BALTIMORE — Many job seekers are looking to land a position during the holidays, and work-from-home opportunities are in high demand. It may seem like an easy way to bring in extra money, but as Amanda Marks discovered, most of these jobs simply don’t exist.
“I have a six-year-old who's in kindergarten, I have a senior who's in high school, who's virtual, more of my time is needed at home,” said Marks.
Marks has been on the hunt for a remote job for the last seven months, and it isn’t due to a lack of interest from employers.
“It's all different ways that they contact me and it's daily,” said Marks.
But she’s found that nearly all of these opportunities are scams.
“How many scam companies do you think you've been contacted by?” Mallory Sofastaii asked Marks.
“Oh my goodness, multiple a day, a day,” Marks replied.
Including most recently when she got a call from a shipping and logistics company.
“So they just said that it would basically be picking up and receiving packages, and then reshipping them,” said Marks.
The woman on the phone emailed her an employment contract laying out the terms -- $90 per day, a $50 bonus for packages processed on time, and an average monthly income of $4,700.
“And I'm like, something's not right though,” said Marks. “I went to Google Maps, because you can actually see the building that they're talking about, and it came back as like a glass place, or mattress place or something.”
She said this process has been frustrating. She gets her hopes up only to find out it's all a sham.
“When you reach a point where they're willing to schedule an interview with you or meet with you, and you sit down and you waste 45 minutes of your time thinking you're going through an interview process, just to come out that it’s a scam is extremely stressful,” said Marks.
She’s had to become a professional at vetting these fake offers, and she wants to help other job seekers do the same.
“Look for those red flags with the pay. If it's a personal assistant and their offering you $45 an hour that's not legit. That's more like $16 to $20 an hour,” Marks said. “If they're a real company, and they're giving you all this information, they're going to have an office, they're going to have logos, they're going to be in that building. Go to the building if you have to, you know, it's that serious because that's your money you earned. You don't need somebody else stealing your identity, your money, or information to try to scam you.”
For more established companies, she recommends going to their website, look up their phone number and ask if they're hiring and the name of the hiring manager. She said there have been times where the company confirmed their name is fraudulently being used by someone else.
Angie Barnett, president and CEO with the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland, warns that reshipping opportunities could potentially involve illegal activities.
“They are, most often, assisting a scammer in fraudulent counterfeit trade, or moving items that have been stolen and getting them somewhere else. And so, you're actually participating in an illegal scheme,” said Barnett. “If it’s a position in which you're receiving goods and repackaging it, I would go to your local police, I would contact the FBI and report this while you've got good information about your contact person, because I am not aware of any circumstances that that's a legitimate job.”
Another job scam is if they send you a check to buy work equipment and ask you to transfer the remaining amount back to them. The check will likely bounce, then you're on the hook for that money.