Not a day goes by that I don’t get some sort of scam or phishing email, but lately it seems to increasing. I guess all those scammers are looking to buy a Porshe for the holidays. I’ve received phishing emails that are spoofing (using another company’s identity) Facebook, MySpace, the IRS, and today Google Adwords. Below is the email I got regarding Adwords (my comments are in red):

From: Google AdWords
To: This email doesn’t have my name or email address in the “To” field which means it was bulk sent through blind carbon copy. Whenever Google wants to talk to me, they send an email directly to me).
Subject: Courtesy reminder
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:47:40 -0800

This is a courtesy reminder that your Google AdWords account needs to be verified.

In order to receive uninterrupted service, please verify your information immediately.

To verify your account, please click the link below and proceed to the login page:

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin This URL actually goes to Google-xb.com which is not a legitimate Google site. (When the cursor hovers over the URL from my email, the actual URL is shown at the bottom of my browser) .

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account.

Sincerely, Google AdWords

This scheme is trying to get the login information for my AdWords Account. Once it has that, it can do all sort of things such as run ads that I would pay for and even steal my payment information.

To stay safe from phishing, NEVER click on links in email to go to a password protected account. Even if the email seems legit, don’t click on the link in the email. Instead, open your browser, type in the URL to the site (not the URL in the email) and log in from there.

Also consider whether or not the organization would actually have your email. Companies aren’t going to have your email unless you gave it to them. They don’t go out to find it so they can contact you. So if you bank at Bank of America, but never gave it your email, then any email saying its from Bank of America is probably not legit.

This week I give tips on how to evaluate work-at-home jobs.



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Resources Mentioned On the Show

Better Business Bureau

Federal Trade Commission

This week is ask the Pajama Mama where I answer your questions about working at home.



You can listen online here:

Or Download here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources Mentioned On the Show

SuperAffiliates.com - There are many good affiliate marketing resources, but I like Ewen Chia’s SuperAffiliates.com membership because its tons and tons of information, monthly resources and a business-in-a-box, and easy to follow video and written tutorials. Super Affiliate Handbook

Make Money Giving Away FREE Satellite TV Especially in today’s economy with people wanting to save money, and satellite being less expensive than cable, giving away the system plus offering special deals, is a great way to earn an affiliate income from home. VMC pays $120 for each system install you give away (see site for complete details). Click on “Affiliate Program”.

Blogger.com- Free hosted blogging.

WordPress.com- Free hosted blogging.

WordPress.org – Self hosted blogging platform.

Hostgator – Webhosting service that I host all my sites on.

I’ve been getting this in my email a lot lately. I know its a scam because the IRS only knows me by my business number (and the one in the email isn’t it) and it doesn’t have the email address that this email came to. I file through a different email. I tried to see where the link went but my virus protection gives me a warning not to go any further. In case your virus doesn’t have that kind of protection, I wanted to warn you about this email.

From: Internal Revenue Service
To:
Subject: Notice of Underreported Income
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 14:56:49 -0300

Taxpayer ID: success-00000174073547US
Tax Type: INCOME TAX
Issue: Unreported/Underreported Income (Fraud Application)

Please review your tax statement on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website (click on the link below):

review tax statement for taxpayer id: success-00000174073547US

Internal Revenue Service

Here’s another fake check scam that arrived in my email this morning. I have posted the email below and highlighted the red flags that its a scam in red. If you get this email, delete it. Remember that no company would ever trust an employee with thousands of dollars! This is just a ploy to steal your money. And because it involves a fake check, it could land you jail. Protect yourself and stay away from scams like this!

Email:

Good day,
I am Mr. Flesher Scott, Job Instructor for Smiths Flour Mills. I am here to present to you a Part Time Job. Work from Home/Temporarily and get paid weekly. We are glad to offer you a job position in our organization, SMITH FLOUR MILLS UNITED KINGDOM.

Mr. Flesher Scott
JOB INSTRUCTOR
SMITH FLOUR MILLS LIMITED

Here’s another scam that showed up in my email today. You may be wondering how I know its a scam. After all, it doesn’t say what kind of job it is. Well, that’s why I know its a scam. Legitimate job offers will actually tell what the job entails. The $6000 a month for a few hours of work is another tip off. If this shows up in your email, DELETE IT!

BTW…emails have been removed to protect potential victims. I’ve removed my email too…to avoid spam.

Need a second job?

Are you looking for a part-time, spare-time or full-time income?

See how you can add up to $6,000 a month to what you are already making…in
just 2-4 hours a week!

To qualify for one of our openings please provide information below!

FULL NAME:

HOME ADDRESS:

PHONE NUMBER(S):

AGE:

PRESENT JOB:

SEX:

By providing the details above,you are qualified to be part and parcel of the
company.

Contact Mr Gary Allan at:(email removed) to commence job.

Sincerely,
Mr Gary Allan .

Remember, don’t fall for this junk. The odds of you finding a legitimate job in your email is almost nil! Visit Work-At-Home Success to learn the real deal about working at home as well as how to avoid scams.

I received this “offer” in my email the other day. It shows how clever scammers are by focusing on your desire for good money with little effort  ($6000 a month for 2-4 hours a week). But hopefully you’ll notice something else…it doesn’t give any clue as to what the “job” entails. It wants all kinds of information from you, but all it provides you about the “employer” is a gmail account.

Remember, you can’t just sign up for a work-at-home jobs. Employers are not going to be content with simply knowing  your name and basic info. They’re going to want to know you have skills to do the job. Further, you can expect to make $6000 a month on a few hours of work.

I’m not sure what this email is peddling, but its not good. In fact, if I were to guess, I would say it was the first step in trying to steal your identity.

PS… I love the line that says you can be “part and parcel” of the company.

Sent from a Yahoo Account

Subject: Job Opening

Need a second job?
Are you looking for a part-time, spare-time or full-time income?
See how you can add up to $6,000 a month to what you are already making…in just 2-4 hours a week!

To qualify for one of our openings please provide information below!

FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER(S):
AGE:
PRESENT JOB:
SEX:

By providing the details above,you are qualified to be part and parcel of the company.

Contact Mr Gary Allan at: (removed … it was a gmail account) to commence job.

Sincerely,

Mr Gary Allan .

Job search sites like Yahoo! Hot Jobs and CareerBuilder are a good resource for work-at-home jobs, BUT they are also a haven for work-at-home scams. Just because its posted on a reputable job site, doesn’t mean its a reuptable job. Here is a data entry job I came across while doing a job search for the WAHS Daily Job Posts.

Here’s the tip off that its not a job:

1) Nearly all data entry jobs listed as working at home are scams.

2) All data entry jobs that say you can earn hundreds of dollars a day are scams.

3) “Work 1 hour a day”, “no experience”, … “entrepreneurial attitude”

4)   “Training” … That’s code to refer to the ebook or other materials that you will get -for a fee-  that will teach you about affiliate marketing.

5) “During your training, you’ll learn which forms can make you lots of money. Companies are willing to pay you to simply help them fill out forms.” – The forms are going to be Adwords ads which YOU have to pay for and can lose tons of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. The companies ARE NOT HIRING YOU TO FILL OUT FORMS. They are willing to compensate you if you help sell their stuff.

6) It wants money. Employers never charge to hire (or train) you.

This is another deceptive scheme to make it seem like you can be “hired” by companies and be paid tons of money filling out a form. Even though affiliate marketing is a good way to make money, I hate these ads because they use deception to make it seem like its easy as signing up and that your “hired” by companies to work. Its not the case. In fact most affiliate marketers don’t make anything (probably because they get started through crazy scams like this).

Affiliate marketing is a viable to make money, but its a business that requires that you know what you’re doing and how to market online without losing your shirt. Its like every thing else that takes planning and work.

(Update – I went ahead and went to the link which required I fill out a form. The form gave a me a letter saying it had 58 data entry companies. I clicked on the info link to learn more, but got taken to another contact form at another site.  I gave up at that point.)

Don’t get caught up in the deception. If you see this ad or others like on job sites, ignore them.

SCAM Ad Below – Links to learn more have been removed!

POSITIONS AVAILABLE: Thousands of Companies Are Seeking Data Entry Processors To Work From Home In Your Spare Time!

“We’ve Recruited Over 9434 Workers To Process Data For Companies… It’s Your Turn To Easily Make $200 to $500 Per Day Filling Out Simple Online Forms From Your PC!”

You Can Set Your Own Schedule! Thousands of Recruits Are Finally Working From Home…And In The Next Few Minutes, You Can Register To Do The Same!

REQUIREMENT: 1 Hour a Day (or more if you want to increase your earnings) PC computer with Internet connection required Positive attitude with entrepreneurial spirit Can work independently with no boss to report to No prior experience, training provided No college education No more commuting in traffic (you can work from home)

WORK DESCRIPTION AND COMPENSATION:

Companies currently need people like you to fill out online forms because it helps them to get the word out about their products and services. When you fill out these simple forms, you can be paid anywhere from $25 to $60 for each result your form produces.

Here’s an example of the income you can make with a few different scenarios (based on a 5 day work schedule):

During your training, you’ll learn which forms can make you lots of money. Companies are willing to pay you to simply help them fill out forms.

Shortly after you register, you can start getting checks every two weeks. And here’s the best part…when your checks are more than $5000, you can have your earnings instantly transferred into your bank account through direct-deposit!

At any time when you want to submit forms for another company, just browse through the various online directories we provide and select the ones you want to work with.

If you have as little as 1-2 hours a day to spare, you can start earning thousands of dollars in addition to what you make, and the best part is, you can work when you want! But these positions are limited so hurry and get registered right away!

POSITIONS ARE STILL AVAILABLE – GET STARTED RIGHT NOW!

The above is a scam. Its not a job. Learn to avoid these as you do your work-at-home job search!

I know I’ve warned you against rebate processing in the past, but I got another piece of spam telling me I could make $390 a day from home. The offer took me to a site that said:

Positions Available: Companies like Home-Depot, Blockbuster, Amazon.Com, and thousands more, need your help…

Get Affiliated Immediately And You Can Begin Making $390 A Day From The Comfort Of Your Home

You must be willing to work at least one hour per day and you must have a computer with internet access!

You don’t need any experience, special skills, or education. All training will be provided. And you can receive your first payment in as soon as 15-days!

Limited number of positions, check availability below…

I love how it says “get affiliated” because that’s basically what these programs do. You don’t process rebates, you promote other companies and get affiliate income. Most these programs indicate you have type or do data entry which translates into using a program like AdWords. And getting paid in 15 days? That indicates to me that the program will teach you to use ClickBank which pays its affiliates every two weeks.

If affiliate marketing is a legitiamte opportunity then why do I say this is a scam? I don’t like rebate processing offers because they use deception to make you think you’ll have a job process rebates. Further they make it sound as if all you do is type a little bit for an hour a day and reap in the big bucks. It just doesn’t work like that. In fact, done incorrectly, you can lose a great deal of money especially if you use a program like AdWords to promote your affiliate links.

If you want to do affiliate marketing, pick up Rosalind Gardner’s or Ewen Chia’s books or materials. They are reliable esources that provide you with the real deal and step-by-step help to make a living in affiliate marketing.