CAREER OPPORTUNITY/JOB SCAMS

We all have dreams and aspirations. Unfortunately, in a third world country like Pakistan, we have more dreams than opportunities to make them come true. With the state of economy the way it is, there are very few amongst us who have decent jobs that can help us fulfill our basic needs. Out of our necessity to better our lives and to fulfill the needs and desires of ourselves and our loved ones, we are all the time thinking of ways to make our dreams come true. For this reason, we are always desperate for a better job and even a complete change of career. It is our desires and our desperation for fulfilling them that the scammers are exploiting. You need to be aware that there are a lot of career opportunities or job scams in Pakistan.

With so many people living below poverty line, there are so many unsuspecting people falling prey to these scammers every day. The targets of career opportunity scams are from the entire spectrum of the demography. From ladies, widows, students to the already desperate victims of earthquake and now the IDPs of the Northern Areas have fallen prey to the career opportunity scams.

Modus Operandi

It all starts with an advertisement through any medium (newspaper, television, letter, SMS, telephone call, website, email or word of mouth, you name it. The advertisement may offer very attractive opportunity of a work at home scheme, job abroad, online payment processor, franchise, commission agent etc. It could be a company offering to market your invention or publish your book. It could be a company offering to create products based on your ideas.

Regardless of the type of opportunity presented, all such schemes have one thing in common: They all promise you huge income in a relatively short period of time; dreams (read fantasies) come true. But once you are convinced and have filled their registration forms and submitted all the data, they will all require you to pay a small amount up-front on one pretext or another. In all the excitement, some people may not realize that they are being cheated and end up paying. It is this amount that they are deprived of and it is lost forever. This is what is known as the advance fee fraud. Shattered dreams and loss of hard earned money. Money that is really hard to come by in a developed country like ours with so much unemployment.

Prevention

Do not believe everything you read in advertisements or what people tell you. Don’t believe in anything that is too good to be true. Try to verify the credentials of the advertiser before you make a decision. Does the advertiser have a brick and mortar address? does it have a land line telephone number? Is it a regulated entity? If so, verify with the regulator. Is it a new company or a well established old company of repute?

Learn to question everything. Ask the experts in the field. The more questions you ask, the more informed your decision will be. Never trust anyone who promises fortunes and then asks for a fee up-front. Don’t deal with anyone if you have to pay up front. The habit of questioning will save you from lot of pain, misery and financial distress. Because if you do become a victim of a scam, chances are the scammers will have disappeared with your money along with thousands of others like you. Even if you get them, the legal battle may last for years and cost you more time and money than you had lost to begin with. Prevention is always better than cure. Take care.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

I have come across a lot of people who lost their hard earned money to scammers, fraudsters, cheaters, thugs….chose your word; they all mean the same to me. They all wanted to get rich quick like me, but I was rigid when it came to values and that is the only reason why I have always managed to steer myself away from scammers. I always managed to subdue my greed, uphold my vales and struggled in the right direction. There is no easy way out, there is no shortcut. A lot of really good people, unfortunately too eager to get rich quick, lost their hard earned money to the scammers. They are all mostly good people, earning an honest living, working hard to make their dreams come true. Whenever they come to me for help, I am so saddened at the expensive justice system we have in place. Most of the honest people hardly earn enough to meet the basic needs of their families. Very few can afford the lawyers and the time needed to pursue litigation. Most are working class people with their jobs to worry about and cannot stay away from work for extended periods. Besides, in some cases, there is a vacuum in the legislation and it is extremely difficult to convict the scammers as their scam has not been declared a predicate offence yet. While I will always encourage people to fight for their rights and do not let the scammers get away with it, I feel it will be better to create public awareness about the various types of scams so that people can steer away from them. Prevention is always better than cure and less costly. So stay with me, I am involved in combating financial crimes and will do my bit to save people from becoming victims. Let us help each other and save each other from the scammers.