Sun 8 Feb 2009
As unemployment reaches levels not seen in decades, job and business-opportunity scams are flourishing. Consumer-protection and law-enforcement groups and better-business bureaus are reporting a growing number of phony job-recruitment and work-at-home schemes targeting desperate Americans looking for a way to pay the bills.
“In these times of despair, people who have been laid off, including executives, make desperate decisions, and the predators are out there,” says Michael Galvin, vice president of communications at the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean, in West Palm Beach, Fla. reports the Wall Street Journal.
More Complaints
The Federal Trade Commission, the consumer-protection agency, received nearly 6,000 complaints against employment agencies and job-counseling services in 2007. The numbers of complaints are almost certain to rise along with the unemployment figures.
Some business-opportunity rip-offs require an upfront fee of $40 to $200 or more to receive information. Often, instead of receiving specific instructions, customers receive vague advice on how to place Internet ads to sell products.
Some scams are variants of mail-based frauds originating overseas that have circulated for years, and part victims not only from their cash, but also from sensitive personal information that could be used for identity theft.
Others are “phishing” scams that use email or fake Web sites from phony employers to gather confidential data from victims for identity theft or money laundering.
Among complaints of identity theft, employment-related ID fraud increased to 14% in 2007 from 12% of complaints in 2005, according to the FTC.
Limit Personal Data
Job seekers should protect themselves by withholding some personal information on résumés posted on Internet job boards. They should never supply Social Security numbers or bank-account numbers upfront or over the phone. Also, be wary of job and business opportunities that promise hefty rewards with little effort, consumer-protection officials say.
To be sure, employment and business scams are nothing new. But officials say the number of scams often rises and falls with the economic tides, and right now the tide is bringing in the sharks.
In November, police in Tennessee arrested and charged a female suspect in connection with an employment scam that they believe spanned several states, including Texas, Missouri and New York.
The woman, who had posed as a man, allegedly advertised jobs for security officers and house cleaners. Job hopefuls filled out applications that included their Social Security numbers and dates of birth and paid $69, supposedly for background checks and drug screenings.
Read more here: Job Scams: The Recession Turns Ugly
February 8th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I still say — let’s stop sending these recession scam artists to expensive prisons and do what the Romans would do to them. Turn then into useful slaves. How about having them row as galley slaves for commercial fishermen to help bring the price of fish down? Wal-mart executives should be the lead rowers for selling lead-tainted flatware to Spanish-speaking buyers who have only English warning signs to read. Plus Wal-mart continues to sell pet food with toxics from China real cheap because no one else will sell them. Go Wal-mart — to sentencing.