According to a quick search, scam jobs were up 118% in 2023. What prompted this search? I was nearly caught in a scam in my hunt for proofreading/a work-from-home job. It was somewhat intricate–if these scammers had put in as much effort and creativity into a real job they’d definitely succeed. I had a chat interview over teams that was at least 15 minutes long and involved filling out a questionnaire. After roughly 45 minutes of ‘careful’ consideration I was hired. I was instantly suspicious because my luck is usually not that good. But the contract letter I was sent looked legitimate, if not short, and all searches for grammatical and spelling errors came up negative. Even when talking to the first woman and then the second, they were well-spoken in their texts. All links led to a legitimate publishing site and the profile pictures and names were actual people listed on the website. Where did become apparent this job was a scam? The check I deposited through mobile deposit finally went through, then only hours later was labeled ‘charge back.’ There was a little bit of back and forth until I finally asked outright if the job was a scam. Surprisingly, she answered, giving me hope that just maybe it was actually a real job. She said the job was definitely real and that now that I had the money, needed to transfer it to someone else through PayPal. I reminded her I actually did not have the money and sent a picture as extra verification. After the picture, this person stopped communicating with me. I was bummed. I was looking forward to starting work and we could really use the extra income. I have since, with some hesitation, applied to other remote jobs. I’ve yet to hear anything back so that’s more realistic.
On the house front, did I mention in my last post our water issues? I don’t remember, but my goodness. We can’t seem to catch a break. At least the water, which is from a well, hasn’t stopped coming in completely. We just have to be conservative. I’ve been taking showers at my parent’s house since they’re only one house down from ours. We’ve been having so many car troubles it’s not even funny. In the two years we’ve been together we’ve been through five cars!
Yesterday I came home, noticed the house was chillier than normal but went to get my laptop set up for writing since the baby was sleeping. At the back of my mind I note that the vents haven’t turned on, normally they seem to turn on every ten minutes–if not more often, it feels like, when I’m in the kitchen because the air blows right in my face and bugs me. Next, I start my dinner. Only when I turn the stove on high, the flame looks like it’s on low. Great, as I suspected, we are running very low on propane. I bring this to my husband’s attention; he’s been home playing games on the Xbox the majority of the day. He says, “No wonder! I’ve been sitting here shivering all day.” Sigh. That doesn’t accurately cover everything I was thinking, but that’s all I can say without this going in a completely different direction.
Our little guy has teeth coming in! He’s been drooling and munching on stuff for about a month now so we’re not surprised little teeth are breaking through. I am surprised he hasn’t been fussier.
Mikaela Nicole 