Fake Job Websites. What They Are And How to Spot Them.

It is an unfortunate reality on the internet, but there are an endless amount of fake job scam websites in existence today that attempt to fool you into thinking you’re going to make money.

That or they try to make apply for some sort of job but pay for it. I’ve done extensive articles exposing dozens of these places.

In fact, I’ll link to an article further below where I put up an index of the bad places I’ve found. But I would rather you concentrate on the tips to avoid these places vs memorizing the actual names of them and that’s because…

It is simply useless to put up an index of fake job websites because they always disappear and reappear under different names, ALL the time.

I could name a 100 bogus places right now and if you were to visit them in a day, a week or a month later, they’d probably either not exist anymore or redirect to a different page, which is also a scam.

The point is, rather than chasing the name of the program/site, it is better to identify key features these fake job sites have.

In addition, my main goal in this article isn’t just to help you avoid the bad places, but to also show you the few good ones that are out there. I’m pretty sure many of you aren’t exactly interested in reading about what places you can’t trust and which ones you can, so here is a list I made that you can count on:

The list there includes both programs through which you can start a legitimate business and/or work for a real company and be confident that they will hire and pay you. One of them is Amazon itself.

But back to the fake job sites topic…

As I said, the big point in avoiding fake job websites is to understand how they operate and how they look and thankfully there are MANY ways you can do this:

Here’s how they operate: Many of these places simply feed on your need to make money or have a job, right away. 

If you’re a single parent, someone desperate to make an income asap, someone whose retired, and/or are part of these types of groups…

Then congratulations, you are a prime target of these places and they know how to exploit your situation and emotions by simply targeting the type of person you are as well as the situation you’re in and promising that “they” offer the solution to the your problems! 

And there’s a lot of ways they do this. One is that they try and capture you with promises of grandeur (aka money). Here’s some strategies to spot online scams.

Most of the time though, these places are simply made by individuals that are affiliates for bigger, “scammier” companies out there and these affiliates go out, make fake websites and attempt to lure you into them. 

Because there are so many affiliates out there and so many bad companies which offer them big money, explains why there’s just SO many of these places on the internet. But like I said there’s ways to spot them…

How to tell if a website is a fake job site. 5 key features:

I’ve found the following issues reside with all fake job sites, so be careful:

1) They ask you for money. 

Nothing rings my scam bells like a page which asks me to pay…to get paid. Think about how ridiculous that statement sounds. Well believe it or not, it works. 

You visit a website that says you’ll get paid, say $50-$100 an hour, then you find out you need to pay about a $100 to get access. If you ever see a page do this, either the person who wrote it is lying and/or you need to research the actual page itself. 

Now there is a difference here between fake job websites where you’re looking for work vs programs that offer opportunities to build your own online business, as the latter typically does cost money to start. In either case, if you have doubt, this brings me to point 2…

2) If you have doubts, Google it.

You’re bound to find more than enough articles on the website/company/job you’re researching and enough contrary points to see if it’s legitimate. 

Let me give you an example…

My most recent expose on a company called Secure Online Work revealed it was pretty bad. Should someone see that program through Google or other means, all they have to do is go on Google and type in the name of the company, plus the word, review or scam and they’ll see my article on it. 

Being that I have already bought, researched and seen it from the inside, I have provided enough evidence to help people decide on it. Like I said, all they have to do is Google the name of the company.

Now I don’t have the means to catch every single bad website once it pops up and review it, let alone get Google to help me show up for it on page 1 every time, but the good news is there are many others like me who do this and chances are, their legitimate expose of it will show up, if mine doesn’t and help you steer away from the company you’re researching or toward it.

Another example is a scam I exposed which was trying to make people think it was connected to Amazon. It was called Amazon Cash Websites and it also turned out to be fake.

The important thing is to read more than 1 review to make an accurate assessment. And that bring me to…

3) Authenticity (it’s lacking).

Should you go the Google route and find more than 1 review site, see how the information is written there. If the program you’re looking for on Google and the article you stumble upon that reviews it shows a positive review, look for evidence. 

• Does the person show their real earnings or do they just talk about how they made money?
• Is the person reviewing it showing their face? 
• Is the review providing an OVERLY positive assessment of the program?
• Or even an overly negative one?

There better be proof or otherwise, it’ll sound like it’s an extremely biased article aiming to either sell you the program OR to steer you into another, which may too be a scam. 

Therefore, like I said, look at MORE than 1 review and compare the evidence. 

Generally the best review articles are the ones which show what the actual program you’re looking into, actually looks like from the inside because it shows the person actually purchased it. 

4) Never fall for “time limits”. 

Many fake job places love to use the “limited time only” or clocks to prevent you from doing any sort of research. Their job is to make you think less and act faster and the time limit is a perfect way to do it. 

If there is a time limit on the job page you’re visiting, do this test:

Simple refresh the page you’re on and see if the clock resets. If it does, it’s a fake timer. And even if it doesn’t, time limits like these are not a good sign.

Any form of immediate pressuring on behalf of the page you’re visiting is to me, a form of deception because ANY good page will give you comfort and time to think about it. Marketing through pressure and time constraints is almost always a bad sign.

5) Look at the person who made the site. 

You’ll often find a few common red flags in this:

A) The person doesn’t make themselves known. You’ll just see a page that advertises said company/job but never will you see a name behind it. If you never get a name, never give yours or your personal info. Leave the page. 

B) You’ll get a first name at best. But that’s not good enough. 

C) You’ll get a first and last name. But you will need to Google it to see if it’s fake or a pen name, which happens often, including in the Secure Online Work program I used as an example above. In that case, the person who “made” it was known as “Kelly Simmons”.

Simply research on my part through actually buying the program and Googling it concluded that to be false.

In any case, look for the name of the person and research it and if there’s no name, forget the program. NO good job program can ever function under disguise! 

Legitimate job websites you can trust:

There’s always 2 I mention when I expose fake job websites and they are Careerbuilder.com and also Monster.com.

My final thoughts:

I know a lot of these tips tend to branch out into other mini tips and that can get confusing if you’re researching a job site and wanting to know if it’s fake. But honestly, if you look at this from a big picture, it’s just common sense.

All you’re really doing with these tips is verifying whether or not what you’re looking at is real and can be trusted. 

Like I promised, here is a list of work at home scams I would never recommend you get involved with, plus the tricky website setups they use to make you think they’re good. 

Again, focus on the features those pages have, not their names because as I said, they tend to disappear and change often so there’s little sense in chasing the name, chase the features, because almost always, those pages have them. If you spot the common bad features, you will spot the scam. 

Now again, if you wish to see my personal list of GOOD places, then here you go:

And I will always advise the SAME tips above be exercised, even for my recommendations. Obviously, I want your trust, but in my opinion, I need to earn it, so please treat my recommendations with the same skepticism you would treat a questionable page you land on.