On the job hunt? Fake job costs Valley man thousands

Mark Ainsworth says he’s been looking for a full-time job for almost three years – with no luck.

"I was on Indeed, and I've been on Craigslist, I've been on Career Builder,” he said. “About every employment website you can think of, I've been there.”

 “You get to a point where, if it looks legitimate, if I can make $5,400 a month, I mean, who wouldn’t?” he asked.

That high pay should have been a big warning sign, but Mark took the job. They needed him to buy electronic goods and ship them to foreign countries, he said. He’d use his credit card to buy the goods, and the business would pay the bill.

He made one purchase, and said the bank approved the funds. Then he made another. But, less than two weeks after he started the job, his credit card company told him the funds from the company couldn’t be approved.

He tried to call his boss in New York, but there was no answer.

“Now I just get a generic voicemail,” he said. He had been talking to her every day since he had accepted the job, but now, she was gone.

Mark said he charged more than $4,000 to his credit card in those two weeks – money he now has to pay back.

He says he checked scam websites and the FBI’s site before accepting the job, and the company looked legitimate. But now, he knows the one thing that should have been a red flag for him.

“If it’s too good to be true,” he said, “it must be.”

If this happens to you, change any financial information you gave away, and file complaints with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office , the Federal Trade Commission , the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service .

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