A Quick Guide to Surviving Cyber Scams and Direct Marketing Businesses

A Quick Guide to Surviving Cyber Scams and Direct Marketing Businesses

By

Nicholas DeMeo

When the economy decreases the obvious and first thing effected is the American working class. Bills are late and income is scarce. You hope to yourself and pray for a miracle whether you believe in religion or not, you still pray just in case. You need quick cash to pay your debt so you turn to the easiest and oddest place for a quick job. You turn to places like Craigslist where anything is posted and anyone could be paying for anything. Scrolling through the job postings you see the “work from home, great pay!” ads. Interested and desperate you click the link and read your dream come true about how you will be processing packages or doing bookkeeping for a model agency in LA. It pays $1250 a month with potential to increase if you preform well. Not thinking about the legitimacy or integrity you reply hoping to catch up on bills. A month later you are being investigated for distributing fake checks. You are innocent you will plead because the person online said it was legit. We have all seen, or been a victim of these scams that circle everywhere on the web. Well, fortunately for you readers and bad for the scammers, this quick guide will train and instill a natural instinct to point out flaws and break open scams instantly, saving yourself time and money. It will not only help you sort through legit ads and scams but also determine whether or not the job you are physically interviewing for is worth your time.

Work at Home Scams!

These are very popular on the web because they are so appealing that any reader of these postings cannot help themselves but to take interest and find out more information. People read the big salary and easy job description and they are so desperate for a financial miracle they lower their guard and fall into the scam. I myself have fallen for one of these scams and fortunately I was able to discover the scam before I got myself into trouble. So this is the first thing to look for. Most scams originate from countries that America lacks the expediting treaty, mainly Nigeria and Jamaica. That being known, the English grammar is usually poor or not up to par, so first thing to do, is proof read the posting. The second thing, is to look for its’ company name. Any legit company is going to post their name or some sort of information in the ad, unless it is a recruiter’s post where your application is more like a profile set up on their recruiting site. So if there is no company info that should be another flag adding to the bad grammar. Third, is to research the type of job being described. Any work at home scam is most likely posted on some sort of scam busting website with identical emails and ads to the one you are reading. The Fourth thing is to see if it is asking or mentioning purchasing materials up front for the position. Any job requiring you to spend money is a scam. Flat out scam.
So what if you read this guide late and you have responded to the job post? No problem! The first thing to look for is once again, the English grammar in the return email which is most likely going to have some mistakes. Any professional company is going to at least do a lite editing before sending an email out. Proof read the email sent to you. Next look at the information they are asking for. NEVER give out ANY information until the INTEGRITY of the job has been PROVEN. Next, the person should have given out a website or some sort of company name by now, so extensive research is required. The easiest way I have found to search for them is to take the name given and add “scam” at the end of it in the search engine. (Example: company name is “rotter accounting”. type in “rotter accounting scam”) If nothing, absolutely nothing comes up, try putting in the job title with “scam” at the end of it.(example: “package processor” search for “package processor scams”) With some persistence I guarantee within five to fifteen minutes you will find a person just like you, that has fell victim to the same scam. The funny thing, is that the scammers use the same info and emails every time until it really catches a lot of heat and then they change it. A new thing now is too is the scam artists are making spoof websites of actual real companies to try and convince people it is legit. A perfect example and real actual scam is the Fortis.biz scam. the people or person uses stolen credit cards or fake checks to purchase or steal expensive goods and sell them on eBay or ship them overseas. They use people to ship the products to their home and have them re-ship them out overseas. They are a spoof of Fortis bank in Europe which is a large prominent bank now known as ABN AMRO. The spoof website is www.fortisescrow.us.com with active and working links. The telephone numbers listed on the website are also working as well. So the only way to tell if this is real or not is to find the real company they are ripping off and contact them. After that and at this point it should be clear that the work at home position is a crystal clear scam. If you are still not sure, demand more information like a phone call with the person in charge of the ad or meet in person. If they refuse to talk on the phone or meet in person it is for their own protection and that clearly tells, that it is a scam because any legit business owner would not refuse communication with its own employees. So in a nut shell the quick tips for the work at home scams are:
1. English grammar- proofread all writing
2. Validate company info- if none is given, demand for company info and then validate.
3. Research Job type- check to see if this is a common scam position
4. cash up front- any job requiring you to pay out of pocket up front is a scam
5. extensive research- check any information given thoroughly whether it is company name, websites anything like that.
6. Messenger like yahoo is not a professional way of communicating.- any job listing an instant messaging service as main communication is not legit.

Being Educated!
Staying updated on current scams is a huge advantage on staying out of the scam pit. there are government sites dedicated on helping people stay alert and informed on current scams. They provide detailed information and new tips to stay safe. They also have a site to file a complaint if you have fell victim or witnessed one of the many scams out there. Visit these sites weekly if not daily to get the most up to date information. Knowing these places will also make your research faster when validating a sketchy posting on the web. Down below are two government related sites that will be very helpful for cyber scams like the work at home scams.

www.IC3.gov
www.LooksTooGoodToBeTrue.com

Direct Marketing Businesses
When people hear marketing they think of advertising through media or something prominent of that sort. However, this stereotype breeds a new type of field known as direct marketing. Direct marketing is face to face promotions which in a nutshell, is sales. The two fields are residential, going door to door or business to business. The jobs are strictly commission based regardless of what the ad says. The easiest way to dictate the difference between legit and somewhat legit marketing jobs are by the posting. Business to business or known as B-to-B is a rough and hard job to hold due to the commitment and level of barricades that prevent you from making a sale. The turnover rate is extremely high and for a reason. Now there are many different companies and some are legit that give you a company car and pay salary plus commission with full benefits. But there are others that do not provide those accommodations. The first thing about these somewhat legit companies are their ads. Their ads will describe something like “looking for account managers, no experience necessary will train. starting salary 75k.” Or something along those lines. Account manager is a high profiled way of saying salesman to the these companies. Now the name of the company will not be listed in any directory or even the Better Business Bureau. When you call or when they call you they are very vague on what their company is about and tell you to save your questions for your interview. That is the first flag. the second thing is to ask for a website. Most of these places do not have a website so they will give you a site not of their own. An example is a marketing company called World Group where they represent a “glass shop” that installs a free windshield no cost to you because it goes through your car insurance due to the glass laws in Florida. When you call for their website they gave me Pilkington glass’s website. Which is the glass company that their glass shop orders from. So when I call Pilkington and ask them about World Group Marketing they have no idea what I am talking about. Just like the cyber scams though, people are blinded by the huge salary in the posting so they continue to the interview. When you go to the place for interview there will probably be any where from 5 to 20 people waiting in the lobby for an interview also. This is the third flag. Why? Because how many places of employment schedule that many people for a first time interview, NONE! Maybe for orientation but not a first time interview. In the interview the “Owner” who makes supposedly of over a 100K yet the nicest car in the parking lot is a Toyota Camry, will also be vague on what you will actually be doing. He will use sales tactics to astray you from the questions you should be asking. This is especially true for when the pay is mentioned. They will tell you that they like you and invite you for a second interview which is a day of following one of their “top hiring managers.” Second day comes around and you meet the “hiring manager” and they are going to show you the “entry level position”, and tell you to save the salary, 401k and health benefits for after you come back to the office. Which you can already guess does not exist. Also they have you follow them in your own vehicle out to the territory, possibly an hour drive from the office where you do not get reimbursed for gas. You then realize that your job consists of going business to business selling whatever product they have. The next thing is you are going to go to lunch where they break down the “business.” they have a little chart where you start off as a distributor and work your way up to an owner which only take six to eight months.

For anyone new to this, the whole time they are with you, they are using the same sales tactics they use to make a sale, to get you convinced that this is for you. You back to the office and this is where it gets real good. Remember how earlier they said to save your 401k and things like that after. Well, the reason is is its because that does not exist. it is strictly commission where they offer no reimbursement what so ever. So you could work three days and make no money. Beware of these business. Not only are they sketch and shady in the beginning but when it comes to payday, of course the paycheck to my surprise was significantly smaller than what it was supposed to be. There are many of these marketing companies that do different types of products from coupons to gift certificates. They are all part of a company called Smart Circle which is an umbrella corporation that has hundreds of these little marketing companies all over the US. These companies are bad for the community for the fact they do not give background checks, they hire whoever comes in off the street. These people are walking around your neighborhood and community.

In Store Sales

The last thing to look out for are in store sales people that do not actually work for the store they are selling in. Sam’s Club and Costco invite companies in their store to sell there product where the warehouse stores take a percentage of their total sales. Now most companies are pretty legit like Keepeez vaccum seal lids. Some however, are not so promising. Their some weight loss programs that run around $50. I did some research and actually found an interesting investigation by the FTC where they asked the maker to provide scientific or tangible evidence that their product actually does what they claim it does. During the investigation not once did the laboratory ever provide that evidence. On their website it will give a very vague description saying that it may assist in weight loss or can reduce carb intake. No where will it say you will lose 2 to 4 pounds a week like the sales reps will tell you. Always ask who they actually work for. Most of these companies are subcategories of Smart Circle, which remember is mention above. So ask what company they work for and be stern. All these marketing companies are just looking for money and you cannot rely on a corporate office of stores to do the research for you.
What to do?!
If you run into one of these companies and are unsure, do not buy it until you do your research. They make their money on impulsing you to buy it. I am going to list and explain company secrets on how they sell things. First they use a acronym called the F.U.G.I. factors which are listed below.

F- fear of loss. A tactic to make you feel like you are missing out if you do not buy it.
U- Urgency, they try and exploit the sense of urgency by making you believe if you do not buy it now you will not be able to buy it ever.
G- Greed, they bank on people that want to keep up with the “Jones’”. Using phrases like “oh all of your neighbors, or all the club members are picking a few of these up.”
I- Impulse- they try and build that want and need in your mind so you buy it based on a sudden decision before you think about it. They do not want you to think for a reason. Your brain will say NO for a reason!!!!

Another tactic is the famous 3 Fs which stand for feel, felt and found. This is exactly how it sounds in their sales pitch. “I totally understand how you feel, actually your neighbor or another club member felt the same way but what they found was that they are actually saving money and benefiting with this...” It is all junk to get you to buy.

Always stay educated and use government sites to file complaints or look up laws and violations. If you have the ability to do what is right and protect America then it is your duty as an American to take action.

file complaints at www.ftc.gov (federal trade commission)