Scams targeting the unemployed
12:28 PM PDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009
By JANE MCCARTHY / KING 5 News
Video: More scams targeting the unemployed
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SEATTLE - lot of people are very vulnerable, as the recession puts them in desperate situations. Now, con artists are trying to take full advantage of people looking for work.
Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna says he's seen a surge in scams directly correlated to the economy. Many people are looking for jobs online right now, and that's where many of these scams are happening.
Elizabeth Bachman has been on the job hunt since January. The former recruiter was excited to see a job posting on Craigslist that seemed to be a perfect fit.
"The posting was for a Human Resources manager looking for someone with recruitment experience," said Bachman.
She responded to the ad and learned the company was interested in her.
"They said that I'd be a perfect fit but, to move forward, we would need to do a credit check," she said.
The link in the e-mail even took her to a legitimate looking credit reporting site. The ad claimed "a lot of big companies are doing this," but they never even supplied their own company name.
"So I just shot a quick e-mail, thinking they can't really be scamming unemployed people. And asked if they would supply the company name and I'd be happy to move forward in their process and they didn't reply back," said Bachman. "It was a total scam."
McKenna says his office is seeing more scams targeting people who are unemployed or are behind on their home loans. Some of the scams are pretty slick.
"You never want to provide personal information to a site that you don't know," he said
In fact, he adds you should even be wary of sites you think you know, because so many of them are made to look like your bank's Web site or the site of a legitimate employment agency.
The attorney general says more people are taking the bait from these scams, because desperation is suspending their common sense.
Bachman is glad she stopped at the first red flag.
"When you're looking for a job and you're in that panicky mode because there are so few opportunities out there, still take that step back and use your common sense," she advises.
McKenna says some other big scams right now include offers to be a secret shopper or working from home transcribing medical records. Fake checks that appear to be from publisher's clearing house are also big.
The attorney general also says beware of all of the offers that promise you easy money as long as you give money first.
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