Part Time Job Scam - Irresistible Offers From Scammers You Need to Know About

Pet sitting Job Scam

Scammers have been using employment scams to trick people out of their personal information and money for years. These scams often target students or others trying to find part-time jobs. 

Recently, BBB Scam Tracker has seen multiple reports of a tempting scam that appears to be a friendly family trying to find a critter sitter.

How the Scam Works

A very polite-seeming person contacts you through social media, a legitimate job website, or your student email with what seems like a superb job offer. 

First, the person tries to earn your trust by sharing tons of private information, like their name, age, pets’ names, and job. Then, they provide you an extended story about how they're moving to your area and can need a critter sitter immediately. 

They offer you a generous hourly rate or ask you to call your price. Because you're such an honest fit, they don’t even get to interview you face to face.

Once you accept the work, the scammers get right down to business. They may ask you for sensitive personal information, such as your full name, address, phone number, Social Security number, and banking information, claiming they need it to set up direct deposit or pay you in advance. 

In some cases, they'll send you a check for an outsized amount of cash and ask you to deduct your wages and use the remainder to get supplies. If you follow their instructions, you’ll lose your own money paying for supplies before you realised that the check was fake.

How to protect yourself from job scams:

Never give your personal information to strangers. Don’t share sensitive details like your home address, social security number, or checking account information with someone you’ve never met. You should only give this information to an individual or business you recognize and trust.

Do thorough research. If an individual contacts you with a care job and an extended story about their life, you ought to be ready to verify the small print. Ask to attach on social media and appearance of the house address they supply. 

If the person is hesitant to inform you specifics or changes the topic once you invite more information, don’t accept the work.

Stay alert to red flags. Correspondence with grammatical errors offers to rent you without an interview, and pay that seems too good to be true are all classic elements of a scam. If you notice any of those red flags, steer clear.

Understand how checks work. If someone sends you a check and asks you to deposit it, know that your bank will credit the funds to your account before they're actually transferred to your account. 

It can take a couple of weeks to get a check if it's fake. If you spend the cash before then, the bank will hold you in charge of the funds.

Share this with someone you care about, you never know who might need just this piece of information to make a decision.

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