Submitted by the Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland
Employment scams are on the rise in the turbulent job market created by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new Better Business Bureau® (BBB®) study finds. BBB warns job seekers to verify employment offers to avoid illegal jobs, identity theft and fake checks to which millions are exposed annually. The in-depth investigative study — Job Scams: BBB study finds job scams increased during pandemic, warns job seekers to verify employment offers to avoid illegal jobs, identity theft and fake checks — details the many forms employment fraud takes and the scams that often result.
Job scams have been a problem for years. In 2020, BBB estimated 14 million victims with $2 billion in direct losses related to job scams. Last year, the 2020 BBB Employment Scams Report by BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust found job scams to be the riskiest of all the scams they tracked in 2018 and 2019. However, BBB’s study finds that the problem worsened in 2020. Losses reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) about employment scams were up 27% between 2018 and 2020.
BBB Institute’s 2020 report on job scams found that this fraud most commonly victimized people ages 25-34, with women filing 67% of complaints about this fraud. The median financial loss reported by these victims was $1,000. In addition, they often reported loss of their time, as 32% were never paid for the work they did for an “employer” that turned out to be fraudulent.
Identity theft is a common outcome of job scams, as scammers often steal job seekers’ personal information to open bank accounts to further their fraud. BBB found 34% of victims provided their driver’s license number and 25% provided their Social Security or Social Insurance number.
Fake checks also frequently accompany job scams, and they continue to grow. This new BBB study finds that 36% of job scam complaints to BBB involved a fake check, with fake check complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) increasing by 65% between 2015 and 2020. Common fraudulent job offers involving fake checks include mystery shopping or secret shopper jobs, car wrap jobs, nanny or caregiver jobs, and small business jobs such as photography or painting houses.
A Maple Heights woman contacted BBB after she received a notification on her cell phone from Bitcoin ATM Machine. “It said if I needed a job to fill out the application. I filled out the application to work for them. I provided my name, address, and phone number. They sent me a check for $2850 to evaluate Bitcoin ATM machines. I received the delivery by FedEx today (and) I was to deposit the check into my checking account.” The consumer was advised to wait two days and withdraw $1,850 but keep $1,000 for herself. The woman did not deposit the check because she said “I felt this was too good to be true” and contacted BBB instead.
Employment scam victims frequently become unwitting accomplices in other fraud, used as money mules, to mail fake checks, or to participate in reshipping scams, which represent 65% of the scam job offers reported to BBB Scam Tracker. Scammers “hire” victims from job boards, Facebook, or Craigslist, offering to pay them as much as $2,500 to receive and then send packages.
Tips to avoid job scams:
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Research the job offer. Call or go directly to the actual company’s website for contact information to verify the job posting and also check the company’s profile at BBB.org. Do an internet search with the name of the employer and the word “scam” to see if there are reports involving job scams.
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Examine the email address of those offering jobs to see if it matches the protocols used by an actual company. Be suspicious of companies using gmail, or other free, email addresses
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Consider creating a separate email address when posting a resume on job boards or applying for jobs. This can help detect “offers” from scam employers you did not contact.
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Beware of jobs that involve receiving and forwarding money. Be very wary of mystery shopping or secret shopper positions. Work-from-home jobs that involve receiving and reshipping packages are likely scams. If you’re paying for the promise of a job, it’s most likely a scam.
Consumers can also report suspected scams to BBB.org/ScamTracker. These reports help others avoid falling victim to scams. Consumers can also visit the Scam Tracker website to view the latest reported scams in their neighborhood or across North America.
