Today, I’ll guide you through a complete and honest AOJ Work from Home Job review, so you can decide if it’s the right choice for you.
With the Rise of Coronavirus pandemic, the world’s economy has been bombarded left and right with updates to keep up with it all! The public health crisis has forced a lot of people to stay at home with millions of people losing their jobs every single day.
This has driven a lot of people to find alternatives where they can make a decent income working from the comfort of their homes. American Online Jobs (AOJ) is one of the options that a lot of people might consider in this case.
But, is AOJ Work From Home Jobs worthy of your time? Is it legit or a scam website?
Let’s dive in to find out!
What Does American Online Jobs (AOJ) Claim to Offer?
First things first, you should know that judging websites’ legitimacy depends on them delivering what they claim to offer. So what’s American Online Jobs is all about?
According to their ad on CareerBuilder’s Website, American Online Jobs is supposed to be a web service that lets you work as a customer services representative from home.
All you need for the job, according to the listing, is the following assets:
- Being able to type more than 25 words per minute
- A computer with internet access
- Being a US resident (they also claim that arrangements can be made to work from any other location)
- Able to work independently.
Up to this point, the listing seems just like any normal offer regarding these jobs. The listing also included information about the salary, where you can expect anything between $12.56 to $25.45 per hour on the job.
The ad also mentions that the company houses a lot of different jobs. Besides customers’ service, their list also includes:
- Data entry specialists
- Product reviews
- Call center
Now that you know more about the offer American Online Jobs Claim to have, let’s explore whether it meets this potential.
By clicking the offer, you’ll be directed to the job poster’s website where we’ll see if the offer is legitimate or not.
The Experience in AOJ Work from Home Jobs
Now that you have an idea of what AOJ Work from Home Jobs, let’s have a look at what you’re going to find when you apply for one of their listed job ads.
Multiple Websites
Whether you found American Online Jobs through similar job ads like the one mentioned above or through other means, you’ll be directed to one of its websites.
Yes, “Websites” and not just a single website. In fact, the original website was registered in early 2018 with a bunch of other clone websites that hold similar names. Here are some of the websites that are under AOJ Work from home:
These websites are the ones I could find. However, I believe that the website might still have more versions. This review is mainly about the first one.
However, all other AOJ work from home jobs websites have almost identical user interfaces with almost no changes, which seems to me as a red flag. But more on that later.
The Layout
As you now know, this website is supposed to be a web portal to fix you up with online jobs that you can do from your computer or laptop. However, it won’t take you long at the website to find out that this is just a front.
Instead, the website is basically a “Get Paid to” website that doesn’t even pay as much as other legit competitors.
The first thing you’re going to come across in all the AOJ work from home jobs websites is the “Pre-screening questions” step, which counts as step #1.
These questions are simple and easy to answer. In AOJ Work from Home Jobs version, it asks you about the following:
- Where you heard about them
- Whether you’re 18 or older
- Your accesses to a smartphone, a laptop, and an internet
- How you want to be paid
- Whether you’re ready to apply
At first glance, the questions might seem important. However, the website still doesn’t ask about any personal or contact information, which should be necessary for a “job application”.
Moreover, you can easily notice that you don’t need to complete the pre-screening question to proceed to step #2.
At the end of the day, this questionnaire is just there to make you think that the offer is legit. But, it doesn’t hold any value and you can even skip it altogether.
Right after the questionnaire, there’s a video that should explain the process after you click apply and submit.
The video has a real human voice. However, the person doesn’t introduce himself, which could’ve helped with the lack of background information.
You should be expecting that you’ve submitted your questionnaire. Yet, the AOJ work from home jobs website doesn’t mention that this link will redirect you to a shortened link “http://tpmr.com/i/69835”.
This link refers to a “get paid to” survey website called LifePoints. In other words, the creator of AOJ Work from Home Jobs has some affiliate links built into that link.
The video above also explains how to sign up to LifePoints without explaining why you’d need to do that in the first place! Logically, this doesn’t have anything to do with applying for a job.
The website states that if you don’t complete the surveys, you won’t be able to receive more invitations and offers. This means that you won’t be able to make more money, although they state later that it isn’t obligatory to register for the LifePoints.
Going to Step #2
Whether you stick to step #1 or not, you can head to step #2, which seems like registering an account on the website.
At this point, all I wanted was to reach the registration page, so I can proceed with what the website offers. However, again the website set you up with another referral!
This time, it refers to this shady link “http://tpmr.com/i/59990”. The obscured link leads to InboxDollars, which is another survey website that pushes people to spend money to earn points for prizes.
Similar to step #1, this page has an explanatory video that shows you how to register in InboxDollars rather than registering for AOJ itself. Once again, a video of no true value but to make things seem more legit and user-friendly.
More Registrations
If you think that asking you to register for two other survey websites is enough, you’ll be surprised to know that there are more sign-ups to come!
AOJ Work From Home Jobs recommends that you mainly sign up for both the LifePoints and InboxDollars. However, they’ll “highly suggest” that you sign up for “8” additional companies. Here’s a list of all these websites:
As you can see, they’re just 7; they duplicated InboxDollars.
When you’re creating such a simple website, it shouldn’t be difficult to pay some attention to such mistakes, especially when you’re trying to seem as professional and legit as possible.
The Training / Members Area
Once you reach the training area, all the websites will lead to the same original website, which doesn’t have a secure SSL certificate.
The training will direct to a bunch of videos that will guide you through the job. There, the true nature of the program will be revealed.
While you’ll be expecting a real online job, you’ll find that all the videos are just tutorials to work as a “get paid to” website affiliate. The videos teach you how to list similar ads on multiple websites to get people to join your affiliate websites (just like AOJ did to you), including:
- Using Facebook, Craigslist, Pinterest, Youtube, and Instagram to post ads
- Using email marketing software
- Creating websites similar to AOJ
After these videos, there’s nowhere else to go. As you can see, the website basically teaches you how to use affiliate links to lure in the people who are looking for online jobs.
Some Red Flags That I Found Disturbing About AOJ Work Home From Jobs
Now that you’re familiar with the entire experience you’re going to have through the American Online Jobs website, it’s time to judge its claims.
In my opinion, the website failed to meet what it claimed to offer. Also, there are a lot of points that stay questionable about the website.
Here are all the red flags that I found disturbing about the company.
Red Flag #1. A Lot of Aliases and Domain Names
Even before visiting the website itself, I found it highly suspicious that the company has at least 5 different domain names.
When a website has multiple aliases, they usually link all of them back to a single website. For example, “youtu.be” is a youtube domain name that will redirect you to “youtube.com”. Similarly, “fb.com” will do the same with “facebook.com”.
However, these domain aliases don’t funnel into a single large domain. Instead, each one of them acts as a standalone website.
As you might’ve expected, it’s uncommon for a legit website to use multiple standalone domain names for the same company. Also, there are two main versions of the website with different logos that relate to the same program.
This is more usually practiced by scam websites, where scammers need to be ready to move from one name to the other when they get so many bad reviews that they have to shut down.
By having multiple websites operating at the same time, these websites make sure that the con stays running.
I’m not saying that American Online Jobs is necessarily doing that for this reason, but their experience doesn’t help much.
Red Flag #2. No Background information
The first thing I like to check on these websites is the “About Us” page. It can give me a lead or help me investigate further about the owners of the program. However, when you click the “about us” page, you’ll find none of that there.
The page doesn’t contain any information about the owners or where they’re from. Instead, you’ll be bombarded with “Apply” buttons everywhere that all lead to the main page again.
Up till that moment, you’ll only know “Brenda” from the training videos in the training and member area. Also. there’s that guy from the signup instructions videos who didn’t give us a name.
I tried looking for any AOJ Work From Home Jobs FAQs section but with no luck. Also, the website has a blog section which I thought might be helpful. However, the section is grey out and is only there to make the website look legit.
I previously had experience with some companies adding their information on the privacy policy page. However, the page doesn’t include any information that can lead you somewhere.
When I check for the domains, I’ve found that they’re anonymous. However, this point can be expected for security reasons.
The one thing you can be sure about is that whoever created this website doesn’t want you to find out who they are, which is usually a bad thing.
Red Flag #3. Fake Job Listing
Although CareerBuilder is a legit job board and a big name in its field, it doesn’t always guarantee that all the job ads there are 100% legit.
Of course, by now, it’s obvious that the AOJ Work From Homes jobs listing on CareerBuilder is among those fake ones. It doesn’t offer anything of what the website advertised on CareerBuilder.
Not only that but they post a lot of fake jobs to lure as many people as possible, which is obviously against CareerBuilder’s Policy.
Red Flag #4. Some of the Domains Aren’t Securely Encrypted
As you already know, there are multiple domain names for American Online Jobs and AOJ Work From Home Jobs. However, not all of them are secure websites.
For example, “AmericanOnlineJobs.com”, which is one of their oldest sites, doesn’t have an SSL certificate encryption. SSL certificate won’t ensure the legitimacy of a website. Yet, the lack of it is always a red flag.
Red Flag #5. Valueless Questionnaire
As you now know, the questionnaire part doesn’t add any kind of true value to the application process.
Also, the fact that it’s skippable shows that the website doesn’t care about it. The only reason for its presence is to make you sign-up for LifePoints, which takes us to the next red flag.
Red Flag #6. The Website Asks You to Join Multiple Low Rating Websites
As for these websites, they’re companies that pay you a very little amount of money to answer some surveys and complete certain tasks. Some of these websites pay you in the form of reward points or gift cards instead.
The two main recommendations, LifePoints and InboxDollars, have mixed reviews when it comes to legitimacy.
According to TrustPilot, both LifePoints and InboxDollars have negative ratings of less than 4.5 stars. Additionally, Survey Police rate them at 1.5 and 2.5 stars respectively.
Also, most of these survey websites have no accounts on Glassdoors, Indeed, or other websites that can boost its legitimacy if they were.
These ratings can fluctuate every day, so you have to check on their most current ratings yourself.
Since the main recommendations are already badly reviewed, I assumed that the others will have equally bad scores, which turned out to be true.
Red Flag #7. Misleading Members Training Area
While you’ll be entering the members training area to learn about the online job the website list, you’ll find nothing of that there
Instead, the videos are all about affiliate marketing, which has absolutely nothing to do with the job listed.
Even if you try to make up for your wasted time and learn about affiliate marketing, you’ll realize the videos don’t hold as much information.
Red Flag #8. A Lot of Misleading Ads
While ads aren’t a bad thing, exploiting users with misleading ads is always a red flag. The website is riddled with ads that lure you into more signup without giving you real online jobs to apply for.
Can You Make Money Through AOJ?
Despite all these red flags, you might still make money through AOJ Work From Home Jobs. Here’s how a quick breakdown of how the website actually works.
Simply, the website requires you to join these websites through affiliate links. By joining through these links, the website will earn a commission. This is called affiliate marketing and it’s a great and legit way to make money online.
What’s wrong with AOJ is how they approach it. Instead of being honest about what they offer, they trick people through fake listings about online jobs, which is a completely different thing.
What I don’t like about AOJ is that they train you to do the same tricks on other people.
So instead of explaining the true potential of good affiliate marketing, it wants you to lure people in with fake job listings as well. Not to mention that the websites they recommend are shady and don’t pay as much.
Final Verdict
There you have it. A complete AOJ Work from Home Jobs review that shows you the entire breakdown of the website’s process.
If its your first time here. I always end my articles with the same piece of advice.
Ultimately, you don’t have to accept anything I said here today. My commitment to you is to lay out the information, and you take what you need and throw out the rest. To make the best-informed decision, you can. I believe that only fair.
But I digress.
As you can see, the website is definitely illegitimate, as it posts fake job ads that promise people with online jobs. The website only wants you to join the affiliate websites.
Technically, judging AOJ only and not the affiliate websites, AOJ isn’t a scam, as it doesn’t require you to pay any fees. However, I think that you should still avoid it, as it can be a huge waste of time for little money.