Virtual world! … scam alert!
Last two years have been very difficult for all of us. Covid-19, lockdown, virtual learning, working from home.. The entire world has changed its way to function on daily tasks. So many of us also lost their jobs. Luckily mid 2021 everything started opening up and 2022 brought a new zest in the job market. 100s of new jobs started popping up on social media everyday. People started jumping from one job to another. Market is very hot, is what everyone says!
Like everyone else, I also wanted to check where I stand in the job market. For all the job seekers there is one trusted go to hub … LinkedIn! Only professional posts, resume builder and very popular and trusted hub for both job seekers and employers. I uploaded my resume on LinkedIn and started my job hunt. Though I had no intentions to change my current job, I still wanted to check the market, so I started applying for ‘remote and part time’ positions.
As social media is blooming all over, all the companies have opened their doors for video producers / editors to create social media content. So I was not surprised to see doctor’s offices, insurance companies or even banks, restaurant brands, manufacturing units seeking for video producers. I checked the lists of responsibilities and submitted my resume to a few different companies… not expecting any reply.
To my surprise the very next day, Monday morning I received an email from one of the OB/GYN offices saying that I was shortlisted for further assessment. I went on the internet and searched for this company. It seemed to be a very reputed gynecologist office, associated with a big medical company in the state of Iowa. Fair enough! Who will have any doubts about a medical field? Especially when they work in complete compliance! I thought of giving it a shot and replied with the day I could take the assessment.
Thursday morning 9.00am was blocked and I waited to hear more from them. Around 8.58am I got an email asking for my full name and email address. This was weird as they had my resume where I had my full name and email address… of course they have already emailed me so they do have it with them! But thinking they are just checking if I was ready for the assignment, they are just asking for something, I replied to them. Within 2 min I again got an email. This time a questionnaire was attached and was asked to answer all the questions and send it back in 45 min! Now I didn’t have much time to think about anything and I answered all the questions. The questions were all professional like how would you deal with a demanding client? What would you do if your client doesn’t like your work? Etc.. Though I was 5 minutes late in submitting the questionnaire, I was happy that I did well in the test. My aim to revisit LinkedIn at this time was to check what kind of questions people ask during the interview and with this questionnaire I got some idea. My purpose was solved so I didn’t think much about actually getting the job and getting a reply back.
Within 5 minutes again i received an email with the receipt of assessment and little more details about the job. It was a fully remote, per hour job with flexible hours. They were going to provide training for the first 3-4 days and after that the actual work starts. The rate per hour that they were offering was way too high and they were also offering company perks like health insurance, paid vacations, 401K etc. This was little weird because as far as I know, no company gives perks to consultants who are hired on a per hour basis! I didn’t think much about this and started my regular day.
In literally one hour, I received an email saying, on the basis of my experience I have been hired! The first line itself made me standstill! The email was very long… as I started reading further I was in complete shock! Didn’t know how to react! Everything looked so perfect!! 100% remote, flexible hours, super high rate per hour, company perks and on top of that they would provide funds to set up a ‘mini office’ at home. They also sent a list of things that needed to be bought before training started. The list included everything from pencils, papers to iMac, softwares, fast internet access and even office furniture!
Now I started getting doubts! There is no way any company would provide all these .. that too for someone who is hired on a per hour basis! I talked to my husband and my friend and they were also surprised! Finally we came to the conclusion that the job market is so crazy these days that companies are providing everything to keep good people! I was still surprised though! How did they know I was good at what I do? They had not seen any of my work! They hired me only on the basis of my resume and the questionnaire that I submitted an hour ago! And yet they are offering so much! This was too good to be true!
I asked them to have a phone call so that I could get more information and know the team I am going to work with. I didn’t even know what kind of work I was going to be assigned! My supposed reporting manager wrote that he will answer all my questions on the email but he will be in meetings the entire day and he could not call. Again a weird feeling!! Later that evening me and my husband took help of the internet and tried to find out more about this company. The company was surely legit. They have their website with all MD profiles etc. I saw my reporting manager’s name on the website too. He was a MD (Doctor of Medicine) himself! A thought crossed my mind, why would a video producer report to MD?? It was mentioned in the email that I will be reporting to him and after the training they will provide me with the list and contacts of other team members. The email was so systematic and provided with lots of information that will generate interest in the job.
Next thing we noticed while browsing through their website was that they had an email with the company domain! My so-called reporting manager and even the HR (Human Resource) team were sending emails from Gmail and workspace.com! If the company has it’s own domain, why would (specially) HR use some other domain?
There were so many red flags popping up!
The perks, the hourly rate, the domain, the office supplies, avoiding phone calls… something was definitely wrong!
The next day the HR department sent an offer letter which was valid only for one day! Now I had just one day to make the decision. I Insisted on having a short 2 minutes call before signing the offer letter which was denied again. Then I started talking to my other friends. And as expected I got mixed responses! Some said it could be a fraud while some said this is today’s market! Confusion was hitting the sky now. By this time I had decided not to take the offer. I didn’t get any good feeling about this job from the beginning and when I don’t feel comfortable I don’t enter the room! But I wanted to know what it was all about.
I read the offer letter thoroughly. Went through the list of material they would provide to set up the ‘mini office’. HR mentioned that they would buy all the material needed and they will deliver it at my doorstep. The list included iMac with dual monitor, printer with ink and cartridges, softwares for editing, high speed internet access, pencils, papers etc and also file cabinets, paper sorters and other furniture! Again a red flag! Why would I need a paper sorter and file cabinets?? Someone said it’s a medical company where everything is documented. Fair enough! Email is a legally approved document. Why would I need physical papers and files??
I started searching about ‘job scams’ and came across so many cases with fake job offers. But most of them were asking money beforehand to start the training. In this case they didn’t ask for any money (as yet). I dug into government listed fraud company names but did not find this company there.I went through all job/employment scam reports, but did not find anything to support my doubt.I knew it was a scam but I could not figure out what and how are they going to scam?
I talked to one of my accountant friends and she started her search after being convinced that it was a scam. She came across a few reports after searching for ‘check scams’! And voila!! We found all the answers there!!
This was a very systematic bank check scam!
So apparently, these scammers send a big amount of checks to buy the office supplies. (This fake check is usually sent via email or text!) You print the check and deposit it in the bank. Then the scammer asks to send money from your account to their ‘designated vendors’ to buy the supplies. The bank is obligated to fund your account within 24hours of depositing the check and that’s why the bank can not tell if it’s a fake check at the time of depositing. By the time the bank realizes it was a fake check, scammers have already got money through your bank account (remember, the designated vendors’?) and now you are in trouble because you are responsible for the check that you deposited! You need to pay the bank the amount that was ‘stolen’ from your account against the fake check!
Wow!! This was staged so systematically!! The HR, the offer letter, the perks, the list of supplies, the compliance!!
As of now this HR was saying (rather writing) that they will send the supplies to our door steps but as I was reading these scam reports, I received email from them saying,”till now they used to send the supplies but since Covid, they have made changes to their policies and now I need to buy the stuff from the designated vendors! And so they will send a check tomorrow.” They also mentioned that all those supplies (including iMac, furniture, printer etc) will all be mine if the employment continues for 12 weeks but for that the purchase receipt needs to have my name on it so money needs to go out from my account only!
There was no place to ask any questions or generate any doubts! They had answers to ‘everything’!! Luckily my gut feeling, support from my husband and friends saved me from getting robbed! It was one scary experience I have ever had!!
Next day I got an email from them saying their accounts department can not send the physical check, instead they will do a mobile deposit and they will contact me with further instructions!
Oh yeah! Totally expected this move now!! I immediately replied and withdrew myself from the position. Reported this scam to all government sites and also informed the real company whose name was used for this scam.
LinkedIn used to be a very trusted site for employees and employers! These scammers have entered there too! I was lucky that I was not in bad need of this job but whoever is in need would definitely fall for this scam.
My humble request to all my friends and family to be very careful while living in the virtual world! You never know from where the scam will hit you!
Here are few things I learnt from this experience :
Trust your gut feelings / intuitions.
If it is too good to be true, check all the facts
Always check email domain.
Verify everything.
Have well wishers and good friends who help for your betterment!
Referral links :
Report all scams to :
Gayatri Jadhav
New Jersey
Mar 15, 2022
