Blog Post: The Wild West of the Internet

If there's one place job seekers need to be extra diligent, it's when searching online for job opportunities. Better Business Bureau regularly monitors postings in our area to see what's brewing. Just today we found a job posting targeting mom's who might like to work from home in the Phoenix area.

The ad follows:

Moms work from home making great money!

24 year old award-winning INC 500 company
Member of National Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame
Member of Better Business Bureau Hall of Fame
More six figure earners than any company in the history of direct sales
No Inventory, no delivering products
No large investment
Not MLM

A team of leaders from an international wellness company has put together a support group to assist new business builders working from home. I am located in Gilbert/Chandler, AZ , close to Phoenix, but we have no territorial restrictions and work nationwide via phone and Internet. No previous experience is necessary. You must be coachable and a self-starter. We will lead you step- by -step in developing your home business. Average income for someone investing 10 hours a week can be $52,000 after about 22 months. Several of our support team members have earned free cars and are making six figure incomes. We have live training and/or recorded training calls for your convenience. Call me toll-free 1-877-741-7188

So many times consumers will ask us how to tell the bogus from the real. Let me point out the red flags waving frantically in the wind as they pertain to this advertisement.

First Flag: the company claims it is a "Member of the Better Business Bureau Hall of Fame." As a job seeker it would take you just a few seconds to hop over to our website at www.tucson.bbb.org and do a search by the company's phone number. In doing so, you would find no BBB report connected with this phone number. And for the record, there is no such thing as the BBB Hall of Fame.

Second Flag: Most job seekers will call the toll free number. In doing so you will get a voice recording asking you to leave your name and a contact number so a representative can call you. There's no company name associated with the message or in the advertisement itself. In other words, there's no transparency. If this is such an awesome company and if this is the ultimate dream job, you'd think they'd be shouting their name from every rooftop in Arizona.

Third Flag: The posting claims that the average income for someone involved with this company is $52,000 for 10 hours a week after only 22 months. My first inclination would be to ask what am I really earning the first 22 months? And my gut is telling me if I could earn $52,000 for 10 hours a week doing whatever it is they want me to do, then why in the heck isn't everyone in the world doing it? If it sounds too good to be true....

Out of curiosity, we called the phone number and left a message. In our next post, we'll update you on the outcome of that call, assuming there is one. Stay tuned.