Scams are Becoming Nefarious

A job seeker was the victim of numerous scams during her job search and here’s the latest: She received an invite to interview for a job for which she had NOT applied. The introductory email seemed professional enough, and was signed “Kind Regards, HR Team.”

I checked LinkedIn to see how many employees were at this company; they only had 4. Wait...you have an entire ‘HR team’ for 4 employees? Hmmmmm. Red flag #1.

She went ahead with the video interview and, when she logged in, there was a man and a woman already in the meeting. As my friend was admitted into the call, she heard the woman say, “Upstate New York.”

The man (the interviewer) introduced himself to my friend…he said his name slowly 3 times and pronounced it DIFFERENTLY each time. It was as if he was trying to figure out how to pronounce his own name! Red Flag #2. Well, we’re seriously starting to head downhill at this point.

My friend stated her name, then the man asked her, “Are you married….how old are you?”

Oooooooohhhh…I don’t think so buddy…we are SO NOT GOING THERE! Red Flags #3 and #4.

My friend hung up quickly then telephoned me. I did a little digging, found the other candidate on LinkedIn, and suggested my friend reach out to her to compare notes. Yep…same story. She, too, had received an invite to interview even though she HAD NOT applied to the company. And yes, she too had hung up after the “How old are you?” question.

The ‘interviewer’ (and I use that term VERY loosely) had an unusual name so I looked him up on LinkedIn too; he’s a janitor at a company in the same city. Could it be the same guy? We’ll never know.

Now, this was a very different type of scam in that money didn’t appear to be the goal; instead, this guy appeared to be screening for more nefarious reasons. Stalking? Kidnapping? Maybe I’m paranoid…but a wee bit of paranoia might be a good thing at times.

So my friends, just be careful out there. Grandma WAS right! If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.