Looking for a Job is a Scam

Fresh out of undergrad and naive, I make my resume public on all sorts of job boards. Mistake Number One. People are horrible. They take advantage of the naive and the poor.

One night, about a fourth of the way through an online lecture for my Master’s degree, I get a text.

“Is this Sarah?”

“May I ask who this is?”

“I am so and so of a big company offering you lots of money for this big girl job that you seem to be looking for. Interested?”

“Well, duh.”

I would like to note here that I made two calls at this point. One to my boyfriend who has a big job for a big company and a nose for bullshit. The other call was to my mom. I had sweaty armpits and wanted to throw up, she was a comfort. Should this have been legitimate, I was going to be ‘rollin’ in it’ (as the kids say).

“Cool. Google or Skype for the job briefing and interview?”

“Uh, right now? What?”

“Yes. Now.”

I add this person to Skype and begin to chat. There is never a person-to-person conversation held. It is all over messaging. At this point, my name, phone number, and email are all he knows. I proceed with the “interview”.

“What are your qualifications?”

“Great answer by me.”

“What does confidentiality mean to you?”

“Another home run answer.”

“What is your bank? We need to ensure that we can operate with them.”

This was a red flag. Obviously. My answer was mistake number two. I was not aware that bank routing numbers are public. I just gave this scammer half of the equation.

“Do you have any questions for me?”

At this point, I asked very specific questions and received some not-so-specific answers. Another red flag.

“Please hold while I take your responses to the board. We will have a decision shortly.”

“I will hold.”

As my mom is still on the phone with me trying to comfort me in my cold sweats and skepticism, I do some digging. The person I am “speaking” to does exist. The company does exist and is legitimate. All the information I’ve been given is traceable to a real company that does real things. But I still smell something off about this. It’s going too fast and I’m not receiving enough information.

My mom has to go. It’s her dinner time, so I sit and wait for my boyfriend to arrive. We were already going to have dinner together, so it worked out that he was on his way over. He arrives and also smells something weird about the situation. However, the only thing wrong is the email domain from which an email with a job description was sent to me. A ‘.org’ and ‘.com’ are not the same. Never forget that, kids.

My boyfriend points out “If this is a scam, it’s the best scam I’ve ever seen.”

My cold sweats are fading and hope is rising in my chest. I wait for an answer from this person who has appeared suddenly and claims to be able to change my life. My boyfriend and I continue to dig, looking for something else that could be wrong. We don’t find much.

“I have the answer on my desk. Would you like to know the verdict?” (a direct quote, I might add)

“Yes please.”

“Congratulations, we want to give you the job. You start training tomorrow. What’s your address?”

Umm….cool it, guy. I’m not that stupid.

“Please don't mind my skepticism, but I would like to see some employment documentation before proceeding and giving you my personal information.”

“Understood. Please check your inbox for employment documentation.”

My boyfriend and I are hovering around my laptop screen. This guy can’t really be going to these lengths for my information, can he? Sure enough, he was. I received a second email from the same address a few minutes later.

The email contained three pdfs.

PDF 1: Payment information. This was a complete document asking for my bank and all account information.

PDF 2: Employment Offer. Italicized. A bad move on his part. This was a ONE PAGE breakdown of the job without a salary and typos, I might add. (One page is far too short) He also forged the signature of the VP of the company.

PDF 3: Personal information. In this document, the following were asked for: a passport photo, social security number, university attended, marital status (illegal, by the way), driver license information, and just about any other information that would give my life and my identity away.

I go back to Skype. I know 100% it is a scam now. He doesn’t have enough of my information to get anything of mine. I’ve got to catch him in his own trap.

“Is there a phone number I can call that can confirm the legitimacy of this job offer? For safety reasons, I will not proceed further until I have confirmation.”

The guy gives me a phone number! A real phone number. The audacity of this idiot to give me a phone number. I’ve come all this way without giving him any information. Why would he even bother with a phone number? I’m obviously going to call. He already has my phone number, what’s the harm?

There is no answer on the other line. Just a sad man who has a sad voicemail message with a sad tone. I am seething with anger.

Back to Skype.

“Nice try, asshole.”

“Watch your word!”

At this point, my boyfriend and I are at dinner and he takes the phone from me.

“Oh, sorry.”

“Fuck.”

“Off.”

“Asshole.”

The guy finally breaks. He thinks it’s a game, however, I am not amused.

“Haha”

With my boyfriend still commandeering my phone, the scammer begins to say obscene things and call me “sweety”. After a little back and forth between the scammer and us, I get the final word. I demanded at least that for my wasted time.

The scammer: “I am a learned man you know.”

Me: “That’s cute. Not learned enough to run an effective scam, however. Have a nice life, scum.”

Blocked.

A few of my less important pieces of information are out of my hands. Not good, but could have been worse. It also helps that I am one of a million people with my name, so his job becomes harder. The anger still festers in my stomach. My time was wasted. My hope rose falsely. My boyfriend is left with the angry and broken pieces of my hope (He handles them beautifully.)

A few comments on my experience. This scammer went out of his way to make his scheme seem legitimate. He did a good job, I will admit, but he made a few vital mistakes that left him rotting in his own grave.

He went after a young woman who was looking for a job. Not a smart move. You would think that common sense would lead to the conclusion that: new graduate+looking for a job=no money.

This was not his first time, nor will it be his last. This is what leaves my blood boiling and leaves me sleepless on a school night at 3 am when I write this. His scam will work. He will get the information of a hopeful person looking for a job. A person like me. Not everyone is as skeptical of the world as I am. That’s definitely a good thing, but unfortunately, people take advantage of those who believe the best of others.

I write this as a cautionary tale and as a method to get the story out of my body to allow for sleep to take over.

To those who scam: screw you. You are the scum of the Earth and the universe will have its revenge.

To those who are scammed: Be careful. The world is a dangerous place. Don’t lose hope, but be a little more skeptical. It’s probably good for you.