The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, issued a special alert today warning the public against work-at-home scams.
"Victims are often hired to 'process payments,' 'transfer funds' or 'reship products,'" the alert noted. "These job scams involve the victims receiving and cashing fraudulent checks, transferring
illegally obtained funds for the criminals, or receiving stolen merchandise and shipping it to the criminals."
Here at Staffcentrix, our research indicates a 54-to-1 "scam ratio" in work-from-home job leads. In other words, for every 55 job leads on the Internet, only one is legitimate. With the recession and lay-offs, the scam ratio is surging, and jumped 30% from 2007 to 2008. (For more, including tips on how to spot scams, see my post of Dec. 27, 2008.)
For the IC3 alert, go here. To report a scam to IC3, go here.
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