This shouldn’t be surprising, but abcnews.com has a story regarding all of the work-at-home job postings on the Internet right now. As you can imagine, this type of economy breeds these types of “jobs.” I’ve always found them to be borderline ridiculous…like the email spam that says you have inherited millions from a deceased Kenyan official.
“Currently there’s a 54-to-1 scam ratio among work-at-home job leads on the Internet,” said Staffcentrix co-founder, Christine Durst, who screens up to 5,000 online job offers every week and rates them on her Web site. “That means that for every 55 [work-at-home] job leads that you find on the Internet, 54 of them are going to be outright scams or downright suspicious.”
Yes, I know that last work is fuzzy, but you get the point. It would seem that these job postings are somewhat effective at their scam:
O’Neal said the ad lead her to believe she’d earn “anywhere between $300 and $800 a week,” considerably more that what O’Neal was making outside the home, working a 9-to-5 job. She also hoped it would bring in enough money to help get her family out of debt.
After carefully reading the Web site that listed the job opportunity, O’Neal sent in $37.94 for a starter kit. She waited for weeks, but nothing ever arrived.
That is embarrassing, isn’t it? Again, effective:
Braband’s investigation focused on 27-year-old Matthew Whitley. After screening Whitley’s bank records, Braband determined the envelope stuffing business had brought in $120,000 for Whitley in just nine months — his only source of income.
Too good to be true is not some flippant saying.