Donna Mora was browsing Craigslist for work-at-home opportunities when an ad for a "personal assistant" caught her eye. When Mora responded, she was instructed to communicate via instant messaging with a person who identified herself as "Mrs. Vick Denton, hiring manager. She recalled thinking to herself, "Wow," and then taking the check to her bank branch in Whittier.
Fortunately for Mora, her bank had seen this scam before and recognized the check as fraudulent. Rebhan said the scammer sends a check that is nominally more than the cost of the home office supplies the applicant is instructed to buy. In many cases, the bank does not immediately detect that the check is fraudulent, and the victims not only go out and make the purchases, but they then follow the scammer's instruction to send back the balance. Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, cost of living and more.
Here's your go-to source for today's LA news. Eventually, the bank realizes the initial advance check is bogus. But the job seekers who spent the money are left on the hook. The particular ad Mora saw has since been pulled, but the internet is rife with countless others using this scam.
One way the scammers fool job seekers is by pretending to be with a legitimate company. In Mora's case, "Mrs. Rebhan estimates 98 percent of online work-at-home pitches are fraudulent, and advises job seekers to be wary. Rebhan also suggests those seeking work at home jobs first avail themselves of the online expertise posted by the Federal Trade Commission and the World Privacy Forum.
WorkatHomeMoms offers reviews of companies offering work at home employment. Above all, Rebhan said you really have to be careful when the online solicitation comes from overseas. For its part, Craigslist does not try to inividually vet or police the multitude of ads that are placed on its service. But like Monster. In some cases Rebhan has seen, the scam is designed not only to victimize work-at-home applicants, but also to dupe them into serving as a "money mule" for the scammer.
