DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – A woman in Delray Beach has a warning for others after she encountered a fake job offer.
It happened while she was searching for jobs on sites like LinkedIn, and experts say these scams are becoming more common.
That woman, Marci Strouch, said the job posting seemed legit until she started to notice some red flags.
Now, she’s revealing the warning signs that others should look out for.
Strouch has been searching for a new job since a layoff in December.
“A lot of rejections and some false job opportunities that I’ve gotten,” she said. “Last week, I got a text message from somebody. They said, ‘Hi, this is Davis from Laboratory Corporations of America.’ Asked if I had Skype, which was a little bit shady to me. I didn’t have Skype but I was able to download it quickly. He connected me with his hiring manager and I told the hiring manager, I’m not camera ready on Skype and he told me we’re just going to text.”
After a quick Google search, Strouch came across a warning on Labcorp’s website regarding job recruitment or interview scams “that are often executed online, via messaging platforms and through social media.”
“I told the interviewer, hiring manager, that I was not comfortable continuing with this platform and when he said, ‘Well what’s the issue Marci?’ I showed him a picture of the fraudulent job scams that are on the Labcorp website. Then it was dead silence after that,” Strouch said.
Cybersecurity experts say these are all signs of a scam, and one that’s becoming more and more common, especially when people are online and vulnerable.
Hilary Donnell with cybersecurity company Aura says between July and September of last year there were more than 20,000 reports to the FTC of job related scams, costing consumers more than $75 million.
“We’ve seen a number of layoffs at the beginning of this year and scammers know that, and they know people are looking for work and they’re taking advantage of that opportunity,” said Donnell. “Some red flags would be unofficial communication methods via text message or WhatsApp or through an email like Gmail or Yahoo instead of an official company email address.”
Also, watch out scammers asking for personal information, like a social security number or copy of a driver’s license, before going through an official hiring process.
These are warning signs that Strouch now says she’s now keeping an eye out for as she continues her job search.
“That’s what made me really want to contact the news because I was afraid other people would fall victim to that scam,” she said.
Another piece of advice is to do a simple Google search on the company offering a job. Like Strouch found, often times the legitimate company will post warnings on its website if these scams have happened before.