New employment scams come at wrong time for desperate job seekers

Three lines into the latest online job scam, and you can see it's a fake.

It says your job would be a "warehouse" inspector." But later on, you find there is no warehouse. Instead you'll be shopping and shipping packages from your home.

And the pay? At $100 an hour, it's great, but unrealistic.

I know many of you still want to believe some of these online job offers are real. But I've done too many stories with Valley job seekers who fell for them, and paid dearly.

The scams are easy to spot. They all ask for money upfront, in different ways.

In one scam, a woman was told she needed certain equipment to do her work at home. She was to buy the equipment and then would be reimbursed by her new employer. She lost $2,300.

Another scam involved shipping goods to foreign countries. The Valley man had to buy them first, with his money. He lost $4,000.

And still another opportunity involved a check sent to a woman for more than what she was supposed to get paid. The woman was to keep her pay, then send back the rest of the money from her account. Of course, the check she received was no good. But her check would be good. She didn't fall for it.

So if you're looking for a job online, and asked to pay upfront, wire any money, deposit a check before working, don't do it.

Email me with any scams you see or tell me about them on my ABC 15 Facebook page .