With just weeks left in 2023, you may be eyeing a career change in the new year.
"I had a good job, but I felt like my opportunities could have been a lot better," Mattea said, explaining her reasons behind her job search.
Like many job seekers, she searched online. She was looking for a remote healthcare support position and found it!
She looked the company up and, at first glance, everything seemed okay.
"They use the same software, they had a legit website," recalled Mattea.
She agreed to a virtual interview.
"My interview was through an instant messenger and I'm thinking, 'Okay, not a big deal. They're using Microsoft Teams, the same [program], you know, that my company uses.' So it wasn't like there was really any alarm bells whatsoever."
The interview went well and Mattea was offered a job and she was excited about her new prospects.
"I quit my job. I put in my two weeks. I thought everything was going good," she said. But, Mattea says things started to get fishy fast.
Mattea says the company sent her several checks for her to buy supplies for her remote setup. But, Mattea says the company name and the name on the checks didn't match and the checks didn't go through with her bank.
That's when Mattea says the company said they would email her checks, but Mattea's alarm bells were ringing loudly.
"I said to them, 'is your company a scam?' and 'I'm not gonna let you guys do this to me anymore,'" she explained.
Mattea says she never heard from them again and had to restart her job search.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Mattea is part of a growing number of people falling victim to employment scams. In 2022, the FTC received more than 94,000 reports of employment-related scams with consumers losing a whopping $367 million.
So, how can you protect yourself?
- Research is key. Look up the name of the company or person who is hiring you plus the words "scam", "review", or "complaint". In Mattea's case, the scammers were spoofing a legitimate company so on the surface many things appeared real.
- Examine the email address. Check if the emails of those offering jobs match the protocols used by an actual company. Be alert to Gmail business email addresses.
- Contact the company's HR. Double-check that through the company's website and contacts that they are actually hiring for the position.
- Don't pay for the promise of a job.
- Never bank on a 'cleared' check. The Better Business Bureau is unaware of any legitimate job offers that send checks to applicants and ask them to send money to a third party.
It's important that victims of job scams report them. File a report with the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.
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