I received a job offer — and it was a scam

by Alison Green on April 23, 2025

A reader shares this story:

I recently received what I believe to be a scam job offer. It seemed too good to be true, and I should have realized it was a scam, especially since I don’t remember applying for the position at the company that supposedly offered it to me. The most obvious red flag was that it seemed too good to be true, and the text in the email was clearly copied and pasted from a template. Still, in the excitement of the moment, I almost fell for it.

Here’s how it went down:

First email: A seemingly legitimate email from someone within the organization asked me to reply “yes” if I was interested in being considered for the position. I replied “yes,” as I have been applying for jobs almost daily for the past three weeks. It’s possible that I applied for this position and simply forgot. Given the large number of applicants applying for jobs through LinkedIn, I can understand the need for email verification. The name of the emailer and the email address appeared to be real enough, but the emailer did not list a phone number or job title, just an address (which was listed below his name and is a real address for a corporation in Wisconsin). I googled the company, and they are a legitimate organization involved in energy infrastructure. However, the emailer’s name and email address returned no search results. I then googled the emailer’s name by itself and found real people on LinkedIn with similar names, but none of them were employed by the company the emailer claimed to be working for. I reached out to these people on LinkedIn to ask if they had ever worked for the company, and those who replied said no.

Second email: I received a job screening questionnaire that was way too generic to be legitimate. There was also a deadline to return the questionnaire by a certain time on the day of receipt. It took me a while to answer the questions, but I made the deadline. I also noticed that the emails sent by the emailer were usually during evening/early morning hours in the United States — certainly, non-standard workday hours for a recruiter, unless they work a third shift. I should have noticed this sooner, but I was still overly thrilled to have been offered a seemingly legitimate job, so I didn’t pay attention to the timing.

Third email: After sending in the questionnaire before the deadline, I received an email during those non-working hours telling me that I had “got the job.” However, rather than offering me a salaried position, they said it would be hourly pay with weekly disbursements. This was the first red flag I noticed, as the questionnaire had listed the position as salaried, and now it was hourly. The next step was for me to forward my phone number, physical address, and full name to an HR email address, which would supposedly begin the hiring process, and I would start training immediately. The second red flag was that the email’s text was clearly a copy-paste job — too many spaces between phrases, inconsistent font, capitalization of certain words, and still no job title or phone number for the mysterious emailer. The language also seemed unprofessional for someone working at a company involved in energy infrastructure. The third red flag came when the emailer mentioned that the company would be sending me a check for work expenses and equipment. Having worked in higher education for almost 20 years, I know that reimbursement and expense processes are never that simple, especially when done over email!

I was about to reply with the details requested, but I couldn’t shake the “it’s all too good to be true” feeling, especially since I had never communicated with the emailer in person, over the phone, or via Zoom. I still didn’t know their position at the company or how to contact them other than by email. I’ve never been offered a job this quickly or this easily. It just couldn’t be real.

So, I replied to the third email with the following:

Just a few questions before I confirm or deny the position offered:
What is your official position at the company?
There is no phone number listed with your email — could you please provide one so I can call you?
Please provide the phone number for a human resources representative so I can verify the details you’ve provided.

No response as of yet.

I even called the corporate headquarters of the company they said they were from and spoke with the head of human resources, and they had no clue who the person was and no record of anybody by that name working there or at any office, and asked me to forward the emails to them so they can investigate for fraud.

I now understand how this happened: I have a website that hosts my professional portfolio, resume, and projects. I also list this email address as a contact, so it wouldn’t be hard for someone to craft a scam email based on the information available on my website. I was almost fooled, but it was the small inconsistencies in the text that eventually led me to question the legitimacy of this “job offer.”

The most embarrassing part of it all is that I almost fell for it. It was the small things that really added up that made me really question if it was legitimate.

Me again. A couple more red flags to note, as well:

  • If that initial email literally just asked you to reply with “yes” … that’s weird and not typical for hiring. Something like “please let us know if you’re still interested,” sure. But “send back the word ‘yes'” is pretty spammy.
  • Offering you the job without a single interview or giving either side a chance to actually talk to each other: huge red flag. It can happen in some pretty narrow circumstances, but it’s incredibly rare for professional jobs.

Thanks for sharing this!

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{ 205 comments }

{ 205 comments… read them below or add one }

  1. A. Lab Rabbit*

    It’s much easier to create a bot that recognizes the word “yes” than it is to create one that recognizes all the various ways to say “yes” without actually using the word “yes” such as “sure thing!”, “will do”, etc.

    I would also be tempted to say that since this is happening so fast, could they please pay me my first week’s pay in advance (preferably via an Amazon gift card, of course!) before I actually start working?

    Reply ↓
    1. gmezzy*

      Yes, but with AI the technical barriers for bots are definitely changing. I’m sure these scammers will catch on and start using more advanced tools.

      Reply ↓
    2. Rev Bayes*

      It’s also a filter. You don’t want [apologies to OP…] critical thinkers replying to your scam attempts, you want people willing to follow nebulous and inappropriate requests. So you tune the initial approach to weed out the people that would see through you later down the pipeline.

      Reply ↓
      1. Someone Else's Boss*

        This is accurate. It is a waste of time to mess around with people who will see through you. Someone tried to scam me once and when I asked simply, “Can I call you back?” they hung up and I never heard from them again.

        Reply ↓
        1. Fool's Gold*

          Yes, that’s why there are so many typos and such weirdness in scam emails – both to filter out those who will waste the scammer’s time by spotting the scam, and partially to retroactively make it so embarrassing to have fallen for that the victim is too embarrassed to report it (you see the embarrassing angle a lot in e.g. long distance ‘love’ scams)

          Reply ↓
          1. CeeDoo*

            I never considered the purpose of the errors in the text being deliberate to filter out people who recognize them. I always thought it was because the scammers didn’t type correctly. Deliberate errors makes it so much meaner.

            Reply ↓
      3. Princess Sparklepony*

        I found out an interesting thing the other week – you know those scam emails that you get that are just error after error and/or the formatting is all janky? They do it that way on purpose because they specifically want to weed out any critical thinkers. They want people who will buy whatever they are presented.

        I just thought they were lazy or didn’t pay attention, but no it’s an actual part of their pitch.

        Reply ↓
    3. CeeDoo*

      Poor grammar from supposed professionals is always a clue. I fell for a scam once because I ignored the red flags of the poor spelling and grammar on the website. It wasn’t a too-good-to-be-true thing, I just ordered products from a website that was not a real website.

      Reply ↓
      1. Reality.Bites*

        The grammar, uh, authoritarian in me feels compelled to point out there were some doozies from actual professionals I’ve known personally. ;)

        Reply ↓
        1. CeeDoo*

          My cousin has a master’s degree and can’t spell worth a darn. But if it’s for a website or a formal email, she will double check.

          Reply ↓
  2. ThatGirl*

    What likely would have happened next is that they sent you a seemingly-legitimate check and then asked for you to send back overpayment. Or they would have asked you for money some other way. Just in case anyone is wondering what the point of the scam is.

    Glad your spidey senses alerted you, LW – these kind of things can happen to anyone!

    Reply ↓
    1. KaciHall*

      they send you a check, and have you order supplies from their “approved vendor”, which is really just them. so you pay for the supplies (that will never be sent) from your account, the check they gave you bounces because it’s fake, and you’re out the money that they now have.

      Reply ↓
      1. Heidi*

        It actually seems kind of risky, though. What if the OP deposited the check and found out it bounced before sending the money for the fake supplies?

        Reply ↓
          1. Slow Gin Lizz*

            Yup, they don’t care that they get caught. Happened to a donation check at my last job and I was able to catch it as soon as the person emailed to say “Oh, hey, I donated more than I meant to, sorry, can you send me a check for the difference?” It also helped that we very, very rarely gave refunds for donations (usually only if there was a glitch in the system and someone’s card was accidentally charged twice) and we’d never, in the three years that I worked there, given a refund of a donation that had been made by check. If I’d missed the scam, the CFO absolutely would have caught it when I said, “Hey, can we refund this guy?”

            The very next day the check bounced. Too bad so sad for that scammer. I only hope other places he’d donated to also caught his scam and didn’t send him any money.

            And in our case, the check was actually from the donor’s alleged company, not a personal check from him. The company legit existed but he was not listed as an employee. So he was writing bad checks from an entity that had no actual connection to him and I’m sure he was using a fake name anyway, which means he would have been really hard to catch.

            I kind of wish I’d contacted the company to let them know someone was trying to pass off bad checks from them, but I didn’t think of it at the time. I hope they didn’t get in trouble.

            Reply ↓
            1. wilma flintstone*

              Yeah, and even if the check was good, it’s still money-laundering. Or at least money-laundering adjacent.

              Reply ↓
            2. Jill Swinburne*

              How the hell would a person legitimately donate too much on a cheque anyway? I almost understand clicking the wrong box on a website, but a cheque you have to write out the amount like three times and sign it.

              Reply ↓
        2. Daydreamer*

          It can potentially take weeks for a check to be found fraudulent. But the money appears in the victim’s account after only a day or so, so the person thinks they’re safe. The scammers would likely push the victim to buy the supplies right away, before the bank realizes the check is fraudulent. But if it doesn’t work, the scammers can just move on to someone else. They’ve lost nothing except time.

          Reply ↓
          1. So they all cheap ass rolled over and one fell out*

            They’re already training/testing LW to execute instructions quickly. When they inevitably “accidentally overpay” LW with the reimbursement check, they’ll press LW to pass on the funds same day.

            Reply ↓
        3. RabbitRabbit*

          Generally it won’t due to how the US banking system works, but a few things help. If they create a Approved Legit Vendor website then they get the money you pay for supplies, too. And the money is coming from some other random bank account in the US so they have many chances to retry the scam with other poor suckers.

          Reply ↓
        4. mlem*

          Due to funds-availability rules, the funds *appear* to be available quickly, but actually validating the check tends to take far longer. The deadlines the scammers give are generally well within the gap between the money looking like it cleared and the bank’s clawback when they discover the check to be fake.

          Reply ↓
            1. CeeDoo*

              My mom was a church secretary and she once “helped” a parishoner try to claim the massive inheritance she was supposed to receive from an overseas relative. It was the first instance I ever heard of about the “Nigerian Prince” scam. My mom fell for a lot of scams.

              Reply ↓
              1. Teapot Connoisseuse*

                The first example of that scam I ever saw arrived via fax! That’s how old it is. It was about 25 years ago and went to someone in a Japanese non-profit group my then-husband belonged to and she forwarded to us bc it was in English. Fortunately my “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t legit” sense kicked in, so we were able to let her know she should ignore it.

                Reply ↓
        5. Saturday*

          The money will appear in the account it was deposited right away – it will only be taken back later when the check is found to be fake.

          In the meantime, they’ll undoubtedly request that the supplies be ordered right away – and really, if it was a legit job, most people would want to get on that pretty quickly.

          But the main thing, like Owl says, is that there is no risk. If it works, they get money – if it doesn’t, there are no negative consequences for them, and this isn’t the only person they’re doing this too.

          Reply ↓
    2. Jeremy’s iron*

      They also would like likely get you to send sensitive ID info—bank account, SSN, etc—for an identity theft bonanza.

      Reply ↓
      1. Radioactive Cyborg Llama*

        This is what I was thinking. Asking for your social is a legit thing for an employer to do.

        Reply ↓
    3. Silvercat*

      It happened to me and I didn’t catch on until the check arrived and my contact was pressuring me to deposit it right away. (I did not)
      The check used stolen account info from a real company, but not the company that I was supposedly going to work for.

      Reply ↓
  3. juliebulie*

    They were going likely going to “accidentally” issue you an expense check for too much money and then ask you to refund them the difference in gift cards, before you found out the check was no good. That’s the particular version of this fraud that I’m aware of.

    Reply ↓
    1. SHEILA, the co-host*

      Yep, this. Or, there’s another variant where they’re reply back and say that they forgot, they need scans of your SSN and/or Passport before they can issue the check and your banking info so they can direct deposit. Then, surprise, instead of getting a deposit, your account gets emptied.

      Reply ↓
        1. Rogue Slime Mold*

          There’s basically two types of scams. One targets scammy people–like when you get an email that a foreign prince needs help smuggling his embezzled funds out of his country, and he heard that you are an honest and upright sort he can trust with this delicate matter in exchange for 50%. We don’t have much sympathy for the ones who fall for this. The other targets people’s best instincts–it aims to steal from the earnest people who are trying to follow the rules, help people who need help, pay any taxes they missed, etc. Those scams are rage inducing.

          Reply ↓
          1. Editrix*

            That’s why I hate that old expression “You can’t cheat an honest man” and its more modern equivalents. Con artists, online scammers, and other assorted liars cheat honest people all the time.

            I try to be cautious, but I imagine a dedicated grifter could find a way to get to me if they had a reason to zero in. It is, after all, their livelihood — the work they do all day long.

            Reply ↓
        3. Rogue Slime Mold*

          When my husband was helping my mom get things shut down in preparation for a move, he discovered that she was paying TWO different companies for supplemental car insurance, which scammers had convinced her was essential once the warranty ended. It’s a rule, you need to do it.

          The voicemail for the companies just started in with “Other people cannot cancel this; you must have the person who agreed to the coverage on the line.” Scamming fragile people was the entire business model, and if you actually phoned them there was no attempt to disguise that.

          Reply ↓
    2. RabbitRabbit*

      Or that you have to send the overage to Another Department in their company or similar. Basically trying to wash fraudently-taken money from some other victim’s bank account through other hands, convert it into gift cards or bitcoin, then send it outside the US.

      Reply ↓
  4. many bells down*

    I get a lot of these “we saw your profile on LinkedIn and think you’re right for this job”… but they send it to an email that’s not the one I use for my LinkedIn.

    Reply ↓
    1. ScruffyInternHerder*

      And the wild part, is that I get contacted at my work email address (which is NOT the one I use for LinkedIn) by completely legitimate recruiters, much to my irritation. I’m not looking and I don’t particularly want to use my company’s tech resources if I am.

      Reply ↓
  5. AthenaC*

    You did the right thing letting the company know. Any reputable company takes it seriously when someone uses their name like this and they will be motivated to address, if they can.

    Also, please don’t be embarrassed – how many times have we heard about things changing in how job searches get performed? How many times have we seen sloppy effort and unprofessionalism in legitimate recruiters? You identified the most clear red flags before you sent your information and then followed up with the company being impersonated – that’s the most important thing.

    I’m sorry this happened to you.

    Reply ↓
      1. Rogue Slime Mold*

        I gather the FBI gets a lot of calls from earnest people reporting that a ne’er-do-well embezzler is trying to smuggle money and is trying to convince them to help. But since they actually are honest and upstanding, they don’t do crime and are appalled someone out there hurting people thinks they would help.

        Reply ↓
    2. Beth*

      I agree that you shouldn’t be embarrassed! Job hunting is a weird and stressful enough process to push anyone to look past some yellow flags. Genuine recruiters working with real, desirable companies reach out to your email address that isn’t on LinkedIn, or text instead of emailing. Anyone who’s working fast can have typos or weird spacing. You send in enough applications that it’s not weird to forget you applied to a given company until they reach out for an interview. Interviewing practices vary so much – it’s annoying to be asked to submit written answers to questions instead of having a first round interview, but some real companies do ask that. And if you’re job hunting in this climate, then you probably really need something to work out, so you have a lot of incentive to give a potential opportunity a chance even if it feels weird.

      You caught the red flags before sharing any sensitive information. That’s a win. Even if you hadn’t, it’d be on the scammers for being scammy, not you for falling for designed-to-manipulate-people-into-falling-for-it tactics.

      Reply ↓
    3. Radioactive Cyborg Llama*

      I agree, I think you were going with it in case it was real until it got to a point where the rubber hit the road ie where the money part of the scam was starting and then responded to that correctly.

      Reply ↓
    4. Fool's Gold*

      Yes, they’re counting on exactly what OP notes – people apply for so many jobs that it becomes hard to keep track of and you’re primed to pounce on a ray of hope before you stop and think.

      Reply ↓
    5. MigraineMonth*

      You know that old saw about being able to fool everyone some of the time? *Everyone* is susceptible to the right scam at the right moment. It’s part of having so many trust-based systems.

      If you weren’t in the middle of an intensive job search where you’d literally lost track of how many jobs you’d applied to, you would have laughed off the first email. If the details about the business address you checked were wrong, you would have caught it earlier. If you’d heard of similar scams recently, you would have caught it earlier.

      I once nearly got caught in a scam because the scammer knew my name, address, phone number, alma mater and the years I attended, and they happened to cite tax problems from my college years when I’d *just* been dealing with tax problems from my college years. (The scammers almost certainly didn’t know about those tax issues, they just got lucky.) They also called when I was distracted, then threatened to arrest me (activating fear response and shutting down higher reasoning), and escalated threats any time I tried to calm down or call someone for help. I literally had my coat on and was halfway out the door to buy the scammers a money transfer when they switched from saying the police would collect it in person to telling me to send it, and I figured out it was a scam. (I then kept them on the line for another 15 minutes asking them over and over to repeat their instructions until they hung up, just to be petty.)

      Reply ↓
      1. Tio*

        I almost fell for a new one where they tell you your toll pass is out of funds and needs a new payment – in part because I had JUST done a road trip a few days before that was almost 1k miles each way, and in part because I had a new card and don’t do highway driving much. Luckily, I remembered the “don’t click on links!” advice and went directly to my toll account via a separate computer browser and it was fine.

        Reply ↓
  6. Sara without an H*

    The most embarrassing part of it all is that I almost fell for it.

    Don’t be embarrassed! Online fraud is a growth industry and one that’s committed to continuous quality improvement. Take pride in that you were alert to all those little details that gave the scam away.

    Reply ↓
    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      Seconding, do not be embarrassed – even if you had fallen for it. These people are hardcore criminals. That you didn’t recognize that on site it no reason to feel shame. That you did realize AND took the additional step to warn others is “well done, you” worthy.
      (PS: my company has yearly Phishing training. The IT department sends quarterly test messages to see if you report or click the link. Haven’t missed one in 10 years. Drove across stateline last year…got a message from the turnpike commission that my toll responder that I’d just activated didn’t work. Clicked. Paid. Scammed. Got that funny feeling an hour later. GIANT WARNING on turnpike homepage.)
      So thank you. And sorry you had to go through the ups and downs.

      Reply ↓
      1. bamcheeks*

        I got one of these, although it was even stupider. We thought we’d accidentally driven into the congestion zone area of London, so I googled “congestion zone payment” and found a very legitimate and official-looking site that asked me for my number plate, told me I owed money and said if I paid within 48 hours of driving through the zone it would 50% cheaper or whatever. I paid, and then never got a confirmation email, which would be *very* unusual for an official government contractor. Did some more searching, found an even more official looking site, whcih told me my numberplate didn’t bring up a charge. and realised the first one was probably a scam. Dammit!

        Reply ↓
      2. Slow Gin Lizz*

        One of the things I’ve learned in my work-required yearly phishing training is that scammers rely on people being in stressful situations that they need fixed in a hurry, which is why they do things like, “OMG, your toll payment didn’t go through, you need to click this link and pay NOW or you’ll be fined.” I nearly fell for a scam last year. Actually, I *did* fall for it but fortunately my bank caught it and didn’t allow the transaction to go through, thank goodness. The scammers had called me while I was in the middle of working on something that I really needed to get done and so of course I was distracted and wanted to get them off the phone, so I just did the dumb things they were telling me to do (because, according to them, my bank account was compromised and I needed to do the thing to fix the issue). Goofiest thing about it, though, was that the very same week my workplace got the whole “oh, I sent you a donation check for too much money, can you send me the difference?” thing and I immediately pegged that as a scam.

        OP is obviously in a stressful situation that they’d like fixed asap (looking for a new job) and so it’s completely understandable that they would think the emails were legit. Thing is, though, OP did notice the red flags and was being careful and I don’t think OP would have actually fallen for this scam, especially when it came to the weird money stuff. That was another thing that flagged the bogus donation check we’d gotten at work as a scam, that it came from the donor’s alleged company but there was no one who worked at that company with that person’s name.

        Anyway, OP, glad you shared this story with us because now we all know not to fall for such a dirty trick. Best of luck in your job search!

        Reply ↓
        1. MigraineMonth*

          I had a scammer tell me police officers were on the way to [address of my apartment] right now to arrest me for failure to pay taxes. It became a stressful situation that was hard to think through clearly!

          Reply ↓
          1. Rogue Slime Mold*

            My heart broke in a convenience store which had a sign up warning people that the IRS doesn’t use i-Tunes gift cards, and the person who called and threatened them was assuredly a scammer.

            Reply ↓
            1. ThatGirl*

              I worked at Target briefly, nearly 20 years ago, and even back then cashiers were trained to flag it if someone was trying to buy hundreds of dollars worth of iTunes gift cards.

              Reply ↓
          2. Slow Gin Lizz*

            I have gotten some about failing to pay something or other – some fine, maybe? – that is definitely not a fine that I had incurred anywhere so I know it’s a scam, but it’s so easy to panic and just pay because you think you’re going to get in trouble?

            By the bye, the only thing that really happens if you fail to pay a bill is that they keep sending you the bill and *eventually* it’ll get sent to a collector. So any weird text, phone call, or email you get that says “PAY BILL ASAP OR ELSE” is pretty much always going to be a scam.

            (I’m sure there are some exceptions to this, but for the most part I think it’s true.)

            Reply ↓
      3. many bells down*

        My husband was once in a work group chat where someone said “hey guys I got this email and I think it’s a scam”.
        Then they posted the link.
        Then 5 people clicked it.
        These were all PROGRAMMERS.

        Reply ↓
        1. MigraineMonth*

          I had a friend who was a software developer who told me they received a suspicious email, looked up the sending address in our directory, and determined it was part of an internal phishing training exercise.

          So she clicked on the link in the email because she was curious about the training. *facepalm*

          Reply ↓
    2. Rogue Slime Mold*

      My son recently checked if I had sent him a package, because he had gotten a text from USPS about a delivery problem.

      Knowing that I had not sent a package, it was easy to spot the problems–the text doesn’t give his name, or his address; I have received these as well multiple times. But the first time you are targeted, it’s so easy to apply the pattern “normal business interaction” rather than look for signs of evil doing.

      Reply ↓
      1. lunchtime caller*

        People who receive both this and the DMV text seem to skip the most obvious problem actually—since when does this company have your phone number? They certainly have your address though and know exactly where to send a bill (or package!) if they really needed to.

        Reply ↓
        1. Insert Clever Name Here*

          It isn’t an obvious problem, though. The DMV has had my phone number for at least 5 years and when I bought earrings for my mom from Etsy, I had to provide a phone number in case of delivery issues. Many, many businesses use text reminders (and I definitely see my dentist’s text reminder before the email reminder!) so it’s not at all outside the realm of possibility that the DMV would text me about my registration expiring soon or whatever.

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        2. Hannah Lee*

          It’s one of the reasons why I am not quick to provide businesses with my phone # for texting. When I get a text claiming to be official from entity, I stop and think when I could have possibly given that org my mobile #.

          Other reasons are that my clear thinking brain engages much more readily when I’ve reading emails vs the immediacy of text messaging that makes it easy to not think things through, so I try to minimize the inflow of texts that would trip me up, and that I don’t like being pinged randomly by some business entities priorities. I don’t need to urgently know about and react to a sale at Target thank you very much. Oh, and also I never want to be unable to access an important account because I lost my phone or left it at home that day. I can always get to my email from any device vs my phone is just that one phone.

          Reply ↓
    3. anononon*

      My parents got taken in by an electricity scam that I didn’t. The scam goes like this:

      1. Nicely-dressed person shows up at your door with a branded clipboard and nametag showing the name of the local electric company, and tells you they think you might be paying too much for electricity.
      2. They ask for a copy of your bill. You go get it for them, they copy your information down, and tell you they’ll reduce it.
      3. What they’ve actually done is switched you to their third-party energy provider, and your electric bills will be lower… for the next few months. Then they go way up, and it’s a lot of bureaucratic nonsense to switch your billing back to the local electric company.

      My parents didn’t get taken in because they’re stupid — I just didn’t get taken in because I’d recently moved into my first apartment, and because I was a new customer I had to move heaven and earth, take half a day off of work, and go to several different locations in person before I could verify my identity with the the electric company, so that they would finally let me open up an account for me to pay them. They made it ridiculously hard to give them money. Then this guy showed up on a Sunday afternoon claiming he was here from the same organization, because they thought maybe I could save money? And when I had that question, I then thought: “Hang on, why does the electric company need me to give them the bill they sent me? They must know what it looks like, it’s their bill.”

      It was good timing on my part and unfortunate timing on the part of the scammer. I doubted myself a little, but I told the guy I didn’t want to do this right now, and could he leave me a phone number to call? And he did, and I googled the number, and sure enough it wasn’t the local power company’s number at all, and there were a ton of complaints associated with this other third-party power company. But it would’ve been easy not to notice that one thing if he had come on a different day and not so soon after I’d dealt with the real electric company’s frustrating bureaucracy.

      Reply ↓
        1. Paint N Drip*

          My husband did fall for it once (they’re just looking at the bill, what could it hurt?) and it took SO MUCH work to get it untangled. Then they came again when I moved but this time I knew better to A) answer the door myself and B) say no thank you immediately lol

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        2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

          I did. I was, for some weird reason, home from work an hour early. Two guys came to the door of my first apartment. They told me it was a government program to help people. I signed up. They left. I had an “aw crap” moment when I saw the eyes of the second “trainee” guy look at me as we were finishing up. So I spent the next 15 minutes looking for the company online. Called to cancel. “We can sign you up for the one year program. Did your rep tell you about the one year program?” No, he did not. He told me 3, 5 or 10.
          “Oh well, he should have told you all your options.” He did his job. He got me to sign. No harm, no foul as long as I can cancel right now. Are we good? “Yes.”

          Reply ↓
      2. Strive to Excel*

        I got caught out when I was first onboarding for a company. I was going through first-day email and saw one from what looked like HR saying “please review and sign the Employee Handbook”. Luckily it was an in-house phish test rather than a real scam.

        Sometimes unfortunate timing can make or break a scam!

        Reply ↓
      3. Hannah Lee*

        We’ve even had people running that scam at my work … someone showed up just this week wanting to look at our electric bill to confirm we’re on the right rate, because “we’re part of the state program that saves consumers money”

        No business card, no flyers … I said I’d check the website and follow up… She wrote down her email (a gmail address) and a URL that goes to a local energy company that services Arizona customers (I’m in New England). Yeah, no.

        Reply ↓
    4. CeeDoo*

      “Online fraud is a growth industry and one that’s committed to continuous quality improvement.” This sounds like an advertisement recruiting scammers! :)

      Reply ↓
    5. Strive to Excel*

      The most important part is that you didn’t fall for it. I’m professionally trained in this stuff and I was nearly caught out a few months ago by a voicemail email scam. The best of us can have off days or be caught by something we weren’t expecting. As long as you caught it before they actually got money out of you I’d consider it a win!

      Reply ↓
    6. Troubadour*

      I semi-regularly see blog posts from legit full-on cyber-security experts sharing about how they’ve just fallen for a scam. Generally at a moment when they’re a bit more stressed or busy than usual, and/or in the midst of some particular life circumstance, and when the right scam happens to come along at the right moment it just seems to make sense. Eg iirc someone was travelling and jetlagged and got contacted by his bank to say his credit card had been blocked for suspicious activity – obviously being in a foreign country he wanted to solve that pretty pronto so he answered all their questions and only after hanging up and possibly having a couple of coffees went “…oh, swears, that wasn’t my bank was it.”

      They share these stories because they want people to know that *anyone* can be scammed – there’s absolutely no cause for embarrassment.

      Reply ↓
  7. Dawn*

    For the record, this is what’s known as a cheque-cashing scam: the cheque isn’t actually valid, but they’ll ask you to send them back the money immediately after you deposit it (and after it fails to clear, you’re out the $5,000 or whatever)

    Reply ↓
  8. Banana Pyjamas*

    From experience, when you do get a job without an interview, or the interview is “just a formality”, it’s probably toxic. They hire that way because they are desperate.

    But yes, overall this was scammy every step of the way.

    Reply ↓
    1. many bells down*

      I went to an “interview” once that was just me and 3 other people shadowing an employee while he demonstrated the job. At the end we found out that the “interviewer” was watching through surveillance cameras. I absolutely did not accept that position when they offered it to me the next day!

      Reply ↓
    2. MigraineMonth*

      Though occasionally it’s the interview itself that is the scam. When I was in LW’s position and applying to a whole bunch of companies, I was excited to finally get an interview. Fortunately, part of my prep work involved learning about the company and discovering that while there was a life insurance company by that name, I hadn’t applied to work there.

      Most of the Google results were warnings about the cattle-call “interviews” where they tried to pressure you to become life insurance salespeople. I decided to no-call no-show to the interview.

      Reply ↓
    3. CeeDoo*

      My current job was one of those. My phone interview was, “can you come to an in person interview?” My in person interview was “let me show you where your classroom will be.” I’ve been here 12 years. I’m a high school math teacher, so yes, they were desperate. (But it’s the least toxic school I’ve ever worked for.)

      Reply ↓
  9. In The Trenches*

    I actually work in bank fraud, and this is super common. They send the check and then instruct you to deposit it and forward funds, usually through ZELLE or a wire, to a “vendor” to pay for the “supplies and equipment” you will need to perform the job. Then of course, the check bounces and you are left holding the bag, while some lucky fraudster just made off with a chuck of “free” money.

    Reply ↓
  10. Not Tom, Just Petty*

    Can we have a thread one day sharing job scams we’ve encountered? I have a couple. And neither is like OP’s.

    Reply ↓
      1. many bells down*

        I work for a church so I frequently get emails that are “from” the minister who is in a very important prayer meeting and can’t call so can I do her a favor? But I know the minister’s personal email as well and “superpastor123@yahoo” ain’t it.
        My favorite was when all the staff got one of those emails… while we were in an all-staff meeting with the minister. So tempted to reply with “I know you’re in a meeting because you’re meeting with me!”

        Reply ↓
        1. Slow Gin Lizz*

          “Why can’t you just ask us to our face, given that you’re sitting right here in front of us?”

          I got a text on my phone from “the CEO” at my last job, which of course was a scam. The guy had never texted me ever, only ever communicated via work channels like Teams and email. Scam fail. (GOOD.)

          Reply ↓
          1. Meow*

            I got one like that when I first started my job. They probably got my info on LinkedIn and thought they could prey on a nervous newbie.

            Problem was, I was *so* new, I didn’t recognize the CEO’s name. I thought some jerk had given an end user my personal phone number.

            Reply ↓
        2. MtnLaurel*

          Our minister got one of those…from herself. Pretty easy for her to realize it was a scam! She of course immediately notified the congregation.

          Reply ↓
        3. Hannah Lee*

          I love when you can call the scammer out with reality.

          I had a call one day from someone who said they were planning a surprise birthday party for the CEO and wanted the names and emails of all the people he worked with (small company so it would be < 20 people) so they could send the invitations, and I shouldn't tell anyone because it would ruin the surprise.

          So I start up some chit chat "oh how fun! So, how do you know CEO?"
          She says "I'm his sister in law, so about those names"
          Me: "Really?! I wonder if we've ever met, what's your name?"
          Her: Angela
          Me: "Hmm, that's odd I've never heard of an Angela in the family … I'm sure I would have, because I'm his sister in law too!"
          Click!

          (By best guess is that she was a scam recruiter trying to get the names of any IT people, engineers since they were in super high demand at that time or that it was the start of some sort of spear-phishing effort. She just picked the wrong ruse to use that day)

          Reply ↓
        4. Troubadour*

          A colleague got one of those and thought it was legit. (For those unfamiliar, when you reply to say of course you’ll help, they say they’re meeting with very important people and need to give them a gift for whatever semi-plausible reason, so can you buy some Apple Store vouchers, send your ‘boss’ the serial numbers, and then your ‘boss’ will reimburse you later.)

          Fortunately while she was at the checkout she phoned our manager to double-check exactly how many vouchers he wanted, and he was able to say “What? noooo”

          Reply ↓
      2. keylimetau*

        This is less about a scam, and more about how I found out my identity had been stolen. One week I was getting some reminder texts about needing to pick up a package that couldn’t be delivered to my address. It was during late 2020 and I ordered stuff online all the time, so it didn’t seem all that weird – though I wasn’t sure how I’d missed it given that I was almost always home. Then when I went to pick it up, it was at a location I’d never been to before in the opposite part of town, nowhere near where I lived. It was addressed to me and had my phone number on it, but I didn’t recognize the address.

        I didn’t put all the pieces together until after I’d gotten pack home and opened the package. It turned out to be an expensive electric drum (??) (Spoiler: I don’t play the drums.) Turns out it had been ordered from a legitimate music store across the country, but with my credit card.

        I still wonder about it. Why on earth did the fraudster put down my name and phone number in the contact info? Why did they happen to live in the same town as me? How long it would have taken me to notice that charge on my statement if I hadn’t gone to pick up the package (I was not great about reviewing it thoroughly, obviously)? I cancelled my card, reported the fraud along with the address on the package, my money was refunded and the drum was returned, etc. etc. All worked out in the end, but it was such a weird experience overall. Never know when a mystery drum will show up at your door, I guess.

        Reply ↓
      1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

        I am still salty about this one and it’s from 2008! I’d finished grad school and was looking for a job in my field. I applied to tons. Some of them asked if I was interested in continuing my education. Yes, I was. I’d earned my degree with a subsidy through my company, so I was definitely interested in companies that would do the same.
        Got a call from a woman about a “management job” I’d applied for. She wanted make sure I was qualified. OK, bring it on.
        “Are you interested in continuing your education?”
        Yes, that’s definitely what I’m looking for in my next job. See my job subisdize……
        “Great! You are qualified for our manager role. I am going to transfer you”
        What is the job? I applied to a lot, I have to tell you and…
        “Oh you are qualified. I checked…”
        Next person is a younger woman who started with,
        “so you want to continue your education.”
        Yes, I’m interested in that. See my company subsidized my Master’s deg…
        “So you are looking at PhD?”
        Well, I don’t know. That’s more teaching than I’m interested in doing and I need to work full time. I don’t want to be a full time student. Especially if I’m moving into a new job.
        “You said you wanted to go to school.”
        Well, yeah, if the job will help with tuition.
        “Look, you are the one who contacted us. You said you wanted to go to school. I can set you up right now with a loan to continue your education at Crapass University.”
        Wait. What? What school? Where?
        So I continued to listen to this scumbag try to manipulate me (you contacted us. You said you wanted to. Why would you say you wanted an education? Why did you fill out the form?) into taking out a 5 figure loan while I googled: Some barely even regionally accredited, for profit college was using a fake job ad to manipulate people into taking out loans.
        I took it for a bit and finally said the above that they posted a fake job to swindle people into loans. She called me a liar because I never intended to continue my education.
        Yeah, that was a fun day.

        Reply ↓
        1. deesse877*

          OH MY that is really awful.

          As a higher ed person I would appreciate knowing the school, if you fell OK sharing.

          Reply ↓
    3. Rogue Slime Mold*

      I am of late getting a LOT of texts along the lines “Hi, I’ve received your resume from multiple recruiters and you look perfect for the role we’re hiring for! Do you accept the job?”

      I am not applying.

      Reply ↓
      2. Nusuth*

        Yes, I’ve had a HUGE uptick in texts like these. A bunch are so lazy they’re not even inputting a fake company name (“Hi, I’m a recruiter at [Adjust]…”). A weird commonality I notice is that all of them calculate the pay weekly (not to mention it’s some stupid range like $300-$6,000). This seems so odd to me given how virtually all jobs in the US either have a yearly salary or an hourly rate – is weekly pay common the SE Asian countries a lot of these scams come from? Are they just trying to appeal to people wanting/needing money faster? Seems like it would be easy to increase their credibility by using a more normal pay structure. All of it is a red flag, but that’s the part that’s been raising my eyebrow recently.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Unspeakable Queen Lisa*

          Lower level jobs like retail still pay weekly. Grocery stores, car washes, big box stores, etc.

          Reply ↓
          1. MigraineMonth*

            Yeah, lot of jobs pay weekly/biweekly, but I’ve never seen a job ad/pay discussion where the number discussed wasn’t either the hourly pay or annual salary. There’s a campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, not $600/week. Similarly, the 2025 poverty level for 1 person is $15,650 annually, not $300/week. It’s just confusing.

            Reply ↓
    4. Dawn*

      Most common one I’ve seen is that you’re scheduled for an “interview” and you show up and it’s a room absolutely full of people and it turns out it’s an MLM and everyone gets “hired”

      Reply ↓
      1. juliebulie*

        Yes, I was excited to get invited to an “interview” at a convenient evening hour and my heart sank when I saw all the other people and the company’s logo actually had a pyramid, excuse me, triangle in it.

        Reply ↓
        2. Rogue Slime Mold*

          In Dungeon Crawler Carl, the flier for the dungeon pyramid scheme helpfully puts the label “Not a pyramid!” on the drawing of a pyramid. That seemed so painfully drawn from someone’s real experience.

          Reply ↓
      2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

        Same. Drove 20 miles on a Saturday morning to be offered a job selling real estate on commission. I’m a desktop publisher.

        Reply ↓
    5. alldogsarepuppies*

      “Hi This is Jane with a recruiting company. I have a job you might be interested in. Do you want to hear more?”

      My husband happens to be an executive recruiter and he is embarrassed for them at how little they are trying. Like at least make up a name for the “recruiting company”. You can even steal the name of a real one.

      Reply ↓
      1. ThatGirl*

        I have gotten texts from fake recruiters pretending to be from real companies, and usually there’s a weird hotmail address attached. Never reply to a text from a hotmail address.

        Reply ↓
        1. EvilQueenRegina*

          I get WhatsApp messages from people claiming to be recruiters – usually in parts of the country where I wouldn’t have been applying. The companies do exist, but at least once the real website listed no employee with the name supposedly contacting me. I just blocked those.

          Reply ↓
      2. Rogue Slime Mold*

        I’ve tried doing the same sort of earnest “why gollies tell me more” response I would do to people sending me random photos of attractive young women, but it’s robots all the way down.

        Reply ↓
          1. Kendall^2*

            Ooh, thanks for that idea!

            (I get a ton of pharmaceutical spam calls, and I vary my approach to use up their time while avoiding ever saying the word “yes”, since I am less likely to fall for it than some other folks. So far I’ve managed to get cursed, hung up on, complimented on my ‘sexy’ voice, asked out on a date (meeting at “the Paris airport”; he seemed nonplussed when I asked which one), told about expensive cars, and more. Sometimes I vary my approach by speaking not-English, or asking about their health conditions, or why they think cold calling random people is a good business model.)

            Reply ↓
    6. Just a Pile of Oranges*

      I once went to an interview for an admin position that paid a suspiciously high wage. It was an MLM recruitment meeting with a lot of people. The second I said I applied for admin and not sales, I was shown the door. Husband almost got sucked into a job selling insurance that was also MLM, so I really have to strongly recommend that anyone job hunting look up some MLMs so they can avoid them. They are getting better at hiding but still.

      Any emails that start with “Dear [name]” or ask you to “kindly [send info]” shoot up to about 90% odds on the scam scale. This is just not wording typically used in North America, which makes the odds you’re getting a foreign scam contact really high. Goes straight to 100% if there’s a lot of weird grammar and spelling mistakes. I’ve had a depressingly high number of these.

      Reply ↓
      1. Beyond the sea*

        I got many of these when I graduated college in 2008. They would advertise the jobs as marketing, or communications etc. You would show up to a janky office with 20 other people waiting. Then you’d interview with people and the job would something horrible like sitting in walmart and selling something to customers. Or walking door to door in any weather selling something. Thankfully I got hip to them and stopped applying for “marketing” gigs.

        Reply ↓
      2. Slow Gin Lizz*

        About 10-12 years ago I went to an “interview,” or maybe it was actually billed as an info session that would be followed by an interview, but whatever. There were maybe 30 people in the room and we were given a lecture about this great insurance company and then had individual interviews following the lecture. I was luckily not sucked into signing up to sell insurance for them because that is 100% the worst kind of job I can think of no matter how legit it is. (And let’s face it, we all know that selling door-to-door has a very low ROI and isn’t a great way to do business anyway.)

        Several months later I learned of the existence of MLMs and looked up that company and wouldn’t you know they were on the list? Dodged a bullet there, phew!

        Reply ↓
      3. Arrietty*

        Huh. North Americans don’t send emails saying “Dear Arrietty”? Am I missing a nuance to this? That’s still a very normal way to open an email in the UK.

        Reply ↓
        1. Just a Pile of Oranges*

          Exactly. The only time I ever used or received “dear X” in an email was when I was contacting our non-NA customers, because it is quite common in other parts of the world and they expect it. But it’s basically unheard of in NA.

          It reads very formal, probably because it’s entrenched in old letter writing etiquette. My guess is because Canada and the US are quite young as far as countries, our cultures have sort of rejected that level of formality.

          It’s not like, offensive or anything, it’s just not something we do.

          Reply ↓
        2. AnotherSarah*

          Huh? It’s very very common in every circumstance I’ve worked in! And I’m not in very formal industries. For a close colleague I’d probably write “Hi Jane” but otherwise, it’s Dear Jane…

          Reply ↓
        3. Strive to Excel*

          Not on an individualized business email. “Hello Arrietty” or “Good [time of day]” would be more common. I see “dear” more on emails sent to groups than to individuals, ie, a vendor sending out emails to say “dear customers, here is our updated price list”. Or on form emails. I’ve got one in my inbox that’s literally “Dear customer, here is your invoice”. “Dear” is reserved more for personal emails in the area I’m in.

          Reply ↓
        4. MigraineMonth*

          At my workplace, if you want to be formal, the salutation is “Hello Firstname”. Otherwise it’s “Hey Firstname”, “Firstname” or “Hey”. After the first email, there is no salutation at all.

          I sign all my emails with “Thanks, Firstname”, even when thanks makes no sense, because it’s my One Weird Trick to make people stop calling my writing style “abrasive”. (Why yes, I am female. How did you guess?)

          Reply ↓
        5. Teapot Connoisseuse*

          I’ve seen something about people just opening the email with the recipient’s name and no preliminary salutation (shudder).

          Forget informality – that just comes across as abrupt to the point of rudeness. You can take away my “Dear” salutation when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

          Although people using the term “dear” within the main part of an email will be sent to a (kind, but firm) re-education camp come my revolution.

          Reply ↓
    7. ZSD*

      This isn’t exactly a scam, but several years ago I was desperately searching for jobs in the nonprofit/advocacy realm. Via Idealist, I applied for jobs to multiple organizations, including some that supported undocumented immigrants. There was one organization that frequently posted jobs on Idealist. It was called the Center for Immigration Whatever (I don’t remember the specific name). When I went to their website, it was all vague language. I said to a colleague, “I think I disagree with them, but I can’t really tell…?” When I told her the name of the org, she said, “They’re white supremacists.”

      Reply ↓
      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        Ohhhhh, no, did you report them to Idealist? I seriously doubt they would want any white supremacist groups posting jobs on their website. That’s awful.

        Reply ↓
          1. Slow Gin Lizz*

            A white supremacist group is a hate group, which (I just checked, because I was curious) is the first bullet point in their list of things that they do NOT include (emphasis theirs).

            Reply ↓
      2. MigraineMonth*

        I guess one “benefit” of living in the US today is that you no longer have to reread the org’s mission statement three times to try to figure out if it’s, say, a Norwegian culture/racial equality/immigrant advocacy group or actually a white supremacist group. Racists are really not hiding the purpose of their orgs between the lines anymore.

        Reply ↓
    8. Dr. Vibrissae*

      I mostly get texts saying something along the lines of ‘We saw your resume and you’d be perfect for this position’ or ‘We have jobs in your area (area not specified), can we talk?’. Since I work in a niche industry, there is no way they are even close… this just isn’t how jobs work in my field. There’s also been a recent spayed of scam student loan calls where they claim to be from the ‘Student Loan Forgiveness Department’ (not a real thing) and then demand that I provide my birthday so they can verify my identity (my dude…you called me). That one send designed to reset my password to an online account but I’m not positive. I usually hang up once I realize it’s the same scam.

      Reply ↓
      1. higheredadmin*

        I get these almost daily. Sometimes they insert a real company into the pitch (Klarna was today’s one)

        Reply ↓
    9. Pay no attention...*

      Way back in the 1900s (lol), I was looking in the newspaper for jobs and ended up interviewing for a “marketing” position that turned out to be door-to-door selling poster art — like Successories motivational posters from the 1980s and 90s. Total scam. I should have turned around and walked off when I noticed that all of the staff were late teens early 20s and sitting around the parking lot (I later guess they were waiting to be dropped off in their assignment area for the day) — FLAG not a marketing agency! But I stayed all the way through the interview, was offered the job! and then didn’t answer any more phone calls from them about why I didn’t show up to my first day of work.

      Reply ↓
      1. Georgia Carolyn Mason*

        OT but I love “way back in the 1900s.” My sister has a T-shirt with a picture of covered wagons (which are from the 1800s, but whatever) and the legend “be kind, I’m from the 1900s” and it always makes me laugh.

        Reply ↓
      2. MigraineMonth*

        I once agreed to interview at a place even though I didn’t think I wanted the job. This was pretty much confirmed when I spent several hours researching the company. The job itself was legitimate (maintaining web page and database), but the company… hoo boy. When they asked me if I had any questions, I did indeed.

        “How is your business model different from an MLM?” Apparently they only had one level of salesperson, so every “independent business owner” was getting equally screwed.

        “What have you changed about your sales practices since California successfully sued you for fraudulent advertising and racial discrimination two years ago?” Nothing. They blamed that on the “independent business owners”.

        “Okay, but why were the loan terms outlined in the English-language contracts better than the ones in the Spanish-language contracts? The independent business owner who only sell your products didn’t write the loan contracts.” Long, awkward silence.

        Amazingly, they still offered me the job.

        Reply ↓
    10. Zona the Great*

      This wasn’t a scam, per say, but it was a huge red flag. I called inquiring about a job and the woman basically said, “can you come in tonight and help me with my books?”. It was already 8 pm. She was a lunatic. I should have known she was screamingly unreasonable.

      Reply ↓
    11. NobodyHasTimeForThis*

      Son applied for a job at a local branch of a national chain restaurant. He found the listing on one of the major job portals.

      He receives an invite to an interview at the restaurant in our town, with a time and a date and a pre-interview requirement of filling out some information in their payment app to verify eligibility for employment. I did not let him fill it out. While it was a verifiable 3rd party payroll company, the link didn’t look right to me. I told him he could fill it out after verifying with the manager at the in person interview.

      He got to the interview and they had no idea he was coming, had no jobs available or listed. The whole thing was a phishing scheme for identity theft.

      Reply ↓
    12. Anon for one, anon for all*

      As a fresh-out-of-college job hunter, I was scouring all kinds of websites looking for anything. I can’t recall what the job description was that I found on a site, something admin-ish, but I exchanged a couple of emails with the poster and that didn’t raise any flags. Eventually I was told that my main duties would be accepting packages on behalf of the company, not opening them, and forwarding them on as directed. Oh, and the person emailing me wasn’t available for a phone call to discuss this “job” because they were too busy building an orphanage in a developing country.

      Reply ↓
      1. Just a Pile of Oranges*

        Drugs. Definitely drugs.

        There’s also version of this where they get you to deliver one package, then tell you they’ll report you for drug dealing to the cops if you don’t pay them.

        Reply ↓
    13. Sloanicota*

      I had a weird one I’m still not sure what was about. Like OP, I didn’t actually remember applying for the job, and it seemed only vaguely in the area I was applying to, but there was a chance I had done something through LinkedIn or something. The website they referenced was real but weirdly vague. They scheduled a zoom interview through text. I had a pretty bad feeling all along but figured, whatever, I’d go to the zoom. It was a real-ish interview, with a human, and no red flag questions (like “send us your passport” or “we’re going to send you a check for supplies”), just all very vague, like even the title of the job was vague. I kept asking what it was all about and the person didn’t know anything. Still, I answered the questions reasonably. Then I got a text saying I wasn’t selected. I’m actually pretty sure this was all a scam and they were looking for more gullible or exploitable people to advance for the second part of the scam. It was all just very weird.

      Reply ↓
    14. bishbah*

      I got a fradulent job text just this morning:

      “Hi, I’m Caroline from [redacted]. Your background and resume have attracted the attention of several online recruiters, and we would like to offer you a fully remote, work-from-home position. The job is very easy with no time constraints. The daily pay ranges from $200 to $1,500, paid on the same day, and it’s easy to earn over $10,000 a month. If you are eager to take on a challenge, showcase your talents, and work with a world-class team, then join us now and start a new chapter in your career. (Requirements: 20 years or older) If you’re interested, please contact us via
      WhatsApp +1[redacted]”

      It was sent to my phone via an Outlook.com account where the user name was just a bunch of garbled letters and numbers.

      Reply ↓
        1. Slow Gin Lizz*

          I had WhatsApp on my phone for awhile when a couple of friends wanted to use it while we were on a trip to Canada and then forgot about it until a few months ago when I kept getting all kinds of scammy messages on there so I uninstalled it because it was so annoying. If I need it in the future I can reinstall it, but I hadn’t even used it in over two years.

          Reply ↓
      2. Rogue Slime Mold*

        $1500/day times 20 days in a month is $30,000 a month. Like they won’t even bother with basic math in these things.

        It makes me wonder about the claim that the bad grammar etc is deliberate, because while it makes your response pool smaller, the people in that response pool are more likely to go along with each new ask.

        Reply ↓
      3. ThatGirl*

        I’ve gotten those too. And I’m sorry, a text from a garbled outlook.com address with a Whatsapp number is a HUGE red flag.

        Reply ↓
    15. Ann O'Nemity*

      I work at a university, and despite our extensive efforts to educate students about job scams, we still receive dozens of reports each year from students who’ve been targeted. Some of these scams are incredibly sophisticated.

      In one recent case, scammers used email addresses that had been phished from actual university faculty and staff. The messages looked legitimate and claimed there was an urgent need to fill a large number of on-campus student worker positions. Students were directed to an application site that mimicked our university’s official website. (Someone familiar with our ATS would spot the differences, but it was pretty convincing.) As students moved through the fake hiring process, they were asked to provide increasingly sensitive personal information. Eventually, they were offered a position and asked to submit banking details to “set up direct deposit.”

      These scams are evolving, and even the most cautious people can fall victim. That’s why it’s so important that we continue to raise awareness and develop even more proactive strategies to help people recognize red flags before it’s too late.

      Reply ↓
      1. Sloanicota*

        Ugh in a sophisticated case like this, I hope the university contacts all students and provides a trusted place they can double-check the situation before beginning ANY application … that seems rather targeted and someone with inside knowledge may be involved.

        Reply ↓
        1. Slow Gin Lizz*

          I think my university does, but I don’t have anything to do with students or hiring so I don’t pay that much attention to emails about it.

          Reply ↓
      2. Pay no attention...*

        We get reminders from our IT and Purchasing departments that no emails or links that purport to be our university from a .com are legit… we are a .edu

        Reply ↓
        1. MigraineMonth*

          For some reason my government job used “.com” email addresses up until last year. I was highly suspicious during the hiring process (which was all online because it was 2020), and I made them verify that they really were who they said they were. I’m sure I was a pest, but at least a security-conscious one?

          Reply ↓
    16. Strive to Excel*

      When I was in college I was desperate to get my foot in the professional door, since I’d missed out on a summer internship (thanks, Covid). I saw a business card for “Vector Marketing” and figured I’d give it a try. They did an initial text screen that was a bit perfunctory but not too odd, then invited me to an in-person interview. Something about it raised the red flag for me so I googled them.

      It was Cutco. I sent a very rude text to my ‘screening’ contact and blocked them. I don’t feel bad.

      Reply ↓
      1. Potato Potato*

        Every person in my high school class received an interview offer from Vector Marketing via the mail. I was about to sign up when my friend’s mom told me not to- she’d heard of them before.

        Reply ↓
    17. MK*

      I encountered and almost fell for a scam very similar to the one OP got, about a decade ago as a poor, unemployed college student looking for a job, any job, on Craigslist. Someone moving to the area needed a nanny for their two kids and housekeeping help, and it was a similar deal – he was going to send me a check to buy cleaning supplies. Fortunately for me, I tried to do my due diligence, asking lots of questions about the kids and eventually insisting we talk on the phone (all our communication happened over text, though he did agree to and take one call with me). Over the course of our conversations, he gave multiple different ages for the kids, which was what finally tipped me off that the job wasn’t real.
      My boyfriend at the time, though, about lost it when I mentioned that this guy wanted me to go to this person’s (supposed) house by myself to drop off the cleaning supplies I was supposed to purchase. My danger radar was admittedly pretty low at this time due to some of the other odd jobs I’d taken that could’ve been bad but were actually fine, like sitting as a portrait model for an amateur male artist who worked out of his home. But I’m very thankful my boyfriend caught that glaring red flag.

      Reply ↓
  11. Minerva*

    “…the company would be sending me a check for work expenses and equipment.”

    For anyone unaware this is an ENORMOUS red flag. What will happen here is that the scammer will send you a check for far more than the cost of the equipment and have you deposit in your account knowing that a foreign check takes longer to clear, but US banking regulations will release the funds before they confirm the bad check.

    Some will just have you buy real equipment for less than the amount of the check and have you send them back the difference, but more sophisticated schemes also have a scam vendor so they can recoup all the funds in addition to getting your “overage” No matter what, you are out the cash in the end, and possibly in trouble with your bank.

    Reply ↓
  12. Rogue Slime Mold*

    Offering you the job without a single interview or giving either side a chance to actually talk to each other.
    They don’t know that OP isn’t a scam! Or a robot, or a rogue little bit of code that just goes around replying “Yes” to everything and seeing what results.

    Reply ↓
  13. Ssssssss*

    I’ve been on the other side of this (not the scammer side, lol.) A few years ago scammer was using our company name and picked the name of a VP that was publicly available on our website to pretend to be and was offering people jobs. We had a few people reach out asking about the jobs – I worry about how many people got scammed who didn’t reach out. It feels so gross to have your company’s name being used to scam people who are desperate for a job!

    Reply ↓
  14. FrontlinER*

    If it makes you feel better OP, I almost fell for a job scam recently too. I was looking for jobs about 6 months ago and was contacted by a seemingly legit email from a company I had applied to a few years ago. They gave a salary range that was too good to be true (in hindsight, should have recognized this) and provided a time to interview. It was submit your own video recordings and was about 30 questions. It took me 3 hours.
    I was minding my own business waiting for a response when I happened to check my spam email, and lo and behold, the real company had reached out to all their previous applicants and let them know someone with a very similar email to the company was scamming people. The email they provided as the scammer was the same email that reached out to me. A quick Reddit search confirmed it was a scam and the scam would have taken place during the equipment ordering and reimbursement phase of onboarding (it was a remote position). However the person was caught before they offered me the job.
    So anyways don’t feel bad, because I would’ve kept on going too if the company hadn’t reached out. I felt bad for a while and then realized that it was a good learning opportunity and that scammers are getting smarter.

    Reply ↓
  15. Middle Name Jane*

    Good reminder to always keep a log of every job you apply for with the company name, job title, date applied, method of application (LinkedIn, name of job board, company website), notes/dates of any communication/interview/turndown, etc. Also save a copy of the job description offline where you can access it later.

    Reply ↓
  16. CyberMindfulness*

    May I suggest you get your laptop or phone (whatever device you clicked yes on) scanned for viruses. By clicking “yes” you could have uploaded a virus onto your phone. Some of these viruses stay on your device for several months, waiting for you to purchase something with your credit card, or to log into your banking system, and then they copy the info and use it to make purchases or drain your bank accounts. Please get your device checked. If you do not know the person sending something, never click “yes”, with simple coding it can upload a program to monitor your keystrokes, take screen shots of your device, turn your camera and mic, etc.

    Reply ↓
    2. Ginger Cat Lady*

      They didn’t CLICK on yes, they had to REPLY yes.
      It’s a good warning for people to know, but it doesn’t sound like what happened here.

      Reply ↓
  17. Meow*

    I nearly fell for a different kind of job scam a couple years ago, one that I hadn’t ever heard of before. I applied for a position, and they came back and told me that I didn’t qualify because I didn’t have a certain certification (which was not listed as a requirement). But! They could offer me night classes for a boot camp for this cert, and then would place me at that job or another similar position. I’d pay for the training, and they’d reimburse 50% of it on completion.

    I was really excited, but when I talked about it out loud with my husband, it suddenly seemed a little fishy. I googled their organization and they claimed to be an organization that helped women and minorities get tech jobs. But when you clicked around, there were pages with placeholder text. Ok, maybe they were just a brand new organization? But I couldn’t find any info about them online or any testimonials from people they placed.

    But what really tipped me off is, they told me they wanted to schedule a phone interview, but when my point of contact texted me, he only wanted to talk about the training. So I ghosted the interview and blocked his number.

    I actually wouldn’t be surprised if the training itself was real – there is an enormous market for IT training. But I imagine that I wouldn’t have gotten my 50% back, and if I did, they were pricing the class doubly high to compensate. And then they’d ghost me or find some excuse as to why they couldn’t find me a job. That’s all a guess though, I’d be interested to know if anyone else has seen a scam like this and what their goal was.

    A third option just occurred to me – I show up for the training and it’s Amway lol

    Reply ↓
    1. Just a Pile of Oranges*

      Very possibly something like Amway or Primerica. It was Primerica when this exact thing happened to my husband lol.

      Also possible, if you had paid for the training you would have found out that it didn’t actually exist when you tried to attend, or the training would have been some useless waste of time and then you’d be ghosted and they’d keep your fee.

      Reply ↓
      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        Yeah, or that maybe it did actually exist but didn’t fulfill any certification requirements. Blech, what terrible people they are.

        Reply ↓
      2. Beyond the sea*

        I fell for the Primerica thing too. It was my first interview after I graduate college. I graduated in 2008. Thankfully I didn’t last more than 15 min in the interview. Which was really just an informational session. They actually had someone had the door to catch people trying to leave and convince them to stay. So I just blew past them lol.

        Reply ↓
  18. BG*

    It’s been a continuing source for me in keeping up with the latest scams, but the “r/Scams” reddit is extensively comprehensive, tightly moderated, and the subreddit details which bucket the latest scam falls into (e.g., “pig butchering,” “Fake Check,” and “Task” or other “Job” offer scams).

    Highly recommended source!

    Reply ↓
    1. Middle Name Jane*

      People joke about Reddit being an unreliable source of information, but I’ve found a lot of good information there (obviously, do your due diligence as you would for any other site).

      Reply ↓
      1. Paint N Drip*

        the information is not all reliable, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more thorough collection of modern human thoughts and discussion – I am frequently blown away by an internet search that yields a Reddit thread with my EXACT issue and usually the solution

        Reply ↓
    3. Andie Begins*

      Glad to see someone else beat me to this comment! I’ve been clicking around r/scams when I don’t want to be doomscrolling and I honestly think everybody should do so. I really fear with the coming/current economic downturn caused by the trade war, many people will be especially vulnerable to fake check/overpayment/task scams in the guise of legitimate work.

      Reply ↓
  19. IrishMN*

    When I was job searching (up until a month ago) I got a ton of these “respond with yes” emails! Similarly there were fishy things, weird writing, etc. I ended up not responding to them. It was so frustrating.

    Reply ↓
  20. epicdemiologist*

    This week alone I’ve gotten 2 “promotion and raise” emails from an organization I don’t work for, with a “.edu” email address.

    Reply ↓
    1. UnCivilServant*

      Your academic career is really taking off.

      Next thing you know, you’ll be tenure track for sure.

      Reply ↓
  21. Jeremy’s iron*

    I like to think I’m savvy to phishing scams but I’ve almost fallen for these types of scams too! When you’re job hunting (especially when you’re really trying to get out of a current situation), it’s very easy to either go on auto-pilot or just let yourself get swept up in the “finally, I can stop looking!!” euphoria. Especially as scammers do increasingly copy the names, contact info, logos, etc of real companies (and otherwise do always improve their tricks).

    Even seasoned security people who “should know better” can get taken in by a scam, depending on the right circumstances.

    Reply ↓
  22. Festively Dressed Earl*

    LW, thank you for sharing this. A lot of people would have been too ashamed of their near-miss to think of telling the company, let alone disseminating the info on a popular work advice blog, but you’ve almost certainly saved someone else from falling for the scam by having the guts to tell your story. This is well-written and important, and I wish you the best of luck getting the great job you deserve.

    P.S. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, it happens to the best of us.

    Reply ↓
  23. LifebeforeCorona*

    A friend fell for a similar scam and lost $1,000 which they really couldn’t afford to lose. But they were out of work and desperate and looking at the correspondence it was very professional. They even told her that they expected honesty which was why they were sending her the check. Scammers really know how to prey on people. They are scum.

    Reply ↓
  24. CheesePlease*

    I get texts frequently offering me INSANE jobs that look something like this:

    “Hello! This is Liz. I work for Job Hunters Co. and your resume came across our search as someone qualified for new data entry positions at [Well-Known Tech Company]. This role is fully remote and can be done from your phone. Pay is $200-$800/ day for at least 2 hours a day, 4 days a week plus a $4,000 starting bonus to start training this week. Benefits include paid leave and all government holidays, plus more. If you are interested in the job please send us a message on whatsapp at +555 555 1234”

    Reply ↓
    1. bishbah*

      Just posted above, I received a variant of this same one today, complete with a WhatsApp number for responses.

      Reply ↓
  25. Doctor Fun*

    OP, please don’t feel stupid about almost getting snagged by this scam. At least you didn’t do what my former friend did a few years back when she got hit with the same scam — a scam I had to be the one to tell her about, because she texted me after she got the notification that they’d be sending a check for her to buy all her work equipment and I was like, “wait, they contacted you how? They did the interview over a Signal chat? Uhhhhhhhh girl hold on a second” and then quickly googled up a link about the scam to forward to her.

    What did this friend of mine do after finding out it was a scam? She waited for the fake check to arrive at her house via FedEx, and then she cashed the check at a Walmart and pocketed the cash. And that’s when I dipped out of that friendship, because if someone is dumb enough to pull that move, they’re too dumb to be a part of my life. Last I heard, Walmart was pursuing charges against her.

    Reply ↓
    1. StarTrek Nutcase*

      And bet she believes only the one sending her the check was a scammer or despicable. Glad you dumped her.

      Reply ↓
  26. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

    I got a scam attempt from someone impersonating a real recruiter at a large company! The scam came into my email, and my spidey senses tingled, so I looked up the recruiter and messaged him on LinkedIn and he was able to report the impersonation and at least get something up on his profile warning job seekers about the scam. (Sadly, he did not reward me by hiring me for anything.)

    Reply ↓
  27. Mark This Confidential And Leave It Laying Around*

    My teenage daughter fell for one of these. It’s a bank scam—they send $ to you to “reimburse” you but it’s a way to access your account. Luckily she was a teen and we saw the fishy transaction come in and alerted the bank. Points to her for trying to get a summer job on her own but she had no idea how off the whole thing was.

    Reply ↓
  28. DJ Abbott*

    When I was looking for an apartment in 2021, there was a similar scam. A condo for rent would be listed below market value, with gorgeous photos. You don’t get to see the apartment or talk to anyone, they just email for you to send them money and they will FedEx your keys. I expect they do this to several people and clear several thousand dollars for each posting.
    What I take from this is, anytime they won’t talk to you or meet with you and will only deal with you by email, is a red flag.

    Reply ↓
    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      Yeah, that scam obviously must work sometimes because it’s been around for at least 15 years, but it mystifies me because it relies on someone being in a situation where they wouldn’t actually want to see the inside of the unit before renting it. Again, I guess it works sometimes, but it seems like there aren’t a ton of people who would even think about renting a place they hadn’t seen. Just falls into that category of people who are in more precarious situations (like trying to find a place to live in a new city or something) and are therefore more vulnerable to these scammers.

      Reply ↓
    2. many bells down*

      Ooh yeah I was looking for a house to rent and sometimes, weirdly, places DO rent way below market value here – I was moving out of once such place at the time. Anyway when I asked to see the place, they said I couldn’t because [vague reasons] but that they wanted a “clean and God-fearing tenant”. Well, if you’ve ever had a romance scammer they love the phrase “God-fearing”, also that’s probably very illegal. Reported that one to Zillow and it was gone within hours.

      Reply ↓
    3. Just a Pile of Oranges*

      I almost fell for that one back in the day. -_-
      I got suspicious when I got an email saying they’d forgotten their kid’s teddy bear and asked me to take good care of Mr Fluffy.

      Reply ↓
  29. Doctor Fun*

    OP, please don’t feel bad about almost falling for this scam. As you can see from the comments here, there are so many ways to scam people that it’s hard not to fall for one of them — and no matter what, you’re doing way better than the former friend of mine who got snared by this same exact scam a few years ago. I felt horrible listening to her talk about how excited she was as she shared details and I quickly realized she’d been scammed (I was like, wait, they texted you? Your interview was a Signal chat? Uhhhhhhhhh girl hang on a second). I pulled up some info about the scam and she was like, oh, crap, yep. That’s what happened.

    And then she did the worst thing possible: she waited for that check to arrive, then took it down to the local Walmart and cashed it. I guess her thinking was “scam the scammer”, and she got so wrapped up in that notion that she forgot about what happens when you pass a bad check for a few thousand dollars? I’m not sure exactly what happened next because that’s when I was like “you make terrible, stupid decisions and are dangerous to be involved with on any level byeeeeee” and blocked her number. I heard she avoided jail time but I’m sure whatever consequences she did have to deal with were not exactly fun.

    Reply ↓
  30. V.*

    Recognizing where your vulnerabilities are is the best way to protect yourself against scams. This reminds me of the time I almost got involved in a pyramid scheme (the kind of company that’s legal but barely) because I was four months into a job search, broke, and feeling demoralized. There were tons of red flags that I noticed, but because of my situation was prepared to ignore. Thankfully my partner was a sane outside voice backing up my intuition and I didn’t take the job.

    Some of the red flags were:
    – told me it was a management position, then it was made clear that it was “management track” and actually the position was sales
    – there was a one on one interview that lasted less than 5 minutes, followed immediately by a “group interview” where they pumped up the music, told us about how great the company was and how much money we could make
    – when I asked what kind of safety measures there were as a young woman who would be entering the homes of strangers, was told “it’s never been a problem”
    – there was supposedly a team that would generate leads, but also we were told we would be generating our own leads?
    – the group “interview” ended with them saying that if we were made an offer, we shouldn’t need time to think it over (which I ignored and asked to think it over anyway)

    Reply ↓
  31. Ginger Cat Lady*

    OP, the key thing is that you DID NOT fall for it. You were smart enough to figure it out before that point. Give yourself credit for that.
    My husband has seen the same thing, only it was someone pretending to be a church. A small, single location church that (according to their web site) had a congregation of about 500. pretending to be in need of a full time, permanent software developer. He was telling me about it and how they wouldn’t answer his questions about the project and I asked him:
    1. Do the emails come from the church’s domain? (nope, it was a gmail)
    2. Is the job listed on their site? (Nope, but they were looking for a children’s pastor on their careers page)
    He ended up dragging out the scammer to waste their time and informing the church, and we noticed that within a day of his message to the church they had a notice on their careers page that any jobs they were actively hiring for would be listed here, and that they only hired clergy and all communication would come from the pastor. With a phone number for the pastor to verify.
    We suspect they picked a church because lots of people trust churches implicitly.

    Reply ↓
    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      Oh yes, 500-member churches, a hotbed of hiring for software developers. Wow, that’s a new one.

      Reply ↓
  32. T Valmont*

    The “reply yes” thing is a way to avoid some scam protections.

    In the Apple world links in an incoming SMS or iMessage message are not clickable if you have never communicated that that sender. If you reply to the message, links become clickable.

    I literally get messages that say “reply yes to this message then close and re-open the message and click on the link”. Don’t. Delete it so you can never accidentally click on it.

    Seeing this in an email makes me wonder if this kind of protection exists in other communication methods and/or spammers are starting to worry that they are.

    Reply ↓
  33. Pink Cowgirl Boots*

    I don’t suppose you have run afoul of anyone recently? Most probably, the scam was directed at them getting a “refund” from a bad check or phishing for SS#, birthdate, etc. which they could then either use for identity theft or sell. However, I remember “blue-sky” fantasizing with a friend over what we could do to get back at the boyfriend who broke up with her for spurious, insincere reasons/excuses. One scheme was to offer him a fake job – on the other side of the country – which he would not discover until after having resigned (from the place both he and ex-girlfriend both) and relocated. Fun to think about, but I suppose someone could actually try it.

    Reply ↓
  34. Bruce (not that Bruce the other Bruce)*

    Wow, as one spear-phishing victim to another, glad you had second thoughts! I fell for a phone call with a spoofed caller-id that appeared to be from my credit card company, they sent me a text that reset my password and I was an idiot and gave them the code #. Luckily I realized what was happening as soon as I hung up… I was able to re-reset my password, lock them out and then alert the lender. Scary what they can do with a little information!

    Reply ↓
  35. Bruce (not that Bruce the other Bruce)*

    One of my sons got a call that appeared to be from the sheriff’s office, the caller used the name of a real sergeant in the office and tried to bully my son into paying a fine online. My kid stuck to his guns and said no, then hung up. They called again multiple times. I’ve been hearing of similar scams from other people. Be wary!

    Reply ↓
    1. JanetM*

      I have received a few phone calls “informing” me that my SSN had been used for fraudulent activity in Texas (it’s always Texas), and that I was going to be arrested that day if I didn’t do confirm my SSN over the phone, right now. No, sorry, you called me, you don’t need me to tell you my SSN.

      I’ve also received calls “informing” me that they were a federal marshal, I’d failed to show up for jury duty, and I was going to be arrested that day if I didn’t cooperate with them. No, sorry, federal marshals don’t deal with missing county-based jury duty.

      And as many of you have already noted, I get the aggressive text-message demands that I immediately pay outstanding highway tolls. No, sorry, I haven’t driven through that state on the date you’re claiming.

      Reply ↓
      1. Lady Lessa*

        There are a lot of them, so that Ohio’s Turnpike commission sent out ads, etc. warning folks about them.

        Reply ↓
  36. chicka*

    SO MANY SCAMS!!!

    So, I just heard about a new one yesterday (at my company mandated cybersecurity training) and am curious if anyone has run into it? It’s called stored document manipulation, and the essence is that someone hack into your system somehow and alters a document you send frequently (the example given was wire transfer instructions of a title company). So you send out this altered document, and in the example, the receiver follows the instructions and wires the money to the wrong account (of the scammers). crazy right?!? sounds more like an embezzlement scheme than something a hacker would do!

    Reply ↓
  37. Former Retail Lifer*

    OP, you’re not alone. During my job hunt, I got a response back from a company I *might* have applied to. Who can remember them all? The first step was to fill out a questionnaire which asked basically the same questions a phone screen or first interview would ask. Kind of annoying to have to type it all out, but not a red flag. However, I was then offered the job without actually ever speaking to anyone. It seemed shady, but maybe they were really desperate or my responses were just so amazing that that they KNEW they needed to hire me? The kicker was that they asked for my address to send me a check to purchase equipment…I really wanted to believe I got a real job until that happened. That’s literally never how it works for non-scam jobs.

    Reply ↓
  38. Andi*

    I recently fell for a scam interview that was very good. Like the writer, I’ve been applying to a lot of jobs the past few weeks, and that’s how it made it though the cracks. Given our current economical situation here in the USA, I suspect a number of people will be doing the same in the coming months, and I’d like you to not get scammed as well.

    The email I received was very professional looking and came from a person I could identify as part of the company’s HR on LinkedIn. She suggested a screening interview, which would involve filling out an online form of ten questions about myself and my work history. Again, this all looked very professional, had all the right logos, a devoted website, no Google Forms. I asked the sender a few questions about the position and she always replied fully, professionally, and right away.

    What raised a red flag for me was that I didn’t remember applying at this company. The position and job description were all exactly what I was looking for, it wasn’t a generic job. I figured I must have applied though a recruiter’s post or something, and I filled out the form.

    That I couldn’t remember applying continued to bother me. After I submitted the “interview”, I was poking around the company website to try and figure out how they got my application. At the bottom of the company’s careers page, I found a warning about recent employment scams involving their company info, and the warning noted that real emails from their HR would always end in @companyname.com. Sure enough, the email I had received ended in @companyname.net.

    It was a startup and I didn’t think twice about the .net email. I also have no idea what they gained from me answering interview questions for them. My anti-virus protection is set high and I locked down my financial info just to be sure. But it was a scam.

    If you receive an email that raises questions for you, be sure to carefully check the address against the actual company website and make sure the domains match. Stay safe out there!

    Reply ↓
  39. raincoaster*

    A very old, very common, scam. They own the Amazon store they point you at for “required equipment” and send funds via Paypal, which they cancel once they know you have made the purchase.

    This iteration is more elaborate than most, but they target literally every industry. I even get those emails on my petsitting ads. It’s always a retired military officer with a Havanese dog, too.

    Reply ↓
  40. Potatohead*

    I can only remember one attempted scam I’ve seen…it was a blind email addressed to [Potatohead] at my non-work potatohead.gmail account (so not using my name, but the oddball nickname in said account). Something about how they knew my internet browsing history and all the ‘freaky’ stuff in it, and would send that to my boss/family/friends (memory is fuzzy) unless I paid (probably in gift cards). I just ignored and deleted it.

    Reply ↓
  41. keylimetau*

    No need to feel embarrassed OP! This exact same thing happened to my partner, even down to the detail of posing as a legitimate company in Wisconsin (it was a different industry, but weird). He’s been out of work for so long and was so excited to just have a lead that he didn’t notice the flags at first either. Thankfully he figured it out at the same step you did. Scammers are good at playing with your emotions in order to bypass the critical thinking centers. (I also once got got by one of those phishing training emails companies do – it got me so worked up about its urgency that I didn’t think twice! We’re all human.)

    Thanks so much for spreading the word so folks know what to look out for!

    Reply ↓
  42. Susannah*

    Apologies if this is a naive question, but…. I don’t get what the scammer gets out of this. When it’s clear there’s no job to go to, how would the scammer make money off the fraud? Are people asked to pony up money in advance for materials or something?

    Reply ↓
    1. Potatohead*

      Either that, or they steal your identity/bank info as part of requesting routine information that an employer would need.

      Reply ↓
  44. David*

    I don’t know if this will be useful, but here’s something that might help you feel a bit less embarrassed, OP:

    I’m not a security professional but I’ve learned a fair bit about information security, phishing, scams, and such, and one thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of security measures are focused more on reducing the rate of “incidents” than stopping them entirely. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. So your awareness of the signs (the security measure) means you might fall for a scam once or twice in a lifetime, if at all, rather than once a year – and that’s a big difference. The fact that you didn’t pick up on this one right away (which really isn’t too bad – I mean, you did catch it before it mattered) doesn’t invalidate all the other scams you were probably exposed to, or will be exposed to, and didn’t/won’t come close to falling for.

    Reply ↓

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