Job-offering scammers could be after your stimulus money

With ove🔯r 20 million having recently lost work, scammers could swallow lots of stimulus checks.

They tell you that there’s a wonderful job wait🎃ing for you. Just fill out a form and send🌸 money.

Often there’s no re﷽al job. Phony offers snag thousands, regulators and employment p♊ros warn.

“These scams are everywhere. Job scams are the No. 1 scam nationally, because they affect some many people. Male, female, the old, the young,” said Claire Rosenzweig, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (💎♍BBB) for Metro New York.

Indeed, the “median dollar loss to consumers through 2019 was $1,500, up from $1,204 in 2018,” according to . In the same period, employment scams in the Metro New York region went from third to second in the top scam categories.

These scams, says an💜other expert, take many forms.

“For example, a company reaching out, sometimes just wants to make contact with a can🐻didate so they can hit their own metrics or to obtain additional leads,” said Jason Deneu with Robert Half Technology.

Other times, 💎job s൲eekers are conned into handing over money.

“Employers and employment firms sho🐬uldn’t ask you to pay for the promise of a job,” says the Federal Trade Commisꦇsion.

How can one identify a fraud?

“If the person reaching out can’t offer any true insight into the role, or share the company name, then be leery,” Deneu said. “Always do some research on thඣese companies; look them up online, check with state authorities that they really exist,” adds BBB’s Rosenzweig.

And here are some other red flags.

Job o🌳ffers from♒ strangers: If someone offers you a job without getting an application from you first, meeting you, or doing an interview, it’s a scam.

High pay🧜 for simple work: Be wary if ads, e-mails, or callers promise to pay a lot for♛ jobs that don’t seem to require much effort, skill or experience. Usually such offers are scams.