I’ve recently started looking for a job. I’m currently a Marketing Manager, but earlier in life I did a lot of proofreading and editing work. I’d like to get back to that for its flexibility and ability to work remotely. Anyway, I get daily alerts from LinkedIn with all proofreading jobs. I applied to one yesterday and received a LinkedIn message today from a Human Resources Specialist at the company inviting me to do a Skype interview this afternoon. She also sent me a connect request. I messaged back that I’d be open to an interview. She sent the info and I proceeded to interview with a director at the company. It was only a written communication; we weren’t video Skyping. He was asking completely normal questions, but I did note he took a while to respond to each one. At one point I went onto LinkedIn - do not remember why - and noted that her original message was gone. So I went to my email and clicked view profile from her LinkedIn request. Her profile was gone. Finally I went to the LinkedIn message that told me they had viewed my profile, which had a link to the original job. Also gone. I went back and ended the Skype call and deleted the interviewer from my Contacts. I’m not sure what the scam was. One thought was that they would offer the job and request my SSN. H thought maybe they’d ask for money to cover a background check or something. I have no idea what they were after but thankfully I gave them no information, and I’m really glad I started checking everything out. I never would’ve thought that this could happen via LinkedIn, so I wanted to just make everyone aware of it, for you and your kids. So many of us have kids who are looking for jobs now. I feel like I’m pretty aware of stuff like that but it was so well done a lot of people could easily be duped.
Ugh, sorry you went through that. My daughter had similar experiences trying to find an apartment. The scammers were so convincing! Fortunately, she figured it out each time, but it was discouraging. It really gets tiring being vigilant 24/7
Good luck with your job search!
It does. As I tell my husband, often, if only all those people who are out to do evil chose to do good instead, this world would be a much better place to live in.
Definitely phishing for any information that would help them take on your identity. Possibly hoping that you might reveal some personal details that would let them do something evil, like file for unemployment pretending being you etc. I would freeze credit - just in case.
Really? The only information they have is my resume. Yes, it has my name, address, and phone #, but what can they do with that information? It’s pretty easy to find all that online (not for me necessarily but for a lot of people.)
I think it would be pretty hard to scam people via Linkedin. You don’t need to give out SS # or any financial information when applying for a job.
Sorry to get off topic, but what scams did your daughter go through?
For privacy reasons while job hunting, I was advised to take my street address off of my resume. With 98% of job related communications occurring electronically, there’s no reason a prospective employer needs that.
Something similar happened to my daughter TWICE. Both times she had on-line written “interviews” which were supposed to be first steps leading to more formal interviews. The first one was just too weird and she figured out it was a scam. The second one was much more real sounding - a famous company - but also turned out to be a scam. We’re not sure what they were after as in neither case did they ask for info not already on her resume and posted on LinkedIn. Maybe the next contact would have been different but she deleted everything once she realized they weren’t real.
She was pretty bummed as she is struggling to find a full-time job .
I did a search and found this:
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-avoid-linkedin-scams-2062693
Is it possible that the “interview” was for the purpose of infecting your computer? I really hope not. I don’t know of course. It just seems so weird.
My kid’s career center also recommended taking the street address off the resume.
A friend who graduated from St Olaf in 2020 totally fell for a scam and gave up his SSN this past Fall. He was so excited and proud about the remote job he thought he’d landed and then was devastated when he realized it was a scam. He had to notify the credit bureaus and SSA etc.
It’s possible, but all communication prior to the Skype “interview” was through LinkedIn. I didn’t download anything, go to any websites, etc. Weird. I did just edit my resume to delete my entire address. I mean they really don’t even need to know city or state.
Scam #1: D found a nice, small apartment on CraigsList for a reasonable cost in a good location. She texted the lister who provided lots of details. Then a new post appeared - it was the REAL owner of the unit, who said that listing was a scam. The other listing disappeared quickly.
Scam #2: D found another nice apartment on CraigsList in a large apartment building in downtown Portland. She exchanged quite a few texts with this guy. He said he was subletting it because he’d accepted an OOS traveling nurse position. He sent photos. He also told her he asked the apartment management people send her a letter confirming his occupancy. She shortly got the email, and the scary thing it was from soandso@backbaytowers.com. The email address looked legitimate! She was about ready to send him the deposit. He said she couldn’t look at the apartment since he’d already left town. That did sound odd. I told her to call the apartment complex directly, so at least she could look around the building. When she called, the woman who answered sighed and said, “Is it John Doe you’re talking about?” “Uh, yes…” “He is a scammer who has put up this post many times. We get it taken down as often as we see it, but he still manages to get it out there.” Poor D was so discouraged at this point! I think there was one other scam, too, but I don’t remember details. She also got ghosted a few times - people would start a text conversation with her and then stop responding.
She finally found an apartment that was legitimate, yay. $662/month, which is a steal in Portland. It’s an apartment in an old building. DH and I have looked at MANY residences in Maine as structural engineers, and we agreed that the floor slopes more than any other one we’ve ever seen, ha. But it’s in a great location and utilities are paid for. Her roommate is a year older, a Bowdoin grad who is applying to med school. The two young women are getting along wonderfully. So there was a happy ending, but the process was frustrating, to say the least.
I’m sorry that happened to you, @taverngirl. DH is also looking for a new job and had a similar experience with a text-based Skype interview. He was offered the job, but alarm bells went off when they sent him a cashier’s check to deposit into our personal account in order to purchase “company software.” They also requested an emailed photo of the deposit including our deposit slip with our account information. Yeah, no. He filed a complaint with the internet crimes division but it taught us a lesson about how savvy criminals are.
Wow, that’s crazy. It must be pretty rampant. It’s so easy to do in the time of Covid, with everything online.
Can you please post that experience in the newly pinned Scam thread?