The consumer campaigner, Which?, has identified a rise in the number of ‘work from home’ scams, warning people that responding to these adverts could cost them up to £7,000.
According to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) people are often more susceptible to these types of fraud during times of economic uncertainty, as people suffering from loss of income – either through redundancy or having their work hours cut – look for new money-making schemes.
Those that apply for these ‘jobs’ often need to make an upfront payment to scammers, which can be disguised as a registration fee, or needed in order to buy goods that you can sell on. It then transpires that there is either no work, or that there is no money to be made from it.
During an investigation, Which? found a scam advertisement, saying that workers could earn £1.60 for every envelope they stuffed – but had to buy a starter pack costing £49.99 first.
However, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) revealed that the ‘job’ was an illegal pyramid scheme – involving placing adverts asking people to write in for further information about envelope stuffing.
The ASA has said that it regularly advises newspapers and other publications to tighten up on their checking procedures when accepting advertisements, but these scams continue to appear.
Some of the most common scams ask job-seekers to buy products to sell on, only for respondents to find them impossible to shift; or don’t actually involve real work, instead commission is earned by recruiting others.
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