The internet has made many functions of our daily life easier and more efficient. But it has also given unscrupulous individuals new tools to perpetrate scams. At Worky.ph our mission of helping people get jobs and matching what matters, includes working proactively to keep predatory content out of search results and providing tools to help job seekers protect their personal information and financial information.
The following guidelines are designed to help job seekers and platform users recognize and avoid fraudulent tactics.
Look for verifiable company email addresses. Larger, more established companies have email addresses with top level domains that match their websites. Communications from such large established companies should most often not come from publicly available addresses like Yahoo or Gmail. If you are contacted by someone with a generic address, ask if they are able to conduct communications via a company domain email address. If they can’t or won’t, you have the option to proceed with caution.
Watch closely for email addresses with misspelled or “spoofed” company names. These are often similar to, but not exactly matching the actual company name. Examples of suspicious addresses include “info@company.net” instead of “info@company.com”, and misspelled company names like “info@companie.com or “info@compaany.com”.
Insist on an in-person or video interview. Be wary of job offers that come with little or no interview process. Scammers will often avoid face-to-face interviews by relying on chat services, such as Google hangouts, while offering “work from home” positions.
Match the job offer to your application. Avoid bait-and-switch scams by confirming the job application to the job posting. Insist on the employer representative to identify and confirm where he or she saw your application.
Be cautious when pursuing positions with salaries, perks and flexibility that seem too good to be true. Ask questions to confirm that the position is salaried (not commission only) and that there is a physical base of operations when a “work from home” opportunity is advertised.
Never send any form of payment to a potential employer you apply to on Worky.ph. Not only is charging fees a violation of Worky.ph’s job posting guidelines, it is also a violation of Philippine labor laws. These are often a type of scam.
Never agree to perform any financial transactions on behalf of a potential employer. This includes accepting or making wire transfers or cashing checks sent to you in order to make purchases on someone’s behalf.
Never agree to a job that involves opening multiple accounts and/or posting ads on Worky.ph or on other sites. These are likely scammers and you could become involved in activities that put you in financial and legal jeopardy. Only consider posting if your job is in recruitment, and that the employer has provided you a company owned email account.
Never accept money upfront for work you have not performed or arrangements without a signed contract. This is a scheme commonly used in financial scams and puts you at considerable legal risk.
Check Scams. Check Scams get people to unwittingly take on the risk of passing a bad check. Look out for scammers that offer elaborate stories about needing a personal assistant, caregiver or someone to cash a check to make large purchases or transfer money for them while they are out of town. These often include stories where:
Money Laundering Scams. Reputable, legitimate companies should never ask you to perform financial transactions for them, especially via Western Union, MoneyGram, Bitcoin etc. Even if you are not asked to transfer any of your own money, these unsavory entities are often looking for other people to perform scam related financial transactions, so they don’t have to.
Shipping Scams. There is no legitimate scenario where an employer should require you to re-ship packages from your home. These are known as Reshipping Scams and offer work-at-home positions, sometimes advertised as “merchandising manager” or “package processing assistant”. Duties include receiving packages and mailing them to foreign addresses on behalf of a client, using postage-paid mailing labels provided via email. Unbeknownst to the new “employee”, these packages contain:
After helping to smuggle these things out of the country, an “employee” is paid with counterfeit checks or postal money orders.
Fee Scams. It shouldn’t directly cost you money to apply for a job. Not only do fee scams defraud job seekers, these are also signs that a company is involved in other suspicious activities. Certain legitimate expenditures like uniforms and job tools may be required after you accept a position but are generally deducted from your salary after you begin working. Likewise, background checks are most often paid for by the employer or offered directly to you by a local government agency and should not be paid by you in the form of a fee to the employer. Types of fees often levied unscrupulously include:
Other Scams. These scams are typically deployed through spamming techniques to reach out as many “potential victims” as possible. They usually revolve around tricking people into giving up confidential personal information, credit card information, or financial information. Please do not continue to communicate ASAP when faced with these sample scenarios.
These scams may compromise your personal identity, lead to identity theft, and compromise your online accounts.
Often your guard is down when you receive an email from a company you have dealt with before, such as Worky.ph or an online shopping site you use. If you are not expecting an email, always be alert of fake emails before clicking on any links and images or opening any email attachments. If you receive an email from Worky.ph that you are not expecting, don’t click on any links or open attachments. Contact us if you have any concerns. Things to consider:
If you have any concerns about a job you find on Worky.ph or receive any communication of job offer that concerns you, please contact Worky.ph immediately.