By Tony Burkhardt, Denver Police District 3 Community Resource Officer
Employment search scams have consistently been among the most common fraud in the United States. With so many people currently looking for work, some are bound to become targets for less than reputable businesses willing to offer very promising employment situations. Many of these scams involve people having to pay fees upfront, supposedly for materials, certifications, or memberships, employment placement fees or phony sales leads. Once you pay, you get nothing in return or may receive less than useful supplies.
When looking for help in finding work, it’s important to understand the differences among employment services. Find out what services a firm offers, how much the services cost, and who pays.
The following are signs that you may be dealing with a less than reputable company:
•Promises to get you a job, a ‘guaranteed’ offer, or any hiring without an interview;
•Enticements of easy money working from home. Examples are assembling crafts, stuffing envelopes, doing medical billing or processing rebates;
•Any request for upfront money for job placement or materials. Legitimate placement firms are paid by employers, not job seekers;
•Be wary of firms promoting previously undisclosed federal government jobs. All federal positions are announced to the public;
•Do not give out your credit card or bank account information, or Social Security number over the phone unless you are familiar with the company and agree to pay for services. Anyone who has your account information can use it to take money from your accounts improperly.
If something appears not quite right with an ‘employment agency,’ it’s probably best to steer clear. Instead, there are many free and low cost resources available to help you in your job search, including local and state government job service offices, the Internet, local libraries, and universities and community colleges.
By Jackie Medford, MNI Board Member
We’ve all seen the commercials on TV with the little old lady on the floor and no one to help her. But it’s not very funny when it happens to a beloved, long-time neighbor in her own backyard.
Her daughter had wanted her to wear one of the alert pendants but she didn’t think she needed one—at least not until near noon one day last week in her backyard where she had been picking up lawn debris. She fell, breaking her hip, and laid there for a couple of hours (neighbors on both sides work all day.) Her cries for help were answered by a lady living on the street behind the house next door. The woman had come home at lunch to let her cats out and heard the cry for help.
Our neighbor is doing well now after surgery and is in a rehab facility. We know she’ll soon be well enough to return to our neighborhood—wearing her alert pendant, if her daughter and her friends have anything to say about it.
STAY SAFE folks, and if you are living alone, consider this helpful tool.
By Jackie Medford, MNI Board Member
Here in Mayfair we have our own menagerie---fox and coyote and hawks, oh my! I just spotted the Coopers Hawk (I think, or it could be a Red Tail) when I saw it’s shadow on the lawn and looked up....
Oh my! I picked up my miniature pincher, Mindy and got her in the house!
Fox have been in the neighborhood for decades. But when they tore down the “old blue house” at Severn and Jersey (it used to be a stage coach stop) the bushes by the back of the carriage house had evidence of being a fox den. A little chihuahua, Lola, got her foot almost bitten off by a fox last fall to the tune of $800 at the Alameda East Vet hospital. (She is fine now, but is fearful of large dogs which she wasn’t afraid of before.)
The coyotes, being the wily guys that they are, just trot along the parkway of 6th Ave, looking both ways before crossing the street and grinning at all of us who do a double take before putting on the brakes.
So the moral of this story is---look up for the danger, check both ways before crossing, and don’t let a fox talk you into going out to dinner with him.
