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A fake job offer gone wrong

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Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#271

Post by TillE »

guerrilla wrote: post #261
nonrandomstring wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheques are a very useful and quite secure method of transaction (because all the security work and processing framework to prevent cheque fraud has been in place since the 1970s). They are slow. That's the point. They are essentially a two factor method of instruction to your bank. Legally (in Britain at least) one can use any reasonable method to give instructions to ones bank. Banks that want to "phase them out" b…

I don't think you realize how easy and secure things are in Europe.

Yeah you just enter your recipient's IBAN in your 2FA banking app, and that's it. The transfer gets processed in about a business day.

If you want the "check" experience, you can also fill out that information in a form and hand it to a bank teller.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#272

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

grepfru_it wrote: post #264
jacurtis wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least your daughter went through a full interview, which does add a layer of legitimacy. The most shocking element of OP's story is that he never actually got interviewed by a real person. He filled out a questionaire, received no feedback from it other than "You're hired at 12.5% more than you're asking". This to me is the biggest red flag of all leading up to the actual "ask" to cash the check and send funds. It…

why why why would you send money to someone who would ask you to send it back. why can't they just convert that money state themselves? i always wonder how people end up for these scams. unless its your very close friend or family, don't launder money. i think this is a life lesson we learn in middle school and grow up to think adults are more trustworthy

> unless its your very close friend or family, don't launder money. i think this is a life lesson we learn in middle school

Sorry, what middle school child learned that? None that I know.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#273

Post by ghaff »

machina_ex_deus wrote: post #166
Jiro wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's very culturally specific. Definitely not WASPy normal in the US.

Traditionally, people often registered somewhere like a department store or a kitchen goods store. Some of the function of gifts was historically to get a young couple moving out of their parents' houses a start. Of course, these days a lot of people are pretty well set-up before they get married.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#274

Post by WesleyJohnson »

My wife almost got taken by a similar scam very recently, but for a remote content editor position. She was applying for various jobs, but one she didn't apply reached out to her. As she had been looking for a little while, but only finding opportunities that didn't quite fit what she needed in terms of pay, hours and schedule flexibility - when she was offered a position that checked all the boxes she was ecstatic.

I'll spare the full back and forth, but the scam was somewhat similar in the setup. The send you a check, but instead of you wiring it back to them, you use the funds to purchase your remote equipment from THEIR online store. They have specific requirements on what kind of setup you need and claim it's easier for you to buy it from them in a bundle.

I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to the correspondence between her and the "employer", but once she told me that I knew it wasn't legit. Why wouldn't they just send you equipment instead of check to buy it from them? We played along for a little bit longer, mostly because she wanted to believe it was legitimate and her pride was hurt. When they asked her to print a check from an email and then deposit that with her mobile app, she saw the writing on the wall.

She was very, very hurt and felt silly having to go back to friends and family and let them know she wasn't gainfully employed, after all. But thankfully we figured it out before we were out any money.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#275

Post by guerrilla »

TillE wrote: post #271
guerrilla wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you realize how easy and secure things are in Europe.

Yeah you just enter your recipient's IBAN in your 2FA banking app, and that's it. The transfer gets processed in about a business day. If you want the "check" experience, you can also fill out that information in a form and hand it to a bank teller.

Yeah and that's the "old" way. We can do it even faster here with local bank transfer, and then instantly with Swish.

We barely have bank outlets let alone tellers here though. That's the downside. Trying to deposit cash or check is quite painful.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#276

Post by trollied »

furyofantares wrote: post #7
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 still pay landscapers, cleaning folks, and a nanny that way

But the butler prefers a bank transfer? :)

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#277

Post by andix »

I think it's quite simple: If you are starting a job, the company pays you. Never ever should you spend a significant amount of money before receiving the first pay check.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#278

Post by ryandrake »

zorrolovsky wrote: post #103
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…

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…

Totally not blaming the victim, just surprised that knowledge about these scams and how they work isn't as widespread as I'd have expected. We are grateful OP posted here and spread that knowledge a little further. It's a shame that these things don't just get taught to schoolchildren--too many people learn these things for the first time as a result of being victimized.

Suggesting people arm themselves with knowledge and use that knowledge for prevention is not really the same thing as assigning blame.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#279

Post by ghaff »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #164
itgoon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's true in the US as well. Lots of small businesses just use gmail.

Re: A fake job offer gone wrong

#280

Post by simne »

tlogan wrote: post #247

One thing what does not help is that legit companies and businesses act as scammers. I receive also a valid calls from companies and email which look 100% as scam. Just recently I got call from hospital about upcoming my procedure (I did not answer — all unverified calls go to vmail) and when I called back the hospital and they had no clue. But it was a valid call: they outsourced all these things to company x which…

Sorry, but Your case with hospital, is very similar to typical corporative chaos, when because of CAP theorem (corporations are distributed systems by definition), information delays unavoidable, and one department already know information, and others have no clue.

Sure, CAP theorem, is not reason to pardon chaos.

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