Woman scammed after pursuing employment through popular job site

Like so many people looking for work right now, a Fuquay-Varina woman posted her resume online. Potential employers reached out. But one unusual interview has her warning others.

The email looked promising, a company’s "…recruitment team had reviewed her resume."

"I was saying, wow, you know, let me try to do my best because I want to be hired. I need a job!," said Aurea Berrios.

She posted her resume on CareerBuilder.com and was excited when a recruiter emailed her to schedule an interview on Skype.

Although, it was not a typical video Skype.

"I’ve never done anything like this, mean on Zoom, fine, but Skype?" said Berrios of the new interview process. "Just typing back and forth, I’ve never done this. And, I’m thinking well, this something new. And she says, `yeah, this is something new that we’re trying out.’"

It was a 2-hour, detailed text chat.

Berrios says the interviewer asked questions including what’s more important to her in work, creativity or efficiency? The interviewer pointing out the data-entry work is very repetitive, and asking if Berrios was okay with that.

Then, said Berrios, "She says, give me a few minutes. I’m going to forward our entire conversation to the HR department’."

Berrios noticed typos, but brushed them off thinking we all do that.

Before the chat was done, Berrios had an offer letter showing the corporate logo, from an email address that included the company name.

She was hopeful, but still skeptical.

Berrios says the interviewer stressed that they would never request additional personal information until training starts.

The FBI warns fake Job listings have existed for decades.

But the current online interview boom makes scams easy to pull off, and much more lucrative.

Cyber criminals pose as legitimate employers, spoofing company websites and posting fake "opportunities" on well known online job boards.

They do extensive interviews to eventually get to additional personal information and cause trouble that way — names, addresses, social security numbers and birth dates.

"They make it look so legitimate that, you know, you like second guess yourself," said Berrios thinking of the chat. "I’ve been to job interviews and they’ve asked me a lot of these questions."

The final straw for Berrios, "I said, is it possible to do this with video? She says, `not at this moment, this [sic] is my working hours. I am currently preoccupied with work at the moment," Berrios recalled. "And I’m thinking, hello? I mean, she should be preoccupied with me. I mean, she’s interviewing me, giving me information."

Berrios ended the chat and contacted 5 On Your Side.

"It’s awful," she said. "And that’s why I contacted you because I said people out there need to know what’s going on."

Berrios contacted the legitimate company she thought she applied to and got confirmation that text interview was fake.

The CEO wrote back saying they may now post a warning on social media to protect others.

The FBI says the average victim of this type of scam loses about $3,000.

The agency offers these additional warning signs:

• Interviews are not conducted in-person or through a secure video call.
• Interviews are conducted via teleconference applications that use email addresses instead of phone numbers.
• Potential employers contact victims through non-company email domains and teleconference applications.
• Potential employers require employees to purchase start-up equipment from the company.
• Potential employers require employees to pay upfront for background investigations or screenings.
• Potential employers request credit card information.
• Potential employers send an employment contract to physically sign asking for PII
• Job postings appear on job boards, but not on the companies’ websites.
• Recruiters or managers do not have profiles on the job board, or the profiles do not seem to fit their roles.

If you are a victim of an employment scam, the FBI recommends taking the following actions:

• Report the activity to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov
• Report the activity to the website in which the job posting was listed.
• Report the activity to the company the cyber criminals impersonated.
• Contact your financial institution immediately upon discovering any fraudulent or suspicious activity and direct them to stop or reverse the transactions.
• Ask your financial institution to contact the corresponding financial institution where the fraudulent or suspicious transfer was sent.