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If you are unemployed and money is tight, the promise of any job is very tempting. Unfortunately, employment "scams" seem to be increasing as the unemployment rate rises, and the internet especially is being exploited to rip off honest workers.

The following tips should help you to differentiate between a legitimate job opportunity and a scam.

1. Are they asking for many upfront? Why would they ask you to pay to get a job? Your "scam alert" should kick into high gear whenever a posting requires you to cough up cash. There are some legitimate business opportunities, and work-at-home jobs out there, since employers are discovering the economies afforded to them. However, you need to get lots more information and verify all the details before you part with any of your money, or buy any special equipment.

2. Try not to apply to "blind ads"- those that do not give the company name and contact information. If you do, give them extremely limited information about you, and try to use an alternate email address in case they are just collecting emails to send out spam.

2. Check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). People have been scammed before, and hopefully have reported the scam to the BBB. Research the company to make sure they are on the up and up. Check for differing names, and DBAs so that you can check all of the variations out with the BBB. Be very leery of a company that continually changes names and addresses.

3. Does it seem too good to be true? Does the job offer $5000 per month for working an hour a week? If this was true, wouldn't everybody be doing it? If the ad is a pure sales gimmick, full of how rich you can get by doing nothing, it's probably bogus. If the pay seems ridiculously high for the effort, it probably is exactly that! Unscrupulous people can use the media to get your money by offering help- they have no intention of giving you a job or refunding your money. Trust your gut instinct when something just doesn't feel right.

4. Be very aware of names and addresses, as well as other contact information. Con artists will not give you real contact details, because they don't want to get caught. Check any telephone numbers and addresses through Whitepages.com's reverse lookup directory- sometimes you will find the address simply doesn't exist. You will also see addresses that are outside of the United States- it's much easier to get away with things when there are multiple jurisdictions involved. Ask for the businesses headquarters

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