Job scams are one of the more popular fraud schemes happening to people all over the world. Tune into Money I’m Home as Lynne is joined by Consumers Fraud Specialist Kristy Desimone to help educate our communities on how to be vigilant in the face of fraudsters.

 

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0:00:06.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m Home, welcome in! I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. And from finance to fitness you know we’ve got it all for you. We are so excited because every month we have been delivering on what is very, very important not only to members, but to us too! And that is really helping people dig deep into making sure that they stay away from fraud. And you know what, everything going on in the internet and technology just building, and you hear new terms every day, we just love the fact that Kristy Desimone who is our senior fraud specialist, comes on once a month to really tell us what’s going on out there because seriously, Kristy, these things pop up over night?

0:00:48.1 Kristy Desimone (KD): Oh yeah, it rotates between various scams and the new ones pop up, and we have to try and educate our members as quickly as possible, so it’s always changing. [chuckle]

0:00:57.8 LJJ: I do love the fact that we’re very proactive in the sense that if all of a sudden our members are coming in to our offices or they’re picking up the phone or sending us messages through social media, you can kind of tell when trends are happening or when something’s going on out there. So, it’s really important, always kind of pay attention, don’t be afraid to ask is the number one thing we say when you’re dealing with something that seems too good to be true. What’s our topic today, Kristy?

0:01:26.3 KD: Yeah, so we’re talking about job scams. So, this has really come to light with the remote working world after the pandemic, and a lot of companies started hiring for remote positions, we started to see a huge increase in a job scam that is starting on different websites that offer listings for jobs. So what happens is someone will reach out to you, or you’ll reach out to a post that you find on a different job website, and they’ll be like, “Hey, we’ll give you a check, we’ll send it to you, and you will just need to pay a vendor and there are large checks,” and one of the key signs that we look for is no interviewing. So, I get a lot of responses, “Well, it’s remote, so they didn’t interview me.” Well, they still do like a Zoom interview, I remember when we were going through the hiring process and couldn’t bring people in for specific reasons due to COVID and we still did Zoom interviews or did some type of online interview so we could meet the person face-to-face. So, it still happens with remote jobs, and I think that’s what people are kind of a little confused with. [chuckle]

0:02:33.3 LJJ: I never even thought about that, that you could kind of assume, “Well, I’m remote, so I really don’t… They are just getting me information and then I’m going to start working.” But really, do they pretend even like they are signing on bonuses or what’s going on?

0:02:49.1 KD: So, they say it’s like your first paycheck with a little extra to pay a vendor for supplies that you need or for a computer. So, they’ll give you some type of information to send funds to an account number or cash app or a gift card, and you’ll send it to their vendor who will then give you your computer or your office supplies, which never happens, obviously.

0:03:10.8 LJJ: You know, that’s really scary too, because what’s the recourse of something like that.

0:03:14.6 KD: Right, so what we can do is we can stop the check from going through and save the member the funds that are in their account and protect them from losing those funds, since when you deposit a check, you take responsibility for it. But after that, it really is hard to kind of catch these people. Sometimes we recommend reaching out to the site that you found the job on and letting them know that it’s a scam posting so they can take it down so it doesn’t affect other people.

0:03:42.9 LJJ: Oh, you know, that’s a very good point to really make sure that you tell people this happened and not be afraid. Some people might be embarrassed, but it really can help someone, the next person.

0:03:54.2 KD: 100%, some of the conversations are tough because someone is so excited about getting a job and they’ve got a paycheck and they’re ready to get rolling, and we have to call and say, “Hey, unfortunately, we believe this is part of a job scam,” but they are more than happy that we protect them and are able to recognize it before they send funds, which is good because that’s the scary part is once you send funds, sometimes we can’t get those back. [chuckle] So, we want to try and get you before that happens.

0:04:22.7 LJJ: It is so interesting to me how fast these different scams just pop up. And then the knowledge of what they know about you or what they can find out about you relatively quickly to make you believe something that’s not true.

0:04:42.5 KD: Right, exactly. We call that social engineering, so they find out information about you online or they ask questions that are geared towards gaining access to specific information. So, if they ask you, “Hey, do you have any pets?” Maybe they’re trying to figure out if your passwords are related to your pet names. Yeah, things like that, that you just think are normal conversation starters that they’re trying to get to know you through text message or Instant Messenger or stuff like that, are ways that they can gear to get information on how to get into your accounts.

0:05:13.7 LJJ: And Kristy really what is one of the number one things? Is it really to just if you got an inkling that there’s a red flag, if it’s too good to be true?

0:05:21.7 KD: Yeah, so if you don’t interview and they just automatically send you a check, there is a high probability that it is a scam. And we want to believe that most employers at this point have our best interests at heart, but these are people that are not employers and they are just pretending and they just really want access to funds as quickly as possible.

0:05:43.1 LJJ: Wow. Well, Kristy, thank you so much. Job scams. Next month, we’re also going to talk about… Oh, I’ll tell you what, the eyes twinkle when you hear it, don’t think, get rich quick schemes, that’s coming up next month.

0:05:57.0 KD: Awesome.

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0:05:57.4 LJJ: Thank you Kristy. Hey, thank you for joining us today. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson, Money I’m Home with Consumers Credit Union. We’d like to give a shout out to Jake Esselink. Jake thanks so much for your production skills. If you have a topic, you know something, if you want to tell your story to help our members, please reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you because that is the most important component about what we’re trying to do here is really get brought out of everybody’s life.

0:06:24.3 KD: Yes.

0:06:24.4 LJJ: We’re going to get rid of these scammers, Kristy.

0:06:27.3 KD: That’s what our goal is, we’re going to get rid of them, or if we can’t get rid of them, at least we can make you smarter than them.

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0:06:32.9 LJJ: And protect you. Thanks again. Money I’m Home with Consumers Credit Union.

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