LANSING, Mich. — The latest report from the labor department shows jobless claims in the U.S. remain high. 1.43 million people filed new unemployment benefits claims last week. More than 19 million people are still unemployed. Alicia Nieves shows us how high unemployment is leading to an increase in scam activity.
There’s are a lot of people looking for work right now. And therefore, a lot of people who are being targeted by scammers.
“I was actually scammed myself” In March, shortly after Amelia Brockmann uploaded her profile to the gig site Upwork, she had her first experience with what’s known as an employment scam. “On Upwork I was looking for work and a job I found would pay a lot of money for it. I was desperate because I didn’t want to go back to actual outside work.”
This put her in a vulnerable place where she ignored some warning signs.“I got the job it seemed legit. Then he started asking, if I am going to pay you I need you to go buy google cards. Something about he needed to put me in the system.”
She never got paid, in fact lost roughly $3000 in google card purchases. “People are heartless at this point. Not everyone, just the scammers. It is getting ridiculous.”
Over the past three months, while looking for other work Brockman has come across at least 40 other job scam posts. Including this one, where during an online interview, the interviewer started asking her for personal info and to purchase equipment.
“I called the company and eventually I texted him back and said ‘Dear sir, that is a scam. You don’t work for them.’ And he blocked me.”
According to the Better Business Bureau, Employment scams rank number 1 as the riskiest scams right now. A newly released report by the BBB, shows 53% of the people targeted by employment scams are unemployed and roughly 75% of the people actually scammed are in personal financial crisis.
To avoid being a victim of an employment scam yourself, the BBB says there are a few things you can do. They include:
- noticing if a job posting has grammatical errors or misspellings, if it does it is usually a scam.
- Remembering you should never have to pay to get a job or have to provide your credit card and bank account information. Legitimate employers provide a paper check option.
- Lastly, try to research the company or employer to see if they have had complaints. If you come across a posting that you suspect is a scam or get scammed.
“You should go report it. Because I did not report mine until months later tot he point where another state called me and you don’t want to be scammed the same way.
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