I see people asking this all of the time. They post links to job postings on work at home forums and ask whether it’s a scam or if it’s a real job. To help clear up some confusion, I am going to show you a real Craigslist job posting and show you why I believe it is a scam. I have numbered the items I will be talking about on this image to help clarify what I’m talking about.

1. First of all, this listing is a picture embedded into the webpage. That throws up a red flag because that means they are probably trying to get around Craigslist’s rule about posting in multiple categories or multiple areas. When using an embedded image, Craigslist can’t tell if it has been posted before.

2. This ad talks about daily pay. To me, this screams scam. I cannot think of any non-telecommuting jobs that pay daily other than under the table things such as babysitting or mowing lawns. By paying daily, it would seem that they are trying to hide something, perhaps hide from the government how much money they are making. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to work for a job that lies to the government because that says they’ll lie to me too.

3. The pay seems to be highly overstated. $50-$450 is a huge difference and it does not seem likely that a commission-only job will pay $450 in a day. When I see these kinds of statements about how much you can make, I look at it as a business opportunity rather than a job. The fact that they are trying to promote it as a job merits calling it a scam. Also, if it is a business opportunity, they will likely charge you a fee for “training materials” or “membership fees”. Never ever pay for a job.

4. Again, grossly overstated pay throws up a red flag. This is likely a business opportunity rather than a job.

5. Try going to 747HFN.com. Yep, that’s right, it redirects to helpingfamiliesworldwide.com/mikeneff. That pretty much confirms that this is a business opportunity that someone (probably named Mike) is trying to pass off as a real job.

6. No resumes. Hmm, when have you ever applied for a job that didn’t require any information about your background? Never? Well, that’s because all real jobs want to know if you will actually be able to do the job. No request for a resume or application tells me that it’s like a scam or a business opportunity.

7. This is just an odd formatting error. Typically when I see these, I view the post as unprofessional and hastily posted. Most companies looking for an employee would not overlook a formatting error like that. This kind of thing throws up a red flag that this is likely a scam.

As you can see, there are many issues with this Craigslist job posting that cause me to believe it’s a scam or a business opportunity. Hopefully this post will help you determine if a job posting is scam, a business opportunity or a real job. Of course, I’m always open to doing some research on companies so if you find one that is particularly tough to decide whether it’s a scam, feel free to contact me. You can click on the Contact Me tab at the top of this page or go to http://jessicaholbrook.net/WAH/contact-me/