For some, the pandemic came with a major professional upheaval. Many lost jobs. Others discovered their current role wasn’t working for them and sought to make changes. They did what most of us do when browsing for a new employer – they went online. And that’s when the scammers got them.
Advertising well-paying, flexible jobs, the fraudsters behind the fake postings reeled in their victims’ social insurance numbers and banking information. Sometimes they required payment in advance for training, equipment or materials. But despite the ads’ convincing façade, the job opportunities were completely made-up. Victims lost thousands of dollars and their identities.
A new Better Business Bureau study shows an alarming increase in the number of people who fell victim to job scams during the pandemic. In fact, job scam losses reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre nearly doubled in 2020. And the age group most impacted was the tech-savvy age group of 25-to-34-year-olds.
In many cases, fraudsters posed as management at real companies, such as Amazon and Walmart. In other cases, suspicious victims researched the headquarters of companies they’ve never heard of, and found the physical locations to be accurate. They then accepted the jobs, gave out their banking information for direct deposit, did the work but never got paid.
While fraudulent job postings range from data entry to personal assistants, a common one was “distribution agent.” What that really means is receiving packages of illegally obtained goods and shipping them on to various locations, where the recipients, who are in on the scam, sell or otherwise profit off the items. The items are often initially purchased with stolen credit card numbers. Any job postings that suggest employees send packages for their employer should raise a red flag. As the U.S. Postal Inspection Service says: there are no legitimate jobs receiving and sending packages.
Scammers often post job advertisements for secret shoppers and personal caregivers as well. In these cases, scammers often employ fake cheques to rob their victims in these cases. They may send their “new employees” cheques, only to have them wire most of that money somewhere else for work purposes. The cheques are fake, and the victims are sending their own money back to the scammers without realizing it.
In 2019, the BBB estimated job scams affected 14 million people, who lost a combined $2 billion.
For more information on job scams and how you can avoid them, visit www.bbb.org
— Trade-mark of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus used under licence.
Better Business Bureau
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