BBB warning of fake work-from-home job

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The Better Business Bureau is warning about an employment scam that hires you for work but never pays you for it.

BBB Serving Central & South Alabama President Carl Bates says a company is basically offering a fake work-from-home gig. You’re hired to receive packages in the mail, re-package them, and then ship them back out for the company, but unfortunately, you’re never paid.

This certain company is using an address out of Kansas according to Bates, and 1300 people have reported being scammed by them in the last month or so. The complaints describe being hired for this job, actually doing some of it, and never getting a paycheck.

Bates says when you’re hired for a job, no matter how easy or hard the job may seem, you need to do your own digging into the company itself.

“Checking the company out, not from the information that you’re sent by the person who’s supposedly the hiring manager but going back in and checking to make sure the company really exists and then doing your own search,” he explained. “The other thing that’s pretty easy, the best tip I can give people is: Put the company name in and then next to the company name, put the word scam in and hit Google.”

Bates says oftentimes, if it’s a known scam, people might already be reporting the company online.

His other tip is if you’re looking for easy money working from home, create a new bank account for the funds to go into. Giving a potentially unreliable company access to your checking account is bad news.

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