MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG is on your side with a scam alert.
It includes counterfeit checks good enough to fool a bank teller and crooks slick enough to convince a woman to quit her job!
In fact, job candidates have become targets for an old scam with a new twist.
It’s called scraping.
Scammers steal links and information from job search websites to create their own.
The job seeker’s personal information often gets hijacked too.
“It’s really easy to go online and steal information that an actual company posted, things like their logo and the job description,” says Nancy Crawford of the Better Business Bureau.
For Mariechen McGruder, it all started with a text message.
“The lady said ‘I’m from Blue Cross Blue Shield, we’ve been trying to contact you about a position that you had applied for.'”
McGruder had in fact applied for a job with the insurance company.
She was looking for part-time, at-home work which she’d done before.
“The text said that they for some reason, it wasn’t going through to my email address that I’d included on my resume,” McGruder told WREG.
So McGruder says she began a series of interviews by instant message.
“We’re very pleased to offer you the position of Administrative Assistant,” explains McGruder of what the person on the other end of the messages told her.
McGruder’s first task was to purchase home office equipment.
She said the representative sent her more than a $1000 by certified check, which she questioned and even verified with her bank.
“Teller at the bank said ‘yes, it’s just like cash.'”
Except it wasn’t.
Days later McGruder’s account was overdrawn, but not before the crooks sent her two more checks but this time drawn on other businesses.
“I got sick inside, I know then I’d been scammed,” said McGruder.
McGruder isn’t alone.
The BBB recently issued a similar alert about a scam targeting businesses.
Crawford says crooks are getting more creative, but there are red flags.
“Anytime you get a check, and they ask you to deposit it and send some of it back to them, chances are it’s a scam.”
A Blue Cross, Blue Shield spokesperson says it found out about local job applicants being targeted a couple of months ago.
So far, the company has heard from seven victims.
The spokesperson confirmed its website and systems were not compromised, and it’s contacting victims and reporting it to authorities.
She also said applicants can visit the company’s website to apply for jobs, and BCBS will not ask for upfront payments.
Unfortunately, McGruder has yet to find employment.
She left her other job.
“I quit a full-time job with benefits,” she said.
Which is the reason she says she’s telling her story.
Experts say it’s critical for job applicants to verify positions with a company either by phone or the actual company website.
