The scam

These scammers target job seekers. The scammer tells you that, before you get the job, you must first pay a fee or provide your banking or other personal information, or they send you an advance payment by cheque that they want you to cash.

How it works

The scammer posts an ad or contacts you by spam email or other means and offers a great job or business opportunity.

Sometimes, the scam is presented as an opportunity to make lots of money working from home. Many of these scams are fronts for illegal money laundering or pyramid schemes.

How to spot it

The scammer promises or guarantees a lot of income for little or no effort.

There are many different types of job scams. For example, the scammer may:

• claim to guarantee you either a job or a certain level of income
• say the job involves using your bank account to receive and pass on payments for a foreign company, and they promise you a commission for each payment you pass on
• offer you a job as a “secret shopper” to test the services of a company that cashes cheques or transfers money
• offer you a job that requires you to pay an upfront fee for a business plan, start up materials, or software, or that requires you to recruit other people
• say they’ll send you a cheque now as an incentive or signing bonus, but you need to transfer part of the amount using a money-transfer service. After you do this, the bank reverses the deposit because the cheque is fraudulent.

Protect yourself

• Beware of any claims of guaranteed income. Remember: There are no shortcuts to wealth.
• Don’t make a decision without carefully researching the offer and getting independent advice.
• Never send your banking or credit card details to someone you don’t know and trust.
• Don’t agree to cash a cheque. No legitimate business will send you a cheque upfront and tell you that you need to transfer some of the money to them. If you cash a fraudulent cheque, your bank could make you pay back the money lost.
• Get all the details in writing before paying for something or signing any documents.