Beware of Holiday Data-Entry Scams

It is getting closer to the holidays, and scammers are on the prowl. Be wary when it comes to online job postings targeting students and stay-at-home moms. Each year, we tend to visit community sites such as Craigslist or stumble across blogs on sites such as MySpace or Friendster to find many online telecommuting opportunities that claim to put extra cash in your pocket for holiday shopping. One of the most popular of these scandals involve so-called data-entry positions.

They claim that you can make $200 to 500 a week by simply entering data provided to you by the company. This sounds vague, doesn't it? These ads also state that all you will need is to have Internet access, a working PC, and a typing skill of approximately 40 words a minute. They also ask you for a small application fee of $25, however dropping the price around the holidays to $15 as a "special offer." They do not ask to interview you or to send a resume.

Once you have sent this fee to Paypal and IF they contact you right away, as they state they will, you will receive a zipped document that includes only one PDF file. What you will see on this PDF file is basically what you have seen as the posting you replied to. There will more than likely be three versions of that posting along with instructions telling you to copy and paste a chosen ad to another community site and/ or blog.

Can you really make money from this? Only if you are lucky to find other naive souls who will send the application fee to your PayPal account, will you actually make money. Before becoming part of the scam, you need to ask yourself this: Is it worth it to you to take from someone who is probably already struggling to make money during the holidays? The fee that is awarded to you could buy a family's Christmas ham, clothes, or gifts. By the way, not many people reply to these ads or follow up once they see there is a fee involved.