‘Work From Home’ Scams – A Business of Fake Opportunities

In today’s world, everybody wants to do a job and make their future bright by earning some money and the simplest way is to ‘Work From Home’. Working from home is kind of a rescue option for mainly jobless at home, the sick, the old aged people, parents and people who are looking forward to earn money.

Work from home schemes are on a rise, not just in India but worldwide and are attracting thousands of people who are looking for opportunities to earn by doing online work. Internet is a boon in such situations that has made it possible. However, a lot of internet frauds have come into existence such as the Rs. 2,000 crore Speak Asia online survey fraud, multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes, pyramid and Ponzi schemes, to name a few.

It has been reported that the very popular website ‘GroupDealTools’ of home profit system and another website, named ‘Kavita Mehra’s Online Profits Course’ as promoted were apparently selling fraud schemes through their websites.

Such internet frauds are often conducted through spam emails. Cyber criminals send scam emails to innocent users offering a job wherein the user needs to provide bank account details to receive and pass on payments to the company. These job offers claim to give their employee a percentage of commission for each payment the user has passed on. Users might also be offered stuffing envelopes or promotional jobs to earn better payments. These schemes are only meant to cheat innocent users. Many of these schemes are either money laundering scam, an upfront payment scam or a pyramid scheme.

Cyber criminals prey on jobs such as handling medical insurance claims, assembly job, pyramid schemes, chain letters, envelope stuffing, and many more. Users take up these jobs as they get attracted to larger than life offers. They start by filing a registration form, potential members are then asked to provide their credit card details so that membership cost can be deducted. To earn more on a regular basis, users give away their confidential details and get trapped in the net.

Many such scamming sites which are banned in US are now targeting Indians by using a localized version of their website. According to the cybercrimes cell, around 300 such scams at any given time are posted on the internet to tempt internet users for Work from Home opportunity. Most of these scams are mainly targeting working women in India who wish to make some money from home or retired people.

As scammers are getting more sophisticated, it has become really difficult to differentiate between legitimate and scammed opportunity. Identifying whether the opportunity is genuine or a scam can be a tough task, however proper measures and alertness can be very helpful for users to identify.

Be careful:

• if a job offer promises to help you make too much money with little effort by using your home computer
• if an offer requests you to pay a registration fee
• if the job provider asks you to provide your bank details
• if a job requires you to transfer money for someone else to get double in return

Few tips to be kept in mind as precautions are:

• Never open suspicious or unsolicited emails. They can be a scam. Delete them.
• Never reply to suspicious mails. This may trap you in the scammers net.
• Never provide your credit card or online account details to anyone you do not know.
• Remember, making quick money schemes are hoax: scammers are the only people who make money out of it.
• Be careful of schemes that promise money back or offer double the money on task completion.
• Beware of schemes that assure income or exclusive prices.
• Be cautious if the job offer requests you to pay membership or an upfront fee.
• If you are asked to transfer money for someone else, do not get involved in it. It leads to Money laundering.

Unfortunately, these scams can be spotted everywhere online, where claims are made to earn easy money or double the invested amount.  Do not allow yourself to be a victim of such internet fraud. Be careful and proactive. Don’t lose hope and keep searching for a genuine work from home job. They definitely do exist! Your dream of working from home and making some money can be fulfilled with little awareness, through research and lots of hope. The bottom line is, working from home can be an easy method of earning some money—if the business is genuine.

As they say that there is short-cut to success. But many of us fall prey in pursuit of this success of earning money. To protect yourself against the growing ‘Work From Home’ scams is completely in your hands!

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