How to Steer Clear of Work-From-Home Job Scams

Nearly all of these bogus work-from-home job offers involve stunningly high pay for little work. What the scammers are after: your money or your personal information for identity theft.

Some victims have reported that, after answering a few questions on the app, they received an offer, a contract and a request for their personal data and banking information. 

More elaborate frauds promise to set you up in an online business — again, for a price, which can rapidly escalate into the thousands of dollars as one paid “training program” leads to another.

Other supposed job opportunities make you an unwitting money mule, essentially assisting the scammers with their crimes. The BBB says the criminals often will hire people for reshipping scams: They’ll use stolen credit card numbers to order products, then instruct the victims to repackage the goods and send the packages to a new address. “The accomplices who were hired for this fraudulent type of work are never paid,” says the BBB, “and their identities may be used to open bank accounts.”

In fact, the BBB warns, sometimes criminals’ apparent goal is identity theft: In its 2020 study of employment scams, the organization found that 34 percent of victims provided their driver’s license number and 25 percent provided their Social Security or Social Insurance number in the process of applying for a bogus job.

There are genuine work-from-home jobs out there. The trick is knowing how to spot the real opportunities in a sea of empty — and costly — promises.

Warning Signs

• A job ad claims that no skills or experience are required.
• It offers high pay for little or no work.
• They ask to communicate through private channels, such as WhatsApp, rather than via email and phone.
• Your earnings are based primarily on recruiting other people to join the operation. It's probably a pyramid scheme.
• The manager refuses to meet by video chat (although AI is making it easier for scammers to fake a professional persona).
• You're required to pay up front for training, certifications, directories or materials, or you’re sent a check that will supposedly cover such expenses.

How to protect yourself from work-from-home job scams

• Don’t click on links in texts or emails from someone you don’t know.
• Check out the company offering the job with your state consumer protection agency and with the Better Business Bureau in your community and the area where the company is located.
• Learn about the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule, which requires companies to disclose key information about business opportunities they are selling, to provide references and to back up claims about how much you can earn.
• Ask detailed questions. Some that the FTC recommends asking include:
  • How will I be paid? By salary or by commission?
  • Who will pay me, and when will the checks start?
  • What is the total cost of the program, and what will I get for my money?
• Check that job sites specializing in remote work screen the openings and companies listed.
• Don’t assume a work-at-home offer is on the level because you saw it in a trusted newspaper or on a legitimate job website. It could still be a scam. If you spot a suspicious listing, report it to the publication or site.
• Don’t believe website testimonials. Fake work-at-home sites are full of personal stories of people (often struggling single moms) making thousands of dollars a month because they took advantage of this amazing opportunity.

More Resources

• If you believe you have been exploited by a work-at-home job scam, you can file a complaint with tthe FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at IC3.gov. (Find out more about how and where to report scams here.)
• The Better Business Bureau can tell you if it has received complaints about a particular work-at-home program (although a lack of complaints doesn’t guarantee it’s not a scam).
• Listen to this episode of AARP’s The Perfect Scam podcast for more on employment scams.