Scams This Week 7/5/22

Employment Scams: There are many legitimate websites like indeed.com, careerbuilder.com, monster.com, and college boards. But just because a job appears on a legitimate website doesn’t mean it is a real job. Scammers will post fake employment with legitimate agencies.

If you apply and provide your resume they will have information about you they can use to manipulate you.  So how do you know what's real and what's fake?

• Scammers do their research so they will use real companies and names. So you need to do your research too! Look up the company’s name, email address, and phone numbers to see if they match.
• Call the company with the phone numbers that you found to see if you actually applied or already work at the company.
• Look up reviews. You can even add the word scam or complaint to your search.

Some other red flags to look for:

• Pay to work: Legit employers will not ask you to pay to get a job.
• Check Cashing Jobs: They will not send a check and tell you to send them or anyone else part of the money. That check will eventually bounce.
• Reship merchandise: No company really needs this. The scammer will purchase the items with stolen credit cards, and ship them to you to send out again.
• The advertisement wrap: You're asked to drive around with their company's information on your vehicle for money. The scammer sends you a check for thousands to pay you, and then you're supposed to wire the rest to another company that will wrap your car. This turns into a check-cashing scam.
• Mystery Shopper- You are paid to check and report the quality of certain stores. They pay with a check, and you are instructed to send some of the funds back.
• Payroll or finance: You guessed it. They send you a check and you are to deliver funds to where you are directed.

In all situations, the check will bounce and any money sent will be lost which you are responsible for.