Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Online Job Scammers Using Whats App
It seems tempting when you get a text saying you can earn hundreds of dollars for a few hours of work. I asked our consumer expert Michelle Ryan if these are legit. These online jobs may sound like they're going to fit the bill of these, you know, new schedules that you have in place, but unfortunately many of these offers are sent by scammers hoping to steal your private information and this is the warning we're talking about from the federal trade commission this month and imagine getting that text message with a job offer that pays hundreds of dollars a day for doing that remote work. It might sound really tempting, but there are red flags in there. The company hiring is a mystery. The message only specifies an age requirement for the job and most suspicious of all and what we need everyone to pay attention to is that they ask you to text them your social security number. No. You don't even know if you've been hired yet. So please don't send that number. Now, if you're getting a lot of these texts and I know I get them myself, what should you do? Well, don't click on links or respond to these unexpected texts. That's just always what I'm going to say about these unsolicited messages no matter what they offer. Then if you are enticed by this, do some research. Scammers usually promise big rewards for little work, but don't give a lot of information. Search online for the name of the company in words like reviews, scam or complaint and if you can't find the company online, that needs to be a red flag and steer clear and then block the unwanted text. They will send text designed to get your attention, some phone settings and call blocking apps that you block these unwanted texts so you can just disregard them and they won't interrupt your day. And if you need more information about whether or not it's legitimate, who do we call? Well DadCaps Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-422-7128.