Tek Collect is a collections agency that employs at home workers to collect debts, rather than establishing a brick and mortar call center. This is a common type of telecommuting position, as any job that needs only a phone and a computer to complete the work is easy to do from home.
Tek Collect appears to be a third party collection agency, which means that they enter into contracts with companies to collect their debt for them for a fee.
Tek Collect has often been seen advertising on CareerBuilder, Monster, and other employment websites, as well as has placed ads in various metropolitan newspapers. Their ads ask for
“highly motivated Sales Professionals to Fast Track into Sales Management. First year earnings range from $75k to $150k. Second year earnings well into six figures. Senior Sales Managers enjoy mid to upper six-figure income.”
So is TekCollect a Scam?
Unfortunately, the hiring processes of Tek Collect definitely raise some serious warning flags. For example, their ads imply that they are searching for employees, when the truth is that Tek Collect only hires independent contractors. Independent contractors receive no benefits from their employment, and no taxes are taken out of their paychecks, as well as no payments into Social Security or retirement plans.
But this doesn’t mean that you are exempt from taxes – if you take a job as an independent contractor, you need to save your own money in order to pay your taxes out of pocket at the end of the year, because your company still reports your earnings to the IRS.
Another warning flag is that Tek Collect requires people to pay $350 for their training program, with the promise that the money will be refunded to them once they reach a particular level of closed accounts. Unfortunately, Tek Collect contractors claim that, despite what you are led to believe when you are hired, it is almost impossible to reach that level of closed accounts and therefore your money is very rarely refunded.
Now, hiring contractors instead of employees is not a scam. Many companies do it. And requiring people to be trained or even to invest money in supplies before being hired for a legitimate telecommuting position is not a scam either. However, pretending that you don’t do these things in convince employees to work for you is a serious problem.
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