Tips to Recognize and Avoid Spam Emails Offering Unsolicited Work from Home Job Opportunities

As if it weren't enough that scammers prey on people who want to work from home by posting bogus job opportunities on job boards across the internet, now there is a growing trend in soliciting unsuspecting people via email. Let's face it, scammers have ways to obtain email addresses, and finding lists of email addresses for people who want to work from home must not be difficult, because so many people who work from home that I speak to every day receive many of these scam emails each week. Here are a few tips to help you recognize and avoid spam job opportunity emails.

Tip #1

If the job offers unrealistic salary expectations or time commitment requirements, it's probably a spam email. Just a few days ago, a spam email was going around claiming the company who sent it was looking for at home typists and offering earning potential from $5,000-$20,000 per month simply for filling out forms. Honestly, if people could make $20,000 per month by filling out forms on their computers from the comfort of their own homes, the hiring company would not need to send out emails searching for employees. Instead, I can say with confidence that people would be banging on the door and lining up around the block to apply for a legitimate job opportunity that pays $20,000 per month and requires workers to only have basic computer skills. For more information on recognizing scam job opportunities, read Beware of Work-from-Home Job Posting Scams on Craigslist, Scam Alert: Don't Pay Upfront Fees for a Work-from-Home Job and Three Rules to Identify Too Good to be True Work-from-Home Jobs.

Tip #2

If you have never heard of the company that sends you an email advertising a work-from-home job, raise your red flag and do some research. Check the Better Business Bureau's site and search online to find information about the company. Beware, many dishonest people put a lot of effort into creating scams that look legitimate including developing professional looking company websites and documents. Do your research to ensure the company and job are legitimate before you respond to an unsolicited work-from-home job opportunity that you receive via email.

Tip #3

Get a separate free email account from Yahoo or Hotmail (or any other site that offers free email accounts), and use that email address for all online communications. Spammers obtain many of the email addresses to send their junk email from places online where unsuspecting victims innocently post their email addresses. This can include your posts on message boards or legitimate job search websites like Monster or Career Builder where you might upload your resume (including your email contact information). By creating a separate email account to use in online communications, your personal email address won't get cluttered with the inevitable spam that comes along with posting your email address on websites.

When you receive an email for a job opportunity that seems questionable, ask yourself if a legitimate company that you're very familiar with would send an email like the one you received. Would Exxon send an email describing a phenomenal job opportunity with pie-in-the-sky earning potential? If the answer to your question is no, hit the delete button and add the sender to your spam or blocked senders list. Of course, not all spam emails are as obvious to detect as others, but with adequate research and erring on the side of caution, you can avoid being a victim.