How to Spot the Typist Work-at-Home Scam

The work-at-home typist scam is one of the most popular scams aimed towards job seekers. Work-at-home typist scams defraud innocent job seekers out of their money and guarantee them no job. Read the following tips to learn how to spot the typist work-at-home scam.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Find a job advertisement for a work-at-home typist. The job advertisement may be listed in newspapers, flyers on Internet job sites or in your email inbox.

2. Read the job description. The scammer will claim that the job is available because of an overload of clerical work for a local or virtual business. The job description can include anything as long as a computer and typing is involved. "Data entry" and "form filler" are popular phrases used by the scammers, and many ads claim that no prior work experience is required.

3. Submit a request for more information on the application process. Receive an instant reply telling you that you need to pay a specific amount of money to receive more information or to have your application processed.

4. Refuse to pay the associated fee. Legitimate businesses do not require you to pay them for job information.

5. Receive information on how to perpetuate the scam by buying a CD or a bogus list of companies that the scammers claim are taking applications for work-at-home typists.

6. Know that you've been scammed when you realize that you have to recruit other people to the scam to make a profit. The companies on the list will either be fake or defunct and the contact information will be wrong. Companies that you manage to contact will deny ever needing typists and will ask where you heard about the job opening.

Tips & Warnings

• Some work-at-home typist jobs can be legitimate. However, the odds of the jobs being posted on the Internet are very small.