Scam Alert: Career Builders

February 3rd, 2012

Just got an email purportedly from admin@careerbuilder.com

It has the promising title “Job Offer !”

When you open it, it reads

“We have an open position in our team , and we are looking for qualified individuals to become mystery shoppers .
If you are interested in working with us please download the attached file containing the registration form and more information guide to online casinos for canadians about the position.”
and there is an attachment named Application.htm which is actually a snippet of javascript that opens a page.
It of course asks for personal information and submits it to some poor soul who has been hacked.
Don’t fall for it!

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Best Piece of Equipment I Own

January 26th, 2012

As I hung up the phone from a marathon conference call today, the only problem I had was a slightly warm ear.  No neckache, no headache, no sore shoulders.

That’s because I own a telephone with a headset.

The one I have is a Plantronics. It has a teeny, lightweight headset with a mic that’s really easy to position, and the sensitivity is just right–people can hear you clearly without picking up a ton of background noise.

The body of the phone is so small that rather than bother with the clip, I just put the phone in my pocket.

Every time I get stuck on the phone for more than 30 minutes, I am reminded anew how handy this phone is.  The only issue I have (and it may be unique to my setup) is that sometimes when I use it, I get kicked offline.

It’s just a channel conflict. Some phones, as an additional security measure, randomly choose a channel whenever you pick it up.  Since I can’t assign a channel to the phone, thus eliminating the conflict, I run the risk of losing the net every time I use it.

When I’m ready to get a new phone, I’m going to see if I can get a model that perhaps will allow me to exclude one or two channels (and I’ll put my router on those), but given how uncomfortable marathon phone sessions used to be, this is a small inconvenience.

If you think you may have to spend any amount of time on the phone for your work at home job or business,  this is a must-have-item!

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Well, it seems the spammers have found us

January 25th, 2012

I obviously don’t expect a great deal of traffic yet, this blog is just getting started. It’s amazing how many spammers have found it already. I get all excited because I think I have a comment, only to discover it’s yet more comment spam.

It’s amazing how much time it takes to deal with spam. I finally ended up organizing my email differently just because I was losing emails in the general background noise.

I use Eudora for my emails, since I’m used to it, but I know Outlook works in a similar way:

I set myself up a mailbox for each person I do work for called “Work–Name” and then set up the filters so that mail from each person goes into the designated box.

Sometimes I have to watch my inbox carefully for a while because the person may have multiple emails, but this has helped a lot–when there’s something new in the box, the box name is in bold, so I know to check it.

Speaking of checking email, how often do you check your email each day?

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Arise: Scam or Opportunity?

January 24th, 2012

I happened to run across an offer the other day that appeared to be from a local hotel, looking for desk workers.

I  applied immediately. My web development business is doing fairly well, but as anyone with a fairly new business knows, it can be up and down. The idea of having something part-time sounded good.

It turned out to be an offer to work for a company who works with Arise. Arise bills itself as a Virtual Call Center.

I was suspicious right away. While everyone’s BS threshold is a little different, if the opportunity was legit, then why was it being presented as a local job?

This is how it seemed to work. Arise has a bunch of contracts with varying companies for call center services. If you want to do these jobs, you have to first incorporate yourself/join an existing corporation.

I am no lawyer, but it seems to me that this is simply to make it absolutely clear in a legal sense that you are a company providing services to Arise, not an employee of Arise.  This allows Arise to offer a call center service without having to deal with inconveniences such as minimum wage laws.

The ad I saw was someone who had already incorporated looking for people to join their company, so the advertising of local jobs can’t be laid at Arise’s door but rather to that particular company.

I already mentioned that I felt suspicious, so I did some digging, and the first thing that caught my eye was that there was a class-action lawsuit against Arise in the state of California for… not paying minimum wage.

Here’s the thing. A lot of times, no matter if a company says that you are an independent contractor, whether you are or not has to meet certain tests by the IRS.  This is something I will talk about more in another post, but California appears to believe that fundamentally, all these people in sub-corporations contracted by Arise are really employees, and thus Arise owes taxes and compensation.

In further research, I discovered that Arise-connected people seemed to come in two flavors–really enthusiastic and really negative. You can check out some of the reviews here.

There were enough issues that I decided to give this one the go-by. It may be that with Arise, your success depends on the corporation you join, but I’d hate to have to pay all those training fees hoping to get work only to get ripped off.

Scam-o-meter: Proceed with extreme caution

 

 

 

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Getting Ready to Work at Home: Software

January 20th, 2011

Some work at home jobs require specific software. You may also want to review the current programs installed on your computer to make sure you’re up to date. Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not work for or own stock in any of the companies who offer the products mentioned here, and you should bear in mind that I am the type of programmer that cannot ABIDE programs that do everything for me including wipe my… nose. I’m what you might gently refer to as a “Power User” so I get very irritated with programs that are resource hogs that make the system run slower.

Before responding to your first ad, make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date! While there are may good programs out there, I personally use ESET Nod32 Antivirus. I had grown disenchanted with Symantec and McAfee because both of them seemed to be resource hogs, and I found myself having to repeatedly shut off useless “features” that would mysteriously turn themselves back on every time the program upgraded. An IT friend recommended ESET and I’ve been really happy with it.

A firewall is also useful. I’m currently using the Sunbelt Personal Firewall, although it doesn’t get a lot of action since my internet connection is through my router. Speaking of routers, even if you have a wireless router, you might want to use a cable connection for your main work computer–it’s more secure and you aren’t broadcasting potentially sensitive information. You should also make sure your wireless router requires a username and password to access the network and prevent others from using your internet connection. Consult your router manual for details.

Other software depends on what sort of work you do. If you’re a web designer, you will probably want some kind of html editing program. There are a number of web jobs that require you to have Dreamweaver. If you’re working on the design end of things, you’ll want image editing software. Professionals generally use Adobe Photoshop. It’s always a good idea to check out and see what they have for specials and bundles–you may be able to get several programs for a lower price than if you bought them individually.

Programmers need some sort of text editing software, although you can use plain old Notepad, there are some good text editors out there that have conveniences such as highlighting code that can let you see a mistake at a glance. I have a friend who swears by Ultra Edit, but I personally prefer TextPad.

For documents, Microsoft Office is still widely used, especially by larger companies, although Open Office is growing in popularity.

Obviously, there are lots of other programs out there that do the same job as the ones mentioned, and if you have one that works for you, there’s no need to go out and get expensive software that you don’t really need. Be aware, however, that you will need the capability to view and/or edit files generated by the more commonly used programs.

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Ebony Marketing Scam Alert

January 19th, 2011

A few days ago, I got an email supposedly from Ebony Marketing. It looked slick and official, and stated that the company could be verified with the Better Business Bureau. Indeed, the company is listed there, and the address information matched.

The content, however, was very similar to that tired old lottery scam. You were supposed to contact them and they would send you a check. You were supposed to wire this money to them as a “test” of their payment system, keeping a handsome sum for yourself.

You probably can guess what would happen next. If you deposited the check and then wired the the money, the check would turn out to be bad, and you would be stuck paying the bill!

Ebony Marketing is aware of the scam and is investigating, but in the meantime, don’t fall for that tired old trick! Almost every payment system I can think of has a means for testing–Paypal and Authorize.net both have testing servers, in fact, where you can set up your system and do fake transactions to your heart’s content to make sure the system is working correctly and generating the correct mails and so forth.

No reputable company will ask you to “test” Western Union.

Not. Ever.

Don’t fall for it!

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Getting Ready To Work At Home: Taxes

January 18th, 2011

If you become an independent contractor–and most work at home jobs consider you an independent contractor–your tax obligations change

You are now subject to the self-employment tax, which is slightly higher than the rate you pay with an employer. The current rate according to the IRS is 13.3%. You are also required to pay estimated tax each quarter if you expect to owe $1000 or more in taxes. If you don’t pay estimated taxes, you will have to pay an additional penalty. More information on making estimated payments can be found at the IRS web site

I hope to one day be able to just hand my paperwork over to a bookkeeper, but until that day arrives, I’m using TaxAct. It’s important to keep track of your business expenses, as some of them may be deductible. If you’ve set up a home office, you may be able to claim the portion of your home that you use for working. You should keep receipts in their own folder so that they are all in one place. If you have many receipts, you may want to get an accordion folder so you can organize them by month.

There are many accounting software programs out there, but I haven’t yet selected one. What accounting software do you like to use?

Obligatory Disclaimer: This discussion about taxes is GENERAL and is not a substitute for advice from a tax professional.

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Getting ready to work at home: Equipment

January 16th, 2011

If you’re planning to work at home, it’s important to prepare yourself and be familiar with some of the requirements of being an independent contractor.

First, decide where your work area is going to be located. I have toyed with the idea of setting up my “office” in my bedroom, but I decided against that because it can be very difficult for me to separate work life from home life, and my bedroom is the one place where I’m definitely NOT working. If you’re short on space, you may be limited in your choices, but try to locate your work area so that you aren’t constantly going to be distracted and interrupted by the other activities going on around you. You may want to invest in a jack for your telephone and internet.

Basic equipment of course includes your desk, computer, monitor, and printer, but you also may want to get a headset for your phone. The headset for my phone was probably the single best thing I got for my work–I was doing a telecommute job that required a lot of meetings, and it saved my neck!

A comfortable office chair is a must if you’re going to be spending a lot of time in it. You might want to get a scanner–if you’re doing contract work for a company, you may have to fill out forms and email them back. A fax isn’t necessary–if you have one, that’s great, but if you don’t, you can use one of the online services, or use a program on your computer, if you can run a phone line through it.

You should evaluate your internet connection, and if it tends to be sketchy, you may want to consider switching services or getting inexpensive dial-up as a backup. Decide where you want to keep papers–I have a small file cabinet on wheels that does double-duty for both personal and work paperwork.

If things are very cluttered and disorganized, it would probably be a good investment of time to get everything straightened out before you get started. Although you may feel under a great deal of pressure to get some money coming in, especially if you’re looking for work at home opportunities due to a job loss, the time you spend getting set up now will save you many headaches later. I’ve listed Julie Morgenstern’s “Organizing From the Inside Out” because it’s the first organizing book that ever actually got me organized. You can purchase it through this site, or see if you can get a copy from your local library.

Current home workers: What other things do you recommend?

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Hello and Welcome!

January 16th, 2011

We still have a few things under construction, but welcome to Home Worker!

I’m hoping this will prove to be a useful resource for people who work at home or are thinking about working at home.

I did my first job on the web as an independent contractor in May of 2004. When the Great Recession hit and full-time jobs became nearly impossible to find, I began to build my own business. It’s taken some time, but I’ve learned a lot on the way!

Thanks for visiting.

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