How would you like to earn $600 a week while working part-time in the comfort of your own home?
Sound too good to be true?
Internet employment sites now feature lots of postings for “virtual assistants” (home-based staff) but some of these offers aren’t legit.
The virtual assistant industry is now being targeted by con artists and scammers who use this as a way to pass counterfeit checks. Others charge a processing fee “to cover your start-up costs.” They get your money. You get nothing in return.
The con artists try to get people to work with them as an intermediary. They tell folks some variation of a convoluted scheme that involves “their client” being “interested in working with them.”
Ultimately, the scammers want their victims to receive money in their own checking accounts on behalf of “the client.” They get to keep a share of the money. The rest gets wired to the con artists.
The checks are often counterfeit and the scammer is usually long gone by the time the checks have bounced. Victims are stuck not only paying for the funds from the bad check, but also any bounced check fees that have racked up.
New virtual assistants are especially vulnerable to this scam because they are often desperate for clients and will jump at any new opportunities that come their way. Many have fallen victim to this con because of it.
This scam involves one virtual assistant staffing company charging people a fee and then redirecting them to the Web site of another company that doesn’t charge any fees. They make a lot of “money for nothing” this way.
Most legitimate virtual assistant staffing companies are now posting scam alerts on their Web sites in an effort to get the word out about this scheme.
Photo by svilen001.
Be Wary Of Online Work-At-Home Offers
July 22, 2008 by Rich | 3 Comments
In Internet, Scam, Work at Home
Angela on July 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I always hate it when a new form of scam pops up on the ‘net. Especially the work at home ones. Scams have people so jaded about working from home that many people just simply assume that all opportunities are scams.
For a long time when I told someone I worked from home, they would tell me it must be a scam. I got so sick of defending myself I mostly stopped talking about it.
Homejobsite.com on July 22nd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I make good money from home with an affiliate based selling platform. I as well get really sick of the prolific and “in your face” marketing scam ads boasting obsene and ridiculous payouts.
cassy on July 23rd, 2008 at 2:43 am
Scammers are everywhere, waiting for their victims to come.
Earn $600 a week while working part-time in the comfort of your own home?
I dont know why there are still people who are tempted to work with this kind of offer, involving big amount with a little time work. Its really too good to be true!