by: Aisha al-Muslim
Writer, LatinTrends Magazine
Many people looking for work have been ripped off by scam artists who make empty promises to help them get jobs in the federal government, as movie extras, as mystery shoppers, or a way to make a lot of money working from home– that is, if they hand over some money first. In the end, they’re left without a job and some are robbed of hundreds of dollars.
“Job scams are successful because they know how to get to people’s vulnerability,” said Rosario M. Méndez, an attorney of the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency. “They promise a perfect scenario where people can make a lot of money and
investing very little. And that’s the problem: these scams usually don’t deliver.”
That’s why the FTC is cracking down on con artists who run these employment placement and work-at-home scams. The FTC produced a new video warning consumers: “Don’t Pay for a Promise.” The video, which can be found at ftc.gov/jobscams and in Spanish at ftc.gov/estafasdeempleo, features details on how people spot, stop, and avoid
job scams. It also shows how to report rip-offs to the FTC.
Twenty-three-year-old Daisy Rosado knows first hand what it is like to be a victim of these con artists. When Rosado was a junior in college
four years ago, she thought she could make money working from home stuffing envelopes. She sent a company $30 in exchange for a stack of 500 letters, envelopes and mailing stickers. She said the company did not tell her until later that she had to pay out-of-pocket for the postage herself.
Still, Rosado mailed out the letters to people trying to sell them books. In return, she was supposed to make $8 for each book that people
bought from her. And if she sold any books, she would get the money two weeks after the company received the order. But Rosado said she never received any money from the company. After that, she just threw the rest of the letters and envelopes away.
“It was a scam because they gave me the false hope that I would be making great money while working from home,” said Rosado, who is Puerto Rican-American. “They made it seem as easy as can be, so I fell for…”
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