Millions of dollars schemes: how scammers cheat US job seekers

26-year-old Stephanie Wrynna was at first happy to receive a message from a potential employer. He claimed to have seen information about a young woman on a job search site, which seemed like the truth.

Фото: Depositphotos

In September, Wrynn took the chance to get an interview through the Google Hangouts app.

The interviewer for the food packaging company obviously wanted to offer a real job.

“At first everything seemed even very legal. The conversation was quite formal, ”said Wrynn, a mother of three who lives in Taylor, Michigan.

No, they never spoke on the phone or video chat. Just exchanged text messages through Google Hangouts.

Wrynn hoped this was the real job of an administrative assistant. Attracted salary: $ 26 per hour for the period of study and $ 29 - after.

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The interview ended with the company sending a check via FedEx in the amount of about $ 1099. Stephanie had to pass the check to her bank and buy the money fax, photocopy and MacBook Pro to work from home.

It looked tempting, but Wrynn thought. According to her calculations, the necessary equipment would cost about $ 3000. Therefore, the woman doubted the authenticity of the check. Soon, she called the bank, which allegedly wrote a check in the Washington, DC area. Fortunately, it turned out that the check was false before the woman passed it.

26-year-old Stephanie Wrynn from Taylor became a target and nearly lost about $ 1000 in a fraudulent high-paying job scheme.

Millennials more often fall into the tricks of crooks

You think that crooks choose their victims only among seniors? Not at all.

Millennials, from 20 to 30 years old, quickly peck at the tricks of fraudsters when shopping online, looking for work at home or other business offers, and are also carried out by imposters who submitted from the federal government.

For example, millennials are two times more likely than people aged 40 years and older to report a loss of money when shopping online.

They are by 77% more likely to report financial losses due to email fraud and by 93% because of false checks.

Fraudsters get creative

Rogues and dodgers follow the latest trends. Now they are trying to convince consumers that they have to pay from 80 to 100 dollars for the activation of a new media player, virtual assistant and other technical devices such as Roku, Google Home or Alexa.

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For example, you are looking for an online support number. But instead of going to the official website, you end up seeing a fake, but very similar site. You call the specified number and you are informed that a new policy is in effect: now all users of the device must pay for activation.

Fraudsters can request prepaid gift cards or directly ask for your credit card number. In some cases, they can “help” you come up with a new username and password, thereby gaining access to your account.

But most of all, crooks are lucky on social networks.

A new study on fraud has shown that people are most likely to cheat during online purchases, through social networks and fake sites.

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According to the report, victims are more likely to be: lonely or isolated people, possibly widowed or divorced; young people who are experiencing financial difficulties.

What can help avoid scam?

According to the Exposed to Scam study, a third of consumers who were targeted by proxy users but were able to defend themselves already knew about this type of fraud from the media or other sources.

How much is lost due to fraudulent schemes

Researchers interviewed 1408 Americans and Canadians who were hit by cunning crook plans. Almost a quarter of them lost an average of $ 600.

Millennials, on average, lost about $ 400. This is much less than in other age groups, where the average loss was $ 500. Losses of $ 640 are registered among people aged 60-79 years, and $ 1700 - among people older than 80 years.

According to the FTC, over the past two years, millennials have lost about $ 450 million as a result of fraud, and online shopping losses are $ 71 million.

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