New kind of job scam?

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Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

I apologize if this has been mentioned before. I tried doing a search but it came up with nothing.

My husband has grown dissatisfied with his current job and has recently turned to the scam minefield that is Craigslist for new employment opporotunities. Lately, he's been getting quite a few e-mails offering him an interview, just as soon as he provides their comany's website with his personal details so that they can run a credit check on him. They claim that the credit check has no bearing on his application and is merely an easier and more cost effective way of verifying his identity than doing so in person. This is absolute crap, of course. I used to be an administrative assistant and part of my job entailed verifying the identities of new employees. Federal law, including the Patriot Act, mandates that this be done in person. [/end rant]

Anway, even my not very tech-savvy nor street-smart husband knew right away that this was a scam. My question is, has anyone else encountered this before?

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:26 am

For some months now, I'm a regular over at ScamWarners and haven't read that line yet. It may be an invention of a scammer the other ones thought might make the scam more plausible and copied. - Or did they ask for the credit card's details? Laughing

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

Nope, they don't ask for creidt cards or bank details. They ask you to e-mail them your name, address, phone number, ID number, and social security number. It's pretty sophisticated. They even link to an official looking site which makes it look like they're registered with Experian and that this whole credit check thing is legit.

It's got Mr. BearSeason pretty pissed. He's sending his resume out en masse and he's gets about 3-5 of these a day. I'll tell him to save the next one he gets in case there's any info I'm leaving out.

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 8:02 am

Please post these scams over at ScamWarners if you haven't already done so, they will help others to avoid losing money or becoming victims of identity theft.

And site killers will be interested in those fake sites.

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 9:26 am

I am as curious as Jeannette - that they want the social security number is weird.
A posting as scamwarners is the best idea and maybe you can answer them with details from http://de.fakenamegenerator.com/
I would love to know what the second mail is going to be...

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

I'm very curious about where this would go, as well. It smells like an identity theft scheme. Unfortunately, Mr. BearSeason deleted all the e-mails out of frustration and anger and he says he hasn't gotten any new ones in a few days. He's promised to keep an eye out for the listing though and if he gets another in his inbox, he'll be forwarding it along to me. I'll definitely post everything I can here and at ScamWarners once I have more info.

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 4:59 pm

With the economic crisis, employment scams have risen dramatically. Victims don't only lose money, but if it's a cheque or cc scam, they run the risk to end up in jail. And being the victim of identity theft must be a nightmare.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

This sounds like a credit check affiliate type of scam. They'll insist you use their suggested site for the credit check, not one you select on your own.

There is an example posted here: http://consumerist.com/2009/02/dont-fall-for-the-job-hunting-credit-report-scam.html
There are several examples scattered around ScamWarners.com, one is here: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=14983

Scroll down to see posts by Dotti explaining more about the scam.

Edit to add: Here's another example, with a nice explanation by Dotti: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=38171

Dotti, at ScamWarners.com wrote:

How it works is simple:
-The scammer signs up as an affiliate of a credit report monitoring company, so far it has always been creditreport.com
-scammer creates bogus website that ultimately redirects to the credit company.
-scammer posts fake job ads, or housing for sale/rent ads.
-scammer tells victim to get a credit report, and directs him/her to fake site.
-victim clicks on fake site and follows link to creditreport.com The scammer has set up the site so that if the victim clicks through that fake site, he gets credit for referring the victim.
-victim signs up for free credit report. What victim may or may not realize is that going for the free credit report automatically signs him/her up for credit monitoring at a monthly fee.
-victim gives report or score to scammer. Scammer stalls a bit or then tells victim that job/apartment is no longer available. (Theoretically, if the victim has given the report to the scammer, he can then move on to identity theft, though so far we haven't seen this happen.)
-If victim doesn't cancel credit monitoring service (and many have reported that creditreport.com makes it difficult to successfully cancel)--company starts charging victim's credit card for monitoring service.
-if victim's credit card is successfully charged, scammer gets an affiliate fee from creditreport.com - last I checked, it was $24 per person. This is what scammer is after.

So the scammer posts the ads in dozens of advertising sites, then simply sends out scripted responses--and ultimately pulls in thousands of dollars for very little work.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

This one seems to be a little bit different than the ones listed over at scam warners. From what my husband is telling me, they never asked for money or a credit card number. They wanted him to e-mail his personal details to them under the guise that they would run the credit check. The website that they had set up was only intended to make it seem as though they are legitemately registered with Experian for this purpose. I really wish I could get my hands on those e-mails.

Also, upon further reflection, I realize I probably should have titled this thread "A new kind of phishing scam" since that seem more in line with what's really going on here. If any mod wants to change that, feel free.