How to Avoid Personal Assistant Job Scams

How to Avoid Personal Assistant Job ScamsHow to Avoid Personal Assistant Job ScamsPersonal assistantjobs rank highly on the list of sought-after employment. Most of behauptung jobs offer a great deal of flexibility, the potential to work completely from home, interesting clients, and they often pay quite well. Because so many individuals would love a career as a personal assistant, unscrupulous people have launched scams preying on job seekers who think theyve found a genuine personal virtual assistant career opportunity. Personal Assistant Scams Typical personal assistant scams offer generous payment for helping clients transfer money to businessmen at other companies. In reality, these scams consist ofveiled attempts at money-laundering. When they succeed, the unwitting personal assistant ends up taking the fall during federal investigations. The scammers who post these personal assistant ads frequently list a number of work responsibilities that seem to be legitimate, includin g duties like purchasing gifts, running personal errands, and setting appointments. You can identify these scams because they also almost always include an emphasis on sending and/or receiving money or packages. What to Watch Out For For instance, an ad might say that your new employer will send you a check or money order, asking you to forward some of the money while keeping a percentage for yourself. What really takes place is that this money, cleaned through your bank account, gets forwarded right back to the scammer as funds that you have unwittingly made untraceable. The check will prove to be fraudulent, leaving you to pay the funds back to your bank. Other scams ask for a personal assistant who can receive and ship various packages. While the scammer will claim that these packages come from his company, they will, in fact, contain illegal goods. The scammer might even send you a fraudulent check to pay for shipping costs. Not only will you have to pay your bank for the fr audulent check, but you could also be charged with mailing illegal goods. How to Sidestep the Scams To avoid these scams, thoroughly research an employer before applying for a job. Youll find some listings for personal assistants seem extremely vague, simply stating that the employee works from home. You have every right to ask for information regarding the company with which your potential employer does business. If a job advertisement does not contain the specific name of the employer, this should raise a red flag for you to investigate the position further before signing on the dotted line. In some cases, ads may create a fictional persona for the supposed employer. For example, the employer may provide a false name and say that he works as a lawyer, doing business from home. He may also offer fake credentials to try to help himself sound legitimate. In cases like these, make sure that the employer has actually worked on cases or belonged to a real firm. A simple Google searc h can help you find out if the persons career is legitimate or if the potential employer strangely seems to not even exist. Additionally, most scam jobs will accept anyone, right away. If, after submitting your application, you get an immediate answer or have an interview with just a question or two before being offered the job, you should definitely proceed with caution. Scammers are looking for any quick and gullible target and want to get you hired immediately, so they will have a minimal screening process. By asking questions, you identify yourself as informed, and they will move on to other targets. What to Look For in a Real Personal Assistant Job One way to avoid scams is to start your job search using one of the top job sites. It may not be possible to avoid all scams, but using a legitimate job site will help you steer clear of them. Real personal assistant jobs have rigorousapplication processes. Because you will be working closely for someone, often having access to t heir personal information and financial and other sensitive data, a true personal assistant job can take weeks, if not months, to fill. Beyond submitting a resume and cover letter, youll likely need to submit severalprofessional or personal references, agree to abackground checkand drug test, and go through several interviews, either over the phone, via video, or in person. The entire hiring process for a legitimate personal assistant job takes some time as employers are determined to find the right person so that they wont have to reopen the job soon they want a stable and productive employee who will be with them for a while. Do not be discouraged its just a sign that the employers doing her due diligence and that the position is legitimate.