WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE FALL FOR JOB & VISA SCAMS

With the global economy in serious trouble and with unemployment figures soaring in almost every nation on the face of the earth it's no wonder so many people are desparate to find jobs.

This situation is no reason to throw all caution to the wind and do nothing to protect yourself from becoming the victim of the thousands of job and visa scams that are out there. Actually it is a reason to be more vigilant still in order not to become the target of scammers out to steal what little money you have left.

If you get any job offer through e-mail - IT'S FAKE. Real companies never hire employees by sending out random e-mails to people who have not sent them a resume/CV.

If you get a job and visa offer from a so-called agent who asks you to pay an advanced fee - IT'S FAKE. If there are any fees to be paid these are usually always paid by the employers and not the prospective employees. You may be asked to pay for the visa, but you should do that through immigrations and not through any agent just to be safe.

If an agent tells you that you pick up your visa at a so-called "Consulate" or "Immigrations office", but that there is no passport endorsement - IT"S FAKE, Visas are always affixed directly to the holder's passport not on a separate piece of paper.

Whenever you get a job offer, especially if it comes through a third-party (agent), you should always confirm with the employer directly that it is real. Never take the word of anyone. Check the company website, get an e-mail address or telephone number for the company and contact them directly to confirm the offer or report it as a scam.

With computers so readily available it amazes me that people simply don't use them to check out these scams. Protect yourself if you get a job offer, do a Google search of the prospective employer, something like "XYZ Corporation Job Scams" and see what comes back. Most of these scams have been operating for a long time, they're well known and there are a number of websites that report them, so something is going to come back in a web search.

Lot at where you got the job offer in the first place. IF YOU DIDN'T PERSONALLY APPLY FOR THE JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE, chances are it's just a scam. If it came to you by way of an unsolicited e-mail chances are better than 90% it's a scam. If the sender has an e-mail address that's gmail, hotmail, yahoo or any other free e-mail provider then count on it being a scam. Legitimate companies have websites and usually their own domain name too, so if you got that job offer from XYZ Corporation then they're going to have a website like xyzcorporation(dot)com and anyone in that company is going to have an e-mail address that uses that domain name (johnsmith@xyzcorporation.com). If the person is not using the same domain name as the company then it's a fake.

Many of the scammers even set up false websites that look just like the real company website, or have e-mail addresses very close to the real company's e-mail and domain names. always contact the employer directly to confirm any job offers before you pay any fees. Doing anything less than this is just foolish.

Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Jobs don't just fall out of the sky into the lap of someone who isn't actively chasing after that job. Just remember if it looks too good to be true, that's probably because it is false.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team