each claim we did,” she says, but after weeks and then months of waiting to be paid, she got a letter saying she was terminated.

Officials at Unlimited Healthcare would not comment on the issue, but the BBB has an extensive file on the company and gives it an “unsatisfactory” rating.

Hopefully, these two examples will help all of you wake up and smell the work-at-home scam coffee!

Scammers are getting more and more sophisticated and you need to be on your toes or you’ll end up with a bitter taste in your mouth and out lots of cash.

Since scams like these are only going to get worse, there are a few key things to keep in mind.

• Research the company you’re interested in working for and get references from employees. Check Web sites like www.ripoffreport.com, www.wahm.com, and the BBB to make sure they don’t have a checkered history, says Christine Durst, founder of RatRaceRebellion.com.
• Do not ever pay money to get a job. That’s not how it works. Employers pay you.
• Don’t expect real companies to be sending unsolicited emails to your computer with job offers. Hardly any firms ever look for employees this way.
• And just because a job is posted in your local newspaper, or a well-known web job board, doesn’t mean the job is real.

While both Bonnie and Bernard, are now a little gun shy when it comes to any work-at-home offers, there are legitimate jobs to be had.

Matthew Harris, a disabled father of four who fell victim to a medical billing work-at-home scam after his Internet company went belly up, is now gainfully employed at home.

In 2006, he took a job with call-center outsourcing firm Alpine Access as a technical customer service rep taking calls at home from Office Depot customers. He works between 30 and 40 hours a week and makes $9 an hour plus benefits.

Before he took the job he got a recommendation about the company from a friend and he also researched the firm.

“After being scammed,” he says, “I was very leery.”

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