Question:
A company I never heard of emailed me with a part time job offer. I will be able to work from my home using my internet connection and my own computer, and they'll pay me every week. Sounds like just what I want, but now they want me to email them my Social Security Number. I'm not sure I should send it to them.
Answer:
Great instincts! Don't do it, until you know more about them and have proof that the work and the company are for real. It will take a little time and you may be a little uncomfortable asking these questions, but it's better than being scammed by someone who's trying to take advantage of you.
Ask them where they are located - you want the company name, business address, and business phone number inside the U.S. If it's outside the U.S., walk away NOW!
- Google the phone number, with area code.
Just type the whole phone number, with dashes in the appropriate spot (e.g. 212-555-1212), to see if you get a listing in the company's name.
- Check their listing in an online Yellow Pages.
You should be able to do a lookup on the Business Name to find their listing, and it should agree with the information they've already given you or be very close to the same.
- Ask for their Website address.
They should have their own domain [*whatever.com*], and you should find a complete and professional Website at that address.
If they are legitimate, they should be using email address containting their domain name - like msmith @ [*whatever.com"]>. If they are using an address @yahoo.com (HotMail.com or MSN.com) be very suspicious.
Look at the About Us and Contact Us pages of their site to see if they provide proof about who and where they are. If it doesn't match up with what they've already told you or if there's no concrete information about who they are, where they are, and what they do, stop dealing with them.
Check their domain name to see who owns it. You do this through a Whois (literally, who is...) Lookup, like the one at DomainTools.com. Look for their company name as the "Registrant" for the domain, and hopefully the same address and a similar - or the same - phone number.
- Contact their local Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Visit the national Better Business Bureau Website to find the local BBB for this company by finding the one closest to their city in that state. Then, check with their local BBB to see if other people have filed complaints agains them for how they operate their business, pay their bills, etc.
- Ask for references.
You want the names and contact information of other people who work for them as they are expecting you to work for them. Then, contact those people, and ask them what their experience has been. How long have they worked for the company? How they work for the company? What the work is like and how good is the company about paying bills.
If they can't or don't want to provide you with any contact information that you can verify, if the contact information does NOT check out (wrong name for the phone number or no listing for the phone number), and/or if your other research indicates any problems, do not send them any more information or have anything else to do with them.
You would probably be doing everyone a favor if you reported them to the FBI's Internet Crime Complain Center (IC3), but you must be honest in your complaint, and it must be a valid complaint. Making a false complaint, even over the Internet, could get YOU into trouble.
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