The internet has long been a source of scams. Scammers prey on people by offering solutions of one kind of another, be they for weight loss or penis enlargement. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that given a bad economy and high unemployment, online scammers have begun to target the unemployed. One man from Jamaica, New York, received an online job offer from a company called Penguin Express Inc., which promised him a job. They told him they’d be wiring him money which he should use to buy some prerequisite materials. Well, the man never received the money, and he wound up $67,000 in debt.
In additon to reporting on the man in question, the New York Times has a list up right now of signs that your oh so helpful offer is actually there to harm you. It’s mainly common sense, but it’s always good to get a refresher on what common sense entails. Research the company in question, don’t pay fees for potential help, don’t give out personal information, etc.
These online scammers, to put this into some perspective, are essentially like the carpetbaggers in Huckleberry Finn, but displaced in time and given the power of the internet. If you don’t remember, the carpetbaggers joined Huck’s group after being chased out of town; one of them had been selling a teeth cleaning solution which burned the enamel right off the customer’s teeth. That’s all these online scams are: offers which are too good to be true.
