Have you received a job offer via text lately? These texts, which often come out of the blue, are from companies you’ve never heard of and often offer an outlandish hourly rate for minimal work.
Unfortunately, it’s not your next big break. It’s a scam.
Job scams are becoming more prolific as working from home becomes the norm. Scammers exploit the fact that hopeful employees will sometimes never step foot in a physical company space.
Creating a fake job listing or website is much easier than creating a physical facade. According to the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina, employment scams ranked as the second most common scam in 2023, second only to purchasing scams.
Durham woman loses $3,000 in employment scam
Recently, a Durham woman told WRAL 5 On Your Side that she lost $3,000 after falling for an employment scam.
“It shook me to the core so [badly] that it took away all of my trust in humankind,” Robyn Bryant said.
Looking for a little extra cash to fund vacations to see as many lighthouses as possible on the U.S. coast, Bryant uploaded her resume to CareerBuilder and began job hunting. Within days, she had an offer.
“They found me,” she said of the scammers. “They sent me a message on my phone. They said they’d ‘been looking at CareerBuilder and liked my resume and thought I would be a great fit for the company.'”
The company, Materna Medical, is real, but the people contacting Bryant were not actual employees there. Bryant only corresponded with them via text, email or chatting on the application Microsoft Teams.
A few days into her new job, the scammers sent Bryant a $3,200 check, telling her it was for work equipment—a computer and a printer. They then told her to deposit the check in her account and send that money to the “equipment sellers” via Zelle.
It was a big mistake. The next day, Bryant was told by her bank that the check she deposited was no good. The bank then used Bryant’s own money to cover the Zelle payment.
The situation left Bryant jobless and scared.
“I am not working right now. The whole situation upset me that much,” Bryant said. “It’s affected my life, it’s affected my marriage, it’s affected everything.”
CareerBuilder has not returned WRAL’s request for comment.
How big of a problem is this?
“It’s a huge problem,” said Sally Starfield, an HR consultant. “Daily, there are people who are being taken advantage of.”
Starfield, a board member of the Triangle Society for Human Resources Management, helped walk WRAL 5 On Your Side through how to spot an employment scam:
- Scammers often contact you at odd hours due to different time zones.
- Real companies never send checks for equipment; they provide it directly.
- Scam messages may have odd phrasing due to language barriers or AI.
- Real companies ask for references and require interviews.
“Even with remote jobs, there’s going to be some face-to-face contact with the company,” Starfield said. “With these scammers, there’s never face-to-face contact.”
How to spot a fake job listing
Scammers can reach potential victims in several ways. They may look at your resume and reach out to you, or you may unknowingly reach them. Starfield explained characteristics of a fake listing.
It started with a quick search on CareerBuilder. We searched for remote data entry work, and within 30 seconds, Starfield found a likely fake listing for “Data Entry Direct.”
The first red flag was the description:
“We do not require any special skills, previous business experience, or education,” the listing read.
The next red flag was the time commitment: “30 to 60 mins a day,” and the pay: $15,000 a month. That’s $180,000 a year for a job that allegedly requires you to work an hour a day.
“When we talk about spotting something that’s too good to be true, this is what we are talking about,” Starfield said.
WRAL 5 On Your Side then took things a step further by clicking “apply on company site.” But it didn’t take us to their website. In fact, their listed website didn’t work—another red flag.
Instead, we were prompted by a pop-up to enter our email and phone number. A legitimate company would ask for a resume and even references; this was asking for neither, Starfield said.
The point of this pop-up? To get your contact information and maybe later on get your money.
Starfield says your best bet to verify the legitimacy of a company or a job posting is to pick up the phone and call the company directly.
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Source Link: https://www.wral.com/amp/21548285/
Scammers exploit working from home to target job seekers:
Have you received a job offer via text lately? These texts, which often come out of the blue, are fr…
