Jay's Blog

                      Employment Scams
  Another common type of scams are employment frauds. These aren't
really new--you used to see ads in the paper, or even posted on
electric poles e.g. "Earn $1000 a week working from home." These have
all pretty much moved to the internet, but the premise has remained
the same. They promise a lot, but want money from people up front,
and don't deliver.
  But before we delve more deeply into the work-at-home scams we need
to touch on a different much more dangerous variety.  These are the
recruiting for a great job/career type. These prey on young people,
often women. A wonderful job at high compensation often modeling, is
promised, often in an exotic location. At the very least the person,
or their family spends a lot of money on photos and a fee for an
agent. The modeling jobs never come, at least not enough to pay for
the money spent up front. More seriously, the young person may be
lured to a city far away for a modeling job, or as a nanny and coerced
or forced into prostitution to repay their travel expenses. Their
passport is confiscated, and they are held against their will. A
similar scam is to offer high-paying jobs in the computer industry in
another country. Once there the person is taken to a remote location
prevented from leaving and forced to work on a computer or phone doing
investment or romance scams.
  The work at home scams often look at first glance like something
legitimate. Of course remote work is much more common now, and does
have great appeal. No need to commute, buy a new wardrobe, child care
can be simplified. And by no means do I intend to discourage this type
of work when offered by legitimate companies. But beware. Here are a
few flags, both green and yellow:
Green Flag: It's a long established company. You are given a real
address, phone no. and people to talk to. They do an interview and
background check on prospective workers.
Green Flag: You have to do training either in person or on the internet.
 Yellow Flag: You have to pay a substantial sum for training,
software, or a "license". This isn't to say legit jobs sometime
require a small fee for supplies etc.
Green Flag: They have a list of established customers they want you to
contact or work with.
Yellow Flag: You have to find your own customers or they give you a
suspicious list of supposed contacts.
and finally--
Red Flag: If it's too good to be true, it's not true. No real company
is going to pay you thousands of dollars a week or month to call
people to sell them vacation lots, car warranties, insurance etc.
I you ever have any questions or suspicions call Jay, Jon, Cami or
Dani at 712-625-2201. I'm available if you have questions any time.
712-242-5696. Good Luck!
Jay W. Longinaker