Bogus Oil Spill Jobs

As with any disaster there are immediately people who are capitalizing on the Gulf Oil Spill. Bogus ads for oil spill clean-up jobs in the Gulf are appearing in newspapers, online, and in email inboxes. Many of these scammers claim they have jobs waiting for you once you pay them for training or certifications.  Others require you to pay a fee to “apply” for positions.  Some are using emails that appear to be from BP or they falsely claim they’ve been authorized by BP to hire clean-up crews.

The typical red flags for scams apply here:

• Guaranteed jobs – no company makes guarantees about placing someone in a job

• Up front payment – legitimate companies don’t ask for training expenses in advance

• Vague offers – we have “thousands of jobs” and “get hired today” and “$40 an hour” are come-ons

• Your financial information is required – no real employer asks for your bank information to hire you.

Here are some helpful sites for legitimate information about possible jobs:

1. Deepwater Horizon Response
2. BP
3. Alabama — Environmental Cleanup
4. Florida — Florida Attorney General
5. Louisiana – the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office
6. Mississippi Mississippi Department of Employment Security

The kind of people who would take advantage of a disaster and the vulnerability of people desperately needing jobs defies description.  There are far too many real ideas available for making money to have to resort to scamming good people.  I have to assume these leeches are lacking intelligence, morals, ethics and creative thinking.  Avoid them.

Look rich – die broke

While driving through Tampa, Florida recently I saw a cool car accessories shop – obviously a place to trick out your car – with this sign out front:

“Rent your wheels and tires here.”

Now I know we have places to rent furniture, clothes and appliances.  But I always suspect that these businesses are preying on poor people – or at least people who don’t plan very well.  So here we go – if you can’t afford new 22” rims with low profile tires why should you be deprived of looking super cool anyway.  Just rent them.  Who cares if you’ll pay six times what the tires are worth in the course of a year?  You can look slick tonight – it’s the American way.

This is an example of what Thomas Stanley talks about in his latest book – Stop Acting Rich.  I’ve highly recommended his previous books – The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind. In this newest one he reveals the surprising practices of the really rich. They eat at modest restaurants, buy modest cars, and live in modest houses. The average dinner cost for the truly rich is $19.59 and very few ever spend over $10 on a bottle of wine. Guess who’s flashing the $250 bottles and putting $300 dinners on their American Express – yep, it’s the pretenders – those who want to impress others.

It’s pretty eye-opening to realize how much marketing is directed at those who want to “act rich.” This book may help you see real wealth in new ways. Bring rich doesn’t mean you have to waste money.