Having recently graduated High School and moved onto college, I've encountered a couple (convincing at first glance) scams. Both of them promise success with hard work, but ultimately you end up paying.
Shortly after graduating High School, I got a letter in the mail from "Vector International" or something like that. This will probably seem familiar to a lot of people. I was excited at first by the prospect that finding work could be that easy, but after reading I got the feeling of "too good to be true". I immediately looked them up on line and everything I found said that they were a scam.
For those not familiar with the proccess: Vector is a knife supply company. You have to buy a demo set (or at least you used to have to) which sets you back over a hundred bucks. From there you have to go door to door, or call people.
I actually knew a couple people who ended up doing it. One of them told me her boss was a total ass, and you only get paid if you can arrange presentations or make sales.
The second: College Works Painting. Some random person pasted out little pieces of paper before a lecture, asking for our contact information for an "internship". I filled it out, hoping to be able to build work experience and all that. I got a call from someone claiming to be following up on it. There was a short telephone interview, and she scheduled a meeting with me the next day (today). I met with her at the campus coffee place (there should be big red lights going off in people's heads by this point) with four other people. She explained how great the company is. About half way through she handed out pamphlets which were filled with grammatical errors. Two of the people just left (the better idea).
From what I read online, you work as a manager (not a real intern) and manage a branch of a home-painting business. Fourty percent of the revenue goes to the company, then you pay for supplies and labor. If there's anything left, you can keep it. Most of the time, between the competition and poor design, you end up either in the hole or making a couple dollars an hour.
Shortly after graduating High School, I got a letter in the mail from "Vector International" or something like that. This will probably seem familiar to a lot of people. I was excited at first by the prospect that finding work could be that easy, but after reading I got the feeling of "too good to be true". I immediately looked them up on line and everything I found said that they were a scam.
For those not familiar with the proccess: Vector is a knife supply company. You have to buy a demo set (or at least you used to have to) which sets you back over a hundred bucks. From there you have to go door to door, or call people.
I actually knew a couple people who ended up doing it. One of them told me her boss was a total ass, and you only get paid if you can arrange presentations or make sales.
The second: College Works Painting. Some random person pasted out little pieces of paper before a lecture, asking for our contact information for an "internship". I filled it out, hoping to be able to build work experience and all that. I got a call from someone claiming to be following up on it. There was a short telephone interview, and she scheduled a meeting with me the next day (today). I met with her at the campus coffee place (there should be big red lights going off in people's heads by this point) with four other people. She explained how great the company is. About half way through she handed out pamphlets which were filled with grammatical errors. Two of the people just left (the better idea).
From what I read online, you work as a manager (not a real intern) and manage a branch of a home-painting business. Fourty percent of the revenue goes to the company, then you pay for supplies and labor. If there's anything left, you can keep it. Most of the time, between the competition and poor design, you end up either in the hole or making a couple dollars an hour.