Job scams and easy money

1Look

The DM

It is friendly, it is flattering, and a lot of people your age will get one like it this year. Read it again and find the word details.

2The idea

Easy money is paying for something

Nobody pays four hundred a week for nothing. If a job pays a lot for almost no work, ask what they are actually buying. The thing they are buying is you: your bank account, your details, your address, or a fee you pay first. The job is the wrapping. The thing inside is one of those four.

These offers are aimed at people your age on purpose. You have a bank account, you have not had a job before so you do not know what one looks like, and you would quite like four hundred a week. None of that is your fault. It just means you need one question ready.

3The idea

The one question and the four tells

Which way does the money move first? A real job pays you. If money or details move from you to them first, it is not a job. The four shapes:
1. Pay for a starter pack, a kit, a fee.
2. Send your bank login or a photo of your card.
3. Receive something and send it on: money, a cheque, parcels.
4. Pay far above what adults get for the same work.

Not tells: a website, a logo, a fast reply, a real-sounding name. Anybody can have those by Tuesday. The only thing that tells you anything is the direction the money goes. The Two Questions still work here: would I be happy telling Mum about this after?

4The idea

Watch it work once

Back to the DM. Four hundred a week: tell number four, that is more than most adults get for a part-time job. Teen brand ambassadors: flattery, not information. Just need your details to get you set up: there it is. Details, before you have done anything. The money is moving from you to them first.

So you reply with one line: Sounds good. I’ll show my dad and get back to you. A real employer is fine with that. Watch what this one does. Usually they go quiet, or suddenly the offer is only open today. Either way you have your answer, and you show your dad anyway, because that is Tell tonight.

5Say it

The sentence that ends most of them

A real employer is fine with that. Watch what the other kind does when you say it. Usually they stop replying, which is your answer.

6Decide

Which one of these is a real job?

7Build it

Four offers

The parcel one is the sneakiest. You are not paying anything. You are just becoming the address.

8Find them

Which of these are tells?

Tap the ones that count.

9Do it

Before you leave this page