The CraigsList job boards are inundated with scammers these days. It gets very frustrating for those of us trying to find work, as we wade through the bogus ads looking for the legit job offers.
When I first started looking for work (a year ago!), they were fairly easy to spot. Vague, unspecific ads promising suspiciously high salaries for applicants with no job experience. Overly-enthusiastic ads exhorting you to apply for their great career opportunity.
The marks must be wising up, because these days the scammers are putting a little more effort into making their ads look real:
Looks pretty legit, right? I thought so, anyway, so I sent over a resumé. I soon got a reply from “Jerry” asking me to send my phone number so we could schedule an interview. There were a couple of cautionary flags:
- the From: address was a .info domain
- “Jerry” claimed I was the most qualified out of 23 applicants (even though I have no experience in this field)
They made me wary but they weren’t show-stoppers, so I sent over my phone number.
An hour or so later I got another reply—same From: address, but this time it was signed “Richard:”
“One more thing and I am sorry I didn’t mention this in the first email but I just got off the phone with my manager and she said that before we go any further and schedule an interview you must complete a credit check.
I recommend getting one at:
http://[scammer site deleted].info
I looked it up and its free to check your credit there. I personally don’t understand why you have to get this done but she said that he needs to know your financial state and wants to make sure you are a wise spender or something like that.
Well get back to me as soon as possible with that and I will give you a call.
Thanks for your understanding,
Richard”
Yeah. I’ll get right on that.
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