Job Offer: Too Good to Be True

Job Scams You Can Avoid

As someone who has worked in a bank, I have seen a lot of scams people got sucked into. The two particular scams I am referring to is the job scam and the rent scam. Please note that I am talking about my experiences before the COVID-19 pandemic hit us all. I am also assuming that during this pandemic, these scams might have increased considering people are in desperate need to find jobs, and scammers have smelt a golden opportunity to exploit more victims.

The most common scam I saw was from the online job search websites such as Kijiji in Canada. Kijiji is a website where you can buy and sell everything under the sky, rent a place, and is also a platform for one to look for a job.

Now, these scams are quite common. But a large number of people are not aware of them until they fall victim to one. There are always a few innocent people, out of a many that scammers reach out to, who get sucked in.

The scammers will place an eye-catching advertisement of a job that looks so genuine and desirable. They will talk about their company’s values and beliefs, their expectations of the job seeker, and stress how amazing their working environment is. Also, they tend to draw attention to how they want their employees to be fairly compensated. Last, but not least, scammers entice the victim by boasting about their company’s benefits like medical insurance, vacation pay, paid sick days, and so on.

For example, one time when I applied for such a job I crossed my fingers because it sounded like my dream job. The company was opening a new office in my city, and they needed to staff it immediately. Within a couple of days of them in receipt of my completed application, I got their response congratulating me on being the successful candidate as they liked my resume, and told me how I was a perfect fit for the job. I was very excited, as I had been looking for a job for months. As I was reading through the e-mail, I realized that there wouldn’t be any interview (which sounded strange), and found a few PDF files attached.

Already feeling that something was not right, I still opened the offer letter, and it told me that I was to join them in a week. To me, everything looked very genuine. When I opened the second attachment, it defined my monetary and non-monetary benefits in detail. When I opened the third and final attachment, the scammers wanted me to share my personal information including my driver’s license information, and bank account information.

That was it! I wasn’t comfortable at all sharing any personal information about myself over an e-mail — especially when I had been offered a job without any effort. During those days, back in 2016, I was not even aware of job scammers. So with a heavy heart, I decided not to respond to them.

Fortunately for me, I did find a job working for a bank. That is when I started coming across different types of scams with the objective of looting innocent people. Over the years, I saw a rise in job scammers’ methods change in nature, but not in purpose — and like the advancement in technology, scammers’ methods have evolved as well.

Allow me to share a few bad experiences some of my customers faced. I haven’t used their real names.

Victims of a job scam:

1. A young woman, Linda, came to my branch looking all worried and scared when her $2600 cheque that she deposited from her new job, bounced. She did not know what had happened when suddenly her account balance dipped deep into a negative balance. Upon inquiring further, she told me that she recently got hired, and after she received the offer letter, she was sent a cheque for her expenses even before she started working. She was instructed to immediately send $1,800 back to the company via e-transfer because the cheque was accidentally made out in the wrong amount. Now, Linda had a good credit rating, so when she deposited her cheque through mobile deposit (for those who aren’t aware, you can deposit a cheque while sitting at home through your bank’s mobile app), all the funds i.e. $2600 were immediately available to her, so she sent an e-mail transfer of $1800 as instructed by her “employer”. While following the instructions, she was unaware that she was being scammed. So, in this case, not only did the scam lead to the financial loss for the victim, but it also had the potential to affect her credit score.
2. Brad came into the branch a little frustrated, complaining that he was not able to deposit his cheque via mobile app, or into the ATM. He told me that he needed the money immediately, as he was going to start a job soon. When he presented me with his cheque, I knew upon looking at it that was fraudulent. I will explain in a moment how I figured this out. Similar to the case with Linda, Brad received a cheque of about $3000 and was then asked to send back $1800 via e-mail transfer. So, unlike in Linda’s case, Brad got lucky as he escaped from depositing a fraudulent cheque in his account, meaning that there was no financial loss to him.

That’s how scammers play with your emotions. They will give you hope, and then try to rip you off financially. They know how banking works these days. They know how to cheat the system. They will often ask their victims to deposit the cheque via mobile deposit, instead of going to the branch. So, they will rush you into doing things.

Rent scam

I haven’t come across a lot of rent scams, but this one case was quite similar to the job scam.

This scam happened to a young girl, who was soon turning 18. She came to deposit a cheque that didn’t look right to me. On inquiring further, she told me that she was moving out soon and that her future roommate had sent her this cheque to help her move to another province. That was a red alert right there. I asked her whether her roommate had asked her to send a part of the amount back to her? She responded, “yes”. She said that she had already sent her an e-mail transfer for $500 from her savings account, and now she wanted to deposit this $1000 cheque into her account. In this case, the poor girl was saved from depositing a fraudulent cheque, but she did get ripped off in the amount of $500 because the scammer made her rush.

Below are a few tips on helping you to identify a counterfeit/ fake cheque:

• Look for spelling mistakes.
• Look for the font size. The printing on counterfeit cheques is usually off with different font sizes.
• Look for the amount. If you’re receiving a different amount than promised, investigate more.
• Look for the payor’s address on the top left side of the cheque. If the cheque is from another province or state, for the job that you applied in your city, it can be fraudulent.

Know it can be a scam when :

• The job advertisements that looks highly lucrative, with benefits too good to be true. Always inquire further by looking it up the details.
• You are sent an offer letter without an interview, and scammers will make you rush through things.
• You have to join within a very short period, like within a week.
• You receive a cheque in the mail, even before you started your job, and you have to send a part of it back to them.

How can your bank help you?

If you don’t know the origin of cheque, or you received an unexpected cheque, always go to your branch, and show it to them. Explain how you received it, and why you received it. People working in the branch will try to help you from being getting scammed, or from depositing a fraudulent cheque in your account. Your cheque can be sent to their cheque verification system, from where the branch gets the confirmation about the authenticity of the cheque. This process takes a bit of time, but if you receive a fraudulent cheque, you will be saved from a huge headache!

I can appreciate the pain that job seekers go through while looking for a job. I have been there. Its emotionally, psychologically, and sometimes physically draining. Now during times like these, where the World is engulfed by a virus, unemployment can make us desperate to try anything and everything. I am hoping that sharing this experience might help a few if not a lot of people out there.

Scammers continue to come up with new ideas to scam people. But it is in our hands to not get trapped. Question everything. To summarize:

• If you receive a cheque, and you are not certain about it, take it to your bank.
• If you receive a call from Income Tax authorities (i.e. CRA) asking you to send money, disconnect the call, google the legitimate number, and call them to confirm.
• If you receive a call from insurance asking for sensitive information, again disconnect and call them back using their legitimate number.
• If the call is from your service provider claiming they need to update your banking information, again, disconnect and call them back to confirm.
• Never give out personal information over the phone, or in an email.
• Never transfer funds to someone you had just met.
• Question everything — talk to friends and family and see what they say. If when talking to the other entity becomes upset or pressures you to comply, chances are you may be scammed. Legitimate organizations are understanding and will give you a reasonable amount of time to comply.

Stay alert. Stay safe.

Thank you for reading.