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A fake job offer gone wrong

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Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#161

Post by rustybolt »

ryandrake wrote: post #48

Great job figuring out it was a scam but honestly, it’s crazy that these things still work on anyone all the way in 2022. You would think that by now every human being that walks the earth would know that whenever someone you don’t know sends you “money” and then requests you send it back (or to another party) in a different form, it’s always a scam. There should be some ceremony whenever someone turns 16 or somethin…

Yeah OK but then there are 100s of other general principles you need to know in life. Calling someone stupid every time someone doesn't follow one of the things that's obvious to you is not constructive. We need things like this to go public to avoid them from happening, and shaming victims doesn't help here. The author is already extremely apologetic in this post, and still there are people saying he's stupid for almost falling for it. I am usually quite rational, but I've done some pretty stupid and embarassing things at times where I was not thinking everything through. I imagine most people have.

Imagine you go to vacation to Paris, take an evening walk and get mugged. Your attitude is like the local saying "what an idiot for walking around in that neighborhood at night".

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#162

Post by pbhjpbhj »

toast0 wrote: post #38
sharkjacobs wrote: post #4

Are cheques even used for anything except for fraud anymore? Open call: Anyone out there paying or receiving payment with cheque in the last ten years?

I've never written or deposited a cheque; I don't know that I've even seen one. But checks are alive and well in the US. Contractors like them, I've written them to myself to transfer money between accounts when electronic transfer restrictions are too painful, etc. You may as well start spelling it the US way, because we'll still be using them ;)

>Contractors like them,

Can cheques in USA be cashed out? I mean, can a contractor take a check to any bank and exchange it for cash or do they have to be paid into an account (and money accessed 3-5 days later)?

I only ask because usually contractors want to avoid cards/back transfer did they don't have to declare the income and can do tax fraud.

Back in the 80s in UK you could "cash a cheque" meaning take it to a bank and get cash. Chequebooks then were printed as "crossed cheques" which couldn't be cashed [easily?]. Then by the 90s one wasn't guaranteed to get the money unless a "guarantee card" had its details copied onto the cheque -- for which an imprinting machine was used (still a valid technique about 10 years ago).

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#163

Post by rtpg »

ryandrake wrote: post #48

Great job figuring out it was a scam but honestly, it’s crazy that these things still work on anyone all the way in 2022. You would think that by now every human being that walks the earth would know that whenever someone you don’t know sends you “money” and then requests you send it back (or to another party) in a different form, it’s always a scam. There should be some ceremony whenever someone turns 16 or somethin…

Every day somebody is born who hasn't heard one of these stories! And honestly one thing about life is that you generally are slowly building up trust with people, and then can be asked to do things that are totally legit all the time.

Of course skepticism is required, but I know a lot of people who got dealt a lot of shit by their (real) employers simply by not understanding what is normal or not, as it was their first job.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#164

Post by pbhjpbhj »

itgoon wrote: post #65
shmde wrote: post #44

Do you trust any work related email sent to you using a gmail account? Cause I absolutely don't. I work in a very very tiny startup and even this guy sent me the acceptance mail through his company site.

That was the biggest flag to me. Nobody in any kind of business uses @gmail.com. Maybe some Etsy person selling out of their extra bedroom, but that's it. Domain names and email hosting is too cheap to use gmail for business. Even if it was a legit business, I'd stay away if they couldn't be bothered to do that minimum.

Not true in UK, small businesses that are not working in tech will use free email with the suppliers domain.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#165

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

alanfranz wrote: post #136
zorrolovsky wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post seem to blame victims for the problem, and that is not fair. People can be in dark places mentally, struggle with disease, family issues, etc. Not everybody is mentally sharp 100% of the time to identify a scam attack and fight it back. The problem is not victims, the problem is scammers. There should be better mechanisms to quickly clamp down on them. In this case, it would be really good if there was a me…

^ this. I was scammed about EUR 1500 some 7 years ago. It didn’t seem a scam: the price for an item was low but not too low, the identity of the seller I could verify. But the item ultimately didn’t arrive, and I didn’t know that for italian law it’s considered an “unfulfilled contract” rather than fraud, and requires a civil rather than a criminal case, which would turn out far too costly. But the point is: I didn’t…

That's not nearly the same thing as what the other poster is talking about.

I once had something similar happen when I purchased Prince of Qin off Ebay (10-15 years ago I think?). Package never arrived.

That is in a wholly different class than these scams where they're asking you to cash a check and wire the money back, nigerian prince, etc.

What the other poster ISN'T considering is that there are still large segments of the population that are old enough that they're just not internet savvy. It's just the nature of life.

But their point stands as is, it's not reasonable for younger generations to be falling for these scams.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#166

Post by machina_ex_deus »

Jiro wrote: post #152
tommiegannert wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That people buy gift cards at all boggles my mind. You're buying a currency with less versatility (and hence value) for 1:1. Where I live, we have perfectly fine government-issued bills to gift if that's your thing. Somehow, that's considered a bad present? Because it's lazy? Because it doesn't show your opinion on clothes brands? I don't get it, from the consumer's perspective. To the shop/mall it's a clear winner,…

In order for a gift to serve its social function, it must be specifically matched to its recipient. Cash is not specifically matched to its recipient. (The exception is if there's some other social expectation that specifically says that the gift should be cash, like Jewish wedding gifts).

Isn't wedding gift being cash the standard thing? Do you bring gift items to weddings? I always thought the standard of bringing cash to help them pay back for the cost of the event was standard everywhere. This is a Jewish thing?

It kind of explains why weddings in Israel are so expensive, I heard it's almost cheaper to buy flight tickets to buy wedding dress in another country.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#167

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

biztos wrote: post #115
zorrolovsky wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post seem to blame victims for the problem, and that is not fair. People can be in dark places mentally, struggle with disease, family issues, etc. Not everybody is mentally sharp 100% of the time to identify a scam attack and fight it back. The problem is not victims, the problem is scammers. There should be better mechanisms to quickly clamp down on them. In this case, it would be really good if there was a me…

I consider myself pretty quick to detect scams, having worked in cybersecurity, though probably no quicker than the average HN commenter. And yet 15 years ago I fell for the “sell products that are no longer available” scam. There was a keyboard I really wanted but it was no longer being made. However, I found an online shop that had them in stock! I ordered, paid, got my confirmation, and waited about two weeks befo…

if you're in the US you can reverse the charge, whether debit or credit card, although with a debit card you'll have to be re-issued a new one.

If enough people do chargebacks the payment processor will drop them because the ACH operator representing them will 100% fine the shit out of them if they don't. It's all contractual.

My point is, if you want to put a dent in stuff like this, do a chargeback. Like a union, the power isn't in your action, it's in the action of many.

---

But also, this is why I'm very picky and have quite often refused to purchase something I wanted. I'll trust Walmart.com in a way I won't trust momandpop.com. Unless they're using a payment process that isn't handled by them (CC via paypal, for example) I just flat won't use them.

What's worse is most people don't even consider the risk to calling in an order from a local restaurant for delivery (chinese, for example). They may or may not save your CC information and you have no idea how well those systems are secured. They're probably using a 3rd party, but you don't know who that 3rd party is so you can't even begin to assess that risk.

I'm not a fan of doordash by any means, but they do offer a service here in terms of risk assessment.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#168

Post by jacquesm »

ryandrake wrote: post #48

Great job figuring out it was a scam but honestly, it’s crazy that these things still work on anyone all the way in 2022. You would think that by now every human being that walks the earth would know that whenever someone you don’t know sends you “money” and then requests you send it back (or to another party) in a different form, it’s always a scam. There should be some ceremony whenever someone turns 16 or somethin…

I suspect that given enough effort and the right circumstances you too could be scammed. And that's pretty much the problem: scammers have near infinite time to set you up, it's their day job after all and you have a limited time to verify their bona fides.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#169

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

rippercushions wrote: post #61
silisili wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry that happened to her. There's also some mental concept where people already got started or went so far, and subconsciously don't want to believe they've been had, so keep going. I'm sure there's a name for it, I can't be bothered to look up. It's why romance scams are so common, and also why that McDonald's manager undressed that employee, for example. Fascinating, but sad.

The McDonalds manager story in question: https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3688563&page=1 Which would be completely unbelievable if there wasn't security footage of the whole thing!

jfc, that manager should be criminally culpable.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#170

Post by [deleted] »

ISO-morphism wrote: post #129
zorrolovsky wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post seem to blame victims for the problem, and that is not fair. People can be in dark places mentally, struggle with disease, family issues, etc. Not everybody is mentally sharp 100% of the time to identify a scam attack and fight it back. The problem is not victims, the problem is scammers. There should be better mechanisms to quickly clamp down on them. In this case, it would be really good if there was a me…

> This post seem to blame victims for the problem, and that is not fair. Indeed, the scammers are the bad guys. At the same time, what about people that still fall for Nigerian princes or go through their spam folder for "sex in your area" or "penis enlargement pills"? > ...verified it would gather information from Google, Dropbox sign, the bank receiving the funds... While I agree that our banking system should evol…

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