Don't be convinced by this employer.
Don't let your desperation and current circumstances put your mind in saying do it, risk it!
What should you do to protect yourself?
It's easy.
Never disclose, by email or telephone, to people whom you don't know, your personal data such as: - full name - bank account details - credit card information - PayPal information - Social Security Number (SSN) - driver's license - birth date - home address
You can try one or more of the below options if a recruiter/employer is real, genuine and in good faith:
a) Look at the company name. Is it saying anything to you? Have you heard of it before?
b) Does the domain name match the name of the company?
c) Ask your friends and colleagues if they heard of that company.
d) Google it. Yahoo it. MSN it. Run a search and see if the same company has been involved in job scams or if other people say that company has been scamming others.
e) See what country that company pretends to be working in. Then call or email the Embassy of that particular country and ask them if they know anything of it.
f) Ask that company if you need to pay anything in exchange for their service. If first they say no and then, after some time, say you must pay for visa, work permit or for travel, it's a fake company and behind it are job scammers!
g) Ask that company to provide you copies of their incorporation certificate or proofs of Government registration, or VAT number.
h) And finally, be advised that most fake companies acting as scammers "offer" scam jobs in areas such as Africa (Nigeria being the most famous case), Middle East, Asia, even South America. To a much smaller extent, even US or Western Europe.
