Donna asks…
When finding jobs on Craigslist how can you tell whether a job posting is a scam or not?
I look on craigslist for jobs mostly places near my hometown. When I read a job posting my instincts tells it may be legit because the writing isn’t misspelled or these posting are near my hometown or they leave a fax or phone number but I’m afraid I might fall into scam.
Robin West answers:
There are plenty of ways to know a scam from a real company
1 – a real company will respond to you from a corporate email address (NOT a free address like Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc) and give you the company name, address and phone number. Then google the company name or call 411 to verify that the company actually exists at that address and phone number. Scammers are known to use real company names – but the email and phone number they use have NOTHING to do with the real company
2 – a real company if interested will call you and ask you to come in to THEIR office for an interview. They won’t ask you to do an IM interview for any reason. And even for legitimate work from home jobs like medical transcription, you still have to go into the corporate office for an interview and to fill out a W-9 form
3 – a real employer will NEVER ask anyone they’ve never met to handle financial transactions. EVER
4 – a real employer will NEVER ask you to click on a specific link for a credit check, background check, IQ Test, Skills assessment test, etc before they even interview you – those are ALL identity theft scams that will also max out your credit card
5 – a real employer will NOT make grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors, and will NEVER ask for your sex, age or marital status in an email (100% illegal to ask under EEO laws)
6 – a real employer would not ask for your HOME address, bank name or any other personal information before they’ve met you in person
7 – if the salary sounds completely unrealistic, then it’s NOT a real job offer
8 – nobody is ever going to hire a housekeeper or nanny that they’ve never met – so don’t believe any stories that they are out of town and want you to start before you arrive
9 – a real employer will NEVER pay you before you start for any reason, and will NEVER make you pay before you start
For your own safety, either just put your city and state on your resume or rent a PO Box – never put your home address. Set up a new email account just for job searches – that way if you do fall for a scam your regular email will not be spammed or targeted with malware that will start spamming all of your contacts. And to be extra safe, get a pay as you go phone that you only use for job searches. They are very cheap — I got one for $20 that included $10 worth of calls
Unfortunately from my experience about 80% of job postings are scams. Pretty much anything mentioning personal assistant, payment processing or mystery shopping is a scam – I’ve not found one that wasn’t. The only legitimate jobs I’ve found are either shop or restaurant jobs
Carol asks…
What is the best way to look for jobs in Australia?
I’ve been looking on craigslist & gumtree for jobs/housing. I’m finding success in the housing part of my search, but not so much in the jobs part. Anybody know of a better job web site….specializing in hospitality would be a plus!
Robin West answers:
Check these out : http://www.seek.com.au
http://www.mycareer.com.au
Richard asks…
Are there any other websites like Craigslist where I can find people looking for odd jobs?
I am looking to earn a little extra money, and nobody has posted anything on Craigslist in my area. Do you know of any sites? BTW I live in Abilene, TX
Robin West answers:
Here are couple free classified that you can post ads
www.backpage.com
www.olx.com
www.stumblehere.com
www.webcosmo.com
www.beatyourprice.com
www.epage.com not like craigslist but try it
try also local search in what state you live search in google for odd jobs local.
Hope this helped
and good luck
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