How To Know If An Online Job Is Genuine
Worried about whether an online job or a company offering “remote” or “virtual” work is genuine? Perhaps you should be, after all – around 8/10 jobs that are based online aren’t jobs at all. Often they’re “opportunities” that require some form of upfront investment. In other cases they’re just flat-out scams.
So before you engage with a company online it’s always worth checking if they’re legitimate before you engage with them.
There are several basic steps you can take to see if a company is genuine. Read on to find out what they are…
Check spelling and grammar
If a company is genuine, chances are they will have professional people building their website(s) and take care over the website they portray.
If you notice poor English, spelling mistakes or poor grammar used frequently on a website it’s a strong indication that the company may not be genuine. This should appear as a red flag if the company proclaims it is a local business trading near you for example, therefore investigate further before doing any dealings with them.
Scammers and fraudsters often put together websites quickly in order to maximize the returns from their scam. In their rush they often leave behind obvious mistakes. Spot one mistake too many and it’s worth more investigation.
Check for a registered legal company number
Regardless of what country the company is based in, they should have a registered legal company number proving they are a properly registered legal company with their local State or Country.
Fraudulent companies will often avoid having a publicly displayed registered company number.
Research the company
Doing a bit of research on the company you want to work with can prove the difference between working with a genuine company or wasting your time (or money!)
You should also research who runs the company, how long they’ve been established, what the companies customers say and if possible financial reports.
If the company you want to work with are genuine they’ll have customers and suppliers they work with and typically shouldn’t have many worrying findings when researching them.
Check for a legitimate phone number and postal address
If there is no way to contact this company offline, this may be a red flag that the business is not legitimate. Since emails and domain names are easy to obtain, having an email address is not as trustworthy as offline contact information.
Remember that both phone numbers and email addresses are now incredibly easy to fake. Getting a fake phone number and email address can be obtained within seconds and often for free. Before doing business, see if the business has a legitimate postal address.
Check the WHOIS data on the website
You can sometimes find the name and information for the person who registered the website, which you may want to use for further research. Determine when the website was created and when it will expire. If it was only created recently and will expire soon, that may point to the website being a temporary cover for a scam.
However, if the company doesn’t provide their WHOIS data it doesn’t mean they aren’t legitimate. In fact, most businesses now hide their website WHOIS data by default.
