Here's how you can avoid the same situation.
A woman from Fayetteville, North Carolina, is out $60,000 after she pursued a phone job opportunity, ABC11 reports.
Rebecca Adami said she was taken advantage of by a man she was exchanging romantic texts with. After Adami alerted him that she was seeking employment, he offered to connect Adami with a job opportunity.
She then received paperwork via email from a man who claimed to be in charge of finances for a charity. Once Adami was “hired,” she was required to open up bank accounts. Shortly after, she found herself providing all her bank and credit card numbers with the man whom she thought was her new boss.
“I set up a bank checking and savings in my name, but a separate one to keep their money straight,” Adami said. “He had all my information, so he started charging on all my cards. Any equipment, anything shipped here, it would be shipped here. Then I would ship it overseas.”
The purchases equaled charges on her credit card worth more than $60,000. The “company” demanded the charges be paid off in full by the charity. Adami says payments were made on her credit cards that zeroed out the balances, however, days later, her “boss” made additional charges on her credit card. Then the payments that were made, were suddenly reversed so she was liable for owing more money to her credit card companies.
Her scam radar went off after checks made out to her were sent: one for $32,000 and another for $35,000. Adami was told both were for the charity and was instructed to deposit them in her account, and then to send the money to someone else. Adami said once her bank identified the checks as fraudulent, she knew it was a scam.
“If I had put that in my account and sent any money off of that, I would have been liable for all that, too,” Adami said. “I have no money to do anything, no money to go anywhere. No money. It’s really ruined my life.”
She said she decided to speak out about her experience in hopes the red flags will stop others from falling victim. According to The Week, job scams are more common than people think. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recorded close to 105,000 business and job opportunity scams in 2023, with victims losing approximately $450 million.
Thanks to remote work and the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, experts have found more than “a five-fold increase over the past five years.”
Some of the most common scams are fake job listings on social media, imposters posing as employers of a company or hiring firm, and job placement and career consulting offers. Some tips to keep at the top of mind during a job search is to never disclose personal information until a job offer is submitted or you start the gig.
Real jobs will never ask you to pay. “Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job,” the FTC said. “Anyone who does is a scammer.”
Lastly, be sure to do your own research. If a listing seems too good to be true, investigate the company by looking for a website, location, and other staff members. “You might even look up the name of the company or the person who’s hiring you, plus the words ‘scam,’ ‘review,’ or ‘complaint’ to see if anything comes up,” the agency stressed.
: 5 Tips for Protecting Your Identity During Job Seeking
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