Work Scams: How to Recognize & Protect Yourself Against Them - Information Services

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Work Scams: How to Recognize & Protect Yourself Against Them

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Working from home can be a great alternative for a lot of people in the workforce but it is important to realize that some opportunities may be a scam with the purpose of stealing your money and private information. If you come across any job offers that uses generic language or is extremely vague, you should be extremely cautious as it is likely a scam designed to take advantage of you. This also applies to job offers that seems too good to be true. This post will focus on how to recognize a work-from-home scam and avoid becoming a victim of one.

How to recognize work scams

  • Example of a work scam: As you can see down below, this job offer example contains a lot of generic language and doesn’t provide any information about who this person is, the organization they work for, or any other important details regarding the job.

    From: Peter Parker <PeterParkershop@gmail.com>
    Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018 7:29 PM
    Subject: Job openingAdministrative assistant urgently needed to work as a research assistant and get paid $300 weekly. The job is very flexible and can be carried out from any location.

    If interested, do get back to me for more information on the job (123) 456-7890.

    Thanks

    Dr. Peter Parker

  • How work scams work: The purpose behind this sort of scam is to steal your money and personal information. Often times, this is done by sending you an email or a job offer asking you to perform a simple task from home in exchange for a check. Before you get the opportunity to perform that task, you will likely be asked to provide some personal information or pay a fee to join the scheme with the promise that you’ll be reimbursed and payed for the task. When the time comes for you to be reimbursed, the check that you receive from the scammer will bounce and you will be stuck with the remaining balance.

What to do if you receive a work scam

  • Do not respond: If you receive an email or a job offer that seems suspicious or you’re unsure about, do not respond to it as it could be from a hacker looking to steal your personal information.
  • Contact Information Security: You can forward any suspicious emails or unsolicited job offers to informationsecurity@missouristate.edu.