Many job seekers turn to the Internet to widen their search, but online job searching is a virtual minefield of scams. Scammers work hard to appear trustworthy and succeed often enough that they continue to take advantage of people looking for work.

A particularly devious scam is one that involves a payment transfer. Posing as a potential employer, the scammer requests bank account information under the pretense of direct deposit.

The mark is instructed to forward money from their personal bank account, Western Union, or PayPal to another account, often located overseas. The victim is told to keep a tiny percentage of the money as their payment for doing the task. This usually involves the transfer of stolen money and those who fall for it face charges of wire fraud and theft. To mask their activities, scammers usually involve several victims and multiple transfers in the scheme.

Red Flags You Should Never Ignore

You receive an unsolicited job offer from a stranger. Generally the email address is a free account like Gmail or Yahoo, rather than a primary domain name.

  • An potential employer demands your bank account numbers or social security number.
  • Job ads that have obvious grammatical errors, misspellings, and unprofessional tone.
  • A request for you to forward a scanned copy of your drivers license, ID, or social security card.

Common phrases that are clues to deception include: “Foreign Agent Agreement,” wiring funds,” “money transfers,” package-forwarding,” “PayPal,” and “eBay.”

Avoid the Online Job Scam: What NOT to Do

  • Never provide information about your bank account, credit cards, or PayPal account.
  • Never agree to transfer, forward, or wire money for an employer, even if you get to keep a percentage for yourself.

Don’t let a potential employer strong-arm you into a direct deposit agreement. If direct deposit is an option, wait until you have the job and are very sure it is legitimate. Telecommuting jobs are most at risk for this ploy.

Some of the most prevalent online scams involve data entry or other work-from-home jobs. The ads are everywhere, promising good money for work that requires few skills or little experience. Clues to bogus job postings include ads riddled with grammatical errors, information that is clearly out of date, websites that include no contact information, help section, or FAQ, or involve hefty fees to upgrade to premium memberships.

Unfortunately, it only takes one unguarded moment to put your identity or your credit in jeopardy. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

What to Do if You’ve Been Scammed

If your bank account has been compromised, close it immediately. You might even want to change banks altogether to prevent the thieves from trying to reclaim it.

Cancel any email addresses you used in corresponding with the scammers.

Get credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax every few months, checking for strange activity. Place fraud alerts on them if your social security number has been compromised.

If the online job scam originated with a job site, report it directly to that job site.

If you’ve participated in payment forwarding, file a police report and contact a local Secret Service field agent.

All fraud complaints should be filed with the FTC at www.ftc.gov.