New graduates and those laid off from jobs should be wary about work-at-home jobs that seem too good to be true, warns Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett today.

Con artists typically use Internet postings or Web sites such as Craigslist.com to publish advertisements that offer high pay for part-time employment, including work as personal assistants, mystery shoppers and check processors.

 The wording of these job-scam offers can vary greatly, but common themes are:

• Easy money for little work.
• Work from home, rather than an office.
• No opportunity to meet your “employer” in-person, often because they travel frequently or are based overseas.
• You need to respond quickly.

The key to the scam is when consumers are eventually asked to deposit a check and then wire-transfer money to another person. For example:

• Personal assistants may be asked to pay bills for the ‘employer.’
• Check processors may think they are handling payments for an overseas business.
• ‘Mystery Shoppers’ may believe they are evaluating stores that deal with wire transfers.

The check or money order the consumer receives will turn out to be counterfeit. The bogus checks will be returned. Banks will require consumers to repay the money they withdrew.

“Falling for these schemes will not only leave you unemployed, but victims can also lose thousands of dollars and find themselves targeted by identity thieves,” Corbett said in a news release.