#PSA: Be aware of scams when looking for a new job.

Have you ever had that tingling on the back of your neck that makes you look twice, or gives you the feeling something’s not right? Well, I got that very feeling last week when contacted via text from someone that appeared to be a recruiter. Recruiters contacting me is not unusual, I am active on LinkedIn and in the overall HR community. Lately even getting the first contact via text is not unheard of, in fact given my schedule and general busyness I prefer to have contact via text or IM chat over talking on phone calls. Below is my encounter with what I am assuming is a recruiting-based scam. I am going to include as many details as possible for a couple of reasons; first, I want you, the reader, to have as many details as I can provide to protect yourselves by being fully armed with the information. Two, they are using a company’s and a person’s profile that I have a feeling is unaware they are being used. I have tried to contact them but I’m hoping they will find out and take measures to protect themselves and their reputation. On the off chance that I am wrong maybe they, or someone that knows them, will contact me and confirm the legitimacy of the company and the job offer. 

There were a lot of red flags that stopped me from sending any information but he’s being very persistent and so I thought I would put a warning out there. Maybe I’m wrong, and if any of you know one way or the other feel free to reach out and let me know.

Below are the details as they transpired….  

Early last week I got an unsolicited text from an Eric at “Betterment Financial Company” at (646) 547-8418. He opened by using my full name and saying “good evening”. I ignored the first two texts thinking it was a robot. While I am looking forward to our soon to come robot overlords, as of lately they are not great conversationalists. However the next day he texted a third time and that is when he said “I am Eric from Betterment Financial Company” “Are you still interested in the Opening ?”. I am always willing to talk to recruiters because you never know when something will lead to a better opportunity, so I wrote back (yes I know, I know … I opened the door). I simply wrote back ‘Can you tell me about the position? Job Description, rate of pay, location, etc.?’. This is when he gave me more details AND when the first of many red flags appeared. He wrote (sic)”This is strictly an online and work from home job the working hours are flexible and you can choose to work from home or anywhere of your choice. The pay is $52 per hour / training is $19 per hour , you will be get paid bi weekly via direct deposit or paycheck, the maximum amount you can work a week is 45 hours. if you are employed you will be working as a full time employee and not an independent contractor.

THE DUTIES ARE:

 1. Answering telephones calls

2. Create and modify documents using Microsoft Office.

 3. Perform general clerical duties to include but not limited to: photocopying, faxing, mailing, and filing.Also perform Records keeping, keyboarding/data entry and performing a variety of other office tasks account balancing, invoicing recording,proper data analysis of sales records and recording pay slips into accounting database all these will be done through the use of the Accounting Software, such as faxing or emailing confidently and positive attitude Online from home.

 Can you handle all of these duties effectively?”

High rate of pay, fairly low responsibility, work from anywhere … yes, I saw the indicators, but hey you never know. So I responded saying ‘It sounds great.  A little too good in fact. Can you send me a link where I can see the company and the job? I'd like to do a little research.’ This he did … well sorta. He texted “ Here's the company website ( www.betterment.com )”. That was at the end of the day so I went home and started my research. The company exists there is even Glassdoor reviews (https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Betterment-Reviews-E817462.htm), and a LinkedIn profile (https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/betterment/). But I didn’t see anything about a remote data entry position. Oh, and did I mention that there is nothing in my resume that would strike the average recruiter that I have any skill or interest in Data Entry work. The next day he texted again and he asked if I was available for an interview. I told him I was working. He said they interview via chat on Google Hangouts. If not a neon red flag, it was slightly faded red, but I said ok (I know, I know …. ). Within a few minutes, I received a Google Hangout message from a Chris Bischoff. Of course, the first thing I did was look him up on LinkedIn. There is a profile that matched the picture he used in Hangouts (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/chris-bischoff-65394828/) but another red flag was the fact that the company is based in NYC, but the profile indicated he worked for a whole different company in London. I think it is very possible that Chris is a real person who’s profile has been commandeered. 

I won’t get into the whole Hangout “interview”, sufficed to say it was just professional enough to keep me on the line and think this could maybe be legit. It included basic interview questions, but he didn’t answer a lot of my questions, and he really didn’t seem to care much about my answers. In addition, it was obvious that English was not his first language so it was often difficult to determine what information he was conveying or asking for. He talked about training and he even said they would be sending me a Macbook laptop that I would be useing for the job. Then he mentioned that they would send a check so I could get the time tracking software that I would need on the laptop (NEXT RED FLAG). I have since figured out that this most likely is where the scam part comes in. According to a very informative article I read by Alison Doyle (https://www.thebalancecareers.com/data-entry-scams-examples-and-how-to-avoid-them-2062165), the scammer will send you a check and then have you send money to them or a third party vendor they work with (which is what he indicated I would need to do) before you realize the check is no good. I would hope that I would have been at least cautious enough to wait until the check completely cleared before doing anything. But there are other things I could envision like inadvertently giving them access to my bank accounts at all. 

I think the biggest red flag (like a giant flashing neon red one) was when at the end of the interview, he offered me a job on the spot and said he would email me an offer letter and “new hire packet”. I received the email (from his [email protected] account, note: not a work email from @betterment.com) with a badly written offer letter and a W4 ONLY. I asked him about the rest of the New Hire Packet and he said that was all they needed. All I had to do was sign the offer letter, and fill out the W4 (I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence that that would mean they would have not only all my personal information but also my SS# and my signature) and return it so they could send me the check and the laptop. At one point I asked him to email me from his work address. He ignored the request twice and then when I asked a third time he said this is the email I could respond to. I also worked into the conversation the name of one of the founders of Betterment (I found the name through a Google search), he had no idea who that was and even asked me who I was talking about. 

At this point, I was done. But apparently, he was not. He kept messaging me through Hangouts insisting that I fill out and return the “document” that day so they could get the process started. I looked up the officers for Betterment and sent those I could find a message on Twitter, and I emailed a whole reporting (including a copy of the conversation and the email of the offer letter) to the general email on their site. Over the next few days, he continued to message me asking if I have signed the “documents” yet. This is still going on as of today. 

Well to wrap this up; do be careful out there, people will try to take advantage of those they can.  

Update: I did hear back from Betterment and they confirmed that they do not have remote jobs and they ONLY communicate via email with their domain.

2nd Update; I was just contact by another company using almost the exact same wording.

The initial text came from Darin Wright from (Sutherland Global Service Inc). This time they wanted to set up a Skpe "interview" with someone named Jim L Lusk at live:.cid84f16ecee4a929c (now that sounds like a totally legit Skype name if I've ever heard one). I'll admit I agreed only for my information for this article.

This time it was for a list of job openings including HR Generalist. Once the Skpe interview started it became clear that he was using almost the exact same script. Once again I was offered a job making $45 per hour on the spot (after only 10 mins on Skype). This time however once he suspected I new it was a scam he started to get more and more rude. Finally ending with him telling me I am "not fit to work for them".