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We’ve all heard of or gotten an email from a ‘prince’ who wants to send you some money if you send them $300. And then there is the one from a ‘friend’ who needs money cause they are ‘stuck’ in a foreign country. Well you know those are scams but had you about the job scam one?
Now, you can apply for what you think is a real job but it turns out to be a scam. The scammers use real company names and use a real workers information but it’s all a scam! Fake job offers now ranks as the 3rd riskiest type of scams overall according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). On average, victims can loose $6,000 or more. So far this year, people have reported losing more than $2.9 million! WOW!
How are they getting people? Well, the scammers are sending out job offers who have been looking for jobs. They contact you through email and ask a lot of questions. One victim, Kathleen Boylan told CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers.
“It was a very nice email. ‘I’m considering you, please respond back, tell me a little bit about yourself, where do you want to see yourself in 3 to 5 years?'” Naturally, she was excited. The position was for $90,000 a year as an administrative assistant. Then she got an email telling her that she got the job. From there, the company sent her a check for $3,500 and told her to deposit it. Then her ‘boss’ contacted her and told her about making airline reservations and hotel reservations. Then he wanted her to pay a company bill by getting some reloadable cash cards. Using the ‘money’ they sent her, she brought 5 $500 cards and gave him the codes on the back. After that her bank called and told her that the check was fake and she owed them over $3,500. Boylan realized that she had been scammed.
Be careful of applying for jobs online. So what should you do? Do your research. If you get a job over online and you haven’t talked to anyone at the company, call them and ask questions. Get details and don’t accept a check that you didn’t earn. There is no such thing as free money.
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