Side hustle or Scam? Here’s How to Tell The Difference

Between the gig economy and a continued cost of living crisis, polyworking—having one or more side jobs alongside your fulltime work—is here to stay. Online side hustles are, for many, the secret to upping their income, boosting their savings, and even finding a way out of that dead-end job they’ve grown so tired of.

Unfortunately, where you find demand, you’ll also find scammers, willing to take advantage of people by promising them a dream that simply isn’t real. In today’s article we’ll be breaking down some of the clear warning signs that can help you spot a scam as well as how to find actual side hustles that pay well.

Anyone Can Be Scammed

Everyone knows the golden rule of identifying a scam: if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

That said, when people feel backed into a corner they often forget this important rule. It’s a simple fact of human psychology that desperation makes us believe things we otherwise wouldn’t. We’re much more willing to take risks when we feel that they’re our only option.

All of this to say that, if you feel you’re in a financially unstable position, it’s more important than ever to stop and scrutinize every detail. No matter who you are, no matter how savvy you are to scamming practices, anyone can be vulnerable when they feel like their options are limited.

When in Doubt, Follow the Money

When it comes to work from home scams, what you really have to watch out for are jobs that promise a lot of money for basically no work. If the work you would be doing doesn’t provide a clear value then you should be very sceptical of the offer. This is especially true if the scammer contacts you out of nowhere.

For example, you might receive a text from an unknown number telling you that you could earn hundreds of pounds a day for just one to two hour’s work. Often these messages won’t even specify what the work is—another major red flag.

No real company would ever make this offer. Real companies don’t send random job invites, especially not without specifying the field. Real headhunters will contact you through professional channels—such as your email or LinkedIn—and will specify why they’re contacting you specifically.

When all’s said and done, if you can’t work out what the job is, how it would make money for the employer, or why they’ve contacted you specifically, then it’s almost certainly a scam.

Legitimate Side Hustles That Pay Well

So having covered the scam warning signs, let’s now talk about what you can do to find an online side hustle that will really make you passive income.

There are two types of online side hustle that can be lucrative—employed and self-employed. A self-employed side hustle is essentially a small business run by you. This could be as a freelancer, selling your skill on a per client basis, or it could be as a social media star, building a following of loyal supporters who enjoy your content.

Self employed side hustles usually take quite a long time to build and tend to be quite a risk. While they can work out well, they’re not the type of thing you want to go into lightly. Even fairly down to earth side hustles like videography or content writing require a large time investment to get running—after all, you have to advertise yourself somehow.

And then there are employed side hustles. These jobs tend to work through gig economy apps like Uber, UpWork, or even Career Navig8r. They’re a type of semi-self employment where, although you’re legally a freelance worker, the work comes to you via the app so you don’t have to worry as much about marketing.

Platforms like these require less of an upfront time investment to get yourself going. Although you tend to be dependent on the app’s in-built discovery and it’s very important to watch your reviews, the tradeoff is that you get to spend more time thinking about doing the work and less time thinking about finding it.

If you’re looking for an online side hustle that won’t waste your time, then try Career Navig8r today. On Career Navig8r, it’s your experience that makes you valuable through the knowledge you have to share with others. Become a mentor today and start making a difference!