As Job Scams Proliferate, Remote Work Might Just Save the Day

As Job Scams Proliferate, Remote Work Might Just Save the Day

With employment scams proliferating, ready to deceive unsuspecting jobseekers who just want to earn an honest living, you should consider taking up remote jobs from credible, authentic, and legitimate sources and job sites. Not only is remote work safe, but you can also work from the comfort and convenience of your home, get full and legal benefits, have sustainable and gainful employment, and enjoy flexible work hours.

Job scams are at an all-time high. Unemployment, the rising cost of living, and the pandemic have left people desperate to make a few extra bucks. This desperation is the ace up the sleeves of job scammers.

If you receive unsolicited job offers through text or WhatsApp messages or see job postings on social media, particularly Facebook, promising unbelievably high salaries for easy work to be done for a few hours a day, you have all the reasons to be wary. These are most likely job scams perpetrating the following crimes on victims:

  1. Milk the money the victims have at hand to the last penny.
  2. Imprison the victims at an unspecified overseas location, their phones, confiscated, leaving them contactless with the outside world.
  3. Make the victims work for 12 hours a day with paltry or no pay.
  4. Abuse the victims if they don’t follow orders or don’t meet the daily target.

According to an article by Digital News Asia, in Malaysia, most job scams include having the victim send their money to a  fake recruiter to pay for “investment fees” or to get “commissions” or “bonuses” with higher returns as long as the victim tops up.

Even responding to dubious WhatsApp or text messages offering too good to be true job invites can result in these scammers committing other cybercrimes like identity theft or malicious software (malware) infection to steal more data from your devices.

The travails of job scammers’ victims…

Horror stories of abuse, imprisonment, and long hours of work scamming other people, particularly from European countries emerge from Malaysians who fell prey to job scammers. 

After promising a monthly earning of RM 4,000 ($1,250), a transnational scam syndicate forced a 19-year-old Malaysian to scam others and allegedly stole millions of dollars from them.

Another 30-year-old Malaysian was trafficked to Thailand after he got a job offer for a management position abroad with a monthly salary of between RM 7,000 ($1,593) and RM 10,000 ($2,275). The man realized that he was scammed when he was given a desk job, forced to work from 5 am to 7 pm, and punished if he failed to achieve the set target. His ordeal lasted for three months before he was rescued. 

Job scam victims don’t only come from Malaysia but also from other Asian countries like Taiwan and China. Malaysians are “a favorite” to be employed as scammers targeting the European market as Malaysians, in general, have a good command of English.

Remote work to the rescue!

Many people want to make money by taking up an honest job, especially the following groups of human capital

  • Fresh graduates
  • Unemployed people/youth 
  • Workers with low pay and long work hours 
  • Laid-off and furloughed workers
  • Online freelancers
  • Homemakers
  • People with disabilities (PWDs)
  • Retired individuals

The goal of these groups of people is primarily to achieve sustainable financial means and lead a comfortable life. These vulnerable groups are the mainstay target of job scammers and the groups of people take the bait all too easily.

Those jobs offer fat pay checks for a few hours of work, then disclose additional T&Cs involving monetary advance payments, the sharing of non-employment details, and the requirements to travel and work in a questionable overseas location.

People, lured by such promises of high pay often fail to check the credibility of these “serendipitous” job offers that turn out to be conniving and clandestine. 

Rather than falling into such malice and deceit, you can apply for remote roles from job sites like JEDI Jobs

JEDI Jobs is an online job portal that advertises 100% remote jobs from global employers for global jobseekers. JEDI Jobs is straightforward, professional, and features authentic, global companies looking for remote hires.

What sets JEDI Jobs apart?

JEDI Jobs isn’t only a legitimate online job portal but also a pioneer in offering remote vacancies with full employee benefits.

This remote job portal is an initiative by Genashtim, a 100% remote for-profit social enterprise. The company’s remote work model has seen immense success in the unlikeliest of situations – from employing people from marginalized communities to clinching business success in the grip of the recent pandemic.

The following three pillars define the inherence of JEDI Jobs:

  1. Borderless Recruitment
  2. Boundless Recruitment
  3. Inclusive Recruitment

Genashtim further powers JEDI Jobs by providing Virtual Office Training (VOT) and EPiC Online training to equip remote workers with remote work skills and English proficiency.

As a remote job portal, JEDI Jobs also helps reduce the human carbon footprint.

Remote work extends trustworthy and target-specific job opportunities and provides numerous benefits.

To work remotely, you need a reliable PC and a stable internet connection. You also need a quiet, comfortable, airy, well-lit, distraction-free, and work-conducive spot at home to be your workstation – you can also work from wherever you are. Some employers provide computers and tools like software and a headset as well as antivirus software. Others even reimburse their remote employees’ fast internet connection bills. 

With remote work policies and remote work culture in place, you will be assimilated and integrated through a process called “onboarding.” It’s basically to settle you in your remote role especially if you’re a remote work rookie.

You can also choose to work for a remote-first company or a remote-friendly company. Or you can opt for hybrid work.

As a remote-first company, Genashtim hires people with disabilities (PWDs), seniors, refugees, and women from oppressed environments. Efforts are ongoing on behalf of Genashtim to hire HIV-positive people, ex-convicts, and lepers.

And of course, the world is just coming to realize and expand the potential and perks of remote work. 

Final words…

From no commuting to better work-life balance, remote work isn’t only appealing to many, it’s also safe and credible.

A word of caution though – refrain from engaging with remote job offers that are sent via WhatsApp and SMS or posted on social media like Facebook. Only trust remote positions that are advertised on legitimate job sites like JEDI Jobs posting job vacancies that offer reasonable salary packages and other realistic job specifications from legitimate companies.

Register as a jobseeker with JEDI Jobs today
and get employed as a remote worker reaping
full employment and life benefits!

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