Job Seekers Beware of Scams Like This! -PART THREE-

Last week I told you about an email I received out of nowhere claiming that an unknown party had referred me to a recruiter for an unnamed job with an unnamed company and that the recruiter in question desperately wanted me to send me a copy of my resume because they felt that I was a "credible candidate". If you haven't read Part One or TWO, please do?HERE? and HERE as the rest of this won't make much sense without it.

When we last left off, I had just sent 50 bucks over to a website that promised to make my resume "ATS" compatible at the direction of Mr. Samuel Palmer who assured me that I was a great fit for a job he was recruiting for. Although he couldn't give me any details, such as location, industry, function or compensation, he assured me that all he needed was a copy of my resume to present to his client; one that wouldn't be rejected by his client's ATS and then that information would be forthcoming.

It's now five days later and now the other shoe has dropped. It turns out I DID get something for my $50. I got a PDF copy of my resume. For fifty bucks.

But I also got something else. As I mentioned in Part TWO of this article, I used a "burner credit card" generated by an app on my phone called "Privacy" to pay for this little experiment. The way Privacy works is that you determine whether or not you want to use the burner number once or multiple times, to what limit you will allow charges on it and whether or not to replenish the card automatically with funds. I chose to allow multiple charges on the number, with a limit of $50 per transaction and funded the card with $55 dollars just in case there were taxes or fees I might run into. The beauty of using this method is that once established, you get notified who and when an attempt to put a charge through on the card is made via the app. This credit card number was essentially my "bait" for the scammers.

I saw the first charge come through on the card for a straight fifty dollars about a hour before the PDF of my resume was sent to me. "Okay", I thought, "that was expected". But then only a few minutes later I got three more transactions notification from the app in the amounts of $834 dollars on Amazon.com , $572 on Nike.com and $912 on Bed Bath and Beyond's website. All of these, of course, were denied as there was only $5 left on the burner card, but now the full extent of Mr. Palmer's scam was apparent.

I wasn't done yet though, as I still had a resume to deliver to Mr. Palmer to see about this position for which I was a "credible candidate". So I sent off my newly minted PDF copy of my resume to him (again, with a pixel tracker onboard) to see what the response would be. And to his credit, Mr. Palmer read the email right away (he must be a busy guy, juggling not one, but TWO scam websites). But it wasn't until later that evening I got the response that I was expecting.

Hello, 

Unfortunately the client has decided to go in a different direction.  Thank you for your intereste and we will keep you in mind for further opportunities.
Regards,
Samuel? ?Palmer
Recruitment Director
,

        

Again with the bad punctuation and spelling. But now we know the extent of Mr. Palmer's scheme. It's pretty ingenious actually, since at first glance it appears that the two websites are unrelated and, at least from the outside appears that one transaction is not related to the other. The entire scam goes something like this:

1) Send out the "bait" email to an unsuspecting job seeker, with the promise of a C-Level position and promising the mark that they are a "credible candidate". Ask for a copy of the mark's resume and assure them that you won't be asking for any renumeration for this endeavor, as you work for a retained recruiting company.

2) Respond to the mark's resume submission with another email reenforcing that they are a good candidate for this position, and the only thing holding up their application is a minor formatting issue with their resume. Assure them that they can get this reconciled at a website that you refer them to.

3) Steal (there is no other way to say this) the credit card information submitted on the referred website and use it at will. Respond to the mark's submission with a PDF copy of whatever document they submitted so as to appear to be a "legitimate business". In the meantime, go on a shopping spree with their credit card.

4) When the mark submits their resume back to the "recruiter", inform them that the job is closed, or the client has gone in a different direction, or some other excuse to shine off the candidate.

5) Wash, rinse and repeat with the next person on your list.

Key Take Aways:        

I'd love to say that this is a one off situation, but after following this trail of breadcrumbs to its conclusion, I did a little research and found that I'm not alone in being targeted by this scam. Apparently it's been around for a while. I took some of the language in the emails and did a search of my own email archive out of curiosity. I'm not sure why Mr. Palmer's email got through to me this time, but I found TWO other emails of almost exactly the same format and language in my Spam folders from other scammers working under different names, but the exact same pitch. One from a Mr. Chris Kelly, with SE Recruitment Agency Inc., and one from a Mr. Anthony Hall from The Right Recruitment Inc. None of these people or companies actually exist, but the scheme is the same.

My Ask of You        

I'll be the first to admit I took this scam personally. It would have been bad enough if I had wasted $50 dollars on something that I could have done for free myself, but to up the ante by trying to steal from me by using my credit card information really ticked me off. By my very nature, I feel the need to expose anyone who is trying to take advantage of people, for the rotten apples they are. I have a real problem with folks being treated unfairly or (especially) taken advantage of, when they are the least able to defend themselves. And that is exactly what the dirtbags running this and similar scams, are doing. So I have an ask of you to help me stop this scam. Please share this article with your network. So whether or not someone is looking for their next opportunity or just think that they are finally the "lucky one" who got noticed by a recruiter who is going to help them with a step up in their career, they don't get taken in by this scam. Anyone who preys on the vulnerable like this should not only be shut down, but prosecuted, and if I had the power to do that, I would. But since I don't, the best I can do is spread the word. Please help me do that.

Best of luck to everyone looking for their next opportunity, and stay vigilant!

TL:DR        

Received a scam email saying I was the perfect candidate for a job, but that my resume wasn't formatted correctly. Scammer #1 referred me to another website who could format it for a price - Scammer#2 returned my resume in PDF format and stole my credit card information, in the process. Scammer #1 responds to my PDF resume by saying job is closed/client went in different direction . Scammer#1 and Scammer#2 are either the same person or in cahoots. Avoid anyone who doesn't give you even a minimum amount of detail for a job they are trying to pitch to you and NEVER spend money to reformat your resume to go into anyone's ATS system. That's just pure bunk!