There are many variations to fake check scams and there seems to be new ones almost every day. The scam starts with a person offering to:

• Buy something that you have put up for sale
• A form of payment for working from home
• An advance from a contest you one
• The first installment of millions of dollars you’re going to receive for transferring money from a foreign country.

The standard claim from the person operating this scam is that they are in a different country and it is too difficult to pay you directly, so they will have someone who owes them money in your country send you a check.

The amount of the check you will receive will be greater than what is owed you. You will be instructed to deposit the check in your bank account and then wirer the overpayment to the scammer.  Another variation is that you need to pay a “fee” to get millions of dollars from a lottery you won in another country. There are other examples when the scammer offers to deposit the money directly into your bank account. You give them all of your account information for an electronic fund transfer. Instead of them electronically transferring the funds the scammer sends your bank a phony check to be deposited into your account, when you check your account balance it looks like the money has been electronically deposited.

However they trick you into transferring the money, the result is always the same, the check bounces and you are left owing the bank a lot of money. You also just committed a very serious crime.

You may be thinking to yourself “If the check turns out to be a fake, isn’t that the bank’s problem?” No it’s not. It’s your problem. You are the only one responsible for the checks you deposit into your account. When a check bounce, you owe the bank the money you withdrew. The bank can take from any other accounts you have with them our even take legal action against you to get the money back.

There is no legitimate reason for someone to give you money and then ask for you to send them a money order bank. That is a big red flag that it’s a scam. If you are selling something online as for a money order for the exact amount or you can use a service like Paypal.

I’ve been reading a lot about the topic lately and to my surprise found myself agreeing with many of the concepts.The reason I say “to my surprise” is because my whole life has been based around hierarchies. Plus I have thrived in them.

One of the concepts that I am working through right now is the idea that when people are given the responsibility to make decisions in a collective way and ultimately need to live with that decision, the result will be better than if the decision was made by some type of centralized authority. Plus the decision that is made will have overwhelming support because everyone participated in the decision making process.Who is better to know the best response and all the ramifications of that response to a situation than the person directly dealing with situation?

I agree with this completely.

This leads me to a question that I personally can not answer. Do people really want to participate in the decisions when given the opportunity?

To be perfectly honest I have no idea what my “passion” is.  What I did learn today is the internet is a really horrible place to try to find it.

I have things that I am passionate about but I wouldn’t call them my “passion”. I will passionately argue politics with anyone that is willing to engage me but I am not going to quit my day job to be the next great political commentator. I am passionate about making sure that my son washes his hands before he eats and after he uses the bathroom. I really don’t know what I would do with that.

But as I thought about discovering my “passion” and turning into a career a quote came to mind “Wherever you go, there you are.”

Any career is only as fulfilling as you are willing to make it. We all have bad days at work. That is just part of being human. But overall, do you bring your “A” game when you come into the office? People who can honestly say “yes” to that question are probably very happy with what they do for a living.

The key to that answer is “honestly.” There are people that I work with that would say they bring their “A” game every day but for the most part stare at the clock. Or every time they are asked to do something that is a little bit more than their job description or out of their comfort zone, do it but begrudgingly.

The bottom line, it is easy to be unhappy with your career, hop on the internet and do searches for “how to find your passion.” But what are you bringing to your day? Put in some real effort and see what happens.

There are many disadvantages of starting your own business completely on your own that many people don’t even realize. Here are some disadvantages of starting your legitimate home based business from scratch.

Waitress Resume Example. This is a standard chronologically ordered resume.

Functional Waitress Resume Example. This is a resume format where you focus much more on you actual skills than your work history.

But anyway. I am going to put together a series of pros and cons to different types of businesses. The topic I am going to start with is the advantages of starting your own business from scratch. If you ask most people, this is what they really have in mind when they think of “starting a business”. Here are the advantages

To me what makes someone a scammer is the intent of the person committing the scam. If they are intentionally being false, they are scamming you. If they are giving “best case” scenarios to get other people to join, they are selling. Most of these people who are selling these programs that guarantee easy wealth believe it themselves. They have to. Otherwise they would have to accept the fact they just wasted money on a start up fee that they are now trying to get other people to pay.

I also know many legitimate opportunities I have made money from that other people who have also tried it call scams. In these cases I usually can attribute the difference of opinions to the amount of effort put into the opportunity. Just because something isn’t easy, doesn’t make it a scam. Just because you don’t have success right away doesn’t make something a scam either.  If you don’t do the work, you are not going to make the money.

There is nothing worse than during the interview talking about one of your greatest strengths being attention to detail and on your resume it has “Stated University of New York at Binghamton” when it should be “State University of New York at Binghamton.”

Don’t fall victim to spell check!

If you have interviewed for the position and they are going to check your references, they want to hire you. The only thing that matters now is your references.

Employers do not care about your family or friends as references. If you can not find a family member that will say a nice thing about you, you have much deeper issues other than finding a job.

Always make sure to contact your references beforehand to make sure it is OK with them and to also prepare them for the possible call.

In past positions I have been in a management role which has led me to be a professional reference for a lot of people. I am very happy to do this if some one was a good worker and a positive contributor.

The problem occurs when I get a call out of the blue. It is not that I mind talking to a potential employer for someone. I just want to be prepared myself so I give the most glowing review possible. Me picking up my cell phone while grocery shopping with the kids is not going to result in the best conversation with a hiring manager about someone’s credentials.

It is also important to make sure it is OK with a former employer to use them as a reference. You may think you did a great job while you were there but your former employer may not agree. I have received calls to check references of people that I have fired. The only reason I could possibly think off why they would use me as a reference is because they though that no one would actually call me. Well they did and they probably didn’t get the job.

1) Employers will check your references

2) Have at least three references that are not friends or related to you.

3) Call your references to make sure it is OK with them to be used as a reference and prepare them for the possibility of getting the call.