Consumer Alert
Job scams that start on social media: Appointment Setters
Here’s a new scam spotted on social media: appointment setting jobs. They claim you can work from home and make big money. But just what does an appointment setter do? And how can you tell the difference between a legit job offer and a scam?
An appointment setter is someone who schedules calls for a company’s sales staff and potential clients to help them close deals. You’re typically paid an hourly rate, but might earn bonuses based on the number of appointments you successfully set. If you need training, the employer should offer it at no cost to you.
Now that you know the basics, here are some ways to tell the difference between an appointment setter job scam and a legitimate position. Scammy ads tend to promise a very high income. The truth is that real appointment setting is a normal job with a modest income. Scammy job offers claim you have to pay thousands of dollars upfront for training. The truth is honest employers will never ask you to pay to get a job. Scammers say they’ll guarantee you a job once you pay for training. The truth is no one can guarantee you a job. Scammers may also look more like a business opportunity than a paid position, promising you potential clients, or suggesting you recruit new people to their “job” training programs, instead of setting appointments.
Before you accept a job or business opportunity offer:
- Take your time and talk to someone you trust. Scammers will try to pressure you to get involved or risk losing out.
- Do some research. Search online for the name of the company and words like “review,” “scam,” or “complaint.” Check with your state attorney general for complaints. No complaints? It doesn’t guarantee that a company is honest, but complaints can tip you off to possible problems.
- Read success stories and testimonials with skepticism. They might not be true or typical. Glowing stories of success could be fake or misleading, and positive online reviews may have come from made-up profiles.
If you see a job or business opportunity scam, or lose money to one, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
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June 18, 2024
Thank you.
June 20, 2024
I see these scams on Facebook. In fact, there was one on there yesterday. Someone commented asking a few legitimate questions. I answered the person, letting that person know it it appears to be a scam and that the person was probably trying to steal money from the person. I stated that if it were a legitimate business, the name of this new business would have been given as well as the location and telephone number. As soon as I did this, the post was blocked. Several months ago, there was another on stating that it is connected to Frontier Internet and that the job was to sell equipment to people and the pay was really high. I contacted Frontier and they could tell it was a scam and the person they would investigate it. Then I commented on the scam post stated that Frontier was investigating it...the post disappeared! (I always go onto the scammer's Facebook page and it's always quite obvious that it's a scammer. When the internet first came out, it was wonderful for many years for various reasons. But during the last 10 years, it's gotten terrible because of these scammers. Hey, maybe these scammers should get free room and board for life...IN PRISON! That way, it would deter a lot of them!
July 02, 2024
In reply to I see these scams on… by Marcia Lee
You are correct! The number if employment scams has skyrocketed in the past two years. The surprising part is how sophisticated and time consuming they are. Even the well known job platforms are full of them. I have had three different job offers in the last year resulting from a minimum of 3 or 4 interviews that each lasted 30 min to an hour. On this last one. I went in eyes wide open and picked up on a small detail that a couple of years ago, I would never have even raised an eyebrow. I decided to hang in the process just to see how far they would go. Their English has improved, the interview questions actually make you think, the offer letters are more genuine, they wanted me to do a w-4 (that's a first), and just an overall more realistic experience. It was when they asked me for the name of my bank before I received a contract or offer to sign that I was sure it was a scam. I still am playing along, collecting evidence and IP addresses. Several years ago, I cashed a check for mystery shopping and actually got arrested for it. I wont go into those details but I will say that even though the bank it was written on verified the funds were written to me and I had a name and a number I found on my own, it did not matter and I ended up with a conviction because I could not afford a paid attorney. The fraudster then had found me on Career Builder and reached out because my resume status was actively seeking employment. I did everything correctly, or so I thought. Needless to say, I will never fall prey to another scam and if a company or persons gets mad at me for trying to prevent that from happening, then that company and I are not suited for one another. Thats tough to do especially if you have been out of work any length of time! Does anyone happen to know if theres any way to get these scams investigated while they are ongoing and still in contact with you? Just in the time it took me to write this, I just received another message from this posing scammer. They need shut down and need to be afraid of the consequences. Right now there are none because innocent people like me end up taking the fall simply because they end up in possession of a fraudulent check etc.
June 20, 2024
Please adjust your advice for fraudulent calls not in contacts to be merely silenced instead of being sent straight to voicemail. Many of the fraudsters don’t stay on the line long enough to leave a voicemail at the end of four rings, but will leave a message if you send the call to voicemail after just one ring.
June 21, 2024
In reply to Please adjust your advice… by Common Law
Good advice. I do this and haven't had a problem since. They hang up in seconds if they get that far. Contacts only setting stops 99% of them for me. I've got one "debt collector" who tried daily I never hear from now ;)
June 27, 2024
I have been getting so many of these it's ridiculous not to mention the amount of phone calls and they're all intertwined and now I found out just a moment ago that they are now using one of my social media names I don't know how that's possible because I am getting register it as a business or LLC or copyrighted or all three and I will definitely be taking legal action I've actually started to record all of the calls out of sheer curiosity to see how many different area codes phone numbers because you can tell they're all very similar
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