Fraud: Red Flags and Mitigation

To everyone here on LinkedIn,

A few months ago, I was approached by a "recruiter" from a big digital asset trading platform and he asked me if I’d like to join the hiring process for a COO position for the new office in Los Angeles.

Happiness was the first feeling because I always dreamed to work in the United States and I said yes, of course! I was thrilled!

The next step was a video conference with the person responsible for the implementation, who I understood would be my boss. She explained more about the position and hte expectations about this new COO. There were several messages on WhatsApp and sehe provided me with the hiring package and she confirmed that the job was mine.

After that, I received an email from HR and an invitation to join the off-site that "would take place" in December and they would provide flight tickets and accommodation to me. I shuuld touchdown LA one day before in order to finish the hiring process.

But the conversation with my "future boss" continued till, at certain point, I started to find somethings and some comments quite strange. Once it was a friday, I had the entire weekend to dig.

So, I started my own due diligence to see if all that was true.

Starting with the basics, I noticed that "my boss" didn't have a profile here on LinkedIn, and the "recruiter" had a profile but no photo and no connections.

My next step was to reach out to somebody in the Head Office trying to speak with someone from HR. Contact made, I explained the scenario and I sent copies of the messages and emails, and they confirmed to me that the people who contacted me did not work for the company.

Ok, frustration and case closed! Until last month, when I received another contact from another big digital asset trading platform. Almost same scenario and conditions!

Once this other company has an office in Brazil, it was a little bit easier, and I sent them a message and received confirmation that it was another fraud. Moreover, their global HR had already notified the entire network about such cases.

To conclude, yesterday, another episode followed the same standards, and to my surprise, it was about a position posted by the company here on LinkedIn but at this time, I didn't even bother to respond. I just ignored it!!

After these episodes, I am still reflecting about what should be gained for these people? What they would like to achieve. Document or Identity theft?

So, I decided to share these incidents with you All wishing that anyone of you had the same bad experience and to ask you to be very careful when responding to messages and ads. Be diligent! Before sharing any information, try to contact the source of the ad and check if the people contacting you really works for the companies. Check the email domains to see if they are genuine, as the ones I received always had a "." or a "-" in the middle of the name.

I will be available to everyone to clarify any additional doubts or even share the messages that I received (always protecting the identity of the firms).

Also, in this article, I did not disclose the companies' names out for respect and knowing that each one of them is already taking all precautions to mitigate this type of situation.

Thank you very much.