How to Detect If A Job is a Scam or a Legitimate Business

In today's economy, many people are almost to the point of desperation to find a job and when a promising job offer seems to appear in their lap, it may be tempting to follow through. Today, it is also common to work from home.

It is important to be careful while looking for a job. While there may be a legitimate business looking to hire you, there are a few clear steps to detect a job scam.


Be leery of the "too good to be true" offers.

Many offers seem legitimate and even have professional looking websites. Put on your thinking cap and remember the old adage, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

These jobs are right on the cusp of reality and fantasy, to make it sound more realistic. They may not offer a $100,000 a year salary, but may make the offer sound like it is coming from a legitimate business. If you can get this job without any interview process involved, be suspicious!


Don't hand over money.

No legitimate business is going to ask for money in order to hire you. There are all sorts of ways a job scam will ask for money - wire it, put it into a certain account, bogus checks, etc.

You may have seen the e-mails that ask to send money to an offshore account. This is a huge red flag they may seem obvious to most people. But, desperate times may make this offer seem more tempting because of the benefits and pay that is offered in return. Hang on to your cash!!


Beware of e-mails offering you a job.

If you did not apply for a job and a job is being offered, it is probably a job scam. If a random e-mail appears in your inbox offering you a job, be sure to check it out. Following some of the guidelines from steps one and two, this is likely a scam, especially of it is an overseas company.

Look out for work from home scams.

There are legitimate work from home jobs that are available. However, if they are asking for money, telling you that you will get rich, don't require an application or resume, or require you to complete a training program that costs money, it is a job scam.

A legitimate business will give you the specifics on the job, will ask for an application, and will be able to be easily reached.


Check out other resources.

If it does not seem to be on the up and up, check out other websites:

- The Rip-Off Report
- Snopes
- Worldprivacyforum.org
- LookstooGoodtobeTrue.com
- Scambusters.org, or
- the Better Business Bureau

These are good to sites do more research on a company. Also, go to the websites of the company offering the job (NOT using the link in the e-mail or flyer) and poke around. Just do a Google search and see what pops up on the company.


Protect privacy information!

Beware of companies asking for copies of important documents like your passport, or anything with your social security number on it before you meet them in person.

NEVER give out credit card numbers, bank accounts, social security number, PayPal accounts, etc. until you are confident that it is a legitimate business.


Look for other red flags.

Other red flags it may be a job scam include: grammatical or spelling errors in job ads, e-mails that use a web-based address (yahoo, hotmail, etc) and not a legitimate company e-mail, requests for scans of important documents, or no experience or application required.