(September 16, 2008)

Q - What precautions should a person take when seeking employment?

A- There are several scams to avoid when hunting for that job.

Types of Employment Scams:

Work-At-Home scams are on the rise – A tight economy is driving people to look for extra work and high gas prices are motivating people to look for work that can be done at home. Some types of these scams include:

Medical billing
Envelop stuffing
Assembly work

Accounts receivable scams are advertised on the Internet and in newspaper classifieds. Those who post resumes on careerbuilder.com, monster.com, etc. may be solicited for these rip-off jobs. The promotions are invariably from overseas. Schemers claim they want victim to deposit their American customers’ checks and then wire the schemer the money less a commission. The checks turn out to be counterfeit.

Mystery shopping scams offer jobs conducting undercover shopping at stores like Wal-Mart. Idea is to wire a money-gram at the store and report on how well employees handled the job. Evaluation documents are fake as are the checks sent to the victim to cash and wire.

Government job listing schemes are not illegal but take job hunters for millions each year. The schemers offer government job information that consumers could obtain for free. Most common jobs offered are for the postal service employment.

Modeling scams often lead to high price photo shoots and all sorts of extras. One thing they do not do is get the victim a job. Not to be confused with legitimate businesses that offer modeling career assistance.

Pyramid promotions have been around forever. Determining if a multi-level promotion is an illegal pyramid can be difficult. The Attorney general’s website is a good place to conduct research.

Red Flags:

Requirements of an up front fee to apply for or get a job.
Requirements of personal information when applying for a job.
Job offers from overseas.
Job promises of great incomes with little work

Q-What is our scam of the week?

A- The Better Business Bureau is warning all interested consumers about the different scams that are associated with Apple Inc.’s latest device – the second generation iPhone. The scammers are now taking advantage of the popularity of the 3G iPhone that was introduced last July so that they can rip off the interested consumers.

These scammers are setting up different websites so that they can pose as legitimate retailers, resellers, and brokers of the new device from Apple Inc. There are even reported scammers who posted their advertisements online at several classified websites including the famous Craigslist. More often than not, the victims were usually asked to wire their payment for the second-generation iPhone, which they will never arrive.

The Better Business Bureau advises consumers to purchase Apple Inc.’s iPhone only at the authorized stores. Moreover, they also advise consumers not to wire the payment if they would like to buy a second hand iPhone on the internet.