Job opportunity was really a scam
P.E.I. student was ‘screaming on the inside’ following online fraud
CORNWALL, P.E.I. — Jaime MacCormac was a little surprised when the bank attendant told her she was the calmest victim of online fraud they had ever met.
“Seriously?” she replied. “Because on the inside I’m screaming.”
That was in late May, the day after she applied for a job advertised on Facebook. The Cornwall woman, who’s returning to school this fall, was searching for part-time work opportunities to help pay for tuition.
The job posting was for a customer service and data entry position with an online business that was ultimately fake.
Advertising flexible hours and the ability to work from home, MacCormac applied that morning and was immediately contacted by another Facebook user and told she qualified for the position, she said.
MacCormac messaged back and forth with the user but then stopped for a while, feeling suspicious about the whole thing — however, the user was persistent, so MacCormac asked a few questions and the user’s answers seemed genuine. So she continued with the process, which included texting someone else who claimed to be the company’s hiring agent.
“There was just something in my gut that told me something was off,” MacCormac said. “But I wouldn’t listen.”
When she was told she got the job that same day, she excitedly shared the news with her friend, Alexis Stevenson.
“It immediately raised red flags,” Stevenson said.
What concerned Stevenson was when the fake business emailed MacCormac a series of cheques — which were also fake — amounting to $800 and stating it was for her to start purchasing supplies she would need. The supplies: gift cards for Steam, which is an online video game distributor.
SCARY AND SNEAKY
MacCormac deposited the cheques electronically. She’s never worked for an onlinebased business before, so she didn’t know what the gift cards would be needed for, she said.
“It did seem a little weird,” she said. “(But) I thought it was normal.”
It was nighttime at this point, so stores were closed and she told the users she wouldn’t be able to buy the cards until the next day. The users, who only communicated via text, then became very pushy and demanded MacCormac return the $800 immediately, to which she complied.
“This is when I started to get scared,” she said.
All communication with the users then completely stopped. The original Facebook user’s account has since been deleted.
“Unfortunately, she had given (some) banking information,” Stevenson said. “I told her to contact her bank immediately to freeze her account so that they could not do any more damage.”
MacCormac acted swiftly the next morning. Her bank, she said, was good to work with and reimbursed her the $800.
She’s left feeling annoyed and she wishes she would have been more thorough and listened to her gut. After the ordeal, she noticed the fake cheques were marked as being issued a week earlier.
“It’s a sneaky way to get scammed,” she said. “I really regret it.”
Stevenson said the job posting has since been reported by many of her and MacCormac’s friends and family, but it remained up for a while and many other Facebook users, who were presumably real, were expressing interest and saying they also applied.
“It is exceptionally alarming how easy it is for individuals to scam others with such ease,” she said. “If something seems too good to be true, it most likely is. Go with your instinct if you believe it could be a scam.”